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What is the ruling on an oath of divorce uttered after a verbal altercation regarding hearing a specific word in a phone conversation, and does the divorce take place or not, and what is the expiation for the other oath?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If a person swears an oath believing it to be true, and then it turns out to be otherwise, he does not break his oath (hinaf) and is not required to offer expiation (kaffara); this is considered a 'vain oath' (laghw al-yamin). The same applies to a wife if she swears an oath, thinking herself to be truthful.

However, if the wife swore an oath falsely, she must repent to Allah for the lie and for the 'perjurious oath' (yamin ghamus). Most scholars hold that no expiation is required of her, while some scholars deem it obligatory.

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

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