Does a man divorce his wife if he mistakenly addresses a non-mahram woman, believing her to be his wife, and says, 'You are divorced'?

Chapter on Explicit Divorce and Others

Al-Mughni

Book of Divorce

Book 39 · Issue 1 · Bab 2

Open in Qurani

Primary text

If a man encounters a non-mahram woman, mistakes her for his wife, and declares, 'So-and-so, you are divorced,' his actual wife is divorced. This position is stated by Ahmad. The reasoning is that he intended the divorce to apply to his wife via the utterance of divorce, thus it takes effect. This is analogous to a situation where he knew she was a non-mahram woman but intended the divorce to apply to his wife.

Supporting text

Al-Shafi'i holds that the divorce does not occur because he addressed someone other than his wife with the divorce utterance, and thus it does not take effect, similar to if he knew she was a non-mahram and still said, 'You are divorced.'