was regarded by him as an oath, he would not have told him, “Make expiation for your oath.” The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “No oath or vow is binding,” because an oath is intended to urge or restrain, whereas a vow is intended to draw closer to Allah. Neither is to be fulfilled when it involves disobedience or severing ties of kinship.

This hadith provides further evidence: the Prophet’s statement, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, “No oath or vow is binding if it involves disobedience to the Lord or severing ties of kinship,” encompasses everything called an oath or a vow. This applies whether the oath is sworn by Allah, involves making an otherwise non-obligatory act binding—such as charity, fasting, pilgrimage, or a sacrificial offering—or involves making something lawful forbidden, as with zihār (declaring one’s wife forbidden to oneself), divorce, or manumission.

The Prophet’s intent, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was either merely to prohibit the sworn act of disobedience or severance of kinship, or, in addition, to indicate that the obligations and prohibitions stipulated in the oath or vow are not binding upon the person. The latter is the apparent meaning, since ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb cited it as evidence. Had the hadith not indicated this, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb, may Allah be pleased with him, could not validly have cited it to support his answer to the questioner: that he should make expiation rather than spend his wealth on the covering of the Kaaba. Moreover, the Prophet’s wording, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, encompasses all of this.

Further evidence that oaths involving vows, divorce, and manumission fall within the terms “oath” and “swearing” in the words of Allah Most High and His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is the report of Ibn ‘Umar, who said that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Whoever swears an oath and says, ‘If Allah wills,’ is not held to have broken his oath.”

It was narrated by Ahmad, al-Nasā’ī, Ibn Mājah, and al-Tirmidhī, who said, “A good hadith.”