whether concerning all oaths or only some of them. The rationale given is that it is an oath, and this rationale entails that the ruling applies to all oaths of Muslims.

There are three kinds of formulation. The first is an immediately effective pronouncement, such as saying, “You are divorced.” This is not an oath, and no expiation applies to it, by agreement of the Muslims.

The second is an oath formulation, as when someone says, “Divorce shall be binding upon me: I shall certainly do such-and-such.” This is an oath by agreement of linguists and jurists.

The third is a conditional formulation. If it is intended as an oath, it has the same ruling as the second, by agreement of the scholars.

If, however, he intends divorce to take effect when the condition is fulfilled—for example, he chooses to divorce her if she gives him compensation, saying, “If you give me such-and-such, you are divorced”; or he chooses to divorce her if she commits a major sin, saying, “You are divorced if you commit adultery or steal”—and his intention is to effect divorce when the specified condition is met, rather than to swear an oath, then divorce takes effect thereby, by agreement of the early generations.

For divorce made contingent upon a specified condition, the ruling that divorce takes effect has been reported from several Companions, including ‘Alī, Ibn Mas‘ūd, Abū Dharr, Ibn ‘Umar, and Mu‘āwiyah, as well as many of the Successors and those who came after them. More than one scholar has reported consensus on this.