Islam Question and Answer - She raised a knife against him and threatened him so he would divorce her. Does the divorce count as such?

She raised a knife against him and threatened him so he would divorce her. Does the divorce count as such?

During an argument with my wife, she raised a knife against me and threatened me so that I would divorce her and I said to her: You are divorced, so as to put a stop to the matter, but I did not really intend to divorce her. Does this divorce count as such?.

 

Praise be to Allaah.

If you were afraid that
your wife would carry out her threat to attack you with the knife that she
had with her, then this comes under the heading of being forced, and the
divorce does not count as such. Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allaah have mercy on him)
said: The Sahaabah issued fatwas saying that a divorce issued under
compulsion does not count as such. It is narrated in a saheeh report from
‘Umar that a man suspended himself from a mountain by a rope to collect
honey and his wife came and said: Either I cut the rope or your divorce me.
He adjured her by Allaah and she insisted so he divorced her. He came to
‘Umar and told him about that, and he said to him: Go back to your wife, for
this is not a divorce. The ruling that it does not count as a divorce was
also narrated from ‘Ali, Ibn ‘Umar and Ibn al-Zubayr (may Allaah be pleased
with them). End quote from Zaad al-Ma’aad (5/208). 

And he (may Allaah have
mercy on him) said: Imam Ahmad said in the report of Abu’l-Haarith: If a man
who is forced issues a divorce, the divorce is not binding; if what was done
to Thaabit ibn al-Ahnaf is done to him, then he is forced, because they
squeezed Thaabit’s foot until he divorced his wife, then he went to Ibn
‘Umar and Ibn al-Zubayr, and they did not think it counted as anything, as
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “except him who is forced
thereto and whose heart is at rest with Faith” [al-Nahl 16:106]. Imam
al-Shaafa’i (may Allaah have mercy on him) quoted this verse as evidence
that the divorce issued by one who is forced does not count as such. 

In Sunan Ibn Majaah
it is narrated from Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Allaah has
pardoned my ummah for mistakes, what they forget and what they are forced to
do.” End quote from I’laam al-Muwaqqi’een (4/51). 

In al-Ikhtiyaaraat
by Shaykh al-Islam it says: The divorce issued by one who is forced does not
count. Force or compulsion happens by means of an explicit threat or when he
thinks it most likely that he or his property will be harmed even if there
is no explicit threat. He said elsewhere: The idea that the threat should be
thought mot likely to be carried out is not correct, rather the correct view
is that the likelihood of the threat being carried out or not should be
equal; then it is a case of compulsion. End quote from al-Fataawa
al-Kubra (5/568). 

But if you knew that your
wife would never harm you, or you could put a stop to her threat without
causing harm, then you were not forced in that case, and your divorce counts
as such. 

What we have mentioned here
is the ruling and guidelines on this issue. As for the ruling in your case,
the details must be examined further, hence we say that you have to refer to
the shar’i court or to a trustworthy scholar in your own land, so that he
can hear from both of you and determine whether this was a case of force or
not. 

And Allaah knows best.

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