and mounts his beast, prays if the time for prayer has arrived, secures his property if it is not secured, and other such tasks. If he delays it after all this, he no longer has the right to deny it. Abu Hanifa said: He may delay his denial for a day or two out of discretionary preference (istihsan), because performing the denial immediately after birth is difficult, so it was estimated as two days due to its briefness. Abu Yusuf and Muhammad said: It is limited to the period of postpartum bleeding (nifas), because it carries the same ruling as birth. It was narrated from 'Ata' and Mujahid that he has the right to deny it as long as he has not acknowledged it, so he may deny it as in the case of birth. Our position is that this is an option (khiyar) to repel a realized harm, so it must be exercised immediately, like the option of pre-emption (shuf'a), and the saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him): "The child belongs to the bed" is a general rule from which what we have agreed upon with the established Sunnah has been extracted; therefore, what remains falls under the generality of the hadith. What Abu Hanifa mentioned is invalidated by the option of rejection due to a defect and the exercising of the right of pre-emption, and his estimation based on the period of postpartum bleeding is an arbitrary opinion for which there is no evidence. What 'Ata' said is also invalidated by what we have mentioned. Retaliation (qisas) is not binding here because it is for obtaining a right, not for repelling harm, nor is the pregnancy [a cause for immediate denial] because its harm has not yet been realized. Once this is established, is the option to deny limited to the session of learning or to the possibility of denial? There are two views, based on [the process of] claiming pre-emption. If he delays his denial beyond that and then claims he did not know about the birth, and his honesty is possible—such as being in a place where such news would be hidden from him, like being in another district—then his statement is accepted upon his oath, because the original state is lack of knowledge. If it is not possible, such as if he were with her in the house, it is not accepted because such things would not likely be hidden from him. If he says: "I knew of her birth, but I did not know that I had the right to deny it," or "I knew that, but I did not know it had to be done immediately," and he is of those for whom such things would be hidden, like the common people, it is accepted from him because this is something that is hidden from them, similar to someone who is a new convert to Islam. If he were a scholar (faqih), this would not be accepted from him because it is something that is not...