What is the ruling of Sharia regarding a husband's statement to his wife in a state of extreme anger: "You are forbidden to me; consider yourself divorced," and does a divorce take place as a result, knowing that he had no intention of divorcing her and meant to threaten her, while the wife says that he followed it with the words: "By Allah, you are forbidden to me"?

The preponderant view is that the ruling on prohibiting one's wife depends on the husband's intention. If he intended ẓihār (a pre-Islamic form of divorce by declaring one's wife like one's mother's back), it is ẓihār. If he intended divorce, it is a divorce. If he intended an oath or had no intention, it is an oath. If the husband intended by his threat to his wife to merely threaten her by considering her forbidden to him, then an expiation for an oath (kaffārat yamīn) is due. The husband's statement to his wife, "Consider yourself divorced," is a metaphorical expression (kināyah) by which divorce does not occur except with intention. Some scholars, however, consider it an explicit utterance (ṣarīḥ) that does not require intention. The decisive factor is what the speaker predominantly intended by his utterance, not the wife's words. Repeating an oath concerning the same matter incurs only one expiation. Marital problems should be resolved calmly, and one should avoid uttering words of divorce and prohibition.