that the child is his, while he denies it, he must engage in liʿān with her provided it is possible for the child to be his; in that case she receives one-half of the dower.
If he says to her, “I saw you commit fornication before I married you,” he is liable to the ḥadd for slander and no liʿān is performed.
When he disavows her pregnancy before consummation, summons her to liʿān and she refuses, she is flogged one hundred lashes as though she had confessed; she remains his wife as before, the pregnancy is disavowed, yet he may not approach her until she has delivered.
If a man pronounces three divorces upon his wife and then claims that he saw her commit fornication during her waiting period, he may invoke liʿān against her, for he fears that she may conceive from that act and the child be attributed to him. But if he divorced her irrevocably while acknowledging that she was already pregnant, and afterwards alleged that he had witnessed her adultery, he incurs the ḥadd and no liʿān is allowed.
Should he say, “You are thrice divorced, you adulteress,” or, “You adulteress, you are thrice divorced,” Mālik waives the ḥadd in both formulations, and no liʿān is undertaken.
No liʿān may take place between former spouses once the ʿiddah has elapsed, save for one situation: the husband was absent, his wife bore a child during his absence without his knowledge, he divorced her, her waiting period ended, and later he returned and disowned the child. In that case he may still perform liʿān after the ʿiddah. The same ruling applies if he comes home only after her death and denies the child: he performs liʿān to repudiate it even though she is dead, and he inherits from her because she died before any separation produced by liʿān took effect.
If a man marries a woman while she is still in her ʿiddah, and she later bears a child that he disowns, then:
• If the child is born six months later, before she has menstruated, the child is attributed to the first husband—unless the first husband disowns it by liʿān, in which case it is attached to the second husband. The wife is not required to undergo liʿān with the second husband because the child has been placed in his bed.
• Some jurists said that if she does not menstruate during those six months, the child is not transferred to the second husband’s bed, and she must perform liʿān with the first.
If she gives birth six months after having menstruated, the child is linked to the second husband. Should he deny it, he cannot repudiate it through liʿān, nor is she obliged to undergo it with him; but if liʿān nevertheless occurs between them, the child reverts to the first husband. If the first husband then disowns the child, he performs liʿān with her and the child is rejected by both of them—yet if he later acknowledges it