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Is what was uttered by me regarding an oath of divorce, with a pause and seeking refuge [with Allah] before completing the utterance, considered an oath of divorce or a conditional divorce, especially with the prevalence of obsessive thoughts? And what is meant by "the intention of divorce without utterance has no effect," and does it refer to the spoken word of divorce?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If you limit yourself to saying, "By Allah, you will hang up the phone now," and do not complete what you intended to utter, then no divorce is incumbent upon you, and you are not held accountable for what you intended without uttering it, because divorce does not occur except through utterance.

However, if your wife does not hang up the phone as you intended, then you have broken your oath, and an expiation for breaking an oath is incumbent upon you.

A mere intention of divorce without utterance does not constitute divorce; because it is from the self-talk that Allah has forgiven His nation for, as long as they do not act upon it or speak it. This is the opinion of the majority of scholars.

It is advised to stay away from obsessive thoughts.

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

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