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What is the status of the oath of divorce, "By three divorces, if you respond to them, you are divorced," according to the majority of scholars? And does the prohibition against responding to them continue for life, or is it permissible to communicate with them after the dispute ends, knowing that the intention was not to prevent her from communicating with them for life? And do the concepts of "bisat al-yameen" (the breadth of the oath) among the Malikis and "yameen al-fawr" (the immediate oath) among the Hanafis apply to this case?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The preponderant view, in our opinion, is that what matters in oaths is the intention of the swearer regarding what he uttered. If he had no intention, then the reference point is the reason that led him to the oath. Accordingly, since you never intended to prevent your wife from responding to your family, you do not break your oath by your wife speaking to your family after the anger between you and your family has subsided. It is important to emphasize the greatness of parents' rights and that it is not permissible to abandon them or mistreat them. Furthermore, the permissible oath is to swear by Allah the Almighty, whereas swearing by divorce is an oath of the wicked.

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

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