Questionable divorce

8-7-2002 | IslamWeb

Question:

I am Muslim woman, I was married to a Muslim in Kuwait. Now I have 3 boys from my husband and we are living in Canada. In July/2000 my husband divorced me three times for the first time in his life and traveled to Jordan and since that time he did not return. Now I have a Canadian divorce. If he doesn't want to divorce me in Jordan, and I got the Canadian one, am I divorced according to the Islamic way? If I want to get married can I do the marriage contract if he still insists not to divorce me in Jordan?

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Answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the World; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

We understand from your question that your husband has divorced you three times but has not sent the legal papers proving that.
If this is the case, then the divorce is valid regardless of whether the papers were sent or not. If the divorce has been realized whether the husband said it in one expression such as: "you are divorced three times" or "I divorced you three times" or he repeats it three times not intending mere emphasize like: "you are divorced, you are divorced, you are divorced" then the woman is divorced a Bain divorce, i.e. her husband cannot bring her back to wedlock life before she marries another man and gets divorced from that man and also provided she completes her Iddah.
The new marriage has also to be done with a new contract. All this if the husband confesses to have divorced her, otherwise she has to prove that he has divorced her.
We advise the inquirer to seek the help of the closest Islamic center as her case needs to be displayed in more details, before any decision could be made.
Allah knows best.