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Is it permissible for a wife to return to her husband if he denies divorcing her with three separate pronouncements and swears a false oath (yamin ghamus) upon the Qur’an?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If a wife claims a divorce and the husband denies it, then the husband's word is accepted unless the woman has evidence proving the occurrence of the divorce. In matters of divorce, only the testimony of two just men is accepted. If there is no evidence, the husband is made to swear an oath because he is the defendant.

If the wife is certain that an irrevocable triple divorce has occurred, and the husband does not admit it, then it is not permissible for her to allow him access to her. She must free herself from him through khul' (divorce at the wife's instance) or by ransoming herself, and it is not permissible for her to remain with him.

However, if the wording was not explicit, or was conditional, or was uttered under duress, then the matter needs to be presented to scholars for their ruling.

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

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