He divorced his wife three times in a state of extreme anger

Question: 175080

I embraced Islam recently then I got married. Then I had a big argument with my wife. I got extremely angry and said to her: You are divorced (talaaq) three times. Now I regret that very much but I do not know what my intention was at the time; did I intend to divorce her or not? I looked for a ruling on this divorce and I found out that the Hanafi madhhab, which is the madhhab of my country, regards that as an irrevocable divorce. Some websites regard the threefold talaaq as an innovation (bid‘ah) and say that it should be counted as one divorce, but others say that divorce does not count as such if there are no witnesses to it. Which view is correct?.

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family.

Firstly:

For divorce to
count as such, it is not stipulated that there should be witnesses to it;
rather divorce (talaaq) may occur without any witnesses.

Secondly:

When divorce is
issued in anger, in some cases it counts as such and in some cases it does
not. The anger in which divorce does not count as such is extreme anger in
which a person does not think straight and utters the word of divorce
without meaning or wanting to. For a detailed discussion on that, please see
the answer to question no. 45174

Thirdly:

The threefold
divorce counts as one talaaq, according to the correct view.

See the answer to
question no. 170606 and other
questions referred to therein.

Fourthly:

If a man clearly
utters the word of divorce (talaaq), then it counts as such, whether he
intended it or not, because there is no stipulation that the intention be
present in the case of a clear statement, unless he was forced to issue the
divorce or he was in a state of extreme anger, in which case his divorce
does not count as such.

See also the
answer to question no. 174341.

If you have
consulted a scholar whom you trust, you should accept his opinion and not
look for another view.

And Allaah knows best.

Source:

Islam Q&A

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