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Is expiation obligatory for one who swore to eat a specific food, then it became clear that the food was not available before he was able to eat it?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If someone swore to do something and the object of the oath became unavailable through no fault of their own, they are not considered to have broken their oath. This is based on what is stated in Al-Mabsut by Al-Shaybani, that if someone swore to drink the water from a specific jug, and then looked inside and found no water, they would not have broken their oath. According to the Fiqh Encyclopedia, a person does not break their oath if they violate the object of the oath due to an inability to fulfill it through no fault of their own; for example, if someone swore to eat a meal tomorrow, and the food was spoiled through no fault of their own.

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

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