on Thursday.”

If he were to make unbelief conditional upon something whose occurrence he intends, saying, for example, “When the new crescent appears, I shall have renounced the religion of Islam,” he would have to be judged an unbeliever, although he does not commit the unbelief immediately, for assigning it a time indicates the corruption of his belief.

If it is said, “An oath involving a vow requires only expiation,” the answer is: the same applies to an oath involving manumission, and likewise to an oath involving divorce, just as if he had said, “Then I am obliged to divorce my wife.” Whoever holds that nothing is binding upon someone who says, “Then I am obliged to divorce my wife,” must, by the same reasoning, hold that nothing is binding upon him in an oath involving divorce. This is why Tāwūs hesitated over whether it constitutes an oath.

If it is said that he may choose between fulfilling it and offering expiation, then here too he may choose between divorce or manumission, on the one hand, and expiation, on the other. If he has intercourse with his wife, this constitutes choosing expiation. Likewise, in the case of zihār, he may choose between offering expiation and divorcing her; if he has intercourse with her, expiation becomes obligatory upon him. In the case of zihār, however, he may not have intercourse until he has offered expiation, because zihār is an objectionable and false utterance that has made her unlawful to him.

Here, however, his saying, “If I do this, she is divorced,” is equivalent to saying, “Then I am obliged to divorce her,” or, “By Allah, I shall certainly divorce her.” If he does not divorce her, nothing is required of him; if he divorces her, he must offer expiation for an oath.

The remaining question is: does expiation become obligatory immediately if he does not divorce her at that point, as when he says, “By Allah, I shall divorce her this very moment,” but does not do so? Or does it become obligatory only when he resolves to retain her as his wife? Or does it not become obligatory until he says or does something indicating his willingness to remain with her, as in the case of someone who is given a choice