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

If a man takes an oath invoking divorce, saying, “Divorce is binding upon me: I shall certainly do such-and-such,” or, “I shall not do it”; or, “Divorce is incumbent upon me: I shall certainly do it”; or, “If I do not do it, divorce will be binding upon me,” or, “incumbent upon me”—or uses similar expressions committing himself to divorce as part of his oath—and then breaks his oath, does divorce take effect?

There are two opinions among Muslim scholars of the four schools and other schools of Islamic scholarship.

The first is that divorce does not take effect. This is explicitly stated by Abū Hanīfa himself, and it is the opinion of a group of al-Shāfi‘ī’s followers, such as al-Qaffāl and Abū Sa‘īd al-Mutawallī, the author of al-Tatimma (The Supplement). In these later times, a group of the followers of Abū Hanīfa, al-Shāfi‘ī and others, both Sunnis and Shiites, issue fatwas and judicial rulings according to this opinion in the eastern lands, al-Jazīra, Iraq, Khurāsān, the Hijaz, Yemen and elsewhere.

It is also the opinion of Dāwūd and his followers—such as Ibn Hazm and others—who have continued to issue fatwas and judicial rulings in Persia, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and the Maghrib to this day. They are a vast multitude, including many judges and muftis. It is also the opinion of a group of the early Muslims, such as Tāwūs and others, and it is the basis on which fatwas are issued by many of