If I say to my wife, “You are divorced if you leave the house while I am away,” and then she leaves, what is the ruling?
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Question:
If I forbade my wife from leaving my house while I am away from my city, and I said, “If you leave, you are divorced,” and then she actually left, what is the ruling? May Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
Let him return. If you intended to make the divorce conditional on her leaving, then she is divorced if she leaves. If you... Yes. Therefore, who... from leaving, and you did not intend to effect the divorce, but rather intended to prevent her from leaving, this is a matter of disagreement among the scholars. The majority hold that the divorce takes place if she leaves. A group of distinguished scholars, such as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, held that this is treated as an oath, expiated by a kaffarah, and no divorce takes place, because it is an oath, since your intention with this phrase was to prevent her from leaving, and you did not intend to effect the divorce, so it becomes an oath. And Allah the Exalted said:[At-Tahrim 66:2]. Yes. May Allah reward you with good, and may Allah reward you.
If I forbade my wife from leaving my house while I am away from my city, and I said, “If you leave, you are divorced,” and then she actually left, what is the ruling? May Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
Let him return. If you intended to make the divorce conditional on her leaving, then she is divorced if she leaves. If you... Yes. Therefore, who... from leaving, and you did not intend to effect the divorce, but rather intended to prevent her from leaving, this is a matter of disagreement among the scholars. The majority hold that the divorce takes place if she leaves. A group of distinguished scholars, such as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, held that this is treated as an oath, expiated by a kaffarah, and no divorce takes place, because it is an oath, since your intention with this phrase was to prevent her from leaving, and you did not intend to effect the divorce, so it becomes an oath. And Allah the Exalted said:
Allah has already ordained for you [Muslims] the dissolution of your oaths. And Allah is your protector, and He is the Knowing, the Wise.
قَدْ فَرَضَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ تَحِلَّةَ أَيْمَانِكُمْ وَاللَّهُ مَوْلَاكُمْ وَهُوَ الْعَلِيمُ الْحَكِيمُ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، إذا قلت لزوجتي أنتي طالق إذا خرجتي من المنزل أثناء غيابي ثم خرجت فما الحكم؟ الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.