My husband's anger sometimes gets out of control. He was angry with my behaviour and did not want me to share anything personal with his relatives. One day, he started saying things on messages; he said, "If this reaches Faseeh, Fadhim, and their wives (his brothers), then you will automatically be divorced." Afterwards, he realized that it is not a small mistake and said, "I take my words back and remove the condition." Later, I read somewhere its not a small thing and asked him to describe his words again so that I may be careful in the future not to do this, and he again said, "Any quarrel related to our personal life should not reach them." Now please tell me, there is no time limit mentioned from my husband in that condition, and what does that condition clearly mean, that the quarrel should not reach them? Does it mean through me, or does that include anybody else too? I am very worried; how long does this condition apply to me? We want to get rid of this.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

What your husband said is a conditional divorce. According to the majority of the scholars, the conditional divorce cannot be revoked (cancelled). Divorce takes effect whenever the thing on which the divorce is made conditional takes place. However, the wording that your husband mentioned implies a promise of divorce. It has been previously underlined in fatwa0168621 that a promise of divorce does not effectuate a divorce by itself. However, if the husband intended to issue a divorce; then, in such case, divorce takes effect whenever that condition comes to pass.

Conditional divorce takes effect once the thing on which it is made conditional takes place. Divorce does not take effect again unless the wording of the condition denotes repetition such as "whenever" or "every time".

We would like to emphasize the need to beware of the devil's attempts to ruin the relationship between the spouses and break up their marriage. One of his most important tools is anger. If marital problems do occur, then divorce should not be the first resort. For more benefit, please refer to fatwa 325933.

Allaah knows best.