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Is it obligatory to fulfill a vow to slaughter a cow and give it away in charity while depriving one person of it, or is expiation obligatory due to financial obligations and debts? And is it permissible to give the value of feeding ten needy persons to one poor person?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Whoever vows obedience to Allah, it is obligatory for him to fulfill it, according to the hadith: "Whoever vows to obey Allah, let him obey Him." As for a vow of obstinacy and anger (nadhir al-lajaj wal-ghadab), which is a vow intended for prevention or emphasis, its maker has the choice between fulfilling it or paying an expiation for an oath (kaffarat yameen). The expiation for an oath is: freeing a slave, or feeding ten poor people, or clothing them. If feeding is chosen, food must be given, and its monetary value is not sufficient. It must be given to ten poor people, and one poor person is not enough. The amount of food for one poor person is half a saa' of the staple food of the land, which is approximately one and a half kilograms.

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

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