Does divorce and the prohibition of the wife take effect if the husband says to her, "You are divorced, divorced, divorced, and unlawful to me like the back of my mother," when he intended to frighten her and did not intend divorce?

The enquirer made his wife's divorce and ẓihār (a pronouncement by which a husband likens his wife to a forbidden female relative, making her unlawful to him) contingent upon her going with her mother. The majority of scholars hold that a conditional divorce takes effect if the condition upon which it was made contingent occurs. If the wife did indeed go with her mother, then if the husband intended to repeat the divorce with these words, three divorces have occurred, and she has become irrevocably separated from him (a major separation). However, if he did not intend to repeat the divorce, but rather repeated the words for emphasis or did not intend anything, then only one divorce has occurred. In this latter case, the husband may take his wife back if this divorce does not complete three divorces, and he must offer the expiation for ẓihār before touching her. It must be noted that ẓihār is forbidden, and threatening with divorce is an incorrect approach.