Does a divorce that a person did not utter, or uttered in an inaudible voice, or uttered unintentionally due to obsessive whispering, take effect?
Source: FtawySummary from Ftawy's records · added here Sep 2, 2026
The divorce of the one afflicted with waswasah (obsessive doubts), who does not intend divorce, does not take effect, even if he utters the words, because he is overpowered by his condition. Imam Bukhari dedicated a chapter to this titled "Divorce in Coercion, Compulsion, Intoxication, Insanity, Their Rulings, Error, and Forgetfulness." Jurists, such as Abul-Qasim al-Abdari, Ibn Rushd, and Ibn Uthaymeen, have explicitly stated that the divorce of one afflicted with waswasah is not binding upon him, because it stems from the whispers of Satan, and "there is no divorce in coercion (ighlaq)."
Summary from Ftawy's records · added here
Reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
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- 11266
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