A man was angry and said to his wife, "You are divorced, you are divorced, you are divorced." Does this take effect?

The questioner: His EminenceThe Shaykh : A man was angry with his wife because of something she did that angered him, so he said to her, "You are divorced, you are divorced, you are divorced." Does this count as one divorce?

The Shaykh : You say he was angry?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : The divorce of an angry person does not take effect.

The questioner : And he knows what he is saying.

The Shaykh : As long as he is sincere in that he was angry, or people who were around him testify that he was angry. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And regarding "ikhtilal" (confusion), the scholars explained it with two interpretations. The first interpretation, which is the most famous, is that he has no intention; there is no divorce in "ikhtilal," meaning he has no intention, i.e., the divorce of one who is coerced. This happens often; the son-in-law gets angry with his wife's father, so the father goes and threatens his son-in-law that he will divorce his wife, this cousin of his, or what? He will kill him. To get rid of this evil, he is threatened with this, so he says to her, "You are divorced." This divorce does not take effect because it is a coerced divorce, and this is by the consensus of the scholars. It is correct according to the Hanafis who deny the divorce of the angry person—excuse me, except the Hanafis, for due to their deviation, they validate the coerced divorce. They say, "What do we take? We take the wording." But the Wise Legislator is merciful and compassionate to His servants. He said: Regarding "ikhtilal," we said it has two interpretations: the first is coercion, and one who is coerced has no divorce upon him. The second interpretation is the divorce of the angry person, which meets the coerced divorce in one aspect.