The Ruling on One Who Swears to Divorce in Order to Prevent Himself From Doing Something
Question :
I am a young man who has completed the Qiran marriage contract with a young woman, but the marriage has not taken place until now and I was committing some sins. In order to prevent myself from committing those sins, I swore an oath of divorce that I would not do those sins. in order to encourage myself to abandon them, and it was not my intention to divorce my wife. 1 repeated this oath to divorce a number of times, but it was in order to repel lust and decrease desire, but I fell into the sin again in spite of myself. Finally, Allah helped me to turn (to Him) in repentance. So what is the ruling on this? And has divorce taken place? Advise us, and may Allah reward you with goodness.
Answer:
It is incumbent upon one who has done the type of divorce that you described which is conditional upon doing something or abandoning something, in order to prevent himself from doing it to make atonement for an oath for each time he did it or abandoned it. Such as when one says that he must divorce his wife if he smokes, or he must divorce if he speaks to so-and-so, and he intends by that to prevent himself from doing it, not to divorce.
It is ordained for the Muslim not to use such types (of divorce), because many of the scholars hold the view that such divorce is counted, even if he did not really intend that. The Prophet ﷺ said:
"The lawful is clear and the forbidden is clear. Between them there are unclear matters which many of the people do not know. So whoever avoided the unclear matters has kept his religion and his honor blameless."
And Allah is the Granter of success.
Source:
Ibn Baz
Fatawa Islamiyah, Vol. 6 Pages 61-62
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