by intercourse: if he has relations with all of them, only the first is deemed retained. The choice may likewise be effected through divorce—whichever wife he divorces is thereby the one selected.

If a free man embraces Islam while he is married to slave-women, and they too accept Islam during the waiting-period, he must then choose from them a number that safeguards his chastity, provided it was lawful for him to be married to them at the very moment his Islam coincided with theirs; if their marriage to him was not lawful, the union is invalid.1

Should either spouse—or both of them—apostatize before consummation, the marriage is annulled and she receives half the dowry if he was the one who apostatized first. After consummation, the dissolution is suspended until the waiting-period is completed.