Does divorce occur if the husband says to his wife: "If you contact your brother, then you are thrice divorced," and then asks her to contact her brother to inform him of what he said?

The majority of scholars hold that a conditional divorce takes effect if the condition is met, and that a triple divorce takes effect as a single occurrence. Consequently, the wife becomes unlawful for her husband and is not permitted to him until she marries another husband in a marriage of desire. Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, however, holds that the husband must offer expiation for a broken oath (kaffarat yamin (definition)) if he did not intend divorce, and a single divorce if he did intend divorce. If the husband intended that divorce would not occur when he permitted the call, then this intention benefits him, and no divorce is then binding upon him.