Does the husband's saying to his wife while angry: "You are unlawful to me" or "You are like my mother" or "like my sister," sometimes accompanied by an oath, constitute an act of ẓihār necessitating repentance before 'Umrah, and what is the ruling concerning the children born to the couple thereafter?

We summarize the answer for you in the following points:

1. A man's statement to his wife, "You are unlawful to me" or "You are like my mother or my sister," is considered ẓihār if he intended it, especially if it was uttered after a quarrel. Its expiation (kaffārah) is explained in previous fatwas. 2. Oath of divorce: If he breaks it, divorce occurs according to the majority of scholars. It is also said that if the intention was to rebuke and prevent, then an expiation for an oath is due. 3. Extreme anger does not change the ruling as long as the person is conscious and acting by choice. 4. If divorce is repeated three times or more, the wife becomes irrevocably divorced (bainūnah kubrā). If it occurs once or twice and he does not take her back during her waiting period (ʿiddah), she becomes revocably divorced (bainūnah ṣughrā). 5. Repeated ẓihār necessitates repeated expiation for ẓihār according to the majority of scholars. 6. If oaths are repeated and the subject of the oath is one, the expiations are subsumed, and a single expiation suffices according to the majority of scholars. However, if the subjects of the oath are multiple, the expiations are repeated according to their number. 7. If the number of times divorce, ẓihār, or oaths occurred is unknown, he must investigate. If he cannot determine, he should base his decision on certainty, which is the lesser number. 8. The sons and daughters begotten by the shaykh are considered his children, and their lineage is correctly attributed to him as long as he believes the marriage to be valid, even if the marriage is universally agreed upon as invalid, by establishing lineage due to a mistaken belief of validity.