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We have stated that zihār is a prohibition lifted by expiation. Once it becomes binding, whether through an unqualified declaration or the fulfilment of the condition attached to it, the dissolution of the marriage bond does not extinguish it. It becomes binding upon him again if he remarries her, even after three divorces. This differs from the case in which he divorces her before the condition attached to zihār is fulfilled. In that case, if he divorces her three times and then remarries her after she has been married to another man, the zihār ceases to bind him. If, however, he divorces her fewer than three times—once or twice—the zihār becomes binding upon him again when its condition is fulfilled. In either case, so long as he does not remarry her after the divorce, nothing is due from him, unless he had intercourse with her after zihār became binding upon him; in that event, expiation has already become an obligation for which he remains liable.

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Zihār may apply to any woman with whom intercourse is lawful through marriage or ownership, even if intercourse is presently precluded by a temporary impediment that does not affect the underlying ownership or marriage, such as menstruation, postnatal bleeding, young age, fasting, or devotional retreat. For Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says:

“Those among you who pronounce zihār concerning their women” [al-Mujādila: 2].

This encompasses all women lawful to a man through ownership or marriage, since a man’s female slave is among his women with whom Allah has permitted him to have intercourse. He also says:

“And those who guard their chastity” [al-Ma‘ārij: 29], “except with their wives or those their right hands possess, for then they are free from blame” [al-Ma‘ārij: 30].

The scholars unanimously agree that if a man has intercourse with a female slave, her mother and daughter become forbidden to him, because Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says:

“Your wives’ mothers, and your stepdaughters under your care, born of your wives with whom you have consummated marriage—but if you have not consummated marriage with them, there is no blame upon you” [al-Nisā’: 23].

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If intercourse is impossible in all circumstances—as with a woman whose vaginal opening is closed, a decrepit old man incapable of intercourse, an impotent man, or a castrated man whose penis has been severed—there is disagreement over whether zihār is binding. Those who hold that zihār applies to intercourse and lesser forms of intimacy deem it binding, while those who hold