in that condition. Such a man is making divorce take effect upon fulfilment of the condition, not swearing an oath. That divorce takes effect in such cases is what has been transmitted from the Companions, such as Ibn Masʿūd and Ibn ʿUmar, and from the Successors and the other scholars. I know of no one among the early generations who said that divorce does not take effect in such a case. Some of the Shīʿah and some of the Zāhirīs, however, have disputed this.
Such a man is not swearing an oath, nor does his statement fall within the category of oaths that may be discharged by expiation, as mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah. Nevertheless, some people call him an oath-taker, just as some call anyone who makes a pronouncement conditional an oath-taker, while others call anyone who pronounces an immediately effective divorce an oath-taker. These three terminological usages have no basis in the language, in the words of the Lawgiver, or in the words of the Companions. This is called an oath only because, in the view of the person using that designation, it shares something with an oath: his belief that divorce takes effect upon fulfilment of the condition.
As for a conditional pronouncement intended as an oath, its meaning can be expressed in the form of an oath, unlike the first type, whose meaning cannot be expressed in that form. When such an oath is expressed in conditional form, it is only an oath if the speaker dislikes the consequence more than he dislikes the condition. Thus, he dislikes the condition, but dislikes the consequence still more, and commits himself to what he dislikes more in order to deter himself from what he dislikes less.
He might say, “If I do such-and-such, my wife is divorced,” or “My slaves are free,” or “Hajj becomes incumbent upon me,” and similar statements. Or he might say to his wife, “If you commit adultery, steal, or betray my trust, you are divorced,” intending to restrain or frighten her through the oath, not to make divorce take effect if she does so; for he wants to keep her even if