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Are the words "Let the people in and you go out" considered a conditional divorce, and does the divorce take effect if someone interferes in their affairs, and what is the expiation for that?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

A man's statement to his wife, "Let people in and you go out" (or "you go out"), is not an explicit divorce. Rather, it is an ambiguous phrase (kinayah) that could imply divorce or something else. Divorce by ambiguous phrase does not occur unless there is an intention to divorce, even in times of dispute or anger. If the intention to divorce was not present, divorce does not occur. If the intention was present, a single revocable divorce occurs if she lets people in to resolve her problem; otherwise, it does not. One who doubts his intention is not divorced, because the default is non-divorce. Intention is not a form of obsessive doubt (waswas) unless it is a recurring issue. If a man reaches the stage of obsessive doubt concerning divorce, his divorce does not occur. However, if he has not reached this stage and divorces using an ambiguous phrase, he must examine his intention; if he intended divorce, it occurs.

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

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