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What is the ruling on one who swore by triple divorce to report his neighbor and have him imprisoned, while he is unsure about specifying a time for that, whereas some of those present affirm that he specified the very day of the quarrel for reporting, but he only reported days later?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Scholars have differed regarding an oath of divorce if it is expressed as an oath. The majority hold that divorce occurs upon breaking the oath, while others—and this is the more preponderant view—maintain that only an expiation for an oath (kaffarat yamin) is required, and divorce does not occur if the intention was not to divorce, but rather to urge oneself, or to prevent, or to affirm, or to deny.

Thus, if you did not intend divorce by your statement, "Divorce be upon me if I do not report him today," and the oath was broken, then an expiation for an oath is required of you. However, if you did intend divorce, then one divorce occurs.

And if one pronounces divorce in a state of extreme anger that deprives him of his intention, his divorce does not occur, whether it was an explicit pronouncement or a conditional one.

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

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