by resuming marital relations, that settles the matter; but if he still refuses, the judge—at the wife’s request—obliges him either to consummate the marriage or to divorce her.

5 – The report shows that one may take a single ʾilāʾ oath that applies to two wives or more, for nowhere is it stated that the Prophet ﷺ repeated the oath separately for each of his wives.

6 – It also indicates that abstaining from intercourse and abandoning the wife in bed for the legally permitted period is allowed when done to discipline and deter her.

7 – If the husband returns to his wife before the four months elapse, he must offer expiation, in accordance with the hadith: “Whoever swears an oath and then sees something better than it, let him do what is better and expiate for his oath.” If, however, he does not return until the full four months have passed, no expiation is due, because he has not broken his oath.

8 – The hadith permits ʾilāʾ for a sound, legitimate purpose. We know with certainty that the Prophet ﷺ employed it only for such a purpose—namely, to discipline and train the wife—for ʾilāʾ is one of the severest measures a husband can use, and every wrongdoer should be corrected by whatever will restrain him or her.

9 – Here the duration of the Prophet’s ﷺ ʾilāʾ is left unspecified, but the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections make clear that he limited it to one month.

10 – When he rendered something lawful into something forbidden, it highlighted that a man’s intercourse with his wife is lawful, yet he made it forbidden to himself by his oath. Such self-imposed prohibition counts in the Law, for Allah said: “O Prophet, why do you prohibit what Allah has made lawful for you?” (66:1).

11 – His statement that “Allah has prescribed an expiation for oaths” means that his ʾilāʾ—by which he forbade himself his wife—was indeed an oath, yet the expiation turns that unlawful oath back into something lawful. Allah says: “Allah has already ordained for you the dissolution of your oaths” (66:2).

12 – The expiation gives the oath-taker a choice among feeding ten poor persons, clothing them, or freeing a slave; and if he cannot manage any of these, then he must fast three days, as Allah the Exalted says: “He will call you to account for the oaths you have sworn in earnest; so its expiation is to feed ten needy persons from the average of what you feed your own families, or to clothe them, or to free a slave. But whoever cannot find the means must fast three days. That is the expiation for your oaths when you have sworn” (5:89).