Ahmad said: 'There is heedlessness (ghaflah) in him, yet he is truthful (saduq).' Ibn al-Mundhir said: 'I fear that it is one of his instances of heedlessness, since he was not supported in this narration.' Furthermore, there is no disagreement that if he had set the term until the time of ease (al-maysarah), it would not be valid.

Section: If he sets the term to a month, it relates to the beginning of it. If he uses a term that applies to two things, such as Jumada, Rabi', or the day of the departure (nafr), it relates to the first of them. If he says: 'to three months,' it is until they have elapsed, because when he mentions three months indefinitely, their commencement must be from the time he uttered them. Likewise, if he says: 'to a month,' it would be until its end. This refers to lunar months, based on the evidence of His saying, the Almighty: {Indeed, the number of months with Allah is twelve [lunar] months in the record of Allah [from] the day He created the heavens and the earth; of these, four are sacred} [Al-Tawbah: 36], and He intended the lunar ones. If he is in the middle of a month, we complete two months by the lunar cycle and one month by count as thirty days. It is said: All three are counted numerically. We have mentioned this in a place other than this.

If he says: 'Its maturity is in such-and-such a month or such-and-such a day,' it is valid, and it relates to the beginning of it. It is said: It is not valid, because he made that a container (zaraf), so it could potentially mean its beginning or its end. The correct view is the first, for if he were to say to his wife: 'You are divorced in such-and-such a month,' it relates to its beginning, and it is analogous to our issue. If it is said: 'Divorce relates to warning and caution, and it is permissible to suspend it upon an unknown event, such as the rain falling or Zayd arriving, unlike our issue,' we say: 'However, when he designates its maturity within a month, it relates to its beginning, so it is not unknown, and likewise is Salam.'

Section: It is a condition of the term that it be a duration that has significance regarding the price, such as a month or what is close to it. The companions of Abu Hanifah said: If he estimates it as half a day, it is permissible. Some estimated it as three days, and it is the view of al-Awza'i, because it is a duration in which the option of stipulation (khiyar al-shart) is permissible, because it is the limit of the minimum, and because the permission for the dispensations of travel relates to it according to them. Others said: Deferment is only considered