—when he said, “By the Prophet, give me a legal ruling on this matter.” I said to him, “Swearing by the Prophet ﷺ is forbidden.” The man fell silent, then said, “By the Prophet, I shall never do that again!” Thus, this view is untenable and cannot be reconciled with the Prophet’s ﷺ statement: “Do not swear by your fathers.” (1) For he ﷺ specifically forbade this. How, then, can we say that he ﷺ approved of it and that its ruling remains in force to this day? That is impossible.

The fourth answer is that swearing by other than Allah was prohibited out of fear that the one swearing might harbour in his heart the same veneration for that by which he swears as he has for Allah. In the case of the Prophet ﷺ, however, this is inconceivable: it is impossible that his heart could hold the father of this Bedouin in veneration equal to his veneration of Allah. On this basis, the matter would be particular to the Prophet ﷺ, since we know that the objectionable element involved in swearing by other than Allah cannot be conceived in his case. Thus, swearing by one’s father and the like would be prohibited for everyone other than the Prophet ﷺ, whereas in his case it would be permissible.

However, this view is weakened by the fact that he ﷺ is the exemplar for his ummah. It is inconceivable that he would swear by other than Allah while knowing that the ummah would take him as an example. Yet it may be said that he informed the ummah of the ruling through his statement: “Do not swear by your fathers.”

This fourth interpretation corresponds exactly to the view held by al-Shawkani and a group of scholars: that an action of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ never conflicts with his explicit statement.

Of these interpretations, the most likely is that it was abrogated, and this is