He—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—was asked about a man who said:

“I shall be bound to divorce if I ever swear by divorce again, unless I do so absentmindedly or by mistake.”

After quarrelling with someone and finding himself in a difficult position, he said: “The oaths of the Muslims bind me,” or, “Oaths bind me according to Mālik’s school: I shall certainly complain about you to the muhtasib.” He did not remember his first oath, and he follows the Shāfiʿī school. What obligation arises from the oath?

He replied:

If he had forgotten the first oath when he swore the second, then remembered it afterwards, he has not thereby broken his oath. Allah knows best.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was also asked about a man who said to his wife:

“I shall be bound to divorce: whenever I see such-and-such a woman with you, I shall divorce you.” Does he break his oath if she comes over without his seeing her, or if all three meet somewhere other than the place to which the oath referred?

He—may Allah be pleased with him—replied:

If she comes over without his seeing her, or he meets her in someone else’s house, he has not broken his oath—unless it takes place in his own house, or something [in] (1) the circumstances that prompted the oath entails otherwise. Allah knows best.