to wherever he wishes, provided that doing so causes no harm; prohibited forms of marital intimacy are excluded [as is anything harmful, since custom does not encompass it. The contract also confers upon her an entitlement to a dower], namely, the customary dower due to a woman of her standing, as well as a general right to marital intimacy. Thus, if his penis had been severed or he was impotent, she would have the right to annul the marriage according to the early generations and the leading jurists. If he swore to abstain from intercourse with her, she would be entitled to separation if he did not resume relations, as established by the Quran and consensus.

Although some jurists do not require him to have intercourse or to make the initial allotment of overnight stays, but instead deem natural impulse sufficient—as is the position of Abū Hanīfa and al-Shāfiʿī and one report from Ahmad—the correct view, for many reasons, is that he is obligated to have intercourse and allot the due nights, as demonstrated by the Quran, the Sunnah, the reports of the Companions, and sound reasoning.

[The question is whether] obligatory intercourse is fixed at once every four months, by analogy with the oath of abstinence, [or whether he must] have intercourse with her according to what is customary and fair, just as he must provide for her according to what is customary and fair. There is disagreement over this within Ahmad’s school and others. The correct view, indicated by most of Ahmad’s recorded statements and held by most of the early generations, is that the obligations arising from the contract for each spouse toward the other—such as the wife’s rights to maintenance, marital intimacy, and overnight companionship, and the husband’s right to marital intimacy—are not fixed at a definite measure. Rather, custom is the standard. This is indicated by the Quran, as in the words of Allah Most High: “Women have rights similar to the obligations upon them, according to what is customary and fair” [al-Baqara: 228], and by the Sunnah, as when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Hind: “Take what suffices for you and your children, according to what is customary and fair.” If the spouses dispute over this, the judge shall determine the appropriate measure by his considered judgment, just as the Companions fixed the frequency of intercourse required of a husband at a specified number of times. As for anyone among Ahmad’s followers who fixes a definite frequency for the intercourse that is due, his position is