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Is it permissible to offer expiation for more than 200 false oaths by fasting in case of financial need, or must one feed the poor first until the money runs out?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

You must expiate the oaths by feeding [the poor]. If you are unable to do so, then by fasting three days for each oath, if the oaths were different. You are not required to exhaust all your wealth for expiation; rather, you may keep what suffices your necessities, and you can expiate the remaining oaths by fasting.

As for the Ghamus oath, which is swearing falsely about a past matter, the majority of jurists believe that it is too grave to be expiated, and the only obligation for it is repentance, because it is an invalid oath. However, the Shafi'ites hold that expiation is obligatory for it, based on the general import of the verses concerning expiation for oaths. Adopting the Shafi'ite view is more cautious.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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