The ruling on one who swears to divorce his wife

A message reached us from the brother (M. H. M.), a Sudanese resident in Riyadh, who says: I am married to a working woman who is employed as a teacher in Sudan. She has jewelry, and once she wanted to change the shape of this jewelry, so she took it to the goldsmith and informed me of this, and I agreed. Then she asked me for the goldsmith’s fee, and at that moment I did not have the amount she wanted. In a state of agitation, when she insisted that I give her the money, I swore to divorce her and said to her: “I am divorced from you the moment you wear gold.” After a while, she informed me that this gold belongs to her and not to her father, as she had earned it from her own money. I now ask about the ruling of that oath of mine, because she has not worn the gold until we hear the fatwa. May Allah reward you with good?
Answer: If the intention behind this oath was that she should not wear her father’s gold specifically, and she did not wear it, then you owe nothing. If the intention was that she should not wear gold at all, because of your anger at her, then whenever she wears it, you owe the expiation for an oath, if your intention was to prevent her and not to divorce her. The intention behind this oath of divorce is to prevent her from wearing gold, whether the gold is her father’s or her own private gold for which she asked you for the fee. If the intention was to prevent her from that and to intimidate and threaten her, and the intention was not that whenever she wears it you would separate from her, then you owe the expiation for an oath, which is feeding ten poor people or clothing them, according to the most correct opinion of the scholars.
As for if you intended to separate from her and that whenever she wore it you would divorce her, then this divorce takes effect and it is one revocable divorce. You have the right to take her back during the waiting period, as long as she is in the waiting period, if you had not divorced her twice before this.
As for if you had divorced her twice before this, then this divorce would be the third, and you have no right to take her back after it, if you intended to effect it.
As for if you intended to prevent her, intimidate her, and frighten her, and did not intend to effect the divorce if she wore the gold, then you owe the expiation for the oath; because it is in the ruling of an oath. This expiation is feeding ten poor people, each poor person receiving half a sa' (a dry measure of about 3 kg) of the staple food of the country, from what you feed your family, such as dates, rice, wheat, or other food. Its weight is approximately one and a half kilograms. Or clothing, where you clothe the poor, each one being clothed with a shirt or a lower garment and a cloak that is sufficient. Or freeing a slave, if it is facilitated, meaning: freeing a male or female slave if that is facilitated. If you are unable and cannot do these things, then it is sufficient for you to fast three days. Fast three days, as Allah specified this in His great Book in Surat al-Ma'idah, where He said: [al-Baqarah: 225]... the verse. So He made clear that this is the expiation for oaths: feeding ten poor people from the middle of food, or clothing them, or freeing a slave, meaning: a believing slave, meaning: freeing a male or female slave when slaves exist and it is facilitated. If you find neither food nor clothing nor a slave to free, and you are poor and unable to do these things, then you fast three days for your oath. And so, this divorce has the ruling of an oath if you intended by it to prevent her, intimidate her, and frighten her, and did not intend to effect the divorce upon her. As for if you intended to effect the divorce if she wore the gold, then it takes effect upon her as one revocable divorce, and you have the right to take her back during the waiting period before she completes it. The waiting period is three menstrual cycles if she menstruates. If she menstruates three times after the divorce, she exits the waiting period and is not lawful to you except with a new contract. If she does not menstruate due to old age or other reasons, her waiting period is three months, as Allah made clear in His great Book. And you know yourself best and know your intention, and you must fear Allah in that .