, and to any woman with whom sexual relations are lawful. Ẓihār, however, is not binding with respect to a slave whose emancipation has been deferred to a fixed term, nor to a mukātaba (a slave who has concluded a contract for her freedom).

If a man pronounces ẓihār against his wife or his female slave, and before making expiation the wife dies or he divorces her, or the slave dies or he sells her, no expiation is due for any of them until she returns to him—whether by a new marriage, by repurchase, or by any other form of ownership. Once she has come back to him, he may not have intercourse with her until he expiates, regardless of whether the divorce he first issued was single or triple.

Even if he limits the ẓihār to a single limb or to part of her body, the ruling of ẓihār still applies.

If he swears by means of ẓihār that, should he do various acts, his wife will become forbidden to him, and then breaks the oath with respect to one of those acts, he must not touch her until he performs the expiation. Should he later violate the oath in relation to another of those acts, no additional expiation is required.

If he declares ẓihār against four wives in a single utterance—for example, by saying to them, “All of you are to me like my mother’s back”—the declaration covers them all, and an expiation is owed for each wife.

If he says to four women, “If I marry you, you will be to me like my mother’s back,” and then marries one of them, he may not approach her until he expiates; once he has expiated, the oath is lifted as to the remaining women. Some have said that he must refrain from the others as well until he expiates, but the first view is the authoritative position of the school.

If he says, “Every time I marry a woman, the woman I marry will be to me like my mother’s back,” he must make one expiation after another each time he marries. This differs from his saying, “Every woman I marry is to me like my mother’s back,” for in that formulation a single expiation suffices.

Should he say to his wife, “You are to me like my mother’s back, and you are irrevocably divorced,” both the divorce and ẓihār take effect. He does not expiate until he has remarried her after she has been married to another husband, and even then he must not have intercourse with her until he performs the expiation.

Conversely, if he says to his wife, “You are irrevocably divorced, and you are to me like my mother’s back,” only the divorce is binding; ẓihār does not attach to a woman who has already been irrevocably divorced.

If he says to an unrelated woman, “You are divorced if I marry you, and you will be to me like my mother’s back if I marry you,” or phrases the two statements in the opposite order, the legal effect is identical: should he go on to marry her, he becomes liable for both the divorce and the ẓihār.