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What is the ruling on a wife concealing the trust receipt after her husband swore to divorce her if she did not return it, and what is the extent of its impact on the marital relationship and their cohabitation?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Taking a receipt from her husband's pocket without his permission is an injustice and an aggression, not theft. Her lying is forbidden, and she must repent. A wife's conditional oath of divorce results in divorce upon the fulfillment of the condition. So, if she does not return the original receipt, her divorce occurs. As for the husband's previous oaths: if he breaks two of them along with divorcing his wife, it completes three divorces, and she becomes irrevocably divorced (baynunah kubra). He is not sinful for cohabiting with her if he believes she is still under his marital bond, and the children are attributed to him. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah is of the opinion that whoever swears by divorce intending to threaten or prevent, and then breaks the oath, must offer an expiation for an oath. Frequent swearing by divorce is among the oaths of the dissolute and is disliked unless necessary. Means of reconciliation should be exhausted before resorting to it. Abandoning a wife due to recalcitrance (nushuz) is permissible. If she does not benefit from these means, he should either keep her honorably or part with her kindly.

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

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