and Abū Dāwūd, whose wording is: Ahmad ibn Hanbal narrated to us: Sufyān narrated to us, from Ayyūb, from Nāfi‘, from Ibn ‘Umar, who traced it back to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who said:

“Whoever swears an oath and says, ‘If Allah wills,’ has made an exception.”

He also narrated it through ‘Abd al-Razzāq, from Nāfi‘, from Ibn ‘Umar, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Whoever swears an oath and makes an exception may retract it if he wishes or leave it if he wishes, without being held to have broken his oath.”

Abū Hurayrah reported 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-Tirmidhī, and Ibn Mājah, whose wording is, “His exception holds,” and by al-Nasā’ī, whose wording is, “He has made an exception.”

Now, jurists generally included oaths involving vows, divorce, and manumission within this hadith, holding that making an exception by invoking Allah’s will is effective in such oaths. Indeed, many of Ahmad’s followers hold that its effectiveness in oaths involving divorce is undisputed within his school, and that disagreement concerns only cases expressed in conditional form. What most of them exclude is the actual pronouncement of divorce or manumission itself. The distinction between effecting either of these and swearing an oath involving them is clear. Allah willing, we shall discuss “The Rule of Making an Exception.”

Since they have included oaths involving these matters within his statement:

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

they likewise fall within his statement:

“Whoever swears an oath and then sees that another course is better should do what is better and make expiation for his oath.”

The wording of both is the same, as is clear to anyone who reflects upon it. For the general scope of his statement, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

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

is the same as that of his statement: