Talaq by the Words “Now We Will Not Keep”

Question

Question: I take constant care of my family, yet despite this I have cut off relations with my wife, and I even said with my tongue: «میں اب کبھی نہیں رکھوں گا» (“Now I will never keep”). It happened like this: some trouble suddenly befell our household. Meanwhile my father-in-law came and began to say that he would take his daughter away, having her sent off from her husband’s home. But my father said: “Right now a calamity has befallen us,” yet my father-in-law insisted.

Answer

If a man decides in his heart that he will not maintain a relationship with his wife, and for some time actually stays apart from her, but does not give talaq either by tongue or in writing, talaq does not take effect by that, and the nikah does not end. «اب ہم نہیں رکھیں گے» (“Now we will not keep”) is not a word of talaq.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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