he acknowledges intercourse with her and she gives birth to a child after six months or more, the child is ascribed to him. The benefit of this is that the child has a known lineage and that, by giving birth, she becomes an umm walad, who is emancipated upon his death.

His statement, “six months,” means provided that the child survives. If she gives birth to it in less than six months and it does not survive, then it is also his child, because through intercourse with her she became a legal marital bed for him, and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “The child belongs to the marital bed” (1). Thus, if it were assumed that he had intercourse with her and she then gave birth, after four months, to a formed fetus, it would belong to him.

But if she gives birth to it alive after four months have passed since his intercourse with her, it is not ascribed to him. If it is ascribed to him, it follows that she becomes an umm walad, as mentioned previously in the chapter on emancipation.

His statement, “whether vaginally or otherwise”: this is established even if he had intercourse with her other than vaginally, because she may perhaps take some of his semen and become impregnated by it. This is their line of reasoning.

His statement, “unless he claims that he observed istibrāʾ and swears to it,” means: unless the master claims that he observed istibrāʾ and swears to it. Istibrāʾ means that she menstruates after his intercourse with her. Thus, if he says that he had intercourse with her but that she menstruated afterward, this is istibrāʾ. The term is derived from barāʾah, meaning freedom or clearance. That is, if he claims that he waited until she menstruated, the child is not ascribed to him, because ordinarily, when a woman is pregnant, she does not menstruate, and her menstruation indicates that she is not pregnant. So, if he says that he had intercourse with her but then observed istibrāʾ, and she had one menstrual period, and he swears to this, then