his oath, an expiation suffices for him according to his school. However, it has been said that the required expiation is that prescribed for zihār, whether he uses the declaration as an oath or makes it effective. This is the position transmitted from Ahmad.

Another view is that if he uses it as an oath, the expiation for an oath suffices; but if he makes it effective, the expiation for zihār is binding upon him. This view is stronger and more consistent with the principles of Ahmad and others.

Thus, the expiation for an oath suffices for someone who swears by declaring the lawful forbidden, just as it suffices for someone who swears by invoking a vow, saying, “If I do such-and-such, I am bound to perform Hajj,” or, “My wealth shall be given in charity.” Likewise, if he swears by invoking the freeing of a slave, an expiation suffices according to most of the early scholars among the Companions and their successors. Similarly, the expiation for an oath also suffices for an oath invoking divorce, as [a group] of earlier and later scholars ruled. What is authentically reported from the Companions does not contradict this; rather, its meaning accords with it. Thus, every form of oath that Muslims use in their swearing admits of the expiation for an oath, as indicated by the Quran and the Sunnah.

If, however, a man intends to divorce, free a slave, or pronounce zihār, then the declaration he makes is binding upon him, whether immediate or conditional, and the expiation for an oath does not suffice. And Allah, Glorified is He, knows best.

He—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—was asked:

If someone divorces his wife during menstruation or postnatal bleeding, does the divorce take effect or not?

He replied:

As for his saying to her, “You are divorced three times,” while she is menstruating, this issue rests on two principles. The first is that divorce during menstruation is forbidden by the Quran, the Sunnah, and scholarly consensus, for