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What is the ruling on a husband saying to his wife: "Three, three, three, my wife will not enter this house," intending divorce, in response to her insulting his mother?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The majority opinion is that divorce, when made conditional, takes effect upon the breach of the condition, and that uttering "triple divorce" (طلاق بالثلاث) results in three divorces. Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, however, holds that swearing by divorce, when not intended as a conditional divorce but rather as a threat or an emphasis, is treated like an oath by Allah, requiring an expiation for an oath (كفارة يمين) and not resulting in divorce. He also opines that uttering "triple divorce" counts as a single divorce. If the husband intended divorce by his statement "three" (as in "I divorce you thrice"), then his wife is divorced thrice upon her entering her family's house. If he intended to prevent her from entering the house for a specific period or under specific circumstances, then his oath is restricted by what he intended. It is preferable to present the matter to trustworthy scholars.

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

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