he could perform liʿān with her, he would nevertheless be directed to do so; should he decline, the prescribed flogging is carried out upon him, whereas once he completes the mutual imprecation the punishment is waived and he inherits from her.

If the husband has already performed liʿān and then dies before the wife has sworn her oaths, and she completes them after his death, no prescribed punishment falls upon her but she forfeits her right to his estate. Should she, however, refuse to swear, she keeps her share of the inheritance while the prescribed punishment is inflicted on him. As for her own penalty: if he had consummated the marriage with her, she is stoned to death; but if there had been no consummation and she had no previous husband, she is flogged with one hundred lashes.

When a man states, “I saw my wife committing adultery,” he is told, “Perform liʿān with her,” and he is not asked whether he had intercourse with her before witnessing the act. If, on the other hand, he declares, “I saw her commit adultery and I slept with her afterwards,” the prescribed punishment is imposed on him, the child is affiliated to him, and his only avenue is liʿān.

If he has already performed liʿān on the basis of what he saw and the woman later gives birth, two reports from Mālik exist. One holds that the child is ascribed to him unless he disowns it by a further act of liʿān; the other that he must renew the liʿān with respect to the child as well, after which it is disavowed.

Should a pregnancy become evident in her and he first acknowledge it, then claim that he saw her commit adultery, three positions are related from Mālik. The first: the child remains affiliated to him, he is subjected to the prescribed punishment, and no liʿān takes place. The second: he performs liʿān and the child he had acknowledged is disavowed. The third—and soundest—is that the child remains his because of his prior acknowledgement and the prescribed punishment is waived.

If the woman herself confesses to the adultery he alleged and then bears a child, there are two transmissions from Mālik: one states that the child is removed from his lineage without liʿān; the other that this does not occur unless liʿān is performed.

Were four persons to testify that a woman committed adultery, one of them being her husband, the other three would be flogged and the husband would perform liʿān.

If a man relates that his wife was raped, and she concurs, and he denies paternity of her pregnancy, the Egyptian transmitters report from Mālik—his retracted view—that the child is disavowed from him without liʿān. The scholars of Madinah, however, transmit from him that the child is not disavowed by their mere admission until they both perform the oaths of liʿān, the woman in her oath declaring, “Indeed, I was forced and overpowered…"