Chapter on Liʿān (Mutual Imprecation)

Anyone who is legally able to pronounce divorce or ẓihār may likewise resort to liʿān. No liʿān is established between a free Muslim husband and a wife who is either a slave or a dhimmī merely on account of an actual act of fornication or a bare accusation of it, for slandering a slave woman or a dhimmī woman does not trigger the prescribed ḥadd; the offender is simply disciplined and rebuked.

If, however, the husband has first ensured that the slave or dhimmī wife is clear of pregnancy—by waiting at least one menstrual cycle—and a pregnancy then appears which he denies, he may invoke liʿān to disavow the child. He may perform liʿān with either of them only for the purpose of denying paternity. Some scholars have said that the procedure of liʿān in such a case is the same as that between two free Muslim spouses, save that no ḥadd applies to one who slanders a slave woman or a dhimmī woman. The discussion continues