Does the wife get divorced if the husband made her divorce conditional on him seeing a foreign woman in a private place, and he intended by that to prevent himself (from seeing her) and not to effect the divorce?
The majority of scholars hold that attaching divorce to a condition causes it to take effect when the condition is met, whether the intention was to enact divorce, to threaten, to emphasize, or to prevent. This is the fatwa we adopt. However, Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah is of the opinion that if one did not intend to enact divorce, but rather to threaten or prevent, then divorce does not occur, and an expiation for a broken oath becomes obligatory. Accordingly, if he sees the foreign woman away from people's sight, the divorce occurs. Since the divorce has occurred and it is not the third divorce, he may take her back before her waiting period expires. It is important to note that suspicious seclusion, dubious mixing, and letting one's gaze roam freely upon a foreign woman are all forbidden.
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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