Question
What do the scholars of the Dīn and muftīs of the Sacred Law state regarding the following issue: If a person divorced his wife in privacy without any witnesses, then is the divorce still valid? Questioner: A brother from the UK
Answer
بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم
الجواب بعون الملک الوھاب اللھم ھدایة الحق والصواب
In divorce, the presence of witnesses is not necessary; if a person gives divorce completely alone, the divorce is valid, just as in is stated by my master, A’lāhadrat [al-Imām Ahmad Ridā Khān] in Fatāwā Ridawiyyah, ‘The first husband gives divorce, but excuses himself by stating that the divorce was given privately, not in the presence of four witnesses. Therefore, if he misunderstands due to his ignorance that the divorce did not occur, then his claim is wrong and invalid. Divorce is given completely alone, whenever it happens.’
[Fatāwā Ridawiyyah, vol. 12, p. 366]
والله تعالی أعلم ورسوله أعلم صلی الله علیه وآله وسلم کتبه أبو الحسن محمد قاسم ضیاء القادري
Answered by Mufti Qasim Zia al-Qādiri
Translated by Haider Ali al-Madanī
Read the original Urdu answer here: [Q-ID0882] I divorced my wife but she or nobody else knows, is the divorce valid?
Published by the Dar-ul-Ifta of Akhuwat-e-Islami as Q-ID0882. Read it on Akhuwat-e-Islami