What is the ruling on a divorce conditional on the son failing in his studies?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : The previous caller says that his father said, “If he does not succeed, I will divorce him from the house.”
The Shaykh : Good.
The questioner : Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy.
The Shaykh : His view on this is that the father should go to the school to find out how he will succeed or not, for success is in the hand of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). The student always hires a tutor and does not succeed. The fact that he says he will divorce if this boy does not succeed and expel him from the house is evidence of his motive. Some scholars hold that this divorce takes effect and the wife is divorced from him. Others hold that this divorce has the ruling of an oath. If the boy does not succeed in this case, his father expiates the oath by feeding ten poor people, and his mother is not divorced.
The Shaykh : Good.
The questioner : Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy.
The Shaykh : His view on this is that the father should go to the school to find out how he will succeed or not, for success is in the hand of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). The student always hires a tutor and does not succeed. The fact that he says he will divorce if this boy does not succeed and expel him from the house is evidence of his motive. Some scholars hold that this divorce takes effect and the wife is divorced from him. Others hold that this divorce has the ruling of an oath. If the boy does not succeed in this case, his father expiates the oath by feeding ten poor people, and his mother is not divorced.
Source
دروس وفتاوى المسجد الحرام لعام 1402هـ - 12 — binothaimeen.net (1:17:38)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.