Does divorce ensue if a man tells his wife: "If you go back to work, you will be unlawful for me," and then he recants and permits her to work?

Your statement to your wife: "You will become unlawful to me" (ستصبحين محرمة علي) carries two possibilities:

1. If it was merely a promise indicating your displeasure with her action, then nothing is binding upon you.

2. If you intended to make her unlawfulness conditional upon her returning to work: The fatwa (religious ruling) that is adopted by us is that if she returns to work, the unlawfulness takes effect. Scholars have differed regarding the legal nature of the word "unlawfulness" (التحريم), whether it constitutes ẓihār (a pre-Islamic form of divorce), or divorce, or an oath. The preponderant opinion according to us is to differentiate between the intention of divorce, ẓihār, or an oath: If you intended divorce, then divorce takes effect. If you intended ẓihār, then ẓihār takes effect, and you must pay its expiation. If you intended an oath, or did not intend anything specific, then you must pay the expiation for an oath (feeding ten needy persons or clothing them; if you cannot find them, then fasting three days). All of this applies if the motive for making the unlawfulness conditional was not the child's need for his mother. However, if the motive was the child's need, and the child no longer needs his mother, then you do not break your oath if she returns to work. This is known as "bisāṭ al-yamīn" (the context of the oath).