Thus, an oath intended to urge or restrain an action, or to affirm or deny something—by undertaking, should one act contrary to it, a consequence one dislikes—is an oath in the understanding of all people, Arabs and non-Arabs alike, whether expressed explicitly as an oath or as a conditional statement. For an utterance’s being an oath is like its being a command, a prohibition, or a statement. These meanings are recognized by everyone, Arab and non-Arab alike. Languages differ only in their expressions, not in these meanings. Whatever constitutes an oath, a command, or a prohibition among non-Arabs likewise constitutes an oath, a command, or a prohibition among Arabs. This, too, is an oath as understood by the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—and it is an oath both in common usage and according to all the jurists.

Since it is an “oath,” the Quran and Sunnah provide only two rulings for it. Either it is binding and must be honoured, in which case expiation is prescribed for breaking it; or it is not binding and need not be honoured—as with swearing by created beings or things, such as the Kaaba, the angels, and so forth—in which case no expiation is due, by agreement. As for a binding oath that must be honoured but cannot be discharged through expiation, this is a ruling found neither in the Book of Allah nor in the Sunnah of His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Nor is it supported by any scriptural proof that withstands the counterevidence adduced.

If this oath belongs to the oaths of Muslims, then it falls within Allah’s words addressed to the Muslims:

“Allah has already ordained for you the dissolution of your oaths.”

If it does not belong to their oaths, but instead amounts to swearing by created beings or things, then breaking it entails neither expiation nor any other obligation, and it therefore has no legal effect.