with the average food you feed your families, or to clothe them, or to free a slave. Whoever cannot afford this must fast for three days. That is the expiation for your oaths when you swear them. Guard your oaths. Thus Allah makes His signs clear to you, so that you may be grateful.”

As for the Sunnah, the two Sahīh collections report from ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Samura that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to him:

“O ‘Abd al-Rahmān, do not ask for authority. If you are given it after asking for it, you will be left to bear it on your own; but if you are given it without asking, you will be helped to discharge it. If you swear an oath and then see that another course is better, do what is better and expiate your oath.”

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, thus explained to him the ruling concerning a trust, represented here by authority, and the ruling concerning a pledge, represented here by an oath.

In the early days of Islam, before expiation was prescribed, they had no release from their oaths. Hence ‘Ā’isha said: “Abū Bakr would never break an oath until Allah revealed the expiation for oaths.” This is because an oath sworn by Allah is a binding commitment made by invoking Allah, so it must be fulfilled—even more strictly than other binding agreements. Saying “I swear by Allah,” “I take an oath by Allah,” or something similar amounts to saying, “I bind myself by Allah.” This is why these expressions take the preposition bā’, which conveys attachment and is used to express binding and joining. Thus, the undertaking sworn to is bound by invoking Allah, just as one hand is clasped with the other when concluding an agreement. For this reason, Allah calls it a binding commitment when He says:

“But He will hold you accountable for the oaths you deliberately make.”

Since a person has bound his oath by invoking Allah, breaking it would constitute a breach of Allah’s covenant and pledge, were it not for the release Allah has prescribed. This is why breaking it is called hinth (oath-breaking). The original meaning of hinth is sin: breaking an oath would give rise to sin were it not for the expiation that erases it. It is expiation alone that prevents oath-breaking from entailing sin.