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What is the expiation for my oath upon the Qur'an that I would not betray my wife, or marry another while married to her, or divorce her, given the impossibility of life between us and my desire to divorce her now?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

We advise the questioner not to rush into divorce and to strive for reconciliation. However, if life together becomes impossible, he may divorce her. In this case, he owes an expiation (kaffara) for breaking his oath that he would not divorce her. If he also swore not to retract his oath, then two expiations are incumbent upon him: the first for the divorce, and the second for not retracting his oath. The preponderant view is that two expiations are obligatory: one for the divorce and the other for not retracting the oath, and this is the more cautious approach.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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