—for example, “I have divorced you.” It may also come in the active participle, “You are ṭāliq,” or the passive participle, “You are muṭallaqa.” By contrast, the present tense and the imperative—such as “you will divorce” or “divorce!”—and likewise the quadriliteral active participle, e.g. “you are muṭalliqa,” do not constitute a divorce, because none of these three forms signifies that the act has actually been carried out.

The second category consists of allusive expressions—phrases that could mean divorce but could equally bear another sense. Examples include saying to the wife, “You are free,” “You are separated,” “You are disconnected,” “You are released,” or, “Leave; go back to your family,” and the like.

The difference between the explicit and the allusive formulas is this:
• An explicit expression effects a divorce whether or not he intended it, and whether he was serious or joking, for the Prophet ﷺ said: “Three matters, whether spoken seriously or in jest, are binding: marriage, divorce, and taking one’s wife back.” The hadith is narrated by the Five compilers except al-Nasa’i.
• An allusive expression does not bring about a divorce unless he intended it at the very moment of utterance. Because such words can point to divorce or to something else, they apply to divorce only when accompanied by that intention. If he had no such intention, the divorce is not effected—save in three situations:

1. If he uttered the allusive phrase while he and his wife were in the midst of a dispute.
2. If he spoke it in a state of anger.
3. If he used it in direct response to her asking him for a divorce.

In these three circumstances, a divorce takes place through an allusive formula even if he claims, “I did not intend it,” because the surrounding indications show that he did; his denial is therefore not accepted. And Allah knows best.