a person under coercion, while others gave effect to divorce whose occurrence was doubtful in cases involving an oath of divorce. They treated an irrevocable separation as a divorce counting toward the limit of three, and thus regarded khulʿ (marital dissolution in return for compensation) as an irrevocable divorce counting toward that limit. These and other positions broadened the scope of divorce, which makes the lawful unlawful, while restricting lawful marriage. Then, having broadened the scope of divorce, some increasingly resorted to legal stratagems to enable a woman to return to her husband, while others recognized no way for her to return. Thus, some were burdened with shackles and fetters, while others resorted to deception and stratagems.

Whoever reflects upon the Quran, the Sunnah, and the reports from the Companions will see that Allah has made all this unnecessary. Allah sent Muhammad with the pure and accommodating faith of monotheism, in which He enjoined what is right, forbade what is wrong, permitted wholesome things, and prohibited foul things. Allah, Glorified is He, knows best. May Allah bless Muhammad, his family, and his Companions, and grant them peace.

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked about a daughter born of illicit intercourse:

“May she be married to her father?”

He answered:

Praise be to Allah. The position of the majority of scholars is that marrying her is impermissible, and this is unquestionably correct. The majority even differed over whether someone who does so should be executed, holding two views. The position transmitted from Ahmad is that someone who does so should be executed.

It may be said that this applies when he was not acting on an interpretation of the law. As for “one acting on an interpretation of the law,” he is not to be executed, even if mistaken. Alternatively, it may be said that this applies without qualification, just as the majority held that someone who drinks nabīdh whose permissibility is disputed, acting on an interpretation of the law, is to be flogged—even though al-Shāfiʿī and Ahmad, according to one of the two reports from him, do not regard him as morally corrupt. He was, however, judged morally corrupt by