that he made the month a temporal context for the divorce, so when that which serves as its context is found, she is divorced, just as if he said: 'If you enter the house, you are divorced.' So when she enters the first part of it, she is divorced. As for if he says: 'If I do not pay you your due in the month of Ramadan, my wife is divorced,' she is not divorced until Ramadan passes before his payment, because if he pays her at its end, the condition is not fulfilled. In both situations, he is not prohibited from intercourse with his wife before the breach of the oath. Malik said: He is prohibited. Similarly, for every oath regarding an action he is to perform, he is prohibited from intercourse before he performs it, because the apparent [implication] is that it is a breach, as the breach is by leaving the action, and he is not a performer [of it yet]. Our evidence is that his divorce has not occurred, so he is not prohibited from intercourse on account of the oath, just as if he had sworn: 'I will not do such-and-such.' If what he mentioned were correct, it would be obligatory to effect the divorce.

Section: Whenever he makes a time a temporal context for divorce, the divorce occurs at the first part of it, such as if he says: 'You are divorced today,' or 'tomorrow,' or 'in such-and-such year,' or 'in the month of Muharram,' for the reason we mentioned. If he says: 'I intended at its end,' or 'its middle,' or 'on such-and-such a day of it,' or 'in the daytime but not the night,' it is accepted from him in what is between him and Allah, the Exalted. As for whether it is accepted in terms of legal ruling, it is derived based on two narrations. If he says: 'You are divorced at the beginning of Ramadan,' or 'the new moon of Ramadan,' or 'at the head of the month of Ramadan,' or 'the entry of the month of Ramadan,' or 'the approach of Ramadan,' or 'the coming of the month of Ramadan,' she is divorced at the first part of it, and his statement, 'I intended its middle or its end,' is not accepted, neither apparently nor internally, because his wording does not admit it. If he says: 'At the expiration of Ramadan,' or 'its passing,' or 'its end,' or 'its completion,' she is divorced at the last part of it. If he says: 'You are divorced at the beginning of the daylight of the month of Ramadan,' or 'at the beginning of a day of it,' she is divorced at the dawn of the first day of it, because that is the beginning of the daylight and the day. This is why if he makes a vow of I'tikaf (seclusion) for a day, or fasting for a day, it becomes binding upon him from the breaking of dawn. If he says: 'You are divorced when it is Ramadan,' or 'until Ramadan,' or 'until the crescent of Ramadan,' or 'at the crescent of Ramadan,' she is divorced the moment it is sighted, unless he intended from that moment until the crescent, in which case she is divorced immediately.