Undoubtedly
keeping promises and keeping
one’s word are attributes of the believers, and breaking promises is
one of the attributes of the hypocrites, as was narrated from
‘Abd-Allaah ibn
‘Amr (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “There are four
(characteristics),
whoever has them is a hypocrite, and whoever has one of the four has
a characteristic of hypocrisy unless he gives it up: when he speaks, he
lies;
when he makes a promise he breaks it; what he makes a pledge he
betrays it; and when he disputes he resorts to foul language.”
Narrated
by
al-Bukhaari, 2327; Muslim, 58.
The
believer who makes promises to people and
breaks his promise may have an excuse or he may not. If he has an
excuse then there is no sin on him, but if he does not have an excuse
then he is
a sinner.
There
is no text – as far as we know – that
makes any exception regarding the prohibition of breaking promises,
but it may be that promises are broken in situations where the believer
is
excused. For example:
A – Forgetting
Allaah has forgiven us for forgetfulness
whereby obligatory actions are omitted or haraam actions are committed. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Our Lord! Punish us not if we forget or
fall into error”
[al-Baqarah 2:286]
And Allaah has said: “Yes.” – Narrated by Muslim, 125, from the hadeeth of Abu Hurayrah.
According to another version, He said: “I will do that.” Narrated by Muslim, 126, from the hadeeth of Ibn ‘Abbaas.
Whoever makes a promise to someone then
forgets the promise or forgets to do it at the time stated, there is no sin on him.
B – Being forced to break one’s promise.
Being forced is one of the
impediments that make it permissible for a Muslim to break his
promise, such as one who is detained or is prevented from fulfilling
his promise, or who is threatened with a painful punishment.
It
was narrated from Ibn ‘Abbaas that the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Allaah
has forgiven my ummah for their mistakes, what they forget and what they
are forced to do.”
Narrated by Ibn Maajah, 2045, and this
hadeeth has many corroborating reports; classed as saheeh by Shaykh al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Jaami’, 1836.
C – A promise to do something haraam or not
to do something obligatory.
Whoever
promises someone that he will do
something haraam for him, or that he will not do something that is
obligatory, it is not permissible for him to fulfil that promise.
This
may be supported by the hadeeth of
‘Aa’ishah – which is also known as the hadeeth of Bareerah – which
is narrated in al-Saheehayn. ‘Aa’ishah (may Allaah be pleased with her)
had promised Bareerah’s former masters [?} that the wala’ of
Bareerah [the right to inherit from her when she died – which is the
right of the one
who sets a slave free – Translator] would belong to them even though
‘Aa’ishah (may Allaah be pleased with her) was the one who was going to
set
Bareerah free. But she did not keep this promise because they had
gone against the sharee’ah and they knew that the right of wala’
belonged to the
one who set the slave free, so how could ‘Aa’ishah set her free and
then the wala’ of Bareerah belong to them?
Al-Shaafa’i said:
When
news of that reached them, the one who
had stipulated a condition that was contrary to the ruling of Allaah
and His Messenger was a sinner, and there are hudood punishments and
discipline for the sinner. One of the ways in which the sinners are
disciplined is that their conditions are rendered null and void so as to
deter
them and others from doing likewise. This is one of the best forms
of discipline.
Ikhtilaaf al-Hadeeth,
p. 165.
D – If something unforeseen happens to the
one who made the promise, such as sickness, the death of a relative or breakdown of his means of transportation, etc.
There are many excuses, which all come under
the heading of the verse (interpretation of the meaning):
“Allaah burdens not a person beyond his
scope”
[al-Baqarah 2:286]
And Allaah knows best.
SOURCE:
Islamqa, Fatwa no. 30861
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