In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Book of Ila' (Vowing to Abstain from Spousal Intercourse)

Ila' in the language signifies an oath. It is said: "Ala, yuli, ila'an wa aliya" (he swore). The plural of "aliya" is "alaya." The poet says:

Few are his oaths, yet he is mindful of his vow; When an oath departs from him, it is fulfilled.

It is also said: "Ta'alla, yata'alla." In the Hadith: "Whoever swears (yata'alla) by Allah, He will prove him a liar." As for Ila' in Islamic law, it is swearing an oath to refrain from having sexual intercourse with one's wife. The basis for this is the saying of Allah, the Almighty: "For those who swear (yu'luna) to abstain from their wives, there is a waiting period of four months" (Qur'an 2:226). Ubayy ibn Ka'b and Ibn Abbas used to recite it as: "Yuqsimuna" (they swear).

1298 - Issue; He said: (The "Muli" [one who performs Ila'] is the one who swears by Allah, the Almighty, that he will not have intercourse with his wife for more than four months.)

The sum of it is that there are four conditions for Ila'. The first is that he must swear by Allah, the Almighty, or by one of His attributes. There is no disagreement among the scholars that an oath made in such a manner constitutes Ila'. However, if he swears to refrain from intercourse by something else—such as swearing by divorce, manumission [of a slave], giving charity of wealth, Hajj, or Zihar—there are two narrations [from Imam Ahmad]. The first is that he does not become a Muli. This is the opinion of Al-Shafi'i in his earlier school. The second narration is that he is a Muli. It has been narrated from Ibn Abbas that he said: "Every oath that prevents intercourse is Ila'."