Question

Salam. I pray you are well. My (now) ex-husband divorced me on 24.05.2023, and on 08.06.2023, I took a pregnancy test, which came out positive. We had no clear indication that I was pregnant at the time that he had verbally divorced me. I read online that a divorce is permissible if the woman is clearly pregnant (it is obvious that she is pregnant) but divorce is prohibited if intercourse has taken place whilst the woman is pure (finished her menstrual period) because there is a possibility of pregnancy – if a divorce is given at that time, it is invalid/void and he will have to divorce her again if he wants to, once she is pure again. Or he can take her back during the period of her iddah which will end after she has given birth. So my question is that is the divorce valid, or am I still his wife?

Answer

It is disliked to issue a divorce during that period of purity in which the couple have been sexually intimate. The reason for this is that the wife may fall pregnant and thus her waiting period (‘iddah) will be prolonged until child birth. Despite this if a divorce was issued it will still be valid and will stand.

If three divorces have not yet been issued then during the waiting period the husband can take his wife back into marriage. He can do this by saying, “I take you back”, or any such words. However, after the waiting period ends he will have to remarry her.

الدر المختار وحاشية ابن عابدين (رد المحتار) (3/ 233) – (أو واحدة في طهر وطئت فيه، أو) واحدة في (حيض موطوءة) لو قال والبدعي ما خالفهما لكان أوجز وأفيد

(وتجب رجعتها) على الأصح (فيه) أي في الحيض رفعا للمعصية

الدر المختار وحاشية ابن عابدين (رد المحتار) (3/ 398) – وَتَصِحُّ مَعَ إكْرَاهٍ وَهَزْلٍ وَلَعِبٍ وَخَطَإٍ (بِنَحْوِ) مُتَعَلِّقٌ بِاسْتِدَامَةُ (رَجَعْتُكِ) وَرَدَدْتُكِ وَمَسَكْتُكِ بِلَا نِيَّةٍ لِأَنَّهُ صَرِيحٌ

Answered by:
Ifta Research Fellow

Checked & Approved by:
Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Mufti Zubair Patel