Does uttering "You are divorced" and "You are divorced" verbally, after swearing an oath of divorce and the wife leaving for her family's home without the husband's permission, constitute a divorce, knowing that this is the third divorce? And if it does, what is the religiously lawful way for her to return?

The answer is summarized in the following points:

1. Your statement to your wife, "By Allah, if you go to your mother's house without my permission, I will divorce you," is merely a promise of future divorce. Divorce does not occur simply by her going, and the oath is not broken unless fulfilling it becomes impossible.

2. Divorce by a written message is among the ambiguous expressions of divorce; therefore, it only takes effect with intention. If you intended it, it occurs; otherwise, nothing is upon you.

3. Your call to your wife's sister to instruct her to convey the divorce is considered an effective divorce from the moment you uttered it, whether the sister conveyed it or not. The juristic schools, such as the Hanafi and Maliki, affirm that divorce occurs simply by uttering it to a messenger. If this was the third divorce, your wife has become irrevocably divorced (Bainunah Kubra) from you and is not lawful for you until she marries another man and he divorces her after consummating the marriage.