Back to search

Does the divorce of a husband suffering from psychotic disorder and borderline personality disorder, who wrote "You are divorced" via WhatsApp while in a state of psychological instability, take effect?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The preponderant view is that writing a divorce (talaq) in mobile messages or similar means, without uttering it, falls under the ruling of kinayah (allusion), so divorce does not occur by it except with the intention.

The occurrence of divorce depends on knowing the husband's intention behind what he wrote, and his word is accepted in this regard because he knows his intention best.

Likewise, it is necessary to ascertain the husband's state at the time of writing the divorce: whether he was aware and acting by choice, or if he was overwhelmed due to a mental illness. If he was ill, his divorce does not occur.

The matter must be presented to trustworthy scholars for clarification from the husband and for issuing a fatwa to him.

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

Read the full answer on Ftawy