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Does a divorce occur if the husband says to his wife: "If you have done any of these things that you swore upon on the Qur'an, or thereafter, then you are divorced"?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

A husband must think well of his wife, and it is not permissible for him to spy on her faults, as that is forbidden. As for conditioning divorce on the occurrence of an event in the past or future, if the event has already occurred in the past, the divorce takes effect. However, if it has not occurred, the divorce remains suspended, contingent on its future occurrence, and according to the majority of scholars, it takes effect when it happens. Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah is of the opinion that divorce does not take effect if the intention was merely to threaten, but an expiation for a broken oath (kaffarat yamin) is due. Since the wife denied the occurrence of the event, the default is to believe her, and the divorce does not take effect, though she bears the sin if she lied. The husband should explain to her the seriousness of the matter and promise to forgive her if she confesses, and he should treat her kindly and avoid using the word divorce.

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

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