Is verbally announcing marriage as permissible as verbal divorce? Why is it acceptable to divorce someone verbally but not to announce a marriage verbally and require specific papers?
“Le’abet Newton” caused this debate to rise again in 2021. This issue was discussed in a conference between President Al-Sisi and the Azhar council of Senior Scholars in 2017, which ended with the council rejecting Al-Sisi’s call for divorce authentication. The rejection came on the basis that verbally announcing divorce is the rule in Sharia.
Verbal divorce: Valid or not?
According to Islamic preacher Sheikh Khaled El-Gendy "Verbal divorce is forbidden and is not valid, it does not equate a divorce, and it is the people who signed it when the state issued contracts and the state’s testimony."
"Divorce is a contract just as marriage is a contract."
On the other hand, Doctor Mohamed Youssef, Professor of Sharia said:
“Verbal divorce is valid, according to Islamic Sharia."
It is considered the person’s will to make an official contract, and after that the formal contract is made to confirm the divorce. The state is now looking to enact a law for verbal divorce to eliminate its permissibility, as Egyptians, under daily pressure and stress, express orally their intention of divorce without any actual will to do so.
In one of the Fatwas recorded on the Dar Al Ifta’a channel on YouTube regarding the response to a question whether verbal divorce is permissible to happen over the phone or via text messages, “it is permissible through any means of communication, as long as the person fully understands, realizes and acknowledges it. What makes it impermissible is losing realization and a failed intention.”
It is worth mentioning, the divorce rate was 2.3 per thousand in 2019 compared to 2.2 per thousand in 2018, which is the number of divorce certificates that took place during the year for every thousand residents in the same year. The number of final divorce judgments reached 11,819 judgments in 2019 compared to 8,542 verdicts in 2018, an increase of 38.4% of the total judgments.
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