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As for what is binding by agreement, this is an oath invoking divorce. There is no disagreement among the scholars that if a man swears by the divorce of his wife that he or someone else will or will not perform an act, the oath binds him, and his wife is divorced if he breaks it. This is because someone who swears by divorce that he will or will not perform an act is merely making divorce conditional upon a particular circumstance. Once the circumstance upon which he has made his wife’s divorce conditional occurs, the divorce becomes binding. An exception is the report from Ashhab concerning a man who swears by his wife’s divorce that she must not perform an act, whereupon she deliberately performs it to make him break his oath: he held that she incurs no liability. This is an anomalous view. The recognized disagreement concerns someone who says to his slave, “You are free if you do such-and-such,” and the slave then does it.
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An oath invoking divorce cannot be treated as an idle oath, for Allah Most High mentioned idle oaths only in connection with oaths sworn by Allah, Mighty and Majestic. As for qualifying such an oath with “if Allah wills,” if he makes this qualification refer to the divorce, it does not avail him. If he makes it refer to the act, it avails him according to Ibn al-Mājishūn and Ashhab, but not according to Ibn al-Qāsim. The position of Ibn al-Mājishūn and Ashhab is stronger by analogy with this qualification in an oath sworn by Allah: if he makes it refer to the name of Allah Most High, it does not avail him, whereas if he makes it refer to the act concerning which he swore, it avails him.
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If, however, he makes his qualification depend on the will of a created being, it is effective by agreement, because it forms part of the circumstance upon which he has made the divorce conditional.
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As for what is not binding by agreement, this is an obligation a person imposes upon himself, on condition that he performs or does not perform an act, which involves neither obedience to Allah nor drawing near to Him, whether it is permissible or sinful. An example involving sin is his saying, “I am bound to strike so-and-so if I do not do such-and-such”; an example involving something permissible is, “I am bound to walk to the market if I do not do such-and-such,” and similar statements, apart from divorce. An oath invoking divorce is binding upon him, even if