What is the ruling of the Sharia concerning a husband who swore an oath of divorce upon his wife, preventing her from going to her family's house, using the words, "By divorce, you are not going to your mother's house starting from next year," while clarifying his intention, and is expiation obligatory upon him, and can he retract this oath before its due date?

The majority of jurists hold that swearing an oath by divorce results in divorce upon breaking the oath, whether the intention was to effect divorce or to threaten, or anything else. It cannot be retracted. This is the accepted and authoritative ruling.

Some scholars, such as Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, are of the view that swearing an oath by divorce, when the intention is not to effect divorce but rather to threaten or emphasize, takes the ruling of an oath by Allah. Consequently, the one who swore the oath must offer expiation for an oath (kaffarat yamin) if they break it, and no divorce occurs.

Determining what was sworn upon depends on the intention of the one who swore the oath. If you intended to prevent your wife from residing at her family's house without preventing her from visiting, then there is no breach of the oath if she visits without residing there.

If your wife did what you forbade her from, which is residing at her family's house, then divorce has occurred. If this divorce is not the third and final one, you can take her back (rāj'ah) before her waiting period (iddah) expires.