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What is the ruling regarding a man's statement to his wife: "If you search my phone, you are divorced," and what are the implications of that?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The default ruling regarding a man's statement to his wife, "If you search my phone, you are divorced," is that a revocable divorce (talaq raj'i) occurs if she searches the phone. He cannot retract this, and he must warn his wife. Some scholars, like Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, held that if the husband intended to prevent his wife and did not intend divorce, then it falls under the ruling of an oath (yamin), and she is liable for an expiation for breaking an oath (kaffarat yamin) if she does it, and divorce does not occur. This is the more preponderant opinion. Allah knows best what is intended.

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

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