Is the servant required to fast as expiation for an oath if he says, "I adjure You, O Allah, to do such and such," and He does not respond to him?
Whoever swears by God to accomplish a specific thing is considered to have broken their oath if that thing is not accomplished. This does not contradict God’s promise of response, for Allah Almighty says: "O mankind, indeed the promise of Allah is truth." And whoever swears by God, hoping for His response and trusting in His promise, while fulfilling the conditions for response and being free from its impediments, Allah answers his prayer with whatever type of response He wills, even if after a while, either promptly in this world, or by storing up good deeds for him, or by averting evil from him. The legal texts have indicated this, such as His saying, "And when My servants ask you concerning Me, then indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he invokes Me," and His saying, "Call upon Me; I will respond to you." And in the Hadith: "The supplication of any one of you will be answered as long as he does not pray for a sin or cutting off ties of kinship, as long as he does not become impatient." And God deals with His servant according to the servant's good opinion of Him, as stated in the Hadith Qudsi: "I am as My servant thinks of Me."
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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