Question:
Assalamu alaikum Syekh Gibril,
May Allah grant you good health and happiness.
I have a question: Is talaq under pressure accepted? For example, a husband was forced by his parents to divorce his wife although he loves his wife and doesn’t want to .
Jazakallah Khair
Answer:
Alaykum Salam,
Amin, and you also.
No, a coerced divorce is invalid (batil) and does not become effective (la yaqa`) in our Madhhab and according to the majority view, so if divorce was never his will nor his intention, they are still married.
فتح الباري، شرح صحيح البخاري
للإمام ابن حجر العسقلاني
المجلد التاسع.
كِتَاب الطَّلَاقِ.
باب الطَّلَاقِ فِي الْإِغْلَاقِ وَالْكُرْهِ وَالسَّكْرَانِ
وَالْمَجْنُونِ وَأَمْرِهِمَا وَالْغَلَطِ وَالنِّسْيَانِ فِي الطَّلَاقِ
وَالشِّرْكِ وَغَيْرِهِ.
وقد اختلف السلف في طلاق المُكْرَه،… وذهب الجمهور إلى عدم اعتبار ما يقع
فيه، واحتج عطاء بآية النحل (إلا من أكره وقلبه مطمئن بالإيمان) قال عطاء:
الشرك أعظم من الطلاق، أخرجه سعيد بن منصور بسند صحيح، وقرره الشافعي بأن
الله لما وضع الكفر عمن تلفظ به حال الإكراه وأسقط عنه أحكام الكفر فكذلك
يسقط عن المكره ما دون الكفر لأن الأعظم إذا سقط سقط ما هو دونه بطريق
الأولى، وإلى هذه النكتة أشار البخاري بعطف الشرك على الطلاق في الترجمة
However, adab-wise, a pious father has the right to ask his son to divorce his wife, as this was approved in the Sunna and practiced by some of the Sahaba; if the son obeys he is faultless, but if the father had no good reason to ask for such an act then the father has committed a sin.
In either case the final decision is in the hand of the son, because he is the one who has to pronounce the talaq. And Allah knows best.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
