Back to search

Does the divorce a man swore by before marriage, concerning those he will marry, take effect upon them?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Scholars have differed on the validity of conditioning divorce before marriage. The majority hold that if a man generally says concerning women, "Every woman I marry is divorced," then nothing is binding upon him. And if he specifies, saying, "If I marry so-and-so, she is divorced," then according to the Shafi'is and Hanbalis, nothing is binding upon him, contrary to the Hanafis and Malikis, who consider the divorce to be effective in both cases. The most authoritative opinion is that divorce does not occur before marriage, due to the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: "There is no divorce before marriage."

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

Read the full answer on Ftawy