Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab from
Ubaydullah ibn Abdullah ibn Utba ibn Masud from Abdullah
ibn Abbas that Sad ibn Ubada questioned the Messenger of
Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and
said,"My mother died while she still had a vow which she
had not fulfilled." The Messenger of Allah, may Allah
bless him and grant him peace, said, "Fulfill it for her."
Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr that his paternal aunt related
that her grandmother made a vow to walk to the Quba
mosque. She died, and did not fulfill it, so Abdullah ibn
Abbas asked her daughter to walk for her.
Yahya said that he had heard Malik say, "No one walks
for anyone else."
Yahya related to me from Malik that Abdullah ibn Abi
Habiba said, "I said to a man, when I was young, 'A man
who only says that he must walk to the House of Allah and
does not say that he has vowed to walk, does not have to
walk.' A man said, 'Shall I give you this small cucumber?'
and he had a small cucumber in his hand and you will say,
'I must walk to the house of Allah?' I said, 'Yes' and I
said it, for at that time I was still immature. Then, when
I came of age, some one said to me that I had to fulfill
my vow. I went and asked Said ibn al-Musayyab about it,
and he said to me, 'You must walk.' So I walked."
Malik said, "That is the custom among us."
Section: Making Vows to Walk to the House and Not
Succeeding
Yahya related to me from Malik that Urwa ibn Udhayna
al-Laythi said, "I went out with my grandmother who had
vowed to walk to the House of Allah. When we had gone part
of the way, she could not go on. I sent one of her mawlas
to question Abdullah ibn Umar and I went with him. He
asked Abdullah ibn Umar, and Abdullah ibn Umar said to
him, 'Take her and let her ride, and when she has the
strength let her ride back, and start to walk from the
place from which she was unable to go on.'~
Yahya said that he had heard Malik say, "I think that
she must sacrifice an animal."
Yahya related to me from Malik that he had heard that
Said ibn al-Musayyab and Abu Salama ibn Abd ar-Rahman said
the same as Abdullah ibn Umar.
Yahya related to me from Malik that Yahya ibn Said
said, "I vowed to walk, but I was struck by a pain in the
kidney, so I rode until I came to Makka. I questioned Ata
ibn Abi Rabah and others, and they said, 'You must
sacrifice an animal.' When I came to Madina I questioned
the ulama there, and they ordered me to walk again from
the place from which I was unable to go on. So I walked."
Yahya said that he had heard Malik say, "What is done
among us regarding someone who makes a vow to walk to the
House of Allah, and then cannot do it and so rides, is
that he must return and walk from the place from which he
was unable to go on. If he cannot walk, he should walk
what he can and then ride, and he must sacrifice a camel,
a cow, or a sheep if that is all that he can find."
Malik, when asked about a man who said to another, "I
will carry you to the House of Allah", answered, "If he
intended to carry him on his shoulder, by that he meant
hardship and exhaustion to himself, and he does not have
to do that. Let him walk by foot and make sacrifice. If he
did not intend anything, let him do hajj and ride, and
take the man on hajj with him. That is because he said, 'I
will carry you to the house of Allah.' If the man refuses
to do hajj with him, then there is nothing against him,
and what is demanded of him is cancelled."
Yahya said that Malik was asked whether it was enough
for a man who had made a vow that he would walk to the
House of Allah a certain (large) number of times, or who
had forbidden himself from talking to his father and
brother, if he did not fulfil a certain vow, and he had
taken upon himself, by the oath, something which he was
incapable of fulfilling in his lifetime, even though he
were to try every year, to fulfil only one or a (smaller)
number of vows by Allah? Malik said, "The only
satisfaction for that that I know is fulfilling what he
has obliged himself to do. Let him walk for as long as he
is able and draw near Allah the Exalted by what he can of
good."
Section: How to Fulfill the Oath of Walking to the Kaba
Yahya related to me from Malik that what he preferred
of what he had heard from the people of knowledge about a
man or woman who vowed to walk to the House of Allah, was
that they fulfilled the oath when performing umra, by
walking until they had done say between Safa and Marwa.
When they had done say it was finished. If they vowed to
walk in the hajj, they walked until they came to Makka,
then they walked until they had finished all the rites.
Malik said, "Walking is only for hajj or umra."
Section: Vows Not Permitted in Disobedience to Allah
Yahya related to me from Malik that Humayd ibn Qays and
Thawr ibn Zayd adDili both informed him that the Messenger
of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, (and
one of them gave more detail than the other),saw a man
standing in the sun. The Messenger asked, "What's wrong
with him?" The people said, "He has vowed not to speak or
to seek shade from the sun or to sit and to fast." The
Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him
peace, said, "Go and tell him to speak, seek shade, and
sit, but let him complete his fast."
Malik said, "I have not heard that the Messenger of
Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ordered
the man in question to do any kaffara. The Messenger of
Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, only
ordered him to complete that in which there was obedience
to Allah and to abandon that in which there was
disobedience to Allah."
Yahya related to me from Malik that Yahya ibn Said
heard al-Qasim ibn Muhammad say, "A woman came to Abdullah
ibn Abbas and said, 'I have vowed to sacrifice my son.'
Ibn Abbas said, 'Do not sacrifice your son. Do kaffara for
your oath.' An old man with Ibn Abbas said, 'What kaffara
is there for this?' Ibn Abbas said, 'Allah the Exalted
said, "Those of you who say, regarding their wives.'Be as
my mother's back' (Sura58 ayat 2) and then He went on to
oblige the kaffara for it as you have seen.' "
Yahya related to me from Malik from Talha ibn Abi al-Malik
al-Ayli from al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn as-Siddiq from
A'isha that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him
and grant him peace, said, "Whoever vows to obey Allah,
let him obey Him. Whoever vows to disobey Allah, let him
not disobey Him."
Yahya said that he had heard Malik say, "The meaning of
the statement of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and
grant him peace, 'Whoever vows to disobey Allah, let him
not disobey Him' is that for instance a man who vows that,
if he speaks to such-and-such a person, he will walk to
Syria, Egypt, or any other such things which are not
considered as ibada, is not under any obligation by any of
that, even if he did speak to the man or did break
whatever it was he swore, because Allah does not demand
obedience in such things. He should only fulfill those
things in which there is obedience to Allah."
Yahya related to me from Malik from Hisham ibn Urwa
from his father that A'isha, umm al-muminin said,
"Rashness in oaths is that a man says, 'By Allah, No! by
Allah!' " i.e. out of habit.
Malik said, "The best of what I have heard on the
matter is that rashness in oaths is that a man take an
oath on something to show that he is certain that it is
like he said, only to find that it is other than what he
said. This is rashness."
Malik said, "The binding oath is for example, that a
man says that he will not sell his garment for ten dinars,
and then he sells it for that, or that he will beat his
young slave and then does not beat him, and so on. One
does kaffara for making such an oath, and there is no
kaffara in rashness."
Malik said, "As for the one who swears to a thing which
he knows is wicked, and he swears to a lie he knows to be
a lie, in order to please someone with it or to excuse
himself to someone by it or to gain money by it, no
kaffara that he does for it can cover it."
Yahya related to me from Malik from Nafi that Abdullah
ibn Umar said, "Whoever swears by Allah and then says,
'Allah willing' and then does not do what he has sworn to,
has not broken his oath."
Malik said, "The best I have heard on this reservation
is that it belongs to the statement made if the speaker
does not break the normal flow of speech before he is
silent. If he is silent and breaks the flow of speech, he
has no exception."
Yahya said, "Malik said that a man who said that he had
disbelieved or associated something with Allah and then he
broke his oath, had no kaffara, and he was not a
disbeliever or one who associated something with Allah
unless his heart concealed something of either of those.
He should ask forgiveness of Allah and not return to it -
for what he did was evil."
Yahya related to me from Malik from Suhayl ibn Abi
Salih from his father from Abu Hurayra that the Messenger
of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said,
"Whoever makes an oath and then sees that something else
would be better than it, should do kaffara for his oath
and do what is better."
Yahya said that he heard Malik say, "Anyone who says
that he has a vow but does not mention the name of Allah,
is still obliged to make the kaffara for an oath (if he
breaks it)".
Malik said, "Emphasis is when a man swears one thing
several times, repeating the oath in his speech time after
time. For instance, the statement, 'By Allah, I will not
decrease it from such-and-such,' sworn three times or
more. The kaffara of that is like the kaffara of one oath.
If a man swears, 'I will not eat this food or wear these
clothes or enter this house,' that is all in one oath, and
he is only obliged to do one kaffara. It is the same for a
man who says to his wife, 'You are divorced if I clothe
you in this garment or let you go to the mosque,' and it
is one entire statement in the normal pattern of speech.
If he breaks any of that oath, divorce is necessary, and
there is no breaking of oath after that in whatever he
does. There is only one oath to be broken in that."
Malik said, "What we do about a woman who makes a vow
without her husband's permission is that she is allowed to
do so and she must fulfill it, if it only concerns her own
person and will not harm her husband. If, however, it will
harm her husband, he may forbid her to fulfill it, but it
remains an obligation against her until she has the
opportunity to complete it."
Section: Behaviour in the Kaffara of the Broken Oath
Yahya related to me from Malik from Nafi that Abdullah
ibn Umar said, "If someone breaks an oath which he has
stressed, he has to free a slave, or clothe ten poor
people. If someone breaks an oath, but has not stressed
it, he only has to feed ten poor people and each poor
person is fed a mudd of wheat. Some one who does not have
the means for that, should fast for three days."
Yahya related to me from Malik from Nafi that Abdullah
ibn Umar used to do kaffara for a broken oath by feeding
ten poor people. Each person got a mudd of wheat. He
sometimes freed a slave if he had repeated the oath.
Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Said that
Sulayman ibn Yasar said, "I understood from people that
when they made the kaffara for a broken oath, they gave a
mudd of wheat according to the smaller mudd. They thought
that that would compensate for them."
Malik said, "The best of what I have heard about the
one who does kaffara for breaking his oath by clothing
people is that if he clothes men he clothes them each in
one garment. If he clothes women, he clothes them each in
two garments, a long shift and a long scarf, because that
is what is satisfactory for each of them in the prayer."
Yahya related to me from Malik from Nafi from Abdullah
ibn Umar that one time the Messenger of Allah, may Allah
bless him and grant him peace, was speaking to Umar ibn
al-Khattab while he was travelling with a troop and Umar
swore by his father and he (the Messenger) said, "Allah
forbids you to swear by your fathers. If anyone swears,
let him swear by Allah or keep silent."
Yahya related to me from Malik that he had heard that
the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him
peace, used tosay, "No, by the Overturner of hearts."
Yahya related to me from Malik from Uthman ibn Hafs ibn
Umar ibn Khalda that Ibn Shihab had heard that Abu Lubaba
ibn Abd al-Mundhir, when Allah turned to him said,
"Messenger of Allah, should I leave my people's house in
which I committed wrong action and keep your company, and
give away all my property as sadaqa for Allah and His
Messenger? "The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him
and grant him peace, said, "Giving away a third of it is
enough for you."
Yahya related to me from Malik from Ayyub ibn Musa from
Mansur ibn Abd ar-Rahman al-Hajabi from his mother that
A'isha, umm al-muminin, may Allah be pleased with her, was
asked about a man who devoted his property to the door of
Kaba. She said, "Let him do kaffara for it with the
kaffara of the oath."
Malik said, that someone who devoted all his property
in the way of Allah, and then broke his oath, should put a
third of his property in the way of Allah, as that was
what the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant
him peace, did in the case of Abu Lubaba.