and restraint, so it does not become partitioned, like other hadd punishments, and it does not lapse by the pardon of some of them; because it is intended to repel disgrace from the accused, each of the agnates stands in his place in executing it, so all of it is established for him, like the guardianship of marriage, and it differs from the right of retaliation, because that [latter] right is lost in favor of a substitute, and if we were to cause it to lapse here, the right of the one who did not pardon would lapse without a substitute. On this basis, if he accuses his wife and she dies after demanding the hadd, and she has one of her agnates other than him, he has the right to execute it. If her husband is her agnate and she has no one else besides him, it lapses. If she has agnates other than him, they have the right to demand it, and it does not lapse, for the reason we mentioned: that it is complete for each one of them, unlike the right of retaliation.

Section: If he accuses his wife and possesses evidence (bayyina) that testifies to her adultery, he is given the choice between performing li'an (imprecation) against her or establishing the evidence, because they are both types of proof; therefore, he has the choice of establishing whichever he wishes, like someone to whom a debt is owed who has two witnesses, or one witness and two women. Furthermore, each of the two achieves something that the other does not: by li'an, the negation of an invalid lineage is achieved, which is not achieved by evidence; and by evidence, the establishment of her adultery and the execution of the hadd upon her is achieved, which is not achieved by li'an. If he performs li'an against her and negates her child, then wishes to establish the evidence, he may do so; and once he establishes it, the legal consequence of the li'an and the legal consequence of the evidence are both established. If he establishes the evidence first, the adultery and its consequence are established, but the child is not negated from him, for the fact that a child is his does not necessarily follow from the adultery. If he wishes to perform li'an against her after that, and there is no child between them whom he wishes to negate, he may not do so, because the hadd has already been averted from him by the establishment of the evidence, so there is no need for it. If there is a child between them whom he wishes to negate, then according to the position of al-Qadi, he may perform li'an. We have already mentioned that previously.

Section: If he accuses her and she demands the hadd from him, and he establishes two witnesses to her admission of adultery, the hadd lapses from him, because it is established that she confirmed his statement, and the hadd does not become incumbent upon her, because the hadd does not become incumbent except