the item he swore to give in charity. For once he frees that slave or gives that item in charity, his oath is discharged and his sworn abstention ends. Moreover, the return to intercourse for which he asks us to grant him time would itself entail that obligation. This is the position of all our scholars except Ibn al-Mājishūn, who accepts a verbal declaration of return when an impediment prevents intercourse, even if the oath is one he can discharge. We adopt their position—that return can only be effected by discharging the oath—only when a divorce has been pronounced against him on grounds of sworn abstention and he then takes his wife back. He does not regard travel as an excuse.
If his oath is by Allah Most High, however, there is disagreement over whether a verbal declaration of return is accepted without expiation, or whether it is accepted only after he offers expiation. One view is that it is not accepted without expiation, since expiation discharges the oath before it is broken. Another is that it is accepted without expiation, because, if he offers expiation, we do not know whether he intended it for that particular oath.
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A group of scholars held that return means intercourse, unless an impediment prevents it, in which case a verbal declaration of return suffices if he has it witnessed. Others held that a verbal declaration of return suffices in all circumstances. In my view, these two positions are conceivable only according to the view that divorce takes effect upon the expiry of the period of sworn abstention if the husband has not returned to marital relations within it.
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If his oath was not to refrain from intercourse, then, according to Mālik and his companions, his return consists in performing the act he swore to perform, provided he is able to do so. If he is unable to perform it at present, there is disagreement, as previously discussed and set out. If, however, he is altogether unable to perform it, divorce is pronounced against him immediately, and he is not granted the period allowed for sworn abstention, as explained earlier.
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Scholars differed over the length of the period for which an oath to refrain from intercourse makes a man legally subject to sworn abstention