On the authority of Abu Hurayrah, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “There are three matters that are serious, whether you say them seriously or jokingly, they are serious: Marriage, divorce and taking back your (divorced) wife.” (Abu Dawood) If a person divorces his wife and later says he was only joking and wasn't serious when he divorced her, then it is not considered joking. These three issues are serious whether they are said seriously or jokingly. So the wife would be (considered) divorced. If this were not the case, everyone who divorced his wife would say that he was only joking. But if the clear statement of divorce is uttered then it is considered a divorce. It is not appropriate to be careless and negligent in these matters and joke about them. Regarding the Prophet's statement (peace be upon him): “Marriage, divorce and taking back your (divorced) wife...,” some scholars added freeing of a slave to it, but there aren't any authentic Ahadith concerning it. In ‘Awn Al-Ma'bood' it is stated: “Abu Bakr Al-Ma'arifi stated: there is a narration with the addition of the freeing of a slave but there are no authentic Ahadith concerning (all of) them.” If what he intended was that there are no authentic Ahadith fulfilling the conditions of an authentic Hadith, then there is no issue here, but if he intended that the Hadith is inauthentic then this statement is not fully correct, for indeed it is Hasan as was declared by Al-Tirmidhi as well as Al-Albani who mentioned its supporting narrations.
