if he has sworn to it?! Likewise, whatever Allah and His Messenger have prohibited—such as defying those in authority and deceiving them—remains forbidden even without any oath.

This is analogous to a person who swears that he will perform the five daily prayers, fast the month of Ramadan, repay what he owes, and bear truthful testimony: each of these duties is binding on him even without an oath, so how much more binding once he has sworn to do them?!

In the same way, everything that Allah and His Messenger have forbidden—polytheism, lying, consuming intoxicants, wrongdoing, lewd acts, deceiving the rulers, and departing from the obedience that Allah has commanded toward them—is unlawful even without an oath; how much more so when someone has sworn to commit such acts?!

Therefore, if a person has sworn to carry out what Allah and His Messenger have enjoined—obedience to the rulers and sincere counsel for them, the prayer, zakat, fasting in Ramadan, discharging trusts, acting justly, and the like—it is impermissible for anyone to give him a legal opinion allowing him to contradict his oath and break it, and it is likewise impermissible for him to seek such a ruling.

Whoever issues a fatwa to people permitting them to violate what they have sworn to and break their oaths is forging lies against Allah and giving verdicts that do not belong to the religion of Islam. Indeed, were he to give even an ordinary layman a ruling to act contrary to what he had sworn to—namely, to fulfill a contract