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Is it permissible for a husband to release his wife from an oath of conditional divorce, without informing her, for fear of her violating the oath?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

An oath of divorce takes effect as soon as it is uttered, and it is not permissible to retract it according to the majority of scholars, in contrast to Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, who holds that retraction is permissible if the husband intended divorce and not an oath. If you conditioned your wife's divorce upon a condition, your statement "unless I retract it" will not benefit you after the oath has taken effect, according to the majority of scholars. However, it is permissible according to Sheikh al-Islam if you intended divorce. But if the exception is part of the original oath's wording, such as saying, "You are divorced if you enter the house unless I change my mind," then it is beneficial and the divorce does not take effect. Taking the initiative to condition divorce is disliked.

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

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