Chapter: Expiation for Oaths
Whoever swears by Allah concerning something and then breaks his oath must make expiation, and he may choose among its prescribed forms. If he wishes, he may free a believing slave who is entirely his own property—one who has no co-owner, has not been partially manumitted, is not scheduled for emancipation at a later date, is under no contract of manumission (kitābah) or death-bed manumission (tadbīr), is not an umm walad, and is not a relative who would automatically become free upon acquisition. The slave must also be free of such old age or permanent disability as would plainly hinder earning a livelihood.
Should he prefer, he may feed ten needy people with food drawn from the best of what he and his family normally eat, giving each person one mudd, measured by the mudd of the Prophet in Medina and elsewhere. This is a moderate amount that leaves a person reasonably satisfied—about two ratls of bread together with a condiment such as oil or something similar, but not meat. If he were to give a mudd and a half, or a mudd and a third—again by the Prophet’s mudd—to each person, that would be preferable in my view, although a single mudd suffices. It is not acceptable to give one destitute person ten mudds in a single day or spread over several days, nor to feed five people and clothe five; the expiation must be of a single type.
A report from Mālik does permit such mixing, but the first position is the settled doctrine of the school and the opinion most widely ascribed to him.
Alternatively, he may clothe ten needy people, one garment each. If they are men, that would be a tunic—or a robe—for every man; if women, a tunic together with a head-cover. The benchmark is whatever suffices for the validity of prayer, and paying the monetary value does not fulfill the expiation.
If he cannot do any of the above, he must fast three consecutive days; if he separates them, the expiation is still valid, but he must hold the intention for each fast from the preceding night.
A slave cannot discharge the expiation by emancipating another slave, even with his master’s permission, because the bond of walaʾ belongs to the master. If, with his master’s consent, he feeds or clothes others in expiation, Mālik said: “I hope it will suffice for him, though that is not certain; fasting, however, is preferable for him, and his fasting…"