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Does a divorce that the husband signed under duress, threatened by the police with beatings, imprisonment, and fabricated charges, for the purpose of seizing his money and jewels, take effect?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If a man is coerced into divorce by harm inflicted upon his body or property, or threatened with imprisonment, by a person capable of carrying out the threat, his divorce does not take effect. The Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) issued fatwas that the divorce of one under duress does not take effect, based on the Almighty’s saying: "except for him who is compelled, while his heart is at peace with faith" (Quran 16:106), and the Hadith: "Indeed, Allah has pardoned for my Ummah their mistakes, their forgetfulness, and what they are coerced into." Accordingly, divorce does not take effect in this case, and the matter should be referred to the Sharia court.

As for a triple divorce, it counts as a single divorce according to the soundest opinion among scholars, and it is permissible to reconcile with the wife during her waiting period (iddah).

If the wife knows that her husband’s divorce occurred under duress, it is not permissible for her to marry another man because she is still under the marital bond of the first husband, and her second marriage would be invalid.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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