The ruling on vowing to fast to prevent violations
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you. This questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, I used to commit some violations, so I wanted to get rid of them at that time. I swore that I would fast ten days every time I committed one of them, to refrain from those violations. Now I have done this several times. What is required of me now, given that I have repented to Allah with sincere repentance?
Answer:
You owe an expiation for each vow, specifically the expiation for an oath. It is obligatory for you to perform the expiation for an oath: feeding ten poor people, or clothing them, or freeing a slave. If you cannot find the means to do so, fast for three days. This is because you do not intend with this vow to draw near to Allah; rather, you intend to restrain yourself from this thing. Therefore, this vow is like an oath, and it is resolved by the expiation. Yes.
May Allah reward you. This questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, I used to commit some violations, so I wanted to get rid of them at that time. I swore that I would fast ten days every time I committed one of them, to refrain from those violations. Now I have done this several times. What is required of me now, given that I have repented to Allah with sincere repentance?
Answer:
You owe an expiation for each vow, specifically the expiation for an oath. It is obligatory for you to perform the expiation for an oath: feeding ten poor people, or clothing them, or freeing a slave. If you cannot find the means to do so, fast for three days. This is because you do not intend with this vow to draw near to Allah; rather, you intend to restrain yourself from this thing. Therefore, this vow is like an oath, and it is resolved by the expiation. Yes.
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 03/009 — archive.org (3:35)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.