What is the timing for a divorce by innuendo, and what is a simplified description of the intention accompanying it? Does intention here mean that it is definitive and irreversible regarding the timing of this divorce, given that intention is the resolve to do something and the determination to carry it out?
First, we say: "The cure for ignorance is asking," a hadith graded as hasan by Al-Albani.
Regarding the issue of intention accompanying a kinayah (allusive or ambiguous expression) of divorce: when a husband says a phrase to his wife that indicates separation, intending to remove the marital bond, it is a condition that this intention accompanies the utterance of the divorce. It is not valid if the intention precedes it.
If the intention accompanies the entire utterance, the divorce is undoubtedly effective.
If the intention accompanies only the beginning of the utterance and not its end, the divorce takes place according to the Hanbalis, and this is the sound opinion among the Shafi'is.
Al-Mardawi Al-Hanbali said in "Al-Insaf": "One of its conditions is that the intention accompanies the beginning of the utterance, according to the more correct opinion."
Ibn Qudamah Al-Hanbali said: "If the consideration of intention is established, then it must accompany the utterance. If it is present at its beginning but absent from the rest of it, the divorce occurs."
Zakariya Al-Ansari Al-Shafi'i said in "Asna al-Matalib": "For a kinayah, intention is required by consensus, accompanying the utterance. Even if it accompanies only part of the utterance, it suffices."
If the husband utters a kinayah of divorce without intention, and then follows it with intention afterward, the divorce does not occur.
Ibn Qudamah said: "As for uttering a kinayah without intending it, then intending it afterward, divorce does not occur by it."
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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