Back to search

What is the ruling on one who jokingly and ignorantly of the Sharia ruling said to his wife: "You are divorced if I die"?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If a man says to his wife, "You are divorced if I die," a divorce does not occur, because divorce does not apply to a situation where the marital bond has been severed by death. The books of the four Madhhabs (schools of thought) have explicitly stated that divorce does not occur in this case. Therefore, the wife remains under her husband's marital bond, and he should be careful in the future not to swear by divorce, even if he is joking, as it is among the oaths of the wicked, and seriousness and jest are treated equally in this regard.

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

Read the full answer on Ftawy