What is your advice for workers who break their promise to complete their work, and what is the criterion for a vain oath?

The questioner: His EminenceThe Shaykh : Also, another question if you please. Some professionals, specifically mechanics, bakers, or watchmakers,

The Shaykh: or what

The questioner: or carpenters, and so on. You send your car to them, and they tell you, "Come back in half an hour or an hour, if Allah wills, we will do what is necessary for the purpose you have with us." They change it for you, whether it is... I tell you, "My brother, it will take an hour, and I will, if Allah wills, fix your car." But after you leave and come back, they tell you, "By Allah, we have not finished the car yet. By Allah, I have to go get a part from Amman or from one of the parts sellers." One day, I was sitting with one of the brothers, and I heard him swear several oaths that have no basis in the religion. So the point is, I told him, "My dear brother, may Allah bless you. You are a bearded man, you know your Lord, and you maintain the prayers. How can you swear to so-and-so and two other people, lying to Allah the Mighty and Majestic? This is not permissible." He told me that some sheikhs issued a fatwa for him that this is a vain oath. Please inform us, may Allah bless you?

The Shaykh: Heh, I understood from your question that there are two issues?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: First, an oath, and second, lying.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: Is there lying or not?

The questioner: There is lying, yes.

The Shaykh: Okay, and yet they issued a fatwa of permissibility!

The questioner: One of the sheikhs issued a fatwa telling you that this is, meaning, a vain oath.

The Shaykh: Look, my brother, a vain oath in the Shari'ah is called a vain oath. There is a thing in the Shari'ah called a vain oath. But people may expand the definition of a vain oath by following their desires and appetites. First, the situation you described contains blatant lying. If there were no oath, the lying would be sufficient for him. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . Second, a vain oath is what comes out of a person's mouth without his heart being committed to it. How did you describe that sick man who struck like this or on his thigh, and he had no intention in his heart regarding it, and we said he owes nothing? Similarly, a person talking to someone, for example, a host and a guest. The guest ate enough and then stopped. He tells the guest, "Eat," and the guest says, "My brother, I have had enough. By Allah, unless you eat." This phrase "By Allah, unless you eat" has two cases. The first case is a vain oath, meaning a word that comes out of him without intention. Truly, this oath is called a vain oath, and he is not held accountable for it. Allah explicitly states this in the Qur'an: . And the Lady Aisha said: . No, by Allah, yes, by Allah. Perhaps you have something like what we have in Syria, where when one of us wants to confirm an oath, he says "wallahi" with a kasrah on the haa. Even though this is colloquial, they want to confirm the oath. Because in reality, if a person says "By Allah, unless you eat" and intends it in his heart, the oath is established. The kasrah or the sukun has no effect from the Arabic perspective, but the common people have this in their minds: this "wallahi" with the kasrah, "unless you eat," is not a vain oath. This is an intention to confirm the oath according to what the common person knows. So the point, may Allah bless you, is that the issue relates to what is in the heart, just as we spoke about the one who judges by other than what Allah has revealed, and the one who consumes riba, and the one who commits zina and steals, and so on. We do not know whether they have made these things lawful in their hearts. If they have made them lawful in their hearts, they have committed disbelief and exited their religion. Similarly, this person who says "vain oath," "No, by Allah," "Yes, by Allah," "By Allah, I forgot," for example, and he is lying, and so on. We said his lying is sufficient for him. Second, if he intends the oath, then this is the oath of perdition (ghamus) mentioned in some hadiths that the oath of perdition . The oath of perdition, according to the majority of scholars, has no expiation. It has no expiation. This is an indication of the severity of the sin of the one who swears the oath of perdition, whereas the mistaken oath has an expiation. So the situation you described, and Allah knows best, we are not witnesses, but this combines two sins: the sin of lying and the sin of committing an oath on this lie in order to mislead people and offer them an excuse. So this is not permissible. We ask our brothers to ask questions about things that are not known to them. But things like the oath of perdition and the vain oath, these are known rulings, and praise be to Allah, they are known to everyone, if Allah wills. Please go ahead.