and not binding upon the one who swears by it.
3 – The Almighty says, “And the fifth [oath] is that the curse of Allah be upon him if he is among the liars” (24:7). The proof here is that the man undertaking liʿān (mutual imprecation) intends, by means of this condition, to establish the truth of his claim, yet the verse still subjects him to the curse and wrath of Allah should he be lying.
4 – Even when the suspension is meant as a deterrent, divorce remains what the husband intends should the condition be fulfilled. He therefore employs it as a barrier against the act; without that prospect, the act would not be avoided.
5 – That divorce takes effect once the condition to which it is attached is realized is the view of the vast majority of scholars and their leading authorities. It is the position of the four Imams—Abu Ḥanīfah, Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad—and the well-known ruling within their schools. Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī states in his epistle al-Durra al-Muḍīʾa: “Imams whose statements admit no doubt and whose transmissions need no further confirmation have reported the consensus on this issue. Among them is Imām al-Shāfiʿī—suffice it to name him. The consensus was likewise transmitted by the independent jurist Abū ʿUbayd, one of the mujtahid imams like al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, and others; by Abū Thawr, himself an imam; by the exegete and mujtahid Muhammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī; by Abū Bakr ibn al-Munḏir; by the godly and learned imam Muhammad ibn Naṣr al-Marwazī; and by the ḥadith master Abū ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in his works al-Tamhīd and al-Istidhkār, where he treated the matter so fully that nothing further could be added. The consensus was also cited by Ibn Rushd in his Muqaddimāt and by al-Bājī in al-Muntaqā.”
He then adds: “As for al-Shāfiʿī, Abū Ḥanīfah, Mālik, and their followers, they never differed on this point; all of them explicitly ruled that the divorce is effected, and this has become an established position within the ummah. Imām Aḥmad is the most explicit of them: he clearly stated that the divorce occurs, and he also ruled that an oath…"