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

A man swore, on pain of triple divorce, that he would not enter his neighbour’s house. He was then compelled to enter and did so. Does divorce take effect in his case or not? If expiation is binding upon him, what is the evidence for that obligation?

He—may Allah be pleased with him—replied:

Praise be to Allah.

If someone swears an oath invoking divorce or emancipation to impel an action or prevent it—for example, saying, “I bind myself to divorce or emancipation as a pledge that I will certainly do such-and-such, or that I will not do such-and-such”; or saying, “If I do such-and-such, my wife is divorced,” or, “My slave is free,” and similar expressions—the scholars hold three views concerning this.

The first is that if he breaks the oath, divorce or emancipation takes effect. This is the view of some of the Successors and is the prevalent view among most jurists.

The second is that neither takes effect and no expiation is due from him. This is reported from some of the early generations and is the position of Dāwūd, Ibn Hazm, and other later scholars. For this reason, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, the teacher of al-Shāfiʿī and Ahmad, would not issue a ruling that divorce takes effect, for he narrated