the judge, show him the paper, and inform him that you wish to take your wife back, provided that her waiting-period (ʿiddah) is still in force and has not yet ended. If her waiting-period has finished, the revocation is no longer valid; in that case a new marriage contract is required, so long as the three pronouncements of divorce have not been exhausted.

Question: I am a married man who has sworn an oath invoking divorce on two occasions. First, I swore by divorce that I would not perform a certain task myself, but because the task was important to me and I could find no one else to do it, I went ahead and did it. The second time, I was with some colleagues in our lodging when a dispute arose; I disliked staying there, so I said, “Upon me is triple divorce if I remain with you.” I tried to leave, but some of the brothers insisted that I stay, and in fact I stayed and did not leave. What is required of me in these two situations, and what must I do to protect my marriage?

Answer: A Muslim may not keep the word “divorce” ready on his tongue, uttering it at the slightest cause, for that is trifling with the law of Allah. Divorce is a grave matter and detested by Allah, so the believer must guard his tongue against pronouncing it except when there is a legitimate need. To turn divorce into a form of oath, or to keep jesting with it and mentioning it continually, is impermissible.

As for what the questioner has done—swearing by divorce on two separate occasions—if his intent was to make his wife’s divorce contingent upon the occurrence of a given act, then whenever the act takes place the divorce becomes effective. But if his intent was merely to take an oath and to prevent himself from doing something, and he invoked divorce in that oath