Does divorce occur upon the performance of any of the matters upon which the husband swore by divorce, or is it conditioned upon the occurrence of all of them? And does divorce occur again upon the repetition of the same act after it has occurred for the first time? And what should be done if the spouses forget the details of what the husband swore by divorce?

We previously explained that a conditional divorce (talaq (definition) mu'allaq) that is contingent upon more than one condition in a single contingency statement does not occur unless all conditions are met. So, if a man says to his wife: "You are divorced if you buy the magazine AND look at it AND watch the film," the divorce does not occur unless all of them are fulfilled. However, if he says: "If you buy the magazine OR look at it," the divorce occurs upon the fulfillment of either of the two conditions; because "and" (الواو) is for conjunction, implying جمع (combination/all), and "or" (أو) is for one of two things.

The jurisprudential principle is: "Certainty is not removed by doubt." Therefore, for any word about which there is doubt, the default is that it was not uttered. So, the husband should act based on what he is certain he uttered when making the divorce conditional, and discard the doubt.

Scholars have differed concerning conditional divorce if the husband did not intend to effect the divorce; the majority hold that it occurs, while Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah held that only an expiation for an oath (kaffarat yamin (definition)) is required.

It is preferable to consult the Sharia (definition) court or one of the trustworthy scholars to clarify the question thoroughly and obtain the appropriate fatwa (definition).