a Jew or a Christian.” His intention is not to become a disbeliever. Rather, his intense hatred of disbelief leads him to invoke it in swearing that he will not act, intending to rule out the antecedent by ruling out its necessary consequence. He intends to exclude disbelief, the necessary consequence, and thereby aims to exclude the act as well.

Likewise, when he swears by Allah, it is because of Allah’s greatness in his heart that he binds his oath to Him, making what he swears to do a necessary consequence of his faith in Allah. The existence of the antecedent—faith in Allah—thus entails the existence of its necessary consequence: the obligation to perform the act he has sworn to perform. Similarly, if he swears not to do something, he makes his abstention from it a necessary consequence of his faith in Allah. This is what it means to bind an oath. His intention is not to relinquish his faith; rather, he intends that neither his faith nor the abstention he has bound to it should cease.

Thus, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb called this an “oath.” To establish that the man was not obliged to perform the act made conditional upon the stipulated event, he cited the Prophet’s words—may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“You are bound by neither an oath nor a vow involving disobedience to the Lord, severing ties of kinship, or what you do not own.”

The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—mentioned both oaths and vows, just as Allah mentioned both in His Book. An oath is intended to urge or restrain action, or to affirm or deny the truth of a report. A vow, however, is intended to draw one closer to Allah. This is why He, glorified be He, has made the fulfilment of vows obligatory: the person making a vow has undertaken an act of obedience to Allah, obliging himself to do something Allah loves and is pleased with, intending thereby to draw closer to Him.

Similarly, the Lawgiver has required anyone who begins Hajj or ‘umrah to complete it for Allah, for He says: