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Does uttering "I am divorced" in a moment of extreme anger, without the intention of divorce, and with an immediate attempt to retract it and swear that it was not intended, constitute a valid divorce?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Understanding should prevail between spouses, and discord should be avoided. Wisdom should be exercised to solve marital problems, while guarding against anger, which leads to dire consequences.

Regarding divorce: If you say to your wife, "I am divorced," without the intention of divorce, it does not occur, because it is an ambiguous phrase (lafz al-kinayah), and it does not take effect except with intention. And if it was a slip of the tongue without intending the utterance, then divorce does not occur.

However, if you intentionally uttered the phrase with awareness, then divorce occurs, even if it was intended as a threat. In this case, if this was not the third divorce, you may take her back as long as she is within her waiting period (iddah) and without a new marriage contract. The phrase "I threatened her with divorce" can carry different meanings.

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

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