and al-Shāfiʿī, and according to one report from Ahmad. Yet the correct view, supported on many grounds, is that he is obliged to have intercourse with her, as indicated by the Quran, the Sunnah, reports from the Companions, and sound reasoning.

Some hold that the required frequency of intercourse is once every four months, by analogy with an oath of abstinence. Whether he must have intercourse with her according to what is customary, just as he must provide for her according to what is customary, is disputed within the school of Ahmad and elsewhere.

The correct view, indicated by most of Ahmad’s statements and held by most of the early scholars, is that the obligations which the marriage contract imposes upon each spouse towards the other—such as maintenance, marital intimacy, and overnight companionship for the wife, and marital intimacy for the husband—have no fixed measure. Rather, custom is the reference point, as indicated by the Quran in such statements as Allah’s words:

“Women have rights similar to their obligations, according to what is fair.”

And by the Sunnah in such statements as the Prophet’s words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to Hind:

“Take what is sufficient for you and your child, according to what is reasonable.”

If the spouses dispute these matters, the judge determines what is due through his own considered judgment, just as the Companions prescribed a specified number of occasions on which a husband was to have intercourse. Those among Ahmad’s followers who fixed the frequency of intercourse to which a wife is entitled are comparable to al-Shāfiʿī in fixing the amount of maintenance: the wife needs both, and the marriage contract makes both obligatory. Fixing such measures is a weak position according to the great majority of jurists, far removed from the meanings conveyed by the Quran, the Sunnah, and sound reasoning.

Al-Shāfiʿī fixed its amount only to apply consistently the principle we have mentioned concerning his position: that indeterminacy must be excluded from all contracts, by analogy with the prohibition of sales involving uncertainty. Thus, he assigned a fixed measure to the maintenance due under the marriage contract in consistent application of that principle.