the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said to him: “O Abd al-Rahmān ibn Samura, do not ask for authority. If it is granted to you because you asked for it, you will be left to bear it alone; but if it is granted without your asking, you will be aided in discharging it. If you swear an oath and then see that something else is better, do what is better and expiate your oath.”

Thus, the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—explained to him the ruling concerning the trust, namely authority, and the ruling concerning the covenant, namely the oath. In the early days of Islam, before expiation was prescribed, they had no release from an oath. Hence Aisha said, “Abu Bakr would never break an oath until Allah revealed the expiation for oaths.” This was because an oath by Allah is a bond made through Allah and must therefore be fulfilled, just as all other covenants must be fulfilled—and with even greater reason. Expressions such as “I swear by Allah,” “I take an oath by Allah,” “I make a solemn vow by Allah,” and the like convey the meaning: “I bind this by Allah.” This is why they take the preposition that denotes attachment and is used for tying and binding. The matter sworn to thereby becomes bound by Allah, just as one hand is joined to the other when a pact is concluded. For this reason, Allah—Glory be to Him—called it a “bond” when He said: “But He will call you to account for the oaths you have solemnly bound yourselves by.” [al-Māʾida: 89] When a person has thus bound an oath by Allah, breaking it would constitute a breach of Allah’s covenant and solemn pledge, were it not for the release that Allah has prescribed. This is why breaking an oath was called hinth (oath-breaking), although hinth originally means sin. Breaking it would therefore occasion sin were it not for the expiation that effaces it. It is expiation alone that prevents the breach from entailing sin.

The counterpart to the dispensation allowing an oath to be expiated after it has been solemnly bound is the dispensation likewise granted through the expiation for zihār (a declaration rendering one’s wife forbidden), after zihār had constituted divorce during the pre-Islamic period and at the beginning of Islam. Likewise, īlāʾ (an oath of marital abstinence) constituted divorce among them. All this accords with the principle that it is obligatory to