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Fatwa CenterThe statement of a person “Whenever I marry I will divorce”
Question
I needed to know if this will be considered a never-ending vow of divorce and how one can get out of it by offering Kaffarah etc. If due to some absurd reason if a person X who is single and makes a statement that everytime he gets married then he is divorced or everytime he performs nikaah he is automatically divorced then can he ever get out of such a never-ending divorce statement about the future? Remember he is not married at the time. Will he not be able to marry anyone now for the rest of his life? Is there anything he can do to get out of this problem? Another point is that he is not 100% sure whether he spoke those words. He knows for sure that he had lot of those thoughts in his mind but does not remember for sure that while he was thinking whether he uttered the statement or not. Please answer for both situations (1. if he did say it and 2. if he is not sure). Jazzak Allah.
Answer
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. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
The statement of a person: "Whenever I marry I will divorce", is not a vow but it is a divorce conditioned on him marrying a woman.
The Muslim jurists 
have different opinions concerning the one who says: "Any woman whom I will marry is divorced". The predominant opinion is that of the majority of the scholars who are of the opinion that it is not considered a divorce. This is the opinion adopted by Imaams Maalik, Ash-Shaafi’ee and the Hanbali scholars .
However, Imaam Maalik 
is of the opinion that if he pinpoints a specific woman then she will be divorced.
The basis for those who say that such divorce is not effective is the narration in which the Prophet 
said: "Divorce is not valid in what one does not possess" (i.e. if the marriage never took place). [Abu Daawood, At-Tirmithi and Ibn Maajah]
If this is the case when one is certain that he uttered those words, then it is more applicable to one who doubts uttering such words. If he doubts, then in principle he did not say them unless there is evidence which proves otherwise.
Finally, a Muslim should avoid uttering the words of divorce in any case since it is a very serious matter. For more benefit please refer to Fatwa 82916.
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