Question Summary:
If a husband divorces his wife and she does not know of the divorce, will the divorce be valid?

Question Detail:

I got a question about divorce.
my husband is divorcing her new wife without her knowing, because the new wife is commiting a major sin. she plan to marry other man..
my husband only informed me and he said in hanafi fiqh it is valid. can you please confirm if its valid? and is it irrevocable or not? i dont want him to do things that is not following our deen. Please enlighten
this is what he wrote to me:"in hanafi fiqh.. i can divorce her. without telling her.. so i give her a divorce.. and you are the witness.. so in 4 month 10 days.. her iddah will end..   i won't tell her.. let her suffer.. atleast in Allah eyes.. my wife won't be doing zina.. its someone i give a divorce to"

Answer :

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh
 
According to Shariah, if a husband divorces his wife and she does not know of the divorce, she will be divorced. However, divorce has implications such as Iddat, etc which the wife has to observe.[1] The husband should inform her of the divorce so that she can observe her Iddat. If the divorcee does not adhere to Sharaih, she will be sinful. That does not give reason not to inform her of being divorced.
 
Furthermore, the Iddat of a divorcee is three menses if she experiences menses and she did not conceive. If she does not experience menses, her Iddat will be three months. The Iddat period is 4 months and 10 days for a widow who is not conceived.
 
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
 
Mufti  Ismail Desai,
Darul Iftaa 


Checked and Approved,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.