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Fatwa CenterForging papers of divorce
Question
I have a very important question and I really want to have an answer for that. I hope you will find the time and answer me.
I am a 27 year old, mother of two children, and I live in the USA. I have been married for 9 years. Last year just to sponsor my brother from Africa to come to the USA, I filled a false divorce and got the paper. Now I heard that it is forbidden to do this kind of thing and even to propose my own brother as a husband is forbidden. I can not even sleep I really feel guilty and asked my husband to remarry to make our life legal in Shariah. Do you think this affected my marriage or not? I feel like I am living untruthful life. Me and my husband never have a problem and love each other. We did it thinking that it does not affect our marriage. We consider ourselves as good Muslims. We pray 5 times a day, we fast read the Quran. May Allah forgive us for every sin we did. I hope you understood my point and please I need your advice in this, please help me.
Answer
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
There is no doubt that the forgery you have done is forbidden and requires repentance because it entails many prohibitions such as:
1. Lying: the prophet (Sallalahu Alahi Wa Sallam) said:" Beware of lying, because telling lies leads to wickedness and evil-doing." Reported by Imam Muslim and Ahl Al Sunan.
2. Cheating: the prophet (Sallalahu Alahi Wa Sallam) said:" Whoever cheats is not of us."
In addition, forging documents could spoil the rights of the couple in case one of them dies, to the authorities they are not husband and wife; so the right to inheritance will be lost.
Moreover, you could find difficulties in registering the children, and so on.
As regards the writing of the word divorce by the husband, the people of knowledge differ about whether it is considered as a divorce or not.
However, if the husband intended divorce when writing the word divorce, then it is divorce, this is the opinion of Imam Malik, Al shafie, Abu Hanifa and others. And even if he did not intend it when writing the word, it is still considered by some of them as divorce. But some others say that it does not take place except if he intended it, and this is the opinion of Abu Hanifa, and Malik, and it is clearly expressed by Al Shafie.
Anyway forging divorce on papers should not be done.
What to do now is that we advise you to return the papers to their initial status stating, that you are your actual husband's wife and you should repent to Allah seek forgiveness as much as possible and perform good deeds, and Allah is the Oft-Forgiving and He is Merciful towards His slaves. Allah likes those who repent and seek forgiveness from Him. You have to know as well that residing in a Kafir (non-Muslim) country is not permissible except for a necessity or a need that is religiously considered, especially if the Muslim cannot carry out his religious rites. Please refer to Fatwa: 81142 and 81642.
Allah knows best.
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