Such a person who swears an oath while knowingly lying will meet Allah while Allah is angry with him—may He protect us. Allah will forbid him Paradise and cast him into the Fire; we seek refuge with Allah. They once asked, “Messenger of Allah, even if the amount seized is trivial?” He answered, “Even if it is only a qadhīb of arak.” A qadhīb is a mere handful of fodder, a few twigs, or even a single stick from the arak tree—that is, one siwāk. So even if a human being swears a false oath to take no more than that from a fellow Muslim’s wealth, he still comes under this terrible threat, Allah forbid.

As for an oath concerning one’s own actions—someone is told, “You did such-and-such,” and he replies, “By Allah, I did not,” while he is lying—this does not carry the same explicit warning, yet the person is still sinful, for he has combined lying with swearing by Allah while lying, and that multiplies the punishment.

A Muslim, therefore, ought to revere and magnify Allah: he should not make oaths frequently, and when he does swear, he must speak the truth so that he is deemed faithful to his oath. We ask Allah to grant us and you success.