947 – Ibn ʿAbbās—may Allah be pleased with them both—said: “In the pre-Islamic days an oath of abstinence (ʾilāʾ) could last a year or two. Allah then fixed the period at four months, so if the oath is for less than four months, it is not deemed an ʾilāʾ.” Reported by al-Bayhaqī (1).

Hadith grading: The hadith is ḥasan (fair).

Al-Shawkānī notes in his Tafsīr: “It was transmitted by Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, al-Ṭabarānī, and al-Bayhaqī from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: ‘The ʾilāʾ of the Jāhiliyyah lasted a year, two years, or even longer, so Allah fixed it for them at four months.’” Al-Haythamī remarked: “Its transmitters are the narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ.”

Glossary of the hadith:
– fa-waqqata Allah: from tawqīt, meaning that Allah set the time-limit.

Points derived from the ahadith:

1. The husband who has sworn ʾilāʾ (the muʾlī) is given a respite of four months during which his wife may not demand that he resume conjugal relations. Once the four months have elapsed, she may request that he return (al-fiʾah). If she does so, the judge orders him to have intercourse; should he refuse without a valid excuse, the judge compels him to divorce her, and if he still refuses, the judge pronounces the divorce on his behalf.
2. If either spouse has a legitimate excuse that prevents intercourse, the judge instructs the husband to revoke his oath verbally, saying: “Whenever I am able to have intercourse, I will do so.”
3. Hadith no. 947 underscores the leniency, justice, and civilising refinement of this Sharīʿah