Talaq by the Word “Left”

Question

Question: Muhammad Shafi‘ wrote to his father-in-law’s brother, Allah Datta: “Keep your daughter Khatun at home itself; we have left your daughter, left her completely; let no one come to us or go from us.” Before this there had also been discord between the wife and the husband. In the villages of the land of the Punjab, on the occasion of talaq hardly anyone ever utters the word “talaq”; rather, everyone’s idiom is “left [her]” or “wrote [it]”: by both these phrases they mean talaq itself.

Answer

If the said Shafi‘ wrote the mentioned words about his wife, and he also admits to this writing, then, according to our custom (‘urf), talaq has taken effect by the Shari‘a, because these words in our custom are equivalent to the explicit (sarih); and talaq, just as it takes effect by saying it with the tongue, also takes effect by writing it. [ar]وإن كانت (أي الكتابة)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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