Ruling & Consequences

**Ruling:** Ila' is prohibited in Islam because it is an oath to abandon an obligation. **Consequences:** If the husband swears not to have intercourse with his wife forever or for more than four months, he is a muli (one who took ila'). **If he returns within four months:** If he has intercourse with her and expiates his oath before the four months end, he has "returned" (fa'a) - meaning he returned to doing what he had abandoned. Allah forgives him what occurred. **If he refuses after four months:** If he refuses to have intercourse after the four months have passed and the woman requests it, the judge commands him to do one of two things: 1. Return from his oath and have intercourse with his wife, and expiate for the oath 2. Or divorce, if he insists on maintaining his oath **If he refuses both:** If he refuses both of the above, the judge divorces on his behalf or annuls the marriage, because he stands in place of the muli when he refuses. Divorce can be done by proxy. **If there is a legitimate excuse:** If the ila' period ends and one of the spouses has an excuse preventing intercourse, the husband is commanded to return verbally by saying: "When I am able, I will have intercourse with you" - because the purpose of returning is abandoning his intent to harm her. **Similar Case:** The jurists have attached to the muli in these rulings one who abandons intercourse with his wife to harm her without an oath, for more than four months, while having no excuse. --- **Additional Rulings:** - Ila' is valid from every husband whose divorce is valid - Muslim or non-Muslim, free or slave, from an angry or sick person, and from a wife with whom consummation has not occurred - due to the generality of the verse. - In this wise legislation from Allah - commanding the muli to have intercourse or divorce - there is removal of injustice and harm from the woman, and abolition of what they used to do in pre-Islamic times of extending the ila' period. - Ila' is not valid from an insane person or one who is unconscious, because they cannot comprehend what they are saying, so intention is absent from them.