Question: A lady had a daughter who enjoyed perfect health, then the daughter was suddenly struck by a severe illness. The mother therefore vowed that, should Allah grant her daughter continued life, she would perform two rakʿahs (units of prayer) for Allah’s sake after each of the five obligatory prayers for the rest of her life. Allah healed the girl and granted her life, and the mother began to fulfil her vow. Later, however, the daughter fell ill again and passed away. The question is: Must the mother keep on fulfilling her vow, or did the vow lapse with the daughter’s death? It should be noted that the mother is still practising the vow, regarding it as a voluntary act of charity on behalf of her deceased daughter’s soul.
Answer: It appears to me that the mother’s intention when making the vow was that her daughter remain alive. Once the girl recovered from the first illness, the mother was obliged to carry out the vow for as long as her daughter lived, for she had vowed to obey Allah, and whoever vows to obey Allah must obey Him. When the daughter later became ill and died, it seems to me that the mother is no longer required to continue with the vow, because her intention was linked to her daughter’s survival. Since the daughter is no longer alive, the term of the vow, in my view, has ended.
Unless, however, the mother had intended to go on performing the vowed prayer even if her daughter were later to die from another illness; in that case she must continue, provided that was indeed her intention.
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Question: About three years ago—before she was married—a woman vowed to Allah that every year she would fast the first ten days of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah consecutively (she may in fact have meant the first nine days). At the time she was unaware that making vows is discouraged, and she cannot remember whether she excluded the period after marriage or deferred the matter to her future husband. She is now married, and her husband objects to her fasting because it is a voluntary fast and she may not observe such a fast without his permission, in addition to her not being physically able to fast. Therefore she