Back to search

What is the intent that defines the intention to effect a divorce through an implicit utterance, and is the husband's unwillingness for the divorce to occur considered a negation of the intention to effect it, and how does one distinguish in ruling between the absence of intention and the absence of willingness, and what is the criterion for determining certainty of intention at the moment the phrase is uttered?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If the husband utters an ambiguous phrase (kinayah) of divorce and intends divorce by it, then divorce occurs; otherwise, it does not. The intention must be present at the time of uttering the ambiguous phrase. If the husband doubts his intention, divorce does not occur, because the default is the continuation of the marriage contract. If a man says to his wife, "Go to your family," and does not intend divorce, this is not considered a divorce. It is advisable not to excessively ask questions and delve into details to avoid obsessive doubts (waswasah).

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

Read the full answer on Ftawy