Chapter on the Expiation for Oaths

Out of Allah’s mercy toward His servants He has prescribed an expiation that releases one from the binding force of an oath.

Allah the Exalted says, “Allah has already ordained for you a way to absolve your oaths.” (Q 66:2)

In the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections the Prophet ﷺ said: “When you swear an oath and then see that something else is better, do what is better and make expiation for your oath.”

The expiation for an oath involves both choice and sequence. The person who must expiate may choose one of three options:

• Feeding ten needy people, giving each of them half a sāʿ (a standard prophetic measure) of food;
• Or clothing ten needy people, each with a garment sufficient for his prayer;
• Or emancipating a believing slave who is sound and free of defects.

Whoever cannot manage any of these three must fast for three days.

Thus the expiation for an oath combines choice—among feeding, clothing, and manumission—and sequence, for fasting is required only when one is unable to perform any of the first three.

The proof is Allah’s statement: “Its expiation is to feed ten needy people from the average of what you feed your own families, or to clothe them, or to free a slave; but whoever cannot find the means, then let him fast for three days.” (Q 5:89)

In brief, the noble verse means that the expiation for the oaths you bind yourselves by, when