What is the difference between saying “I will divorce you” and making divorce conditional on an act?
Short answer
Saying “I will divorce you” is a promise or threat and does not itself constitute a completed divorce. A statement such as “If you do this, you are divorced” is a conditional divorce and its ruling depends on the wording, intention, and circumstances. A general summary should not be applied to a personal case without the full details.
Evidence and explanation
The source distinguishes between a threat or promise of divorce and an explicit conditional formula, and treats intention as relevant in some forms of conditional divorce.
Scholar referenced
This editorial summary is based on the original source linked below and is not presented as a verbatim quotation from the scholar.
From the text of the answer (Arabic, with an English translation)
Original answer — Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Baz
حكم من تكلم بطلاق امرأته في حالة غضب — فتوى ٢١١٨٠- Question
«قلتُ لزوجتي: إذا فعلتِ هذا الخطأ سوف أُطلقك، وقلتُ هذا الكلام مرتين، وأنا في حالة غضبٍ، أفيدونا جزاكم الله خيرًا، ماذا يترتب عليَّ؟»
English translation (unreviewed): I said to my wife: 'If you do this wrong I will divorce you', and I said this twice while I was angry. Please advise us, may Allah reward you: what follows for me?
- From the text of the answer
«ليس هذا بطلاقٍ، هذا وعيدٌ، إذا قال الرجلُ لزوجته: إذا فعلتِ هذا سوف أُطلقك، أو طلقتُك، أو فإني أُطلقك، هذا ليس بطلاقٍ، هذا وعيدٌ، فإن شاء طلَّق، وإن شاء لم يُطلِّق. "إذا فعلتِ" بخلاف إذا قال: "إن فعلتِ فأنت طالق": "إن فعلتِ هذا فأنت طالق": هذا تعليقٌ للطلاق، إذا قصد إيقاع الطلاق يقع الطلاق، وإن قصد تخويفها ومنعها وما قصد إيقاع الطلاق، لكن أراد أن يُخوفها ويُهددها؛ فهذا حكمه حكم اليمين على الصحيح، ولا يقع به الطلاق، وعليه كفَّارة يمين.»
English translation (unreviewed): This is not divorce; this is a threat. If a man says to his wife: 'If you do this I will divorce you', or 'I divorced you', or 'then I will divorce you', this is not a divorce, it is a threat, and if he wishes he divorces and if he wishes he does not. 'If you do' is different from saying: 'If you do, you are divorced': 'If you do this, you are divorced' is a suspension of divorce. If he intends the divorce to take effect, the divorce takes effect; and if he intended to frighten her, deter her, and did not intend the divorce to take effect but wanted to frighten and threaten her, then its ruling is the ruling of an oath, according to the correct view, and divorce does not take effect by it, and he owes the expiation of an oath.
The Arabic excerpts matched the original page word for word by an automated check and have not had human scholarly review. The English translations are unreviewed translations made for this site; they are not an approved Shari‘ah translation. Rely on the Arabic original.
Source
Ruling on divorce statements made in anger
Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Baz, may Allah have mercy on him