they distinguish between what Allah and His Messenger have distinguished. For those who fail to distinguish between these two matters have been led by this confusion either into burdens and fetters or into deception and stratagems: manipulating the wording of oaths, seeking to invalidate a marriage, employing dawr al-talāq (circular divorce), resorting to khulʿ (marital dissolution) to evade an oath, and arranging an intervening marriage to make remarriage to a former husband lawful.

Allah has spared Muslims any need for such things through their Prophet, of whom He says:

“He enjoins upon them what is right and forbids them what is wrong, makes lawful for them what is good and forbids them what is impure, and relieves them of their burdens and the fetters that were upon them.”

That is, he frees them from burdens and fetters, and from becoming involved in the wrongdoing of those who resort to stratagems. And Allah Most High knows best.

Section: Distinguishing between conditional divorce intended to take effect and conditional divorce intended as an oath

The first is when a man intends the consequence to follow upon fulfilment of the condition, even though he dislikes that condition. If the condition is fulfilled, however, he wants the divorce, because the condition is more objectionable to him than divorce. Although he dislikes both divorcing her and the condition itself, he chooses to divorce her if the condition is fulfilled.

For example, he may be averse to being married to a woman who is a prostitute, immoral, or treacherous; or he may not wish to divorce her, yet would choose to do so if she committed such acts. He therefore says, “If you commit adultery, steal, or betray my trust, you are divorced.” His intention is to divorce her if she does that, either to punish her or because he is unwilling to remain with her