it falls among permissible acts involving neither obedience nor disobedience to Allah, for the reason already mentioned: one who swears by divorce is making divorce conditional upon a particular circumstance.
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The third category, concerning which there is disagreement, consists of swearing that one will or will not perform an act by pledging an act of obedience and devotion, such as prayer, fasting, walking to the House of Allah, fighting in Allah’s cause, pilgrimage, or the like. Mālik and his companions held that this undertaking becomes binding if he breaks his oath, just as it becomes binding through a vow. This is a fundamental principle of Mālik’s school—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—although a few of his rulings depart from it. A number of scholars disagreed with him on this principle, though the views reported from them differ considerably.
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If he qualifies such an oath by making it conditional upon the will of a created being, the qualification avails him. If he makes it conditional upon the will of the Creator, the disagreement mentioned above applies. Nor can such an oath be treated as an idle oath.
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The second form of swearing by something other than Allah is to swear by the sanctity of something that one will or will not perform an act. Examples include saying, “By my father, I will certainly do such-and-such,” or, “By the Prophet,” or, “By Mecca,” or, “By prayer, zakat, and divorce, I will not do it,” and similar expressions. None of these constitutes an oath, and no expiation is due from anyone who swears by any such thing and then breaks his oath. Nevertheless, swearing in this manner is disliked, because the Messenger of Allah ﷺ prohibited swearing by anything other than Allah, and because someone who swears by something intends to venerate it, whereas Allah is most deserving of veneration.
There is disagreement over the interpretation of Allah’s words—Mighty and Majestic is He—“By the Mount,” “By the sky,” “By the night-comer,” “By the star,” “By the fig,” “By the olive,” and similar oaths found in the Quran. One view is that these are figurative expressions, meaning, “By the Lord of the Mount,” “By the Lord of the sky and the night-comer,” “By the Lord of the star,” and so forth. The first noun in the possessive construction is thus omitted, and its complement takes its place, as in His words, Most High:
“And ask the town” [Yūsuf: 82].
Another view is that these oaths are literal, not