Islamic Fiqh > Oaths and vows > The oath's kaffara in practice: feeding, clothing or fasting
How to pay a broken oath's expiation: the verse's three options, choice order, per-person computation and the poor's cases.
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Updated on 31 August 2026 at 3:55 AM
"Its expiation is to feed ten poor people with the average of what you feed your families, or to clothe them, or to free a neck. Whoever does not find the means, let him fast three days. Such is the expiation of your oaths when you swear. And guard your oaths."sura al-Ma'ida 89
Mixing food and clothing: Hanafis and Hanbalis, it is permitted to feed part of the ten and clothe the other; Malikis and Shafi'is, the mixture does not suffice; Hanbalis have divergent narrations.
Consensus of the jurists: feeding one poor person each day for ten days fulfills the expiation. Hanafis: feeding a single poor person for ten days suffices, with two satisfying meals per day, for the purpose is to fill the need which renews; but offering the food of ten days in a single day counts for one day only, for "feeding ten poor people" requires separation, like the pebbles of pilgrimage; if he feeds twenty poor people at once, he owes one more meal to one of the two groups. Quantity per day and per poor person: Hanafis, half a sa' of wheat or a sa' of dates or barley, according to what Umar ordered Yasar ibn Numayr and what was reported from Ali; Malikis, a hashimi mudd; Shafi'is and Hanbalis, a mudd according to the measure of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim, no fixed measure and custom decides, for the verse says "the average of what you feed your families".
Hanbalis: a garment with which the prayer is valid. For the man, a garment even worn out as long as it keeps its covering strength; for the woman, a shirt and a veil, or a wide garment covering the body and the head. All lawful materials fit: cotton, linen, wool, hair, silk, dyed or raw.
Hanafis: the value is permitted for food and clothing, for the purpose is the benefit of the poor, who reaches it as well by money as by the thing. The question divides the schools.
Ibn Qudama: the expiation is given to relatives eligible for the zakat of one's wealth, the position of ash-Shafi'i and Abu Thawr with no known opponent; all those to whom zakat is forbidden (the rich, the disbeliever, the slave) do not take it; the Banu Hashim are the object of two views.
Consensus: breaking before paying is permitted and preferable. Ibn Abd al-Barr: breaking before the expiation is permitted, good and what they prefer. an-Nawawi sums up: the expiation is not due before the breaking and its postponement after the breaking is permitted. Advance payment divides: the majority (Malikis in the famous position, Hanbalis and most of the scholars) allow it; others require it after the breaking, for the expiation removes the hanth instead of preventing it.
Malikis (famous position): expiating for someone is valid with or without his order; they rely on the chapter of al-Bukhari and the story of Aisha about the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) (al-Bukhari 1623). The other schools differ on the case without permission.
Three situations. The same act sworn several times for emphasis: a single expiation, the text of most of the scholars, like the repeated oath of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):
"By Allah, I will surely fight Quraysh", repeated, then he said: "if Allah wills."Abu Dawud 3285
ash-Shafi'i adds: if the repetition aimed at renewal, two views; Ibn Taymiyya holds from Ahmad the most famous narration: a single expiation. Oaths on different things ("by Allah I will not eat, by Allah I will not drink, by Allah I will not wear"): each carries its own expiation, consensus; if he breaks them all before expiating: divergence between one or several expiations. A single oath covering several things ("by Allah, I will not enter the house of such a one, I will not speak to such a one, I will not hit such a one"): a single expiation, with no known disagreement according to Ibn Qudama: the oath falls at the first violation and what is done afterwards has no effect.
Whoever does not find the means fasts three days. Continuity is not required according to Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis (one narration), the order of the verse being absolute.
In practice: count ten poor people, offer each one an average meal of the country, or a sufficient garment, or fast three days in case of need. Better to limit oaths: each breaking engages the conscience and requires a precise expiation.