Grand Ayatollah Shirazi remarks on some rulings related to divorce

The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadegh al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Wednesday, the 28th of Jumadi al-Awwal. In this session, just like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudence issues.

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi discussed some rulings of divorce according to the Sunni method, and said: A divorce which is performed according to the Sunni method is ritually sufficient for the Shiites, provided that what they do is considered a divorce to themselves, and the Shiites can fulfill divorce-related observances accordingly.

His Eminence also said: The “waiting period” of divorce begins from the very moment of divorce, even if the woman is not aware of it happening at the time of the divorce, and gets informed later. So, if a woman, for example, is informed that her husband has divorced her four months ago, and this divorce was actually executed, this woman does not need to undergo the “waiting period” of divorce, because her Sharia-based “waiting period” has already expired.

He further said: But if a woman receives the news of her husband’s death after a year, there is a special reason from hadith that the “waiting period” should be observed upon hearing the news. But, in regards to divorce, since there is no special reason from hadith, the ruling is the “waiting period” begins from the time of divorce, even if the woman was not aware of it.

Grand Ayatollah Shirazi also emphasized that if a woman receives news that her husband has divorced her or died, but she is not yet sure whether this news is true or false, she cannot trust that news, because she must ensure the news is reliable and valid.