Oaths and vows

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Tha'labah al-Khushani (may Allah be pleased with him): I said: "O Messenger of Allah! I vowed to slaughter some camels at the site of one of the idols of the Days of Ignorance?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Fulfil your vow, and do not become sinful before your Lord." Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said (stating the legal principle in this regard): "There is no fulfilment of a vow (that is, it is not lawful to carry it out) in disobedience and defiance of Allah Almighty, in severing ties of kinship, or in what a person does not himself own."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), at a time when al-Miswar (may Allah be pleased with him), Abdullah bin Shaddad and Nafi' bin Jubayr (may Allah have mercy on them both) were sitting with him, that he related that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "There are three cases in which there is no binding oath (of one party over the other): there is no oath of a child over his father, no oath of a woman over her husband, and no oath of a slave over his master."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No vow is permissible in any matter based on disobedience and defiance of Allah Almighty, nor is any oath (valid) for severing ties of kinship, nor does a slave have any oath against his master, nor a wife any oath in the presence of her husband, nor is a child's oath of any account before his father."

A man of the desert narrates from his father, and he from his grandfather (may Allah be pleased with him), that he performed Hajj together with a close relative of his while they had tied themselves to one another (with a rope) (because of a vow). When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saw them in this state, he asked: "What is this?" They said: "(O Messenger of Allah!) It is a vow." So he (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded that this bond be cut.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: "Whoever swears by the Noble Qur'an, then (in case he breaks it) the expiation of one oath is due on him for each and every verse of the Qur'an."
The narrator relates: I mentioned this statement to Imam Ibrahim al-Nakha'i, and he too reported this saying of Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him): "Whoever swears by the Glorious Qur'an, the expiation of one oath is due on him for each verse, and whoever disbelieves in even a single letter of the Qur'an has indeed disbelieved in the whole Qur'an."

Abdullah bin Shaqiq narrates that a man, in the presence of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), said (swearing by the trust): "By the trust (al-amanah)!" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said (in view of the gravity of this oath): "I said: 'By the trust?' I said: 'By the trust?'" He (peace and blessings be upon him) kept repeating these words until (seeing the awe and concern that had come over him (peace and blessings be upon him)) we wished in our hearts that he (peace and blessings be upon him) would now fall silent.

Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates from a woman that she said (in a matter of an oath): "If a woman wears clothing given by her husband, it becomes a gift." At this Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "She should give it away as a gift."
And when Imam al-Hasan al-Basri (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked about this issue, he said: In such a case that woman should pay the expiation for her oath.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever swears an oath about some matter (with words of disbelief) is just as he uttered with his tongue: if he said, 'I am a Jew,' then he is a Jew; if he said, 'I am a Christian,' then he is a Christian; and if he said, 'I am a Magian,' then he is a Magian."

Imam al-Tayalisi (may Allah have mercy on him) narrated with his chain from Sayyiduna Udhaynah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever swears an oath about some matter and then sees something else better than it, let him do what is better and pay the expiation for his (first) oath."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever swears an oath about some matter and then sees something else better than it, let him do what is better, and no expiation is due on him."

It is narrated through the chain of Imam Abu Ya'la (may Allah have mercy on him) that Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) relates that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever takes an oath about some matter and then finds another course better than it, in that case the expiation of his oath is simply to abandon it (the first thing)."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that he said: "Whoever swears to beat one under his authority (an owned slave or servant), the expiation of his oath is simply to abandon that intention (and not beat him), and along with this expiation the act is also a good deed."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) asked a man: "O so-and-so! Did you do such and such?" He replied: "No, by Allah besides whom there is no true deity, 'la ilaha illa huwa' (there is no deity except Him), I did not do it," although the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) knew that he had done it. But he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: "Allah Almighty has expiated (that is, forgiven) your lie by the blessing of your affirming the word of tawhid 'la ilaha illallah' (there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah)."
Imam Abd bin Humayd and Imam Abu Ya'la also narrated it through al-Harith. Moreover, Imam al-Hakim declared it sahih (authentic) through the chain of Malik bin Isma'il from Abu Qudamah (al-Harith bin Ubayd). However, Hammad bin Salamah contradicted al-Harith, and among the students of Thabit al-Bunani he is regarded as more reliable and precise than him; he narrated it with the chain 'Thabit from Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both)'. Hammad further said that Thabit did not hear this narration directly from Sayyiduna Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both); rather, there is another narrator between the two of them.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu al-Darda' (may Allah be pleased with him) that Allah Almighty granted the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) some camels as spoils. He (peace and blessings be upon him) inspected them for distribution, and Sayyiduna Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "O Messenger of Allah! Give me some of them too." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No." He insisted three times, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "By Allah, I will not do it," until at last four camels remained that were very sturdy and had high humps, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Abu Musa! Take them." He said: "O Messenger of Allah! I asked you for a gift and you refused me and also swore an oath, so I feared that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) might have made some lapse (forgetfulness) regarding his oath, in that he has given me these camels."
At this he (peace and blessings be upon him), explaining the prophetic principle, said: "When I swear an oath about something and then see that there is more good in another course, I pay the expiation for my oath and adopt the course that is better and more excellent."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Imran bin Husayn al-Khuza'i (may Allah be pleased with him): I came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) with a group of people so that we could ask him for mounts. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I have no mount to give you, and by Allah, I will not provide you with mounts."
The narrator relates: We had to wait a few days; then camels of charity were brought to him (peace and blessings be upon him), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) sent for me and ordered that we be given three excellent camels with white humps. When we set off with those camels, I said to my companions: "By Allah, I do not think there will be blessing for us in these camels, because the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) swore not to give us mounts; perhaps he (peace and blessings be upon him) has forgotten. So we should go back in order to remind him (peace and blessings be upon him) of his oath."
So we came to him (peace and blessings be upon him) again and said: "O Messenger of Allah! What of the oath you swore not to give us mounts?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I remember my oath well; (the truth is that) whoever among you swears an oath about something and then sees more good in another course, let him do what is better and pay the expiation for his oath."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna al-Harith bin Malik bin al-Barsa' (may Allah be pleased with him) that during the days of Hajj he called out among the people, announcing that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever swears a false oath with the aim of wrongfully taking any part of a Muslim's wealth will meet Allah Almighty while Allah Almighty is intensely angry with him."
Imam Sufyan bin Uyaynah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: As far as I know, he narrated this as a marfu' report from the Prophet of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Abd al-Rahman, that is, Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), that he said: "We used to count the 'yamin ghamus' (a false oath that plunges a person into sin or into the Fire) among those major sins for which there is no expiation (except repentance and returning the right)." The narrator relates that he was asked: "What is the yamin ghamus?" He (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Seizing another person's wealth by means of one's (false) oath."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) that he used to say: "In discharging the expiation for an oath, one mudd of wheat for each poor person is sufficient."