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Is the plaintiff considered irrevocably divorced from her husband, given the doubt surrounding the first pronouncement of divorce and their repeated reconciliation before the 'iddah (waiting period) ended after each dispute?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

When there is a dispute over the occurrence of divorce without evidence, the husband's statement is to be considered. If the spouses doubt whether a divorce has occurred, the default is that it has not occurred, as Ibn Qudamah stated: "If one does not know whether he has divorced or not, the certainty of marriage is not removed by the doubt of divorce." Divorce via writing in mobile phone messages is a matter of dispute: Is it like verbal pronouncement, or is it a metaphorical expression that takes effect if the husband intends it? If the pronouncement of divorce is with the words "You are divorced," then it is an explicit divorce. However, the husband's statement "I am divorced" does not constitute a divorce. It is advisable to present the matter to the Sharia court or to trusted scholars.

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

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