Drunk hubby says 'divorce' thrice, Deoband says it's valid

In yet another “fatwa”, prestigious Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband has said that a divorce given by a man to his wife in an inebriated state will be valid in the eyes of “sharia”  even if the husband felt guilty later and expressed his intention to continue to live with her.

The “fatwa” was issued by the Darul Ifta (department of fatwa) at the seminary a few days ago in response to a query by the brother of a woman whose husband, a habitual drunkard, had pronounced the word “divorce” thrice while talking to her on a cell phone in an inebriated state.

The brother had in his query said that his sister’s husband was a habitual drunkard. Recently, when drunk the husband spoke to his wife over the phone and said, “Main tujhey divorce deta hun, tujhey talaq deta hun teen bar talaq, talaq, talaq (I give you divorce....three times, divorce, divorce, divorce).”

“But now he is feeling guilty and wants to make amends,” the brother said and wanted the seminary to explain whether this can be considered a “talaq”.

“Three talaqs took place on your sister and she became haram for her husband...talaq takes place by mobile and in the state of drunkenness,” the seminary said in its answer.

Implying that the “talaq” was irrevocable even though the husband was now feeling guilty and wanted to continue to live with her, the seminary said that the divorced woman would have to marry some one else after the “iddah” (the three month period, a woman must observe after a divorce during which she cannot marry another man) was over.

“If the second husband dies or he divorces her after having marital relations then after completing iddah she may marry her first husband,” the seminary said further in the “fatwa”.

The seminary is known for issuing “fatwas” on trivial issues and many of its decrees have come under attack from different quarters. Only recently, one of its “fatwas” declared that “body scanning” at the airports was not valid in the eyes of Islam and that Muslims should make efforts to get themselves exempt from the same.
DH News Service