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Does apostasy occur by saying "I intended apostasy" to oneself without uttering it, in an attempt to escape another whisper? And does divorce occur in foreign languages for an Egyptian?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The fundamental principle is that whoever intends disbelief in their heart disbelieves. However, disbelieving whispers (waswas) do not constitute disbelief. As for divorce in a language other than Arabic, the preponderant opinion is that explicit divorce pronounced in any language is valid if the speaker is aware and acting voluntarily. This is supported by the statement of Ibn Taymiyyah: "For divorce and similar matters are established by all these types of languages, as the core issue revolves around the meaning." And by the statement of Al-Khateeb Al-Shirbini: "(And the translation) of the word (divorce into a non-Arabic language is explicit according to the madhhab) due to the widespread use of its meaning among its people, just as the widespread use of Arabic among its people." It is advisable to ignore whispers (waswas), as this is the best remedy for them.

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

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