by invoking the divine will in an oath that may either be so qualified or left unqualified. Thus, anyone who swears to do something but does not do it has not broken his oath if he qualified it by the divine will; but if he did not so qualify it, expiation becomes obligatory upon him. Qualification and expiation therefore apply alternately to an oath whenever it is not fulfilled.
This is a sound principle that rules out both additions to and omissions from what the words of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) entail in this matter.
It may then be said that Ahmad’s statement, as well as that of others, that “divorce and manumission are not subject to expiation” is equivalent to his and others’ statement that they cannot be qualified by the divine will. This applies to effecting divorce and manumission. As for an oath involving them, expiation is not being made for divorce and manumission themselves; rather, it is being made for the oath involving them. Likewise, when someone makes an oath by committing himself to prayer, fasting, charity, pilgrimage, the offering of a sacrificial animal, or something similar, as part of a vow made in obstinacy or anger, he does not make expiation for prayer, fasting, [charity], the sacrificial offering, or pilgrimage. Rather, he makes expiation for the oath involving them. Prayer itself is not subject to expiation, nor are these other acts of worship subject to expiation for one who is able to perform them. Similarly, if he says, “If I do such-and-such, I must manumit a slave,” he must offer expiation, without disagreement in the school of Ahmad or among those who agree with him regarding vows made in obstinacy or anger. This is not expiation for the manumission itself; rather, it is expiation for the oath involving it.
The necessary implication of this position of Ahmad is that if he holds that an oath involving divorce and manumission may validly be qualified by the divine will, then expiation may also validly be made for such an oath. This is precisely what the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) requires, as we have already explained.
As for those who do not hold that an oath involving divorce and manumission may validly be qualified by the divine will—as in one of the two positions in the school of Mālik and one of the two reports from Ahmad—their position is the weaker one.