As for a specified numerical amount, an exception cannot validly be added afterward unless it was intended when the oath was made; it is valid only if the oath was made with that intention. For example, a person says, “By Allah, I shall give so-and-so three dirhams, except one.” If he intended to swear that he would give him two dirhams, expressing this as “three dirhams, except one,” his exception is valid. But if he intended to swear that he would give him three dirhams, then changed his mind after completing the oath and uttering “three dirhams,” adding an exception for one dirham, it does not avail him, even if the exception is joined directly to the oath. A similar case is a man saying to his wife, “You are divorced three times, except one.” Differing views on this point can be inferred from al-Mudawwana.
As for wording that conveys a general meaning but admits a restricted one, an exception may validly be added afterward, provided it is joined directly to the oath without an intervening silence. Ibn al-Mawwāz said that the exception must be intended before the final letter completing the oath. For example, a person says, “By Allah, I shall give so-and-so three dirhams, if Allah wills,” or “if Zayd wills.” This exception avails him even if he did not intend it when making the oath, provided he adds it directly to the oath without an intervening silence. According to Ibn al-Mawwāz, however, it avails him only if he intends it before pronouncing the mīm at the end of thalāthati darāhim (“three dirhams”). This, in my view, is the meaning of his statement and what he intended. He did say that if someone swears, “By Allah, besides whom there is no deity, Knower of the unseen and the seen,” and makes an exception, that exception does not avail him unless he intends it before pronouncing the hā’ in al-shahāda (“the seen”). But this is merely an illustration: his meaning is that the exception must be intended before the final letter completing the statement is pronounced.
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As for what is explicitly designated by name, an exception is not valid, because it would render the statement incoherent. If someone said, “By Allah, I shall give so-and-so and so-and-so such-and-such a number of dirhams, except so-and-so among them,” this would not be a coherent statement.
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An exception contingent on a created being’s will is valid in an oath sworn by Allah, an oath of divorce, and a direct pronouncement of divorce, because it makes the divorce conditional. An exception contingent on the will of Allah Most High, however, is valid only in an oath sworn by Allah, and is not valid in a direct pronouncement of divorce. There is disagreement over whether it is valid in an oath