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Are the three oaths mentioned in the question – two conditional divorces and one explicit divorce – considered a third divorce, and what is the ruling on that?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The majority of scholars hold that if a man swears an oath by divorce and then breaks it, his wife is divorced, whether he intended divorce or merely a threat. However, Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah holds that if one swears an oath by divorce for the purpose of threat or emphasis, then expiation for a broken oath (kaffarat yameen) becomes obligatory, and no divorce occurs. The ruling that is adopted for practice is the view of the majority. Therefore, if the wife does what her husband made the divorce contingent upon, divorce occurs twice, resulting in an irrevocable divorce (baynunah kubra). Unless the husband did not intend to effect a divorce but rather to threaten, and he was following the opinion of those who do not consider divorce to occur in this case, then no divorce occurs, and he may take his wife back. If the husband's intention in the first oath was to prevent his wife from going to her parents' house without his permission, and she went with his permission, then he has not broken his oath, because intention particularizes the general. It is advisable to present the issue to a Sharia court or to trustworthy scholars.

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

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