What is the ruling on swearing an oath of divorce if the intention is to threaten?
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Question:
This questioner (A. A. A.) sent two questions. His first question says: In the first year of our marriage, and following a severe anger, I swore to my wife with a divorce. The wording was as follows:
"If your mother enters here, you are divorced." I intended by this to threaten, not to actually divorce. After that, her mother entered, and more than twenty years have passed since our marriage until now. I have had children from her, and I did not swear with a divorce again during this entire period. What is the ruling on this divorce? Does it take effect or not?
Answer:
The correct view is that this divorce has the ruling of an oath; because you did not intend to effect it, but rather you intended to prevent her mother from entering and to threaten her with this matter. So this divorce has the ruling of an oath in the most correct of the scholars' opinions.
And upon you is its expiation. Even if a long time has passed, you must expiate your oath by feeding ten poor people, or clothing them, or freeing a believing slave, as Allah explained in His great Book in Surat al-Ma'idah. The single poor person is entitled to half a sa' of dates, or rice, or other staple food of the country, to be given to ten poor people without reducing it for them. Or you may clothe them with a garment that suffices them for prayer, such as a shirt, an izar, and a rida. This is sufficient, and praise be to Allah. The divorce does not take effect. Your wife is with you, and your cohabitation—your relationship between you—remains. There is no blame in this long period except that you erred in not paying this expiation during this long period.
As for the opinion that the divorce takes effect, it is a weak and weaker position. The correct view is that it does not take effect as long as it was for the purpose of threatening and preventing, and not for the purpose of effecting it. Yes.
This questioner (A. A. A.) sent two questions. His first question says: In the first year of our marriage, and following a severe anger, I swore to my wife with a divorce. The wording was as follows:
"If your mother enters here, you are divorced." I intended by this to threaten, not to actually divorce. After that, her mother entered, and more than twenty years have passed since our marriage until now. I have had children from her, and I did not swear with a divorce again during this entire period. What is the ruling on this divorce? Does it take effect or not?
Answer:
The correct view is that this divorce has the ruling of an oath; because you did not intend to effect it, but rather you intended to prevent her mother from entering and to threaten her with this matter. So this divorce has the ruling of an oath in the most correct of the scholars' opinions.
And upon you is its expiation. Even if a long time has passed, you must expiate your oath by feeding ten poor people, or clothing them, or freeing a believing slave, as Allah explained in His great Book in Surat al-Ma'idah. The single poor person is entitled to half a sa' of dates, or rice, or other staple food of the country, to be given to ten poor people without reducing it for them. Or you may clothe them with a garment that suffices them for prayer, such as a shirt, an izar, and a rida. This is sufficient, and praise be to Allah. The divorce does not take effect. Your wife is with you, and your cohabitation—your relationship between you—remains. There is no blame in this long period except that you erred in not paying this expiation during this long period.
As for the opinion that the divorce takes effect, it is a weak and weaker position. The correct view is that it does not take effect as long as it was for the purpose of threatening and preventing, and not for the purpose of effecting it. Yes.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.