Yahya related to me from Malik that he had heard that Marwan ibn al-Hakam decided about a man who had made a vow to abstain from intercourse with his wife, that when four months had passed, it was a divorce and he could return to her as long as she was in her idda.

Malik added, "That was also the opinion of Ibn Shihab."

Malik said that if a man made a vow to abstain from intercourse with his wife and at the end of four months he declared his intent to continue to abstain, he was divorced. He could go back to his wife, but if he did not have intercourse with her before the end of her idda, he had no access to her and he could not go back to her unless he had an excuse - illness, imprisonment, or a similar excuse. His return to her maintained her as his wife. If her idda passed and then he married her after that and did not have intercourse with her until four months had passed and he declared his intent to continue to abstain, divorce was applied to him by the first vow. If four months passed, and he had not returned to her, he had no idda against her nor access because he had married her and then divorced her before touching her.

Malik said that a man who made a vow to abstain from intercourse with his wife and continued to abstain after four months and so divorced her, but then returned and did not touch her and four months were completed before her idda was completed, did not have to declare his intent and divorce did not befall him. If he had intercourse with her before the end of her idda, he was entitled to her. If her idda passed before he had intercourse with her, he had no access to her. This is what Malik preferred of what he had heard on the subject.

Malik said that if a man made a vow to abstain from intercourse with his wife and then divorced her, and the four months of the vow were completed before completion of the idda of the divorce, it counted as two pronouncements of divorce. If he declared his intention to continue to abstain and the idda of the divorce finished before the four months the vow of abstention was not a divorce. That was because the four months had passed and she was not his on that day.

Malik said, "If someone makes a vow not to have intercourse with his wife for a day or a month and then waits until more than four months have passed, it is not ila. Ila only applies to someone who vows more than four months. As for the one who vows not to have intercourse with his wife for four ...

with another chain.

"Kuraib informed me that Umm Al-Fadl bin Al-Harith sent him to Mu'awiyah in Ash-Sham. He said: 'So I arrived in Ash-Sham and finished her errand, and I saw the crescent of Ramadan while I was in Ash-Sham. We saw the crescent on the night of Friday. Then I arrived in Al-Madinah at the end of the month. Ibn Abbas was questioning me, then he mentioned the crescent and he said: "When did you see the crescent?" I said: "We saw it n the night of Friday." He said: "Did you see it on the night of Friday?" I said: "The people saw it, so they fasted, and Mu'awiyah fasted." He said: "But we saw it on the night of Saturday, so we will not stop fasting until we complete thirty days or we see it." So I said: "Is not the sighting and fasting of Mu'awiyah enough for you?" He said: "This is not how the Messenger of Allah ordered us."

My father died in debt and I suggested, to his creditors that they should accept the dates we had in payment of his debt. When they refused, I went to the Prophet and said, "You know that my father died a martyr at the battle of Uhud leaving a large debt, and I would like the creditors to see you." He told me to go and collect all the dates in separate groups, and when I had done so I called him. When they looked at him it seemed as though they were more persistent with me at that time, and when he saw what they were doing he went round the largest group three times, then sitting down beside it he said, "Call your creditors to me." He then kept measuring out to them till God paid on my father's behalf what he owed. I should have been pleased that God should pay my father's debt leaving me not a date to take back to my brothers; but God kept all the groups intact, and when I looked at the group beside which the Prophet was, it seemed as if it had not been diminished by a single date. Bukhari transmitted it.

The Prophet (SAW) saw me in two clothes dyed in safflower (a red dye), whereupon he said: "Did your mother order you to do this?" [Reported by Muslim].