No need for a witness after admission of talaq

Question

Question: Zayd once said to his wife Hinda: “You have talaq; go to your father’s” (تجھ کو طلاق ہے تو اپنے باپ کے یہاں چلی جا). Hinda went to her father, but there is no reliable and trustworthy (thiqa) testimony that he gave talaq. Will talaq take effect in this case or not? Hinda spent a long period at her father’s; Zayd does not bring her back. Because he did not bring her back, Hinda’s relatives (warith, lit. “heirs”) threatened Zayd with a beating at a gathering in which there were nearly two hundred people.

Answer

When Zayd, addressing his wife Hinda, gave her talaq and Zayd admits this, talaq has taken effect according to the Shari‘a; there is no need for any other testimony. Then, when at the gathering he said before many people: “I left her long ago,” all the people of that gathering also became witnesses. If after the first talaq the ‘idda (three menstrual periods)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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