We may summarise here the legal rulings contained in the report as follows:

1. Iʿtikāf is an act of worship directed to Allah Most High; therefore it becomes obligatory once it is vowed.
2. Fasting is not a prerequisite for iʿtikāf, for the Prophet instructed him to fulfil his vow of spending a single night in retreat, and the night is not a time for fasting—although combining retreat with fasting is more complete.
3. It is obligatory to discharge an unrestricted vow—that is, a vow of obedience not tied to any condition but made purely as an act of piety.
4. A vow pronounced by a non-Muslim is valid and binding; he too must fulfil it.

Second ḥadith
ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar (Allah be pleased with them both) related that the Prophet ﷺ forbade making vows and said, “A vow brings no good; it is only a means of extracting something from a miser.”

Overall meaning
The Prophet ﷺ prohibited vows and explained that they bring no good. A person imposes on himself an act from which the Law had left him free; he may then fail to carry it out and so expose himself to sin. In addition, a vow suggests a form of bartering with Allah—undertaking worship on the condition that a desired benefit be obtained or a harm removed. Someone might even—God forbid—imagine that Allah answered his plea solely so that he would perform the vowed act.

For these and other dangers the Prophet ﷺ forbade vows, preferring safety and urging reliance on Allah’s generosity without presumption or negotiation, but rather through pure hope and supplication.

There is no advantage in a vow except that it forces the miser to give: such a person fulfils only what is strictly obligatory, and even then he does so reluctantly, heavily, and devoid of the foundation of worship—namely a sincere intention and longing for what is with Allah Most High.

Benefits derived from the ḥadith

1. The prohibition of vows. The basic rule of a prophetic prohibition is that the act is forbidden, yet the praise accorded to those who fulfil their vows lowers it from the level of absolute prohibition.
2. The reason for the prohibition—“it brings no good”—is that a vow does not repel anything that Allah has decreed, and lest the one who vows imagine that the fulfilment of his request is a quid pro quo. Allah is self-sufficient, independent of recompense and of all creation; they are the needy ones, and their obedience adds nothing to His dominion.
3. Allah, exalted is He, has apportioned obligatory duties to His servants according to their capacity and left what lies beyond as voluntary acts, because