The Meaning of Ibn 'Abbas's Statement: If It Is Less Than Four Months, It Is Not Ila'
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Question:
Honorable Shaykh, in the hadith of Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him), "If it is less than four months, it is not ila'," what is the meaning of this phrase?
Answer:
It means it is not an ila' that requires the judge to intervene. It is an ila', and even if he swore "by the family of the Messenger," and the hadith of "by the family of the Messenger" mentions a month and calls it the ila' of a month, his intention is that it is not the ila' that entails the ruling, which is the judge's intervention and giving him the choice between two things. That is his intention.
Honorable Shaykh, in the hadith of Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him), "If it is less than four months, it is not ila'," what is the meaning of this phrase?
Answer:
It means it is not an ila' that requires the judge to intervene. It is an ila', and even if he swore "by the family of the Messenger," and the hadith of "by the family of the Messenger" mentions a month and calls it the ila' of a month, his intention is that it is not the ila' that entails the ruling, which is the judge's intervention and giving him the choice between two things. That is his intention.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، باب الرجعة، وباب الإيلاء والظهار والكفارة — islamhouse.com (48:21)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.