Chapter: The Expiation for Ẓihār

We have already set out the words that render expiation obligatory upon the husband who pronounces ẓihār, and how the obligation is confirmed once he returns to his wife.

The expiation is to free a slave—one who is entirely sound, with no defect that invalidates the manumission, no chronic incapacity that prevents work or gainful effort, and no share of freedom already held. It may not be a mudabbar, an umm walad, a mukātab, a slave whose emancipation has been deferred to a future date, or one assigned exclusively for service. Nor may it be someone who would automatically become free by virtue of kinship were the husband to purchase him or her, or a slave bought on condition of immediate emancipation, for in that case a reduction in the price might be granted and the husband would in effect be selling—like a co-owner in the slave—and such a slave does not fulfill the expiation.