Muslim also related in his Sahih from Adī ibn Hātim, who said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “If any of you swears an oath and then sees that another course is better, let him make expiation for his oath and do what is better.” Another version related by Muslim reads: “Whoever swears an oath and then sees that another course is better should make expiation for his oath and do what is better.”

This sunnah has also been related from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) through routes other than these, in the hadiths of Abd Allāh ibn Umar and Awf ibn Mālik al-Jushamī.

Thus, these are mass-transmitted texts from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), stating that he commanded: “Whoever swears an oath and then sees that another course is better should make expiation for his oath and do what is better.” He made no distinction between an oath sworn by Allah and one framed as a vow or the like. Al-Nasāī also related from Abū Mūsā that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “There is no oath on earth that I swear and then see that another course is better without my taking the better course.” This explicitly shows that he intended to include every oath on earth. Likewise, his Companions understood this statement to include oaths framed as vows.

Abū Dāwūd related in his Sunan: Muhammad ibn al-Minhāl narrated to us; Yazīd ibn Zuray narrated to us; [Habīb ibn al-Muallim] narrated to us, from Amr ibn Shuayb, from Saīd ibn al-Musayyib: “Two brothers from among the Ansār shared an inheritance. One of them asked the other to divide it, whereupon the latter said, ‘If you ask me again to divide it, all my wealth shall be devoted to the Kaaba.’ Umar said to him, ‘The Kaaba has no need of your wealth. Make expiation for your oath and speak to your brother. I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “You are bound by neither an oath nor