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What is the ruling regarding a man's statement to his wife in a fit of extreme anger, "If you speak to so-and-so, you are divorced," if he does not intend divorce but rather to prevent her from speaking, and the wife has not spoken to her yet?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The majority of scholars hold that a conditional divorce takes effect upon the fulfillment of the condition, and this is the preponderant view. Consequently, if the condition upon which you suspended the divorce has been met, then according to the majority, the divorce has occurred.

However, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah was of the opinion that an expiation for an oath (kaffarat yameen) is required if you did not intend divorce.

According to the view that the divorce takes effect, which is the preponderant one, you may take her back before her waiting period (iddah) ends, provided this divorce does not complete the three divorces. There is no possibility of retracting this conditional divorce according to the majority, nor is there any retraction from the oath according to the madhhab of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.

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

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