(89) “Allah will not hold you accountable for unintentional oaths” (1).

That is, for oaths uttered unintentionally: those sworn without any deliberate intent or purpose, or those a person swears believing himself to be truthful, only for the contrary to become apparent. “But He will hold you accountable for the oaths you deliberately bind yourselves by”—that is, those you firmly intend and to which your hearts commit. As He says in another verse, “But He will hold you accountable for what your hearts have earned.” “Its expiation”—meaning the expiation for an oath you deliberately made—“is to feed ten needy people.”

This food must be “from the average of what you feed your own families, or to clothe them”—that is, to clothe ten needy people, with clothing adequate for prayer—“or to free a slave,” meaning a believing slave, as stipulated elsewhere. Whoever performs any one of these three has thereby discharged his oath.

“But whoever cannot afford” any of these three “must fast for three days. That”—the foregoing—“is the expiation for your oaths when you have sworn.” It expiates and erases them and safeguards one from sin.

“And guard your oaths”: refrain from swearing falsely by Allah and from swearing excessively. Once you have sworn, guard your oaths by not breaking them, unless breaking the oath would be better. Perfectly guarding an oath then means doing what is good and not allowing the oath to become an obstacle to that good.

“Thus Allah makes His signs clear to you”—signs that distinguish the lawful from the forbidden and clarify the rulings—“so that you may give thanks” to Allah for teaching you what you did not know. His servants must therefore thank Allah Most High for graciously bestowing ⦗243⦘ upon them knowledge and clarification of the rulings of the Sacred Law.