The expiation for ẓihār is as follows: first, emancipating a slave, if you have the means to set one free; if you do not, then fasting two consecutive months; and if, for a valid sharʿī excuse, you are unable to fast, you must feed sixty needy people. This is the prescribed expiation for ẓihār.
If, on the other hand, you intended by those words nothing more than an oath—without meaning either divorce or ẓihār—then it is treated as an atonable oath. In that case you must offer the expiation for an oath (kaffārat yamīn), which consists of one of three options, whichever you can manage: 1) freeing a slave; 2) feeding ten needy persons, giving each one half a sāʿ of staple food; or 3) clothing ten needy persons, providing each with a garment—such as a full outfit or an upper and lower wrap—according to local custom. If you are unable to do any of these three, you must fast three days, in accordance with Allah’s words:
“Allah will not call you to account for thoughtless oaths in your swearings, but He will call you to account for the oaths you bind yourselves with. The expiation for them is to feed ten needy persons from the average of what you feed your own families, or to clothe them, or to free a slave; and whoever cannot find the means must fast three days. That is the expiation for your oaths when you have sworn.” ⦗Qur’an 5:89⦘
In sum, your statement ‘ʿalayya al-ḥarām’ admits of three possible rulings: if you intended divorce, it is counted as a divorce in line with that intention; if you intended thereby to forbid your wife to yourself, it is ẓihār and its expiation becomes due; and if you intended neither divorce nor ẓihār but only an oath, it is an atonable oath—and Allah, the Exalted, knows best.
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Repeating divorce three times
Question: A dispute arose between my wife and me, and in the heat of the moment I said to her, “You are divorced, divorced, divorced.” Does this count as one pronouncement of divorce, or as three divorces? In this