the revealed law made obligatory, an oath for them was like a vow. An obligation imposed by the revealed law may admit of a concession when necessary, just as a concession is allowed in administering the lashes prescribed as a legal punishment when the person being struck cannot withstand separate blows. This differs from what someone undertakes by an oath under our law, for the revealed law does not itself require that act. He is bound by his undertaking, but our law provides him with a way out through expiation.
However, some of our scholars thought that oaths left those who swore them no way out, and that they were necessarily bound by their undertakings. Concluding that our law in this respect was like the law of the Children of Israel, they felt compelled to resort to stratagems concerning oaths: either through the wording of the oath, through khulʿ (marital dissolution) to escape the oath, through a circular divorce formula, or by treating the marriage as invalid so that divorce could not take effect within it.
If none of these devices availed them, they resorted to a marriage arranged to make the woman lawful for her former husband again. This resulted from a lack of knowledge of the gracious, upright religion with which Allah sent Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in this matter, and of the burdens and shackles Allah removed through it. As Allah Most High said:
“My mercy encompasses all things. So I will decree it for those who fear Me and give zakah, and those who believe in Our signs—”
“Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find described in the Torah and the Gospel they possess. He commands them to do what is right and forbids them from what is wrong, makes good things lawful for them and foul things unlawful, and relieves them of their burden and the shackles that were upon them. So those who believe in him, honour him, support him, and follow the light sent down with him—it is they who will succeed.”
Thus, what the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, prescribed for his community is the truth in reality. What others have introduced can, at most, stand in relation to his law as the law of those before him stood—even though