are divorced: “I will surely kill the dead”—just as if he said, “By Allah, I will surely kill the dead.” If he says, “By Allah, I will surely kill the dead,” he has broken his oath immediately, because killing the dead is impossible. Now, is this statement negative or affirmative? It is an affirmative statement, emphasized by the lām and the emphatic nūn; it is not a negative statement, for he swore that he would kill, not that he would not kill. Yet, since this affirmation is impossible, he breaks his oath immediately, because it is impossible for killing to befall the dead.
The sound examples are to change the affirmative wording in the first examples into a negative one. Thus, one says: “You are divorced if you do not fly,” or, “if you do not ascend to the sky,” or, “if you do not turn a stone into gold.” In that case, she is divorced immediately.
The summary of this issue is that if a man makes his wife’s divorce contingent upon something impossible, she is not divorced, because that which is contingent upon an impossibility is itself impossible. But if the matter is reversed, such that he makes divorce contingent upon the nonoccurrence of an impossibility, she is divorced immediately, because the nonoccurrence of an impossibility is necessary; and whatever is made contingent upon what is necessary is itself necessary.
His statement, “Or, ‘I will surely ascend to the sky’”: that is, “You are divorced; I will surely ascend to the sky.” We have said that the correct view is that this is an oath, but the author classed it as a form of conditional divorce. Thus, if he says, “You are divorced; I will surely ascend to the sky,” she is divorced immediately, because the meaning of “I will surely ascend to the sky” is: “if I do not ascend to the sky.” If he were to say, “By Allah, I will surely ascend to the sky,” he would break his oath immediately, because ascending to the sky is not possible, and we know with certainty that he will not do so. Accordingly, expiation becomes due upon him if it is an oath, while divorce takes effect if it is a divorce declaration.
But the correct view regarding the issue of “I will surely kill the dead” or “I will surely ascend to the sky”