He said to his Wife: 'You Will Not Be Permissible to Me Again'

Question:

I am a young married man, and a disagreement took place between my mother and my wife and I said to my mother: “She will not be permissible again to me,” – with the intention of divorce. Then I sought the verdict of one of the scholars and he said: “This oath of yours falls into the category of Zihar, so you should fast for two months, or if you cannot, you should feed sixty poor persons.” And since my wife is in my company in the house and I feared that I would not have the patience to refrain from (having sex with) her for two months, I chose to feed sixty poor persons with bread from one of the bakeries and I distributed it one night to sixty poor persons. This occurred about a year ago, does it compensate for my oath?

Answer:

If you intended divorce by it, then it is counted as one divorce upon her. It is not Zihar nor is there any atonement required from you; rather, it is a divorce, because you intended divorce by it, according to the most authoritative of opinions held by the scholars. The Prophet sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam said:
’Deeds are according to intentions and every person shall have what he intended’ (Al-Bukhari no.1 and Muslim no. 1907)

Source:
Shaykh `Abdul-`Azeez Bin Baz
Fatawa Islamiyah, volume 6, page 40-41