Fatwa: # 14931
Category: Divorce
Country: South Africa
Date: 2nd March 2007

Title

I would like to know if my husband is is prison and I apply for a fasagh,

Question

I would like to know if my husband is is prison and I apply for a fasagh, do I still need his consent for the divorce to be final, or does the jamiat make this decision without his consent.  Also if the fasagh is granted do I have to sit in iddat for 3 months and 10 days bearing in mind that I am the sole bread winner.

Answer

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Assalaamu `alaykum waRahmatullahi Wabarakatoh

  1. An application of Fasakh (canceling the Nikah) is made to a Judicial Committee, for example the Jamiat. The need for such an application will arrive only if the husband withholds the divorce. If the husband is prepared to issue the divorce, then there is no need to apply to the Judicial Committee to annul the marriage. Nevertheless, the judicial committee could advise the husband in prison to issue the divorce to circumvent the process of annulling the marriage. If the husband does not co-operate and the Judicial Committee finds grounds to annul the marriage, for example the husband does not maintain his wife, then the committee will proceed with annulling the marriage.
  2. It is compulsory to observe the laws of iddat after the annulment has been granted. The period of iddat is three menses or three months if one does no experience menses and one is not conceived. If one is the sole bread winner and no alternate arrangement could be made, then a woman in iddat will be excused to work in the day and return home as soon as possible.

 

And Allah knows best

Wassalam

Mufti Ebrahim Desai
Darul Iftaa

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