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Is the wife considered divorced if the husband said to her "You are divorced" in English in a state of anger, and she claims she did not hear the لفظ (pronouncement), and is expiation (kaffarah) obligatory?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Scholars have differed regarding the divorce of a person who was unaware of the condition [upon which the divorce was contingent]. The majority of them held that the divorce takes effect. However, some said that the oath is not broken, and this is the apparent view of the Shafi'i school and the chosen opinion of Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah. What is fatwa-given by us is that divorce does not occur in this case, and your wife remains under your marital bond.

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

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