Can I cancel conditional divorce by fasting?

Answer:
In the Salafi / Ahl-e-Hadith school, the ruling on a conditional divorce (talāq muʿallaq) depends on the intention of the husband at the time he made the statement.

1️⃣ If the husband intended actual divorce (i.e., he meant that divorce would take place when the condition occurred)

• Then the divorce takes effect immediately upon fulfilment of the condition, regardless of his later claim of “no intention” or his attempt to cancel it.
• Paying kaffārah (expiation) is not valid and does not cancel the divorce, because this is a divorce, not an oath. The husband cannot undo it; he may only take his wife back during the ʿiddah if it was a first or second divorce (revocable).

2️⃣ If the husband intended the statement as an oath (yamīn) – i.e., he wanted to encourage, prevent, or confirm something, and did not intend actual divorce

• Then it is treated as a broken oath, not a divorce.
• The condition is cancelled when he pays the kaffārah for breaking an oath. The kaffārah is: feeding ten poor persons, clothing them, freeing a slave, or – if unable to do any of these – fasting three days.
• In your situation, if he paid kaffārah by fasting three days (because he was unable to do the other options), then the condition is removed and no divorce occurred. The marriage remains intact.

📚 Evidence from the Salafi scholars

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā 33/139) and Ibn al-Qayyim (Iʿlām al-Muwaqqiʿīn 3/31) ruled that conditional divorce is of two types:

1. If the husband intended divorce, it is a divorce.
2. If he intended an oath, it is an oath, and expiation suffices.

Shaykh Ibn Bāz (Fatāwā Nūr ʿalā al-Darb) and Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn (al-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ 5/345) confirmed this distinction, saying:

“If a man says to his wife, ‘If you go out, you are divorced,’ and he intended merely to prevent her, then it is an oath, and if she goes out, he only has to offer kaffārah. But if he intended divorce itself, then she is divorced.”

Shaykh al-Albānī also held that intention is decisive (see Silsilat al-Hudā wa al-Nūr, cassette no. 265).

Shaykh Ṣāliḥ al-Fawzān (al-Muntaqā min Fatāwā al-Fawzān 2/346) said:

“If a man uses the wording of divorce but intends an oath, it is an oath, and he must expiate – the divorce does not occur.”

✅ Conclusion for your case

• If the husband truly intended only to make an oath (e.g., to warn or encourage) and not to divorce, then his later statement (that he had no intention of divorce) is accepted.
• By paying kaffārah (three fasts), the condition is cancelled. No divorce occurred.
• If, however, he intended actual divorce when he made the condition, then the divorce already took place, and kaffārah does not help. He must follow the rules of divorce (revocable or irrevocable depending on the count).

Therefore: The condition is cancelled only if his original intention was that of an oath, not divorce. He should consult a knowledgeable scholar to clarify his original intention.