Thus, if a person declares something lawful to be forbidden merely in order to refrain from it, it does not become forbidden. For example, if he says, “It is forbidden for me to eat your food,” we say: The food remains lawful for you; it has not become forbidden. If he eats it, he must offer expiation for an oath, because his intention here was to refrain from eating it.

The evidence is the saying of Allah, the Exalted:

“O Prophet, why do you prohibit what Allah has made lawful for you, seeking to please your wives? And Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful. Allah has already ordained for you the dissolution of your oaths.” [Surah al-Tahrim 66:1–2]

This verse was revealed when the Prophet ﷺ forbade honey to himself, in a well-known account (1), which may be found in the exegesis of Ibn Kathir and others.

It is called a dissolution because a person is released from it when he offers the expiation. For example, before I offer expiation, it is not lawful for me to do the matter in question—unless I offer the expiation after breaking the oath. Once I have offered the expiation, the oath is dissolved, and no oath remains at all. Therefore, we say: offering expiation before breaking the oath is a dissolution, whereas offering it after breaking the oath is expiation.

His statement, “other than his wife”: “other than” is an exception particle; that is, whoever declares something lawful forbidden, other than his wife. A wife is lawful to a man, as Allah the Exalted says: “and the wives of your sons”—that is, their women.

The author says that the ruling concerning one’s wife is not like that concerning anything else. Declaring one’s wife forbidden constitutes zihar according to the well-known position of the school, and zihar is more serious than other cases, because Allah, the Exalted, describes zihar as a reprehensible statement and a falsehood.