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Must one fulfill a vow to refrain from watching a specific program if one did not go to the hospital for examination in the first place, or is expiation obligatory?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If the program is something forbidden to watch, then the vow is not binding, because abandoning it is obligatory in the first place. Some scholars hold that expiation becomes necessary if one breaks such a vow.

If the program is permissible, then a vow to abandon something permissible is not binding and nothing is required according to the majority of scholars. Some scholars, however, are of the opinion that the person who vows to abandon something permissible has the choice between fulfilling the vow or offering expiation, similar to an oath.

A conditional vow does not become obligatory to fulfill unless the condition it is tied to occurs. If the condition does not occur, then nothing is required.

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

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