Abdullah ibn Abi
Bakr that his paternal aunt related that her grandmother made a vow to
walk to the Quba mosque. She died, and did not fulfill it, so Abdullah
ibn Abbas asked her daughter to walk for her.
Yahya said that
he had heard Malik say, "No one walks for anyone else."
Malik said, "That is the custom among us."
Yahya said that he had heard Malik say, "I think that
she must sacrifice an animal."
Yahya related to me from Malik
that he had heard that Said ibn al-Musayyab and Abu Salama ibn Abd ar-
Rahman said the same as Abdullah ibn Umar.
Yahya
said that he had heard Malik say, "What is done among us regarding
someone who makes a vow to walk to the House of Allah, and then cannot
do it and so rides, is that he must return and walk from the place
from which he was unable to go on. If he cannot walk, he should walk
what he can and then ride, and he must sacrifice a camel, a cow, or a
sheep if that is all that he can find."
Malik, when asked
about a man who said to another, "I will carry you to the House of
Allah", answered, "If he intended to carry him on his shoulder, by
that he meant hardship and exhaustion to himself, and he does not have
to do that. Let him walk by foot and make sacrifice. If he did not
intend anything, let him do hajj and ride, and take the man on hajj
with him. That is because he said, 'I will carry you to the house of
Allah.' If the man refuses to do hajj with him, then there is nothing
against him, and what is demanded of him is cancelled."
Yahya
said that Malik was asked whether it was enough for a man who had made
a vow that he would walk to the House of Allah a certain (large)
number of times, or who had forbidden himself from talking to his
father and brother, if he did not fulfil a certain vow, and he had
taken upon himself, by the oath, something which he was incapable of
fulfilling in his lifetime, even though he were to try every year, to
fulfil only one or a (smaller) number of vows by Allah? Malik said,
"The only satisfaction for that that I know is fulfilling what he has
obliged himself to do. Let him walk for as long as he is able and draw
near Allah the Exalted by what he can of good."
Malik said, "Walking
is only for hajj or umra."
Malik said, "I have not heard that the Messenger of Allah, may
Allah bless him and grant him peace, ordered the man in question to do
any kaffara. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him
peace, only ordered him to complete that in which there was obedience
to Allah and to abandon that in which there was disobedience to
Allah."
Yahya said that he had heard
Malik say, "The meaning of the statement of the Prophet, may Allah
bless him and grant him peace, 'Whoever vows to disobey Allah, let him
not disobey Him' is that for instance a man who vows that, if he
speaks to such-and-such a person, he will walk to Syria, Egypt, or any
other such things which are not considered as ibada, is not under any
obligation by any of that, even if he did speak to the man or did
break whatever it was he swore, because Allah does not demand
obedience in such things. He should only fulfill those things in which
there is obedience to Allah."
22.5 Rashness in Oaths
Malik said, "The best of what I have heard on the matter is that
rashness in oaths is that a man take an oath on something to show that
he is certain that it is like he said, only to find that it is other
than what he said. This is rashness."
Malik said, "The
binding oath is for example, that a man says that he will not sell his
garment for ten dinars, and then he sells it for that, or that he will
beat his young slave and then does not beat him, and so on. One does
kaffara for making such an oath, and there is no kaffara in rashness."
Malik said, "As for the one who swears to a thing which he
knows is wicked, and he swears to a lie he knows to be a lie, in order
to please someone with it or to excuse himself to someone by it or to
gain money by it, no kaffara that he does for it can cover it."
Malik said, "The best I have heard on this reservation is that it
belongs to the statement made if the speaker does not break the normal
flow of speech before he is silent. If he is silent and breaks the
flow of speech, he has no exception."
Yahya said, "Malik said
that a man who said that he had disbelieved or associated something
with Allah and then he broke his oath, had no kaffara, and he was not
a disbeliever or one who associated something with Allah unless his
heart concealed something of either of those. He should ask
forgiveness of Allah and not return to it - for what he did was evil."
Yahya said that he heard Malik
say, "Anyone who says that he has a vow but does not mention the name
of Allah, is still obliged to make the kaffara for an oath (if he
breaks it)".
Malik said, "Emphasis is when a man swears one
thing several times, repeating the oath in his speech time after time.
For instance, the statement, 'By Allah, I will not decrease it from
such-and-such,' sworn three times or more. The kaffara of that is like
the kaffara of one oath. If a man swears, 'I will not eat this food or
wear these clothes or enter this house,' that is all in one oath, and
he is only obliged to do one kaffara. It is the same for a man who
says to his wife, 'You are divorced if I clothe you in this garment or
let you go to the mosque,' and it is one entire statement in the
normal pattern of speech. If he breaks any of that oath, divorce is
necessary, and there is no breaking of oath after that in whatever he
does. There is only one oath to be broken in that."
Malik
said, "What we do about a woman who makes a vow without her husband's
permission is that she is allowed to do so and she must fulfill it, if
it only concerns her own person and will not harm her husband. If,
however, it will harm her husband, he may forbid her to fulfill it,
but it remains an obligation against her until she has the opportunity
to complete it."
Malik said, "The best of what I have
heard about the one who does kaffara for breaking his oath by clothing
people is that if he clothes men he clothes them each in one garment.
If he clothes women, he clothes them each in two garments, a long
shift and a long scarf, because that is what is satisfactory for each
of them in the prayer."
Malik said,
that someone who devoted all his property in the way of Allah, and
then broke his oath, should put a third of his property in the way of
Allah, as that was what the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him
and grant him peace, did in the case of Abu Lubaba.