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Does a divorce take effect if a man swears to divorce his wife using the phrase "unless I divorce you" while angry?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If the husband swears an oath of divorce saying, "If I do not divorce you, then you are divorced," and he does not specify a time, and he does not divorce her, then the divorce takes effect upon the death of one of the spouses, as that is the time when divorce can no longer occur. The husband's anger does not prevent the divorce from taking effect unless his anger completely deprived him of his sanity. Some scholars, like Ibn Taymiyyah, are of the view that the divorce does not take effect if the husband did not intend to effect a divorce, but rather intended a threat, and he is obligated to offer an expiation for breaking an oath (kaffarat yamin). The lawful oath is to swear by Allah Almighty, and swearing by divorce is among the oaths of the dissolute.

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

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