What is the ruling regarding an oath sworn with the intention of dedicating a single night, but its wording includes longer durations (a night, tomorrow, a month, a year), and is expiation obligatory, and if so, is it permissible to delay it?
The intention is referred to in an oath if the wording allows for it. Your wording does not permit restricting the intention to the night only, because the word "night" does not apply to the future (tomorrow, next month, next year). If you intend something that the wording does not permit, such as swearing not to eat bread while intending not to enter the house, the oath does not shift to what was intended.
Therefore, expiation is obligatory upon you if the person touches the mobile phone during the sworn period. The expiation is: feeding ten poor persons (one and a half kilograms of food for each poor person according to the Hanbalis, and approximately 750 grams according to the Shafi'is and Malikis), or clothing them, or freeing a slave. If you are unable to do so, then you must fast for three days, and it is more cautious for them to be consecutive.
Expiation is immediately obligatory according to the majority of scholars, while the Shafi'is hold that it can be delayed. It is more cautious to hasten in fulfilling it.
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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