Is there an expiation for one who deliberately commits disobedience?

The Shaykh : That is, we must distinguish between one who deliberately violates Allah's command, for whom there is no expiation, and one who does not deliberate, such as one who is ignorant or one who is overcome by his desire. In that case, the expiation suffices for him. Is that clear?

The questioner : How much is it?

The Shaykh : A quarter of a dinar of gold.

The questioner : Does that mean it equals one Jordanian dinar?

The Shaykh : No, it is much more than that.
Al-Halabi : Why a quarter of a dinar, O Shaykh?

The Shaykh : Because what is stated in the text is half a dinar.
Al-Halabi : What is in my mind is ?

The Shaykh : Yes, correct.
Al-Halabi : Where does the quarter come from?

The Shaykh : It follows the half, because the dinar—let us take the full dinar,

The questioner : or the half.

The Shaykh : Let us take the dinar now, since there is a choice. How much is the dinar mentioned in the hadith equal to in terms of today's gold dinar?

The questioner : About four and a half grams, according to what al-Qaradawi calculated.

The Shaykh : No problem, four... how much is it equal to in terms of the gold pound?

The questioner : I do not know.

The Shaykh : It is this...?

The questioner : It equals sixteen dinars.

The Shaykh : Sixteen dinars, the dinar in gold.

The questioner : The gold dinar equals sixteen dinars now.

The Shaykh : Sixteen.

The questioner : By Allah, that is how it is, according to the price of the week, and perhaps the dinar has dropped now.

The Shaykh : Yes.

Another questioner : The hadith says, "Whoever has intercourse with a menstruating woman..."

The Shaykh : Yes, exactly.

The questioner : It does not specify the deliberate one, nor the ignorant one, nor the forgetful one.

The Shaykh : Yes, exactly.

The questioner : So how did you specify that the deliberate one has no expiation, when the generality of the hadith includes him? That is what appears to be the case.

The Shaykh : This is a good question. Only, the expiation does not apply to matters where the violation is deliberate. For example, most scholars—and this is the truth about which there is no doubt—distinguish between the expiation for an erroneous oath, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: They distinguish between such an oath, for which there is an expiation, and the oath that plunges into sin, because that is a deliberate violation of the Shari'ah. So when we understand the word "expiation," and it says "his expiation is such and such," it means that he made a mistake. Do you understand?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : We must distinguish between one who deliberately violates Allah's command, for whom there is no expiation, and one who does not deliberate, such as one who is ignorant, so he is overcome by his desire. In that case, the expiation suffices for him.

The questioner : How much is it?

The Shaykh : A quarter of a dinar of gold.

The questioner : Does that mean it equals one Jordanian dinar?

The Shaykh : No, it is much more than that.
Al-Halabi : Why a quarter of a dinar, O Shaykh?

The Shaykh : Because what is stated in the text is half a dinar.
Al-Halabi : What is in my mind is that one may give charity of a dinar or half a dinar?

The Shaykh : Yes, correct.
Al-Halabi : Where does the quarter come from?

The Shaykh : It follows the half, because the dinar—let us take the full dinar, let us take the dinar now, since there is a choice. How much is the dinar mentioned in the hadith equal to in terms of today's gold dinar? How much is it equal to in terms of the gold pound? It is this?

The questioner : It equals sixteen dinars.

The Shaykh : Sixteen dinars, the gold dinar.

The questioner : The gold dinar equals sixteen dinars now. This is according to the price of the week, and perhaps the dinar has dropped now.

Another questioner : The hadith says, "Whoever has intercourse with a menstruating woman," so it does not specify the deliberate one, nor the ignorant one, nor the forgetful one. So how did you intend that the deliberate one has no expiation, when the generality of the hadith includes him? That is what appears to be the case.

The Shaykh : This is a good question. But the expiation does not apply to matters where the violation is deliberate. For example, most scholars—and this is the truth about which there is no doubt—distinguish between the expiation for an erroneous oath, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: They distinguish between such an oath, for which there is an expiation, and the oath that plunges into sin, because that is a deliberate violation of the Shari'ah. So when we understand the word "expiation," and it says "his expiation is such and such," it means that it is a mistake that occurred. Do you understand? That is, like how we now distinguish, I think, between a person who deliberately breaks his fast in Ramadan by eating and drinking and the like. Does he have an expiation?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : All right, a fasting person who has intercourse with his wife, does he have an expiation?

The questioner : Without a doubt, yes.

The Shaykh : Yes, this is exactly like that. Because here we assume that this is a fasting man who had intercourse with his wife while fasting, which means he was overcome by his desire, just as in the story of the one who had intercourse with his wife in Ramadan, for whom an expiation was prescribed. As for those who, like many of the young people and adults today, deliberately break their fast in Ramadan, these people do not have an expiation from this understanding. I distinguished between the one who makes it his habit to always violate the Shari'ah by having intercourse with a menstruating woman, and he does not distinguish between his wife being pure or menstruating, and the one who was overcome by his desire and had intercourse with his wife while she was menstruating. Yes.

The questioner : In the authentic hadith, it says: So if we take from the text those who do not become disbelievers, naturally the menstruating woman, the one who made a mistake, the ignorant one, and the forgetful one who does not know the ruling, for he does not have an expiation because he was not given one, he did not commit a sin because he was ignorant, he did not know the ruling, or he made a mistake, or he was forgetful... So who becomes a disbeliever?

The Shaykh : How does one become a disbeliever? The one who has intercourse with his wife while she is menstruating, being overcome by his desire, as we said earlier, meaning...

The questioner : Meaning the desire.

The Shaykh : Let us change your wording, let us move it from this topic to the topic of breaking the fast in Ramadan. If we say that the one who deliberately breaks the fast in Ramadan by eating and drinking and so on does not have an expiation; then who has an expiation?

The questioner : The one who has intercourse.

The Shaykh : This is a statement of intent, and this is my statement. So you have now restricted the expiation to the one who has intercourse only. Only this one has an expiation?

The questioner : The text is like this.

The Shaykh : No problem, and the text is like this, yes. But the problem for you is not following the text, the problem for you is objecting to the deactivation of the general meaning. I am telling you, if these people do not want to declare disbelievers, who declares disbelievers? The same problem arose regarding the topic of the one who breaks the fast in Ramadan. I showed you, in my claim, when I answered you, where you took the specification that the expiation is for the one who is overcome by himself, like the one who broke the fast in Ramadan. As for the one who deliberately commits disobedience, he does not have an expiation, like the one who swears a false oath, he does not have an expiation.