Due to a dispute between me and

Q: I married my cousin two years ago, and it happened that I got so angry at a friend of mine that I became irrational and pronounced divorce as I said: I deem my wife as divorced if I speak to him again. I did not determine a certain period, and I do not know whether I pronounced the divorce once or more than that. There was no one else with us, but I could not imagine I would ever speak to him. However, after a year I spoke to that friend and sat with him, and we regained our friendship eight moths ago. What is Your Eminence opinion in this matter? It is noteworthy to mention that I have not consummated my marriage. I spent time alone with my wife many times, but without having sexual intercourse. (Part No. 20; Page No. 47) I hope that Your Eminence will give me a legal opinion in this regard, as my father urges me to speed up in consummating the marriage, but he does not know what has happened.

A: If the reality is as you mentioned, that you were out of your mind when you uttered divorce, this saying is contradictory to the basic rule of awareness and having the power to reason when uttering a statement of divorce. This is the basic rule regarding the innate attributes of humans, and it is not changed unless there is evidence to that effect. Based on all that and since there was no one else present with you and your friend, then Talaq (divorce pronounced by a husband) took place. When you said that you do not remember the number of utterances you made, it is a confession on your part of the occurrence of Talaq while doubting the number of pronunciations. As such you are deemed to have divorced your wife only once, and the additional doubted utterances do not count, as legal rulings are not based on doubt. Moreover, you said that you swore not to speak to your friend or else your wife would be divorced without specifying a period. The fact that you have been talking to him for eight months makes Talaq valid and it is for only one time. Furthermore, you said that you talked to this friend during the past eight months, and that you did not have sexual intercourse with your wife since you concluded the marriage contract, but you sat alone with her, so it is permissible for you to remarry her after concluding a new contract (Part No. 20; Page No. 48) with new conditions and Mahr (mandatory gift to a bride from her groom) as well as her consent. May Allah grant us success. May peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and Companions.