and that means that his children become siblings to this child, and that mutual inheritance takes place between him and this child. This issue gives rise to many legal rulings. Yet the man is certain that the child is not his, so how can we say to him, “You must utter a lie and then engage in liʿān”? The lie would be to accuse her of fornication. But the man says, “I cannot burden my conscience and sully her honor; yet this child is not mine.” Thus, whoever properly understands this view and considers its consequences will recognize that it is an exceedingly weak view—indeed, invalid. The correct view, chosen by most of the scholars of the school, including Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on them, as well as a number of verifying scholars, is that liʿān is permissible in order to disavow the child. Sound reason likewise attests to its correctness.

There are two disputed issues here:

The first: if we hold that liʿān is valid for disavowing the child, may he disavow it before it is born, or must he wait until it is born?

The second: when the liʿān is for the purpose of disavowing the child, is it a condition that the wife also engage in liʿān, or is the husband’s liʿān alone sufficient?

As for the first issue, the established position of the school is that the child cannot validly be disavowed until after its birth. Thus, he must wait until it is born. They say: this is because it may merely be wind rather than a pregnancy, so it cannot be disavowed until it is born, for that is the point at which we are certain that it is a child.

The second view is that it is valid to disavow the child before its birth, and this is the correct view, as indicated by the sunnah and required by analogy.

As for the sunnah, regarding the child borne by the wife of Hilal, may Allah be pleased with him, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, clarified that if