As for a man who marries four nursing girls, whom the same woman then breastfeeds one after another, he may choose one of them and part with the others. One view holds that this separation is by divorce; another, that it is without divorce. According to the view that he parts with them without divorce, they receive none of their dowries. According to the view that he parts with them by divorce, it is said that he owes each one half her dowry; this is Ibn Habīb’s preferred view. It is also said that he owes each one one-eighth of her dowry; this is Ibn al-Mawwāz’s preferred view. If he parts with all of them, each receives one-eighth of her dowry, without disagreement. Allah—glorified and exalted is He—grants success.

Section

On the interpretation of the words of Allah Most High:

“And married women, except those your right hands possess.” [al-Nisā’: 24]

The words “And married women” [al-Nisā’: 24] refer to women who have husbands. The words “except those your right hands possess” [al-Nisā’: 24] refer to married female captives whom Allah has made lawful for us by virtue of ownership, when they are captured without their husbands or together with them, according to the view that capture dissolves marriage.

There are four opinions on this matter. The first is the view of Ibn al-Qāsim and Ashhab in al-Mudawwana: capture dissolves the marriage of the spouses, whether they are captured together or separately. According to their view, the same applies if one is captured before the other, and the other subsequently arrives under a safe-conduct. If, however, one first arrives under a safe-conduct and the other is subsequently captured, the marriage is not dissolved. If the husband is captured after the wife has arrived under a safe-conduct, she is given a choice because of the enslavement he has suffered through capture. If the wife is captured after the husband has arrived under a safe-conduct and embraced Islam, she is invited to embrace Islam, unless she is freed, since she cannot be the wife of a Muslim while remaining an unbelieving woman.

The second view is that capture permits the annulment of their marriage, whether they are captured together or separately, unless one arrives under a safe-conduct before the other. This is Ibn Habīb’s view in al-Wādiha, for he said that marriage is dissolved by capture unless both embrace Islam, one of them embraces Islam, or they are allowed to remain married. Consistent with this is