Anonyme asked 11 months ago

As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-raḥmatu -llāhi wa-barakātuh, I have multiple questions regarding an oath to Allah, this question is troubling me so if you could respond the fastest possible.
Some time ago, i made a promise to Allah, that every time I would do a particular action, I would donate 20 $ in charity. After some days, I had to give 60 or 80 $, (I do not remember was it 60 or 80, but, let’s say 80). I dedided to tell Allah that I break the oath, but I would still give the 80 $ to charity and i would offer expiation for the oath so that in the future, I do not have to give 20 $ each time I break this promise. Then, i had broken the promise even more times.I did some research on expiation and saw it was not sufficient to donate money to charity rather I would have to feed or cloth ten poor persons. I did not have the ability to find these 10 persons so I fasted for 3 consecutive days. The day I finished fasting, I came to know that it is permissible fo give money to an association that does the kaffarah on your behalf.
Here are my questions :

  1. When I told Allah that i break the oath, was the oath broken and is it sufficient to give the 80$ or should I try ans estimate how much time I broke the promise after ?
  2. Was the 3 days fasting sufficient for me ? even if I could have given money to an association for kaffarah on my behalf.(I did not know about this ruling). Should I give the money for kaffarah now ?( if the 3 days was sufficient, then most of the other questions are abrograted)
  3. Should you feed the 10 poor person with one meal or two meals ?
  4. For me, in average a home cooked meal is around 8 $ (CAD)max, is it sufficient to give 10 $ for each person I have to feed or should I give more because a meal in a restaurant is more ?
  5. I know that this organization takes 13 percent for fees, should I give more than a hundred so that the fees are deducted ?
  6. I do not know if this association feeds or clothes, and does it give to 10 different persons, but I think they do, should I still give them ?
1 Answers
mehdi answered 11 months ago

أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم

بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

As Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh,

Based on your specific question and information provided.

From the Jurisprudence Perspective: 

 An oath must fulfil few conditions [in order for it to be valid (ṣaḥīḥ)].

If a person takes an oath (which is Valid) to do something or to refrain from doing something – for example, he takes an oath to keep a fast or to stop smoking – then in the event that he intentionally (ʿamdan) does not fulfil his oath, he will have committed a sin and he must give recompense (kaffārah). That is, he must either free a slave, or feed ten poor people (fuqarāʾ), or clothe them. And if he cannot do any of these, he must fast for three consecutive days.

والله العالم‎
(and Allah(awj) Knows best)

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