Chapter on Ilāʾ (the husband’s oath of sexual abstention)

Ilāʾ becomes binding upon anyone who is legally entitled to pronounce a divorce, whether free man or slave. A drunkard is still subject to ilāʾ, as are the prodigal and the person placed under guardianship, provided he is an adult and not insane. The same ruling applies to a eunuch so long as his organ has not been totally severed, and to an elderly man as long as some measure of vigor remains in him. A mute man incurs ilāʾ through writing or any intelligible sign that conveys his intent, and the foreigner likewise incurs it when he takes the oath in his own language.

Ilāʾ consists in swearing by Allah, or by one of His names, or by one of His attributes, that one will not have intercourse with one’s wife. The oath of abstention is in itself an oath, and any oath whose fulfillment absolutely precludes intercourse under all circumstances—and whose swearer is unable