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Insinuating Whispers Suggesting Divorce a Day After Marriage

10-05-2009

Question 105994

My question is about waswas (satanic whispers) suggesting divorce. I did the marriage contract with a girl and I love her very much, but one day after the marriage contract, the Shaytan whispered to me during my prayer suggesting that I should divorce her, and also when I was at work or at home or in the bathroom or sleeping. One day I was watching satellite TV and there was a video clip showing married life, and it was about the problems between a man and his wife. The man said: You are divorced, and I repeated it, you are divorced, in an audible voice, without knowing or realising. Allah knows best my intention. I said it without realising, and there is nothing in my intention towards my wife except goodness and love and compassion. What is the Islamic ruling in this case with regard to what I said? Does it count as a divorce or not? What is the remedy for this waswasah?.

Answer

Praise be to Allah.

We ask Allah to grant you healing and well-being. 

The divorce that you mention does not count as such. 

Al-Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said: If a person is affected by waswasah, his divorce does not count as such even if he utters it out loud, if he did not intend to say it, because this phrase may be uttered by one who is affected by waswasah without him intending or wanting to say it; indeed it may be forced upon him because of the strength of the waswasah and his weakness to resist. The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him) said: “There is no divorce in the case of compulsion.” The divorce does not count as such, because he did not really intend it with complete peace of mind. This is something that is being forced upon him without any intention or choice on his part, so it does not count as a divorce. End quote from Fatawa Islamiyyah, 3/277. 

The remedy for waswasah is dhikr or remembrance of Allah, and ignoring it. This has been explained in the answers to questions number 41027 and 10160. 

Shaykh al-Islam [Ibn Taymiyah] (may Allah have mercy on him) said in Dar al-Ta’arud (3/318): This waswasah may be dispelled by seeking refuge with Allah and by ignoring it. So if the waswasah says: You did not wash your face, he should say: Yes I did wash my face. If it occurs to him that he did not form the intention or say takbeer, he should say in his heart: Yes I did form the intention and say takbeer. He should remain steadfast in following the truth and ward off any waswasah that is contrary to it. When the shaytan sees his strength and steadfastness in following the truth, he will go away from him, otherwise if he sees that he is receptive to doubts and specious arguments and that he responds to waswasah and passing thoughts, he will bring against him more than he can resist and his heart will become receptive to what the devils among mankind and the jinn put in his mind of ideas and the waswas will move from one thing to another until the Shaytan leads him to doom. End quote. 

So ignore the waswasah and do not pay any attention to it, and it will disappear from you, by Allah’s leave. 

And Allah knows best.

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Insinuating Whispers About Purity
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