Islamic Fiqh > Marriage and family > Ila (oath of abstinence)
Ila: the husband's oath not to approach his wife, the 4-month limit, and the obligation to break it.
The ila is the oath by which the husband forgoes intercourse with his wife. The Quran allots it a term of four months (Surah Al-Baqarah, 226), at the end of which the wife demands either the return (fay') or divorce. On the moment of this demand, the Hanafis place it within the four-month term, al-Shafi'i after its expiry. The positions of the four schools then cover the oath's validity, its duration, the return, the expiation and the resulting divorce.
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Updated on 07 October 2026 at 6:42 PM
The ila is the oath by which a husband forgoes intercourse with his wife. The Quran allots it a term of four months, at the end of which the wife demands either the return (fay') or divorce. The sheets below present the positions of the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools on the oath's validity, its duration, the return, the expiation, the resulting divorce, the persons concerned and the forms of the oath.
Bada'i al-Sana'i by al-Kasani · Hanafi school
...in intercourse, so that the removal of this injustice be to the measure of the injustice: the ruling is thus established in accordance with the cause.
As for the time of the demand (fa'), the demand is, according to us (Hanafis), within the term (four months), and according to al-Shafi'i after the lapse of the term; and we shall mention the question in the exposition of the ruling of ila, Allah willing.
Al-Hawi al-Kabir by al-Mawardi · Shafi'i school
Chapter: ila. (Abridgment of the Jami, of the book of ila, old and new, and dictated upon the questions of Malik and Ibn al-Qassim.) Al-Shafi'i, may Allah have mercy on him, said: Allah, the Most High, said: "Those who vow abstention from their wives have a wait of four months" (al-Baqara, 226).
Al-Mawardi said: ila, in their speech, is the oath: one says ila, ya'li, ilan (vowing abstention); ila is the verbal noun, and alla ilayyan the noun.
Jarir said (in verse): "There is no good in wealth upon which hangs a vow of abstention".