And if he addresses those words to his slave-girl while intending emancipation, the manumission takes effect; if he intends thereby to forbid her very person, or if he entertains no intention at all, the ruling is the same as in the case of a wife.
Should he say, “This garment, or this food, or this slave is unlawful for me,” the statement is legally ineffectual.
For a kināyah (implicit expression) to operate, the accompanying intention must be present throughout the entire utterance—although one opinion deems it sufficient that the intention exist at the beginning only.
A gesture made by someone capable of speech to signify divorce is disregarded; another view considers it a kināyah.
By contrast, the gestures of a mute person are recognized in contracts and dissolutions. If anyone observing the gesture would clearly understand that he has divorced her, it counts as explicit; but if comprehension is confined to those who infer its meaning only conjecturally, it is treated as a kināyah.
If a person who can speak writes a formula of divorce without intending it, the writing is ineffectual; if he does intend it, the sounder opinion is that it takes effect.
If he writes, “When my letter reaches you, you are divorced,” the divorce is effected only when the letter reaches her. If he writes, “When you read my letter,” and she is literate and reads it, she is divorced; if it is merely read aloud to her, then—according to the sounder view—she is not divorced. If she is illiterate and the letter is read out to her, she is divorced.
Section
He may delegate the right of divorcing her to her. According to the new opinion, this is a transfer of ownership (tamlik); therefore, for the divorce to occur, she must pronounce it immediately. If he says, “Divorce yourself for one thousand,” and she does so, the marriage is annulled (baʾin) and she is liable for the thousand. Another opinion regards the delegation as an authorization (tawkil), in which case immediacy is not required, according to the sounder view. Whether her acceptance must be formally expressed, as an agent’s would be, is disputed. On either opinion, he may retract before she issues the divorce.
And if he says, “When Ramadan comes—”