and we have set them out in al-Istidhkār among the legal positions of the scholars of the various regions.
There is no laghw in declarations of manumission or divorce; laghw exists only in an oath that invokes Allah Himself.
As for the ghamūs, it is when a person deliberately swears about a past event while knowing he is lying—saying, for example, “By Allah, it was so-and-so,” or “By Allah, I did such-and-such,” while he knows that it never happened and he never did it. Such a person must seek forgiveness and repent, but no expiation is due.
The third category, the one that requires expiation, is the binding oath concerning the future—such as a man saying, “By Allah, I will not do it,” or “By Allah, I will do it.” In this kind of oath the clause of exception (“if Allah wills”) and the obligation of expiation both apply.
Whoever swears by Allah or by one of His names—for instance, “No, by the Most Merciful, the Compassionate,” “No, by the All-Forgiving, the All-Appreciative,” “No, by the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing,” and the like—or swears by one of His attributes, such as “By the might of Allah,” “By the power of Allah,” “By the greatness of Allah,” “By His majesty,” or similar phrases like “By the knowledge of Allah,” “By His speech,” or swears by the Quran (despite the well-known difference of opinion regarding an oath on the Quran), and then breaks that oath, must perform the expiation for a broken oath.
The same ruling applies if he says, “By the right of Allah,” “By His covenant,” “By His pact,” or “By His guarantee,” intending thereby an oath; according to Mālik these expressions are treated like divine attributes.
If someone says, “By Allah, by Allah,” or “By Allah, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate,” or repeats the oath formula in any comparable way, it counts as a single oath—unless he intends to initiate a new oath with each repetition.
If a person swears repeatedly, using the same kind of oath, about one and the same matter and then violates it, only a single expiation is required. But if he swears regarding that one matter with different types of oaths—for example, by manumission, by divorce, and by Allah the Almighty—and then breaks it, he is liable for every oath he invoked.
And if he takes a single oath that covers several distinct matters and then acts contrary with respect to one of them, he has broken his oath and must offer the expiation; after that, nothing further is due of him concerning the remainder.