1194 – From Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both), who reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) “forbade making vows and said, ‘They bring no good; they are only extracted from the miser.’” Agreed upon. (1)

Vocabulary notes
• “Bring no good”: their outcome is not praiseworthy, and a person may find himself unable to fulfil them.
• “Only extracted from the miser”: the tight-fisted person will not give charity or perform an act of kindness unless something becomes compulsory for him, and the vow forces him to do so.

Points derived from the hadith

1. The prohibition of making vows. A prohibition normally indicates unlawfulness, but the praise given to those who do fulfil their vows shifts the ruling from prohibition to dislikedness. In al-Ikhtiyārāt, Ibn Taymiyyah (Abu al-ʿAbbās) hesitated to declare vows unlawful, while a number of hadith scholars did consider them forbidden. All scholars, however, concur that once a vow is made it must be fulfilled.

2. The reason for the prohibition is stated in the hadith itself: “They bring no good; they are only extracted from the miser.” At most, the vow leads a person to carry out what is already obligatory in the Sacred Law, while anything beyond that of virtuous deeds remains burdensome to him.

3. Another factor that renders vows disliked is the attitude of bargaining with Allah. The person stipulates that if he attains his objective or a hardship is removed, he will perform the act of worship he has vowed; otherwise, he will not. Yet Allah is entirely free of need for His servants and their acts of obedience.