A young man vowed to abandon a sin and repeated the vow seven times not to return to it, then he returned to it; is there a sin on him, is there an expiation on him, and is it permissible for him to perform Hajj?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : May Allah reward the honorableThe Shaykh : I am a young man who vowed to myself to abandon a sin, and I vowed seven times. Every time I vowed, I returned to that sin, so I vowed to myself to abandon it. Is there a sin on me, is there an expiation on me, and is it permissible for me to perform Hajj before the expiation?
The Shaykh : Yes. First, I advise my brother not to make the vow the thing that drives him to abandon the sin, because he will become accustomed to this until he does not leave a forbidden thing except by a vow. And Allah the Exalted says in His Book:[An-Nur 24:53] meaning, obey in a known manner, without an oath, without a vow, and there is no need for an oath. Likewise, there is no need for a vow. Make a strong resolve in yourself so that you can abandon this sin without a vow; this is the best and most preferable. But if you vowed not to commit the sin and then you committed it, you must seek forgiveness from Allah and repent to Him from this sin, and do not return to it. And you must expiate the vow with the expiation of an oath, which is feeding ten poor people, or clothing them, or freeing a slave, meaning freeing a slave. Feeding them should be from what people eat, from the middle of what you feed your families. And the middle of what we eat today is rice. You feed ten poor people a meal of rice, either dinner or lunch. If you wish, you can distribute it to them uncooked; you give each person, for example, about a kilo, with some meat to make it a meal. And by that, the vow is released. But I return to repeat that it is not befitting for a person to tie his obedience to Allah to a vow. Whenever he wants to abandon a sin, he vows. Rather, he should make a resolve and strength with himself and abandon sins without a vow.
Yes. As for his Hajj, before he expiates, there is no harm and no blame, because the expiation is easy. Yes.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : If he is unable to feed ten poor people, or clothe them, or free a slave, then he fasts three consecutive days. Yes.
The Shaykh : Yes. First, I advise my brother not to make the vow the thing that drives him to abandon the sin, because he will become accustomed to this until he does not leave a forbidden thing except by a vow. And Allah the Exalted says in His Book:
And they swear by Allah their strongest oaths that if you ordered them, they would go forth [in Allah 's cause]. Say, "Do not swear. [Such] obedience is known
وَأَقْسَمُوا بِاللَّهِ جَهْدَ أَيْمَانِهِمْ لَئِنْ أَمَرْتَهُمْ لَيَخْرُجُنَّ قُلْ لَا تُقْسِمُوا طَاعَةٌ مَعْرُوفَةٌYes. As for his Hajj, before he expiates, there is no harm and no blame, because the expiation is easy. Yes.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : If he is unable to feed ten poor people, or clothe them, or free a slave, then he fasts three consecutive days. Yes.