His statement: “Or, if he swears not to eat eggs, then eats nāṭif, he has not broken his oath.” Nāṭif is a food to which eggs are added. If most of it consists of flour and the eggs are absorbed and consumed within it, then he has not broken his oath, because it is not called eggs. But if most of it consists of eggs, or their trace is perceptible in it, then he has broken his oath.

His statement: “If the taste of anything upon which he swore is perceptible, he has broken his oath,” because he has done that which he swore not to do, and has therefore broken his oath. If a man swears not to speak to a certain person, then speaks to him in anger without having formed a specific intention, the matter depends on his intention. If his intention was not to speak to him amicably, then speech of reproach does not cause him to break his oath. This is why Allah speaks to the people of the Fire—we seek Allah’s protection from their condition—saying, “Remain humiliated therein, and do not speak to Me.” [al-Mu’minun 23:108] Yet Allah will neither speak to them, nor look at them, nor purify them; that is, He will not speak to them with speech of mercy and approval.

The summary of this section is that, when none of the three preceding levels mentioned in the first section is present, we refer back to what the term itself truly encompasses. This is of three types: legal, customary, and linguistic. The legal meaning takes precedence, followed by the customary meaning, then the linguistic meaning.