by merely refusing to take the oath.

– Punishment in the Hereafter: the torment of Hellfire in requital for committing the abomination.

– “He then turned to the woman”: meaning she was placed second in the order of mutual imprecation (liʿān), the husband being first.

What is gleaned from the ḥadīth:

1. The ruling and procedure for liʿān are clarified. If a man accuses his wife of adultery but produces no evidence, the prescribed penalty for slander falls upon him—unless he bears witness against himself four times, saying, “I am surely among the truthful in my claim,” and adds in the fifth: “May the curse of Allah be upon me if I am lying.” Should the wife refuse to swear, the worldly punishment is carried out upon her; but if she testifies four times by Allah that he is lying in accusing her of this abomination, and in the fifth says, “May the wrath of Allah be upon me if he is telling the truth,” the worldly punishment is lifted from her.
   Scholars have differed over the consequence of her refusal. According to the two Imams, Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī—a view also preferred by Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn and Ibn al-Qayyim—she is subjected to the legal punishment. Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm stated that this is the plain sense of the verse. The well-known position in the school of Imām Aḥmad, however, is that she is not punished merely for refusal; rather, she is detained until she either confesses adultery four times or enters into liʿān.

2. Once liʿān is completed with all its conditions, the couple is separated permanently; she can never again be lawful for him, even after marrying other husbands.

3. The judge should exhort each spouse before the oaths are taken, hoping the liar may retract, and—after liʿān is concluded—should invite them both to repent so that each may make amends between himself or herself and Allah Almighty.

4. This chapter diverges from others in jurisprudence in several respects, among them: the oath must be coupled with the wording “I testify,” and in the fifth oath a supplication is added