Chapter: Vowing to Anyone Other Than Allah Is an Act of Polytheism

• Allah the Exalted says: “They fulfil their vows” (76:7).
• And He says: “Whatever you spend in charity or whatever vow you make, surely Allah knows it” (2:270).

Relevance of this chapter to the Book of Monotheism: In this section the author—may Allah have mercy on him—highlights a category of shirk (polytheism) that negates tawḥīd, namely making a vow to someone other than Allah, so that the reader may be warned and keep away from it.

“Of shirk”: i.e., of the major kind.

“Vowing to other than Allah”: because a vow is an act of worship, and directing any act of worship to other than Allah constitutes shirk. The word nadhr (vow) is a verbal noun of nadhara / yandhur: to obligate upon oneself something that was not previously obligatory in the Sacred Law, done in veneration of the one to whom the vow is made. Linguistically its root sense is “to impose”.

“They fulfil their vows”: they complete the devotional acts they have bound themselves to perform for Allah.

“mā”: may be conditional or relative.

“Whatever you spend in charity”: encompasses every kind of donation, whether accepted or rejected.

“Or whatever vow you make”: includes every vow, whether valid or invalid.

“Surely Allah knows it”: meaning He will recompense you for it; thus the phrase carries both a promise and a warning.

Overall meaning of the two verses: Allah praises those who worship Him by carrying out the devotional acts they have voluntarily bound themselves to perform, and He informs us that He knows every