16 – If a woman who is engaged in intercourse is aware of what is happening and gives her consent, she is subject to the same ruling as the man: she must offer the expiation, make up the missed fast-day, and bears the sin, for the default is that the two are equal in legal rulings. If, however, she is coerced, her fast remains valid and no make-up is due, in view of the hadith: “My community has been excused for mistakes, forgetfulness, and what they are forced to do.”

17 – The well-known position in the school of Imam Ahmad is that if dawn breaks while a man is in intercourse and he immediately withdraws, he must both make up the day and perform the expiation, because, in that school, withdrawal itself counts as intercourse. The other three imams hold that withdrawal is not considered intercourse; therefore, if dawn rises while he is engaged and he pulls out at once, neither make-up nor expiation is required. This was also the view preferred by Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn.

18 – A person may complain of his condition to someone who is able to help him with his affliction, provided he does not do so in a spirit of objection or resentment.

19 – A person may relate something that he cannot be absolutely certain of when he has a strong presumption of its truth. Thus the man’s statement, “There is not a household between its two lava fields that is in greater need of it than we are,” was based on his own estimate; certainty could only have been attained by investigating every house in Madinah one by one.

Scholarly disagreement:
The scholars are unanimously agreed that expiation is obligatory for anyone who deliberately and knowingly has intercourse during the daytime in Ramadan. They differ, however, regarding the one who was forgetful or compelled:
• Imam Abū Ḥanīfah (d. 150 AH) holds that he must make up the day but is not liable for expiation.
• Al-Shāfiʿī and the majority of scholars say that a person who has intercourse out of forgetfulness is neither required to make up the day nor to offer expiation. This is also one narration from Imam Ahmad, and it was chosen by a number of his disciples, among them Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn and Ibn al-Qayyim.
• The well-known position of Imam Ahmad, adopted by his companions and by the literalists (Ahl al-Ẓāhir), is that expiation is obligatory and that the fast is broken by intercourse whether it is committed deliberately or forgetfully, knowingly or in ignorance, and even under coercion, because intercourse is the gravest of the things that invalidate the fast, given the intensity of desire and pleasure it involves.