What is the ruling if a husband swears an oath for a longer duration followed by an oath for a shorter duration, or vice versa, without specifying subsequent timing?

General Chapter

Al-Mughni

Book of the Oath of Abstention (Ila')

Book 41 · Issue 2 · Bab 1

Open in Qurani

Primary text

If a man swears, 'By Allah, I will not have intercourse with you for a year,' and then says, 'By Allah, I will not have intercourse with you for half a year,' or the reverse, the shorter period is subsumed into the longer one because it is a part of it. This is treated as a single ila' with a single time frame and a single expiation, analogous to acknowledging a debt of one dirham and then acknowledging half a dirham.