Chapter: Divorce Made Conditional, Deferred Divorce, Repetition, Partial Pronouncement, and Exception

Every divorce that is tied to a condition becomes effective the moment that condition is fulfilled. As for a divorce linked to a fixed term: if the term will certainly arrive during the husband’s lifetime and while the marriage still subsists, the divorce takes effect immediately when he utters it; it is not postponed until the term itself. Thus, if he says, “You are divorced until a month,” “until a year,” “until tomorrow,” “on tomorrow,” and the like, the separation is operative at once.

However, if he sets a term that his lifespan cannot reach—such as saying, “You are divorced until a thousand years,” “after a thousand years,” or any similarly remote span of time—then, on Mālik’s legal principles, two responses are possible. One view is that the divorce occurs immediately, his phrase “until a thousand years” being treated as mere regret and an attempt to retract what preceded it. The second—and this is the position of strict analogy—is that no divorce takes place at all, because the condition cannot be realized while he is alive; it is as though he had said, “You are divorced after my death.”

If he declares, “When so-and-so dies you are divorced,” the divorce is effected straightaway. Mālik’s answers, however, differ concerning the statements, “When I die, you are divorced,” and, “When you die.”