The Ruling on Talaq by the Words “I Do Not Want to Keep the Wife”

Question

Question: Zayd and Bakr are kinsmen of one family (“family brothers”). Zayd married his daughter (nikah) to Bakr’s son when the girl was one and a half years old and the boy was eight years old. Ten years have passed since the nikah. Now that the girl has reached 11 years of age and the boy 18, the boy has refused to take the girl as his wife, and Bakr, i.e., the boy’s father, also said to Zayd, i.e., the girl’s father: “Contract your daughter’s marriage (‘aqd) somewhere else.” When the girl’s father, i.e.

Answer

Even if the boy admits these words, talaq has still not taken effect by these words according to the Shari‘a; rather, the nikah remains in force and intact as before. Therefore, as long as the boy does not give talaq, the girl’s nikah elsewhere is not valid.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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