that is forbidden. It thus becomes like saying, “You are a Jew or a Christian,” intending divorce, since this could take effect only after establishing disbelief in her, which he has no right to attribute to her. The same applies to saying, “You are a she-donkey or a she-camel,” or, “You are to me like a she-donkey and a she-camel.”

Hence, most of the Companions said that the statement, “You are forbidden to me,” is likewise an oath, not a divorce. Some explicitly described it as a graver oath, like zihār (likening one’s wife to one’s mother’s back). This is Ahmad’s position. Thus, saying, “You are to me like my mother’s back,” amounts to saying, “I shall certainly not approach you,” because establishing her resemblance to his mother entails both abstaining from intercourse with her and dissolving the marriage contract. The Lawgiver denied effect to the dissolution of the contract, because that rests with the Lawgiver, not with him: contracts and their dissolution are established by Allah and take effect only with the Lawgiver’s permission. He did, however, give effect to the husband’s undertaking to abstain, since having intercourse or refraining from it is his own act, in which he has a choice.

Since this amounts to saying, “I ought not to have intercourse with you,” it has the meaning of an oath. Yet He made it a graver oath, unlike an oath sworn by Allah. Swearing the latter is lawful, so a person commits no sin in making it, whereas this oath is a reprehensible statement and a falsehood. Moreover, this oath must be abandoned, and expiation serves as compensation for that. Accordingly, an oath sworn by Allah does not render the act forbidden pending expiation, whereas this oath makes breaking it forbidden until expiation has been offered. He may therefore not break it until he has secured release from it, and the greater expiation is required for it.

Its consisting of a single clause does not prevent its inclusion under the designation of an oath. The wording of a vow likewise constitutes an oath while consisting of a single clause. What matters is whether it contains a pledge.