needy persons; this is the safer course, and it is the position adopted by a number of scholars.

Question: Even if he did not intend it as ẓihār?

Answer: The expression “You are forbidden to me” is, according to that view, one of the recognized formulas of ẓihār.

***

Question: A long time ago, while I was away from my family, I came home to find my younger brother with blood streaming from his head, and my father and sisters were dressing the wound. I asked who had injured him, and they told me that his cousin had struck him on the head during a quarrel and split it open. I became extremely angry and said, “ʿAlayya al-ḥarām—I will wound him just as he wounded my brother.” Shortly thereafter someone intervened and reconciled them. What is the ruling on my saying ʿalayya al-ḥarām? In our local custom, whoever says ʿalayya al-ḥarām is regarded as though he had said ʿalayya al-ṭalāq (I vow to divorce). What is the ruling on this oath, and does any expiation fall due upon me? Guide me, may Allah bless you.

Answer: In situations like this a Muslim ought to exercise patience, forbearance, and self-control, avoiding haste and impulsiveness; the rash anger you displayed is not becoming. As for the forbidden words you uttered in your resolve to avenge yourself on the aggressor, their legal effect depends on your intention. If by saying ʿalayya al-ḥarām you intended to divorce your wife, then it is deemed a divorce in accordance with that intention. But if you intended thereby that your wife become forbidden to you—meaning that by the phrase ʿalayya al-ḥarām you meant “my wife is unlawful to me” without intending divorce—then the statement is considered ẓihār, and the expiation for ẓihār becomes obligatory upon you.