Oaths and Vows (Kitab Al-Aiman Wa Al-Nudhur)

كتاب الأيمان والنذور

Chapter 5: It Is Disliked To Swear By One's Forefathers

Sa'id ibn Ubaydah said

Ibn Umar heard a man swearing: No, I swear by the Ka'bah. Ibn Umar said to him: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: He who swears by anyone but Allah is polytheist.

Chapter 10: If A Man Swears That He Will Not Eat Idam

Narrated Yusuf ibn Abdullah ibn Salam

I saw that the Prophet (ﷺ) put a date on a loaf and said: This is a thing eaten with bread (condiments).

A similar tradition has also been transmitted by Yusuf b. 'Abd Allah b. Salam through a different chain of narrators.

Chapter 13: Is Al-Qasam An Oath ?

Narrated Ibn 'Abbas

Abu Hurairah narrated that a man came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and said: I had a dream last night, and he then mentioned it. So Abu Bakr interpreted it. The Prophet (ﷺ) said: You are partly right and partly wrong. He then said: I adjure you, Messenger of Allah, may my father be sacrificed on you, do tell me the mistake I have committed. The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Do not adjure.

Chapter 18: How Much Is The Sa' For Expiation ?

Narrated Safiyyah bint Huyayy

Ibn Harmalah said: Umm Habib gave us a sa' and told us narration from the nephew of Safiyyah on the authority of Safiyyah that it was the sa' of the Prophet (ﷺ).

Anas ibn Ayyad said: I tested it and found its capacity two and half mudd according to the mudd of Hisham.

Narrated Umayyah b. Khalid

When Khalid al-Qasri was made ruler (of Hijaz and Kufah), he doubled the measure of sa'. The sa' then measured sixteen rotls.

Abu Dawud said: Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Khattab was slain by Negroes in confinement. He said while signing with his hand: "in this way". Abu Dawud extended his hand and turned his palms towards earth and said: I saw him in the dream and asked him: How did Allah deal with you ? He replied: He admitted to Paradise. I said: Your detention did not harm you.

Chapter 19: Freeing A Believing Slave (As Expiation)

Narrated Mu'awiyah b. al-Hakam al-Sulami

I said: Messenger of Allah, I have a slave girl whom I slapped. This grieved the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). I said to him: Should I not emancipate her? He said: Bring her to me. He said: Then I brought her. He asked: Where is Allah ? She replied: In the heaven. He said: Who am I ? She replied: You are the Messenger of Allah. He said: Emancipate her, she is a believer.

Chapter 23: The View That Atonement Is Necessary If A Man Vows To Disobey Allah

Narrated 'Aishah

Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Marwazi said: The correct chain of this tradition is: 'Ali b. al-Mubarak, from Yahya b. Abi Kathir, from Muhammad b. al-Zubair, from his father, on the authority of 'Imran b. Husain from the Prophet (ﷺ)

Abu Dawud said: By this he (al-Marwazi) means that the narrator Sulaiman b. Arqam had some misunderstanding about this tradition. Al-Zuhri narrated it from him and then transmitted it (omitting his name) from Abu Salamah on the authority of 'Aishah.

Abu Dawud said: Baqiyyah has transmitted it from al-Auza'i from Yahya, from Muhammad b. al-Zubair with a similar chain of Ibn al-Mubarak.

Narrated Uqbah ibn Amir

Uqbah consulted the Prophet (ﷺ) about his sister who took a vow to perform hajj barefooted and bareheaded. So he said: Command her to cover her head and to ride, and to fast three days.

The tradition mentioned above has also been transmitted by Abu Sa'id al-Ru'aini with the same chain as narrated by Yahya (b. Sa'id) and to the same effect.

Chapter 9: What Has Been Reported About Swearing That One Has Nothing To Do With Islam Or That One Belongs To Another Religion

Narrated Buraydah ibn al-Hasib

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If anyone takes an oath and says: I am free from Islam; now if he is a liar (in his oath), he will not return to Islam with soundness.

Chapter 12: How The Prophet (saws) Swore An Oath

Narrated Ibn 'Umar

The oath which the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) often used was this: No, by Him who overturns the hearts.

Chapter 13: Is Al-Qasam An Oath ?

Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas

AbuBakr adjured the Prophet (ﷺ). The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Do not adjure an oath.

The tradition mentioned above has also been transmitted by Ibn 'Abbas through a different chain of narrators. In this version there is no mention of the word qasam (oath). It has the words

"He did not inform him."

Chapter 15: An Oath To Sever Ties Of Kinship

Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: A vow is binding in those things by which the pleasure of Allah is sought, and an oath to break ties of relationship is not binding.

Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: An oath or a vow about something over which a human being has no control, and to disobey Allah, and to break ties of relationship is not binding. If anyone takes an oath and then considers something else better than it, he should give it up, and do what is better, for leaving it is its atonement.

Abu Dawud said: All sound traditions from the Prophet (ﷺ) say: "He should make atonement for his oath," except those versions which are not reliable.

Abu Dawud said: I said to Ahmad: Yahya b. Sa'id (al-Qattan) has transmitted this tradition from Yahya b. 'Ubaid Allah. He (Ahmad b. Hanbal) said: But he gave it up after that, and he was competent for doing it. Ahmad said: His (Yahya b. 'Ubaid Allah's) tradition are munkar (rejected) and his father is not known.

Chapter 17: Breaking The Oath When That Is Better

Narrated Abu Burdah

On the authority of his father that the Prophet (ﷺ) said: I swear by Allah that if Allah wills I shall swear on an oath and then consider something else to be better than it without making atonement for my oath and doing the thing that is better. Or he said (according to another version): But doing the thing that is better and making atonement for my oath.

A similar tradition has been transmitted by 'Abd al-Rahman b. Samurah through a different chain if narrators. This version has

Abu Dawud said: The version of this tradition transmitted by Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, 'Adi b. Hatim and Abu Hurairah are variant. Some of them indicate breaking the oath before making atonement, and other making atonement before breaking the oath.

Chapter 19: Freeing A Believing Slave (As Expiation)

Narrated Ash-Sharid ibn Suwayd ath-Thaqafi

Sharid's mother left a will to emancipate a believing slave on her behalf. So he came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and said: Messenger of Allah, my mother left a will that I should emancipate a believing slave for her, and I have a black Nubian slave-girl. He mentioned a tradition about the test of the girl.

Abu Dawud said: Khalid b. 'Abd Allah narrated this tradition direct from the Prophet (ﷺ). He did not mention the name of al-Sharid.

Narrated Abu Hurairah

A man brought the Prophet (ﷺ) a black slave girl. He said: Messenger of Allah, emancipation of believing slave is due to me. He asked her: Where is Allah ? She pointed to the heaven with her finger. He then asked her: Who am I ? She pointed to the Prophet (ﷺ) and to the heaven, that is to say: You are the Messenger of Allah. He then said: Set her free, she is a believer.