Does a divorce take place when a man says to his wife: "If you do not do such-and-such by such-and-such a time, then you will be divorced," knowing that the father refrained from informing the wife to avoid harming the daughters and their mother, with the man intending divorce and not merely a threat, and the father later objecting to the matter after initially agreeing to it?

A husband's statement to his wife, "If you do not do such-and-such, then you are divorced," is considered a conditional divorce that takes effect upon the fulfillment of the condition, according to the majority of jurists. However, if his intention was to threaten or encourage, he is required to perform an expiation for a broken oath (kaffarat yamin (definition)). Intention is considered valid for specializing a general utterance and restricting an absolute one, provided that it accompanies the utterance. So, if he intended to specialize the utterance to a specific time or situation, such as saying, "You are divorced," and intending "if you enter the house," his statement is accepted, and the intention specializes it. Since the questioner did not intend to exclude what displeases the parents until after uttering the divorce, this divorce is effective, and he must reconcile with his wife before the expiry of her iddah (definition) (waiting period) if it was the first or second divorce.