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Does a conditional divorce pronounced with the words: "Divorce be upon me if you speak to them again," take effect if the husband's intention was merely to threaten, and he was in a state of extreme anger, and then the wife subsequently contacted her family?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Anger does not prevent the occurrence of divorce unless it is so severe as to incapacitate the mind. Divorce occurs upon breaching an oath of divorce, whether it was intended for divorce, threat, prevention, urging, or emphasis, and this is the view of the majority of scholars. Ibn Taymiyyah holds that an oath of divorce not intended to effect divorce but rather for threat or emphasis, is treated like an oath by Allah, so if one breaches it, an expiation for an oath is due, and divorce does not occur.

Accordingly, the fatwa given is that divorce occurs if the wife speaks to her family, unless the husband has permitted her to do so, in which case there is a difference of opinion. If divorce occurs, the oath is dissolved. If this is the first or second divorce, the husband may reconcile with his wife as long as she is within her waiting period (iddah). Since the matter is subject to scholarly disagreement, it is best to present it to a Sharia court or trusted scholars.

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

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