Muḥammad ibn ʿUmāra ibn al-Qaʿqāʿ

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Kūfī related to us: Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥāzimī related to us: Ḥusayn ibn Saʿīd al-Lakhmī related to us: My father related to us, from Muḥammad ibn ʿUmāra ibn al-Qaʿqāʿ: One night a man had an altercation with his wife and said, ‘You are to me like my mother’s back if I do not have intercourse with you tonight.’ They argued again, and he said, ‘You are to me like my mother’s back if I have intercourse with you tonight.’ He wandered about in confusion that night, seeking legal opinions. He visited most of Kufa’s jurists but found no answer from them. Then he came to Abū Ḥanīfa—may God have mercy on him—and called him out. Abū Ḥanīfa said, ‘At this hour?’ He said, ‘Abū Ḥanīfa, for God’s sake, for God’s sake! This is a calamity,’ then told him what had happened. Abū Ḥanīfa—may God have mercy on him—said, ‘Woe to you, do you have slaves?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Then free one of them, and your oath will have been fulfilled.’

The comparison to the mother’s back is the formula of ẓihār. The report’s terse resolution is translated without adding an explanation of its legal mechanism.