Is it considered a divorce or an oath if a man says to his wife, with whom he has not yet consummated the marriage, "By divorce, you will not hang up the phone on me if I call you," and then she hangs up due to a bad network connection?

Oaths of divorce or conditional divorce are based on the intention of the swearer. If he intends by his oath something that it can bear, his oath turns to it, whether what he intended is consistent with the apparent meaning of the wording or contrary to it.

So, if the man intended that his wife should not deliberately cause offense by hanging up the phone on him, he does not break his oath if she hung up for a compelling reason, such as weak network coverage. However, if his intention was that she should not hang up the phone on him for any reason whatsoever, and this is a remote possibility, then what happened causes divorce according to the majority of scholars. Consequently, the wife is separated from her husband and is not lawful for him except with a new contract, as long as consummation has not occurred.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said: He is obligated to offer an expiation for an oath (kaffarat yamin) if he did not intend divorce but rather intended to prevent the action.