The ruling on pronouncing triple divorce with a single phrase

The Shaykh:
Yes. I said.

The questioner:
I said to my wife, in a state of anger with her, "By Allah, if you go to your family's house for a few months, you are divorced by the salam." Is the divorce obligatory, or is there an expiation for the oath upon you?

The Shaykh:
A person of sound mind should not rush into divorce. A person of sound mind should handle matters without divorce, dealing with them through promises, threats, and warnings, without resorting to divorce. He should treat her with such dignity if she is upright, threatening her with some humiliation or withholding some of her demands, and keeping divorce at a distance. But this person who threatens her with divorce is in one of two states. One is that he intends to carry out what he said, meaning that if she violates what he said, the divorce takes effect. In this case, he gets what he intended, and the divorce takes effect on her. If he says, "By Allah," or says, "If you stay with your family for six months, or one day, or two days, or so and so, you are divorced," and he intends to divorce her, the divorce takes effect. Or if he says, "If you talk to so-and-so, you are divorced," and he intends divorce, the divorce takes effect. Yes. Or if he says, "If you go to so-and-so's house, you are divorced," or "I am liable for divorce if you go to so-and-so's house," with an intention that necessitates that, the divorce takes effect. The Chosen One (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Actions are only by intentions, and every person will have what he intended." As for the one who intends to threaten and warn her, and does not intend to separate from her, but intends to frighten and warn her, and says, "If you visit so-and-so, you are divorced," or "If you visit so-and-so, you are divorced," or "If you go to your family's house without my permission, you are divorced," intending to frighten and warn her, and not intending to separate from her, and Allah knows what is in his heart when he intended to warn, then this is the ruling of an oath. And upon him is the expiation of the oath if he violates what was required, if he contradicts it. So upon him is the expiation of the oath, like saying, "By Allah, you will not go," or "By Allah, you will not do so and so." This is an oath in the most correct opinion of the scholars, as a group of scholars from the Salaf issued this fatwa in the era of the Tabi'un and the era of the Companions. Also, Abu al-Abbas Ibn Taymiyyah, the Shaykh al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him), and the scholar Ibn al-Khatib, and a group of scholars from the predecessors and others, issued this fatwa, because this happens frequently among people through frightening and warning, not for obedience. But if the divorce is conditioned on something that does not involve frightening, by its nature it does not involve frightening, such as, "If Ramadan enters, you are divorced," or "If you give birth, you are divorced," or "If you become pregnant, you are divorced," the divorce takes effect by this, and the like of that. That the advice is in the same framework as the salam. If he says, "You are divorced, then divorced, then divorced," the divorce takes effect.