It [Li'an] requires the name of Allah, the Exalted, and both the male and female are equal in this regard. As for naming it a testimony, it is because of His saying in his oath: 'I bear witness by Allah.' So He named it a testimony even though it is an oath, as the Most High said: {When the hypocrites come to you, they say: 'We bear witness that you are indeed the Messenger of Allah'} (10). Furthermore, the husband needs to negate the child, so a path is legislated for him to negate it, just as if his wife were among those for whose slander the hadd punishment is applicable. This narration is the one explicitly stated by Ahmad in the narration of the group (the major scholars). Whatever contradicts it is considered anomalous (shadhdh) in transmission. As for the statement of al-Khiraqi: 'And if he slanders his wife who is an adult, free, and Muslim,' it is possible that he stipulated this for the obligation of the hadd upon him, not to negate the Li'an. It is also possible that this is a condition in his view regarding the woman, so that she may be among those for whom the hadd is mandatory if slandered, and he [the husband] then negates it [the child] through Li'an. Nothing of this is required for the husband, because the hadd is mandatory for him upon slandering a chaste woman, even if he were a dhimmi or a transgressor (fasiq). As for his statement: 'whether he is a Muslim or a disbeliever,' it requires examination, because he made it mandatory for him upon slandering his Muslim wife, and a disbeliever cannot be a husband to a Muslim woman. Thus, it requires interpreting his wording by carrying it upon one of two things: first, that he meant the husband performs Li'an with his wife, even if he is a disbeliever; he referred that to the Li'an, not to the hadd. Second, that he meant the situation where his wife embraces Islam, and he slanders her during her waiting period ('idda), then the husband embraces Islam, in which case he performs Li'an.

Section: There is no difference whether the wife has been consummated with or not in that he performs Li'an with her. Ibn al-Mundhir said: All those we remember from the scholars of the regions have agreed upon this; among them are 'Ata', al-Hasan, al-Sha'bi, al-Nakha'i, 'Amr ibn Dinar, Qatada, Malik, the people of Medina, al-Thawri, the people of Iraq, and al-Shafi'i, based on the apparent meaning of the saying of Allah, the Exalted: {And those who accuse their wives}. If she has not been consummated with, she is entitled to half the dowry, because it is a separation initiated by him (12). Al-Hasan, Sa'id ibn Jubayr, Qatada, and Malik said the same. There is another narration that she has no dowry, because the separation resulted from the Li'an of both of them, so it resembles a separation due to a defect in one of them.