Chapter: A Comprehensive Treatment of Oaths

When interpreting an oath, one first refers to the swearer’s intention—provided the wording can reasonably bear that intention. If no intention is evident, the ruling reverts to the motive for the oath and what1 stirred it up; should that also be absent, the matter is determined by whatever specific designation was made.

Hence, if someone swears, “I shall not wear this shirt,” then turns it into trousers, a cloak, or a turban and wears it; or says, “I shall not speak to this boy,” and the boy grows into an old man; or swears, “I shall not address this woman, the wife of so-and-so,” or “his friend so-and-so,” or “his slave Saʿīd,” and the marriage, ownership, or friendship subsequently ends and he speaks to them; or declares, “I shall not eat the meat of this lamb,” and it becomes a ram, or “these fresh dates,” and they become2 dried dates, syrup, or vinegar, or “this milk,” and it turns into cheese, kashk, or the like, and he then eats3—he is deemed to have broken his oath in every one of these cases, unless he had intended, “only so long as it remains…"