Does divorce occur with the statement, "I divorce three times that your mother will not come here, nor do anything regarding cleanliness, nor help with housework; she should come honored and respected like any other woman who visits, but not do anything at all in the house"? This is said with the intention of not divorcing. Does it require expiation? And what if the mother comes to help?

The majority of scholars hold that swearing an oath by divorce—whether intended as a divorce, a threat, a means of prevention, an encouragement, or an affirmation—results in divorce upon breaking the oath, and that uttering the triple divorce pronouncement counts as three divorces. Accordingly, if your wife's mother assists her with housework, your wife would be irrevocably divorced from you with a major irrevocable divorce (baynunah kubra).

Conversely, Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah is of the view that swearing an oath by divorce, when the intention is not to effect a divorce but rather to threaten or affirm, falls under the same ruling as swearing an oath by Allah. Thus, if the oath is broken, an expiation for an oath (kaffarat yamin) is required, and no divorce occurs. However, when divorce is intended, he holds that uttering the triple divorce pronouncement counts as a single divorce.