A Muslim man is paying a high price for a joke he made while chatting to his wife on a messenger conversation on Skype.
The man in question jokingly typed “talaq”, which translates as “I divorce thee”, three times in a row during a conversation with his wife on the internet messenger. Worried about his joke, the husband decided to seek the advice of the Islamic authorities in case his actions invalidated his marriage.
After admitting “I don’t understand Islam very much” the young man from Qatar received the reply he really didn’t want to hear from the authorities as they ruled that the man’s marriage ended when he told his wife “talaq” on Skype.
Under Islamic law, this action terminates a marriage. Furthermore, the pair cannot remarry until the wife has married another man, consummated the marriage, been divorced by her second husband, and waited for three months after the termination of this marriage. Only at this stage will be couple be allowed to be joined together again in matrimony.
Once a man divorces his wife, according to Islam, she becomes forbidden to him. The only way they can become husband and wife once again is if the aforementioned actions are carried out.
Although this is an extreme case, the unfortunate incident goes to show that users of social media and messenger services should be careful about the actions they take in their cyber world, as these are seemingly harmless actions can have an impact in their real world.
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