“If she is a chotan, then talaq”

Question

I, that is ‘Abd al-Salam: one day it happened that my elder brother and I were quarrelling. During the quarrel my elder brother said about my wife: “She makes the excuse of being unwell, but when the time comes she eats.” At this I said about his wife that she is a “chotan” (a term of abuse for a woman). In reply my elder brother called my wife a “chotan”. My wife said that she had not had breakfast and had been feeding the children. At this my mother said, “Oh, come now!

Answer

If ‘Abd al-Salam’s wife is a “chotan”, three talaqs have fallen upon her; otherwise no talaq at all has taken place.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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