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Does a divorce take effect if my wife pronounced it, and I did not intend divorce, but rather to scare her for her wrong action?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The first utterance of "You are divorced" is effective and explicit, and does not require an intention.

However, repeating the word after the first utterance, if intended for emphasis or threat without a new intention of divorce, is considered only one divorce.

Accordingly, one divorce has been issued to you, and you may take your wife back before the expiry of her iddah (waiting period). If the iddah expires and you have not taken her back, she is not permissible for you except with a new marriage contract.

If this divorce is the third one, she is not permissible for you until she marries another husband.

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

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