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Is a divorce effective upon someone who swore by divorce that another person would not do a certain thing, but that person did it without the swearer's intention?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The majority of scholars hold that a conditional divorce takes effect when the condition it is tied to is met, and its legal consequences follow. However, the Shafi'is provide a detailed explanation: If the person on whom the oath was made (the wife) does the act upon which the divorce was conditioned forgetfully, ignorantly, or under duress, while being aware of the oath, and the husband cares about breaking his oath, then the divorce does not occur. But if she was completely unaware of the oath, or she knew of it and intentionally did the act upon which the divorce was conditioned, or if the husband did not care about breaking his oath, then the divorce takes effect.

If the divorce occurs, the husband can reconcile with his wife before her waiting period (iddah) ends, provided that this divorce does not complete the count of three divorces. Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah is of the view that the one who swore the oath must offer expiation for a broken oath (kaffarat yamin) if he did not intend divorce.

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

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