nor does a nursing slave. Fasting—together with the regular prayers—is the more virtuous course; yet if he is unable to free a slave, then he must fast two consecutive lunar months. Should illness strike him during those months and he later recover, he simply resumes from where he stopped; but if, once healthy, he neglects the fast, he must begin again. The same applies if he breaks the fast through forgetfulness, a genuine excuse, or a mistaken judgment: he resumes so long as he does not postpone doing so, but if he delays he must recommence the full two months.

If he cannot fast, he must feed sixty needy people—and the order is obligatory: fasting is only allowed when manumission is impossible, and feeding only when fasting is likewise beyond his capacity. Whoever cannot bear the fast must therefore feed sixty poor persons, giving each one a mudd by the Prophet’s measure. If he gives a mudd according to Hishām’s measure—which equals two Prophetic mudds minus one-third—or one and a half mudds by the Prophet’s measure, that suffices; the best, however, is to give two complete mudds by the Prophet’s mudd, for Allah did not say, with regard to the expiation for ẓihār, ‘from the average’; the intent must be to satisfy their hunger.

If a man pronounces ẓihār against one of his female slaves and can afford her price, he must free her to discharge his oath should he wish to have intercourse with her. After that he must solicit her consent; if she approves, he may marry her. If he likens his umm walad to his mother and wishes to approach her while possessing nothing else, he must fall back on fasting or feeding, for freeing an umm walad counts as no expiation—neither in her case nor in any other.

Every form of expiation for ẓihār must precede intercourse, as Allah, Exalted is He, says: ‘before the two of them touch one another’ (al-Mujādalah 58:3). The verse’s silence about ‘touching’ in the clause on feeding does not license intercourse, for that clause is governed by the earlier stipulation. If, in the course of his feeding or fasting—day or night—he has intercourse with her before the fast is completed or the feeding finished, whatever fasting or feeding he has already done is rendered null and he must start the expiation anew; and he is permitted to have intercourse