Islam has ordained restrictions and rulings that make it difficult for the man to issue a divorce, and reduce the incidence of divorce. It has not given the man the power to issue a divorce whenever he wishes. These restrictions include: 1. The basic principle regarding divorce is that it is not allowed, either by way of prohibition or by way of it being disliked. 2. Allah has given the power of divorce to the husband, not to the wife. 3. It is not permissible for a man to divorce his wife when she is menstruating. 4. The wife is not to be made to leave her house after divorce takes place. 5. Islam has set the number of divorces that the husband can issue as three.

This is like saying: If my wife does not agree to travel, then I will divorce her. This does not count as a divorce, or as a conditional divorce depending on something that may happen in the future. If a person merely states that he will divorce his wife in the future, or promises or threatens to do that, that does not count as a divorce, according to scholarly consensus, because the divorce must be issued verbally, and it is not sufficient merely to promise or threaten to divorce her in the future. Similarly, the intention alone is not sufficient; rather it is essential to utter the words by means of which divorce takes place, and not merely state that one is going to divorce her.