My mother once said that my wife is a bad person (which is not true) and I angrily told her that I should divorce her then (but my intention was not such). I asked her angrily to prepare divorce papers (but she never did). I also told my mother right after that, “Our divorce occured because of you.” Please note that I did not divorce my wife. Did that saying of mine constitute divorce?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
Your saying: "I should divorce her"; and asking your wife to prepare the papers of divorce, then all this does not lead to divorce.
As regards your saying to your mother: "Our divorce occurred because of you."; then if you had intended to initiate a new divorce, then the scholars differed in opinion about whether or not this statement leads to divorce.
The view we consider to be the preponderant one is that divorce did not take place religiously (i.e. in regard to between you and your Lord).
Asna al-Mataalib Sharh Rawdh at-Taalib, which is one of the books of the Shaafi’i School of jurisprudence, reads:
"If he (the husband) affirms divorce while he is lying, then his wife is not divorced in reality [between him and his Lord], but she is divorced if the matter is taken to the judge [i.e. he would issue divorce according to the evidence presented to him]." [End of quote]
Allah knows best.