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What is the ruling on one who swore by divorce not to go to a certain house, and then went to it, and is it permissible for him to touch his wife before the Sharia ruling is issued on this matter?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The majority of scholars, including the four Madhhabs, are of the view that a contingent divorce (talaq mu'allaq) takes effect upon the occurrence of the condition it is contingent upon, and this is the most preponderant opinion. If you intended to restrain yourself and not to utter a divorce, then according to Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, you must offer expiation for breaking an oath. If the divorce occurred and it was the first or second pronouncement, then it is permissible to touch your wife and take her back before her 'iddah (waiting period) ends. However, if it was the third and final pronouncement, then she has become a stranger to you and is not lawful for you until she marries another husband, and then he divorces her or dies. It is advisable to avoid swearing by divorce; the permissible oath is by Allah.

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

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