She said:

“I did not know that we were bound by an oath indefinitely; I thought the oath was only for five or six days.”

He said to her:

“I do not know. You are now divorced from me three times.”

Does divorce take effect against her by virtue of the first oath or the second?

He replied:

If she believed that his oath was no longer binding and then did what he had sworn she would not do, he has not broken his oath. If he said, “You are now divorced from me three times,” because he believed that the divorce had already taken effect, no divorce takes effect by that statement. And Allah knows best.

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

About a man who entered into a contract of manumission with his slave. The slave caused him distress, prompting him to swear by triple divorce that he would not stop beating him and keeping him in custody until he produced his accounts or returned to him the amount sought from the stipend. Is there any lawful way for him to be released? Please give us a ruling.

He replied—may Allah be pleased with him:

If the person concerning whom the oath was sworn is unable to produce the required accounts or return the requested amount from the stipend, neither may be demanded of him. Rather, the authority must compel the man who swore the oath to leave him alone. If he is compelled to do so, he does not break his oath, according to the correct one of the scholars’ two opinions, and no divorce takes effect. This applies whether he is compelled by the sultan’s military governor or a comparable official, by a judicial governor, or by a secretary superior to him whose just orders are binding upon him. The same applies if