Khatira [ Allah Will Not Impose Blame upon You for What Is Unintentional in Your Oaths ] | Dr. Ahmed Abouseif | October 29, 2020

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on October 29, 2020 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, and prayers and peace be upon the servant of Allah and His Messenger, our master and our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and Companions, and abundant peace. And now:

We were reciting in the Fajr prayer today the words of the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Almighty: ﴿لَا يُؤَاخِذُكُمُ اللَّهُ بِاللَّغْوِ فِي أَيْمَانِكُمْ وَلَٰكِنْ يُؤَاخِذُكُمْ بِمَا عَقَّدْتُمُ الْأَيْمَانَ ۖ فَكَفَّارَتُهُ إِطْعَامُ عَشَرَةِ مَسَاكِينَ مِنْ أَوْسَطِ مَا تُطْعِمُونَ أَهْلِيكُمْ أَوْ كِسْوَتُهُمْ أَوْ تَحْرِيرُ رَقَبَةٍ ۖ فَمَنْ لَمْ يَجِدْ فَصِيَامُ ثَلَاثَةِ أَيَّامٍ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ كَفَّارَةُ أَيْمَانِكُمْ إِذَا حَلَفْتُمْ ۚ وَاحْفَظُوا أَيْمَانَكُمْ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ آيَاتِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ﴾ (“Allah will not impose blame upon you for what is unintentional in your oaths, but He will impose blame upon you for [breaking] what you intended of oaths. So its expiation is the feeding of ten needy people from the average of that which you feed your own families, or their clothing, or the freeing of a slave. And whoever cannot find [or afford it] – then a fast of three days. That is the expiation for oaths when you have sworn. But guard your oaths. Thus does Allah make clear to you His verses that you may be grateful”).^[1]

Looking at this noble verse, this blessed text, I do not want to speak about the rulings on oaths. Rather, I want to speak now about this coordination among these blessed words, and about this added measure of obligation. Why all this obligation? Why this variety in the penalty? Why is there an expiation at all? It is as though the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Almighty, is telling me in an entirely direct way about the gravity of this word that leaves a person's tongue, which expresses his identity, for which he is accountable in this world before the Hereafter, and which, for society, is either a burden and a weight, or good tidings and goodness. And the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Almighty, said of the good word that it is ﴿كَشَجَرَةٍ طَيِّبَةٍ﴾ (“like a good tree”), then He gave the parable of the evil word as an evil tree.^[2]

And when He, glory be to Him, says: ﴿لَا يُؤَاخِذُكُمُ اللَّهُ بِاللَّغْوِ فِي أَيْمَانِكُمْ وَلَٰكِنْ يُؤَاخِذُكُمْ بِمَا عَقَّدْتُمُ الْأَيْمَانَ﴾ (“Allah will not impose blame upon you for what is unintentional in your oaths, but He will impose blame upon you for [breaking] what you intended of oaths”), then idle speech that happens without concentration or awareness ought not to be, but even if it occurs it may be pardoned in some way. As for speech that is premeditated and deliberate, aimed at conveying certain feelings, or a set of sentiments that came out with the word, for this the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Almighty, holds a person to account, and He speaks to people about it plainly and explicitly: ﴿فَكَفَّارَتُهُ﴾ (“So its expiation”). This expiation, which used to accompany the major crimes and the great deeds in a person's life, is legislated today, with this verse, for a mere word that left a person's tongue! And this shows us the gravity of what the Prophet ﷺ spoke of when he made clear that a man may speak a word to which he gives no thought, and it plunges him into the Fire for seventy autumns.^[3]

And glory be to Allah, the All-Powerful, we see this with our own eyes; a word may leave a person's tongue in a jest, and he finds himself held accountable for it legally, punished for it by the law and standing before the court because of it. And perhaps a word of good left a person's tongue without his giving it any thought, and it set right the affairs of a person who listened to it. Often some of our students come to us and say: By Allah, you said on such-and-such a day such-and-such a sentence, and since that day the features of my life have changed and I have seen myself as a different person. So glory be to the One whose legislation this is, and glory be to the One whose speech this is!

And I ask Allah, the Most High, the Almighty, to grant us good speech, good address, and decisive speech, O Allah, amen, O Lord of the worlds. And I ask Him to grant us and you on this blessed day such good as will make us happy in our worldly life and our Hereafter, to record for us our deeds and our steps, to make us among those who hasten to what pleases Him, glory be to Him, the Almighty, to grant us truthful tongues and sincere hearts, and to grant us sincerity in what we say and in what we do. May Allah keep you safe as long as you live, may Allah be pleased with you wherever you are, and may the peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Māʾida [89]. The transcript had «باللهو» whereas the verse is known to read «باللغو», and that is what has been set down. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Ibrāhīm [24–26]; the speaker mentioned only this much of the verse. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The origin of the ḥadīth is in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, in meaning, on the authority of Abū Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him), and the wording «seventy autumns» is in Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī; the speaker conveyed it by meaning.