Explanation of the Book of Tawhid-12

The Shaykh :"And in the authentic narrations, it is reported from Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her)" In the authentic narrations, meaning the two authentic books? Here it is in al-Bukhari. By "the authentic," one may mean the authentic book of Muslim, or it may refer to the authentic book of Muslim. But here it refers to the authentic book of al-Bukhari. By "the authentic," one may also mean an authentic hadith, whether in al-Bukhari, Muslim, or elsewhere. But this depends on tracing where this hadith is found, and this hadith is found in al-Bukhari.
The student: What is its specific terminology...

The Shaykh : It has no specific terminology; it has no specific terminology.
From Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her): That the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever vows": I think that "whoever" here is a conditional particle that encompasses both the Muslim and the disbeliever, or does it not?
The student: ...

The Shaykh : Well, this is 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, who vowed to perform i'tikaf (spiritual retreat) for one night in the Sacred Mosque during the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. Yes... And the disbeliever: if the disbeliever fulfills it while in a state of disbelief, his liability is discharged; otherwise, it becomes obligatory for him to fulfill it after his Islam. Does it include the young child and the adult? Some said that it includes them, and on this basis, a vow is established by a non-accountable person, such as a young child. It was also said that it does not include the young child, because the young child is not qualified for commitment, nor for being held accountable. And based on that, the young child is excluded from this generality because he is not qualified for commitment or accountability. And his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): What is obedience? Obedience is conforming to the command, and the command intended here is one of the commands, meaning conforming to what Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) wants from you. If He commands you, obedience is doing the command; and if He forbids you, obedience is leaving the prohibition. This is the meaning of obedience when it is used alone. But if it is said "obedience and disobedience," then obedience is doing the commands, and disobedience is doing the prohibitions. Disobedience is not doing the prohibitions, but rather the absence of disobedience is avoiding the prohibitions. Well, "whoever vows to obey Allah," and his saying: And what brought the "fa" (so/then) here? It occurs in the answer to the condition, because the sentence "let him obey Him" is injunctive, meaning it is a request. And his saying: The "lam" is the lam of command. Does the apparent meaning of the hadith include cases where the type of obedience vowed is obligatory, or not? The obligatory type, such as prayer, fasting, charity, and Hajj, or non-obligatory, such as teaching knowledge and others. And some scholars said: It is not obligatory to fulfill the vow unless the type of obedience is obligatory. The generality of the hadith refutes this. The apparent meaning of the hadith also includes one who makes an absolute vow and one who makes a conditional vow. An example of an absolute vow is for a person to say, "I have a vow upon me to Allah to fast three days." This is an absolute vow with no cause. And an example of a conditional vow is to say, "If I succeed, I have a vow upon me to Allah to fast three days." This is conditional on what? On success. Or, "If Allah heals my sick person, I have a vow upon me to Allah to do such and such." This is also conditional on a condition. So the apparent meaning of the hadith encompasses both this and that, is that so? And whoever distinguishes between them is not correct, because the hadith is general.
And know that a vow does not bring good, even if it is a vow of obedience, but rather it is used to extract from the miser. For this reason, it is forbidden, and some scholars forbid it. The Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah leaned toward the view that making a vow is forbidden, because you are obligating yourself with something from which you are in a state of well-being. Yes, and how many people have vowed and finally regretted it, and perhaps did not fulfill it. And what indicates this view, the view that forbids vows, is His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): This is a committed oath for a vow, because it is a vow confirmed by an oath. What did Allah say? Do not swear without an oath. And the person who does not do obedience except by a vow or by swearing upon himself means that obedience is heavy for him. And the conditional vow This is a vow conditional on Allah giving him And it is a great matter that also indicates the view of prohibition, especially the conditional one: that the one who vows is as if he is not confident in Allah (Mighty and Majestic), as if he believes that Allah will not bestow healing upon him unless he gives Him a counterpart. And for this reason, when they despair of recovery, yes, they go and make vows. When one despairs of success, it drops every year. He said, "I vow." Yes, when it becomes with him... a big thing. The woman says about the child, "By Allah, if this child drinks from the camels, I will slaughter a she-camel." Yes, and so on. This is, in fact, a type of bad opinion of Allah. So the view of prohibition is a very sound view. And it is not said: How do you forbid what Allah has praised those who fulfilled? We say: We do not say that fulfillment is the forbidden thing, so that it can be said that we have demolished the text. Rather, we say the forbidden or the disliked with strong dislike is making the vow. There is a difference between making it and fulfilling it. Yes, the making is initial, and the fulfillment is in the second state, executing what you did.
He said: It is known, because if we said that a vow of disobedience is obligated to be fulfilled, then the sins would become acts of obedience. This is not possible. For this reason, he said: And it is not a prohibition, and it is according to the disobedience. If the disobedience is forbidden, then fulfilling the vow is forbidden. And if the disobedience is disliked, then fulfilling the vow is disliked according to the situation. Because disobedience is falling into what is forbidden, and what is forbidden, as you know, is divided by the scholars into two categories: what is forbidden by prohibition of prohibition (tahrim) and what is forbidden by prohibition of recommendation (tanzi).
The student: Is it called disobedience?

The Shaykh : Yes, it is called disobedience, but there is no sin in the disobedience. Well, so whoever vows to disobey Allah, let him not disobey, is that so? And is the vow established or not established? No, it is established. For this reason, he said: And if he had said: "Whoever vows to disobey Allah, he has no vow," it would not be established. But "let him not disobey" indicates that it is established, but it is not executed. And if it is established, is an expiation obligatory upon him or not? The scholars differed on it. There are two narrations from Imam Ahmad. And some scholars said that the expiation is not obligatory upon him, and they argued with what preceded and with this hadith as well. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not mention an expiation. If it were obligatory, he would have mentioned it. But those who say that it is obligatory say that the Messenger mentioned in another hadith, other than this hadith, that its expiation is the expiation of an oath, the expiation of a vow of disobedience is the expiation of an oath. And the fact that a matter is not mentioned in a hadith does not imply its absence. The absence of mention is not a mention of absence. Yes, if the Messenger had said: "There is no expiation," if he had said: "There is no expiation," there would be a contradiction in the hadith, and at that time we would seek the stronger position. But the Messenger did not deny; he was silent. And silence does not contradict the explicit statement. Did you understand? Well, and also from the perspective of analogical reasoning, if a person swore to do a forbidden thing, he said: "By Allah, I will do this forbidden thing." Does he do it? He does not do it. Does he expiate? Yes, he expiates. He expiates with the expiation of an oath, even though he swore to do a sin. And the vow is similar to the oath. And on this basis, its expiation is the expiation of an oath. And I think in the previous chapter we mentioned that the vow is divided into categories, or not? A vow of obedience, a vow of disobedience, and a vow of what is permissible. Yes, and what is like an oath. And here, what is permissible, and a vow of contention. A vow of what is permissible and a vow of contention. And we said that what is like an oath, the person is given a choice between doing it and the expiation of an oath. And a vow of obedience must be fulfilled. And a vow of disobedience is not permissible to be fulfilled. Yes, except if it is a dislike of recommendation, then it is disliked.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, this is the principle. Its evidence is what preceded, that the Messenger said: .
The student: The one who vowed that... the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) rebuked him, he did not tell him the expiation of an oath.

The Shaykh : ... But silence does not contradict the explicit statement. Silence means that it was not mentioned here, so it is based on what preceded. If the Messenger said it before that, if the Messenger said it before forbidding this man, it is based on it. He did not say it because it is not necessary. The Messenger, in every issue that has a restriction or a specification, mentions it at every generality. If this were necessary, the Sunnah would become long. But the Messenger, if he mentions a general hadith and it has something that specifies it, he applies it to it. If he is silent about something and he has spoken about it in another place, he applies it to it. Yes.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : He did not say anything. Yes, this has the expiation of an oath. The scholars call it the absolute vow, which has nothing in it. He said: "I have a vow upon me to Allah." Because the Messenger said: .

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : No...

The questioner : ...

The Shaykh : No, because this is just a vow, the formula of a vow. "I have a vow upon me to Allah." He did not mention the vowed thing. This is the one who did not mention a cause; he mentioned the vowed thing. He said, "I have a vow upon me to Allah to give charity, to fast." He mentioned the vowed thing. But this one did not mention it; it is just the formula of the vow.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : What ... because the Messenger said: And a vow is not established by intention, nor is it taken based on intention.