The concession permitting expiation for an oath after it has been sworn is paralleled by the concession permitting expiation for zihār, which had counted as divorce in the pre-Islamic period and the early days of Islam. Likewise, īlā’ counted as divorce among them. This accords with the principle that an oath must be fulfilled: if īlā’ required fulfilment of its undertaking to abstain from intercourse, intercourse would become forbidden. An absolute prohibition of intercourse necessarily entails the dissolution of the marital bond—that is, divorce. Likewise, if the prohibition imposed by zihār were binding, it would entail the dissolution of the marital bond, for a woman cannot remain a wife while being absolutely forbidden to her husband.

Hence Allah, Glorified be He, says:

“O Prophet, why do you forbid what Allah has made lawful for you, seeking to please your wives? Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”

“Allah has already ordained for you release from your oaths.”

Tahilla (“release”) is a verbal noun from hallaltu al-shay’a, uhilluhu (“I released something; I release it”), with the forms tahlīl and tahilla, just as karramtuhu (“I honored him”) has the verbal nouns takrīm and takrima. This verbal noun also names the means of release itself, namely the expiation. If the verbal-noun sense is intended, the meaning is that Allah has prescribed for you the releasing of an oath: its unbinding, which is the opposite of binding it.

For this reason, some scholars of our school and others, such as Abū Bakr ‘Abd al-‘Azīz, cited this verse as evidence for offering expiation before breaking an oath. Release cannot occur after the oath has been broken, since breaking it itself dissolves the oath. It constitutes release only when the expiation is offered before the breach, so that the oath is dissolved. After the breach, it is simply expiation, because it expiates the grounds for sin arising from breaking Allah’s covenant.

Once it is clear, then, that Allah has lifted from this community the obligation to fulfil an oath, which the oath itself entails, by prescribing expiation as a substitute for fulfilment—among the burdens He has lifted from them, as indicated by His words:

“And he relieves them of their burden”