someone liable to him from a claim concerning bloodshed, property, or injury to his honor, he would not have broken his oath. I know of no one who disagrees with this. Thus, whoever includes actually effecting divorce or manumission within the Prophet’s words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace,

“Whoever swears an oath and says, ‘If Allah wills,’ will not have broken his oath,”

has made the general wording bear a meaning it cannot bear. Likewise, whoever excludes from this general wording someone’s saying, “Divorce shall be binding upon me: I will certainly do such-and-such—or will not do it—if Allah wills,” or, “If I do it, my wife is divorced, if Allah wills,” has excluded something that falls within it. For this is an oath involving divorce or manumission.

Here Ahmad should be followed in his statement: “Divorce and manumission are not oaths.” Swearing an oath involving them, however, is like swearing an oath involving charity, Hajj, and the like. This is self-evident in reason, customary usage, and Islamic law. Thus, if someone says, “By Allah, I will never swear an oath,” and then says, “If I do such-and-such, my wife is divorced,” he has broken his oath.

We have already mentioned that the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, called this an oath. All the jurists likewise called it an oath, as did Muslims generally. It also has the substance of an oath. For when someone says, “I swear by Allah that I will certainly do it, if Allah wills,” the reference to Allah’s will, unless otherwise qualified, relates to the act sworn to. The meaning is: “I am swearing to do this act if Allah wills that it be done.” If the person does not do it, Allah has not willed it, and so he is not bound to do it. But if he intended the reference to relate to the swearing itself—meaning that the person taking the oath intended, “If Allah wills that I be swearing an oath”—the meaning of this would differ from making an exception in performative pronouncements such as divorce,