Three Matters That Are Serious When Uttered And No Joking Is Permitted: Marriage, Divorce And Taking Back After Divorce

Three Matters That Are Serious When Uttered And No Joking Is Permitted: Marriage, Divorce And Taking Back After Divorce

ثَلاَثٌ جِدُّهُنَّ جِدٌّ وَهَزْلُهُنَّ جِدٌّ النِّكَاحُ وَالطَّلاَقُ وَالرَّجْعَةُ

“There are three matters in which seriousness is serious, and joking in them is serious: marriage, divorce and taking back one’s wife.” (Ibn Mājah, no. 2039, hasan – Al-Albāni)

So, if a man marries a woman (with the conditions of nikāh), then the marriage is sound and valid. It is not allowed for either party to claim, “I was not serious” or “I was joking”, etc. Likewise, if a man divorces his wife jokingly with clear speech, then the divorce is valid and likewise is the case with taking a woman back [during her ʿiddah] after divorcing her (ar-rajʿah).

We have heard of cases where a man is legally married to his first wife. In order to take a second wife, and get her into the non-Muslim country of his residence, he divorces his first wife “on paper documents only” as he claims “to satisfy the courts”, “therefore, it is not a real divorce” because he did not intend it in his heart! This divorce is valid in the Shariah, regardless of what he intended or thought. This hadeeth is a proof of that. There is no playing around in these issues.

There are, however, situations wherein a nikāh or an uttered divorce is not valid such as if the person is forced into marriage against their consent or a man is blackmailed or compelled to divorce his wife. Their utterance in these cases has no effect.

Bārakallāhu feekum.

Abu Khadeejah.