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Is a wife divorced simply by the husband saying, "You are divorced" via a text message, with his confirmation of it?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The writing of divorce in mobile messages differs. Is it like explicit utterance, not requiring intention, or is it a metaphor (kinayah) that does require intention? According to the view that it is a metaphor—which is the prevalent fatwa—what is considered is the husband's intention and his statement, because he is most knowledgeable of his intention, and there is no way to ascertain this except from him. Therefore, it is necessary to refer to the husband to know his intention, for he is the one who determines whether you are divorced from him or not. If the divorce occurs and the waiting period ('iddah) expires, the woman becomes irrevocably separated from her husband and is not lawful for him except through a new contract, if this was the first or second divorce. The waiting period for a divorced woman is three menstrual cycles if she menstruates, or three months if she does not menstruate, or delivery of the baby if she is pregnant.

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

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