Made a Vow to Give 5 Percent of His Salary If He Receives an Increase

23-11-2020 | IslamWeb

Question:

Asalumu alaiykum warahmatuallahi wabarakatuI made a vow that l would give 2.5 percent of my salary in charity and then vowed to give another 2,5 ,so 5percent ,if l got an increase. I received both salary increases and fulfilled the vow. At the time I did not know that conditional vows are makrooh in the Deen however, l fulfilled the vow. I was unemployed for about a year and l am starting a new job, God willing, and now l have serious doubt as to whether l made a vow for to give 5 percent of that salary to charity or any salary l ever earned.What do l do according to Hanafi fiqh?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

The vow that you fulfilled has passed and expired; as for the new salary, if you did not intend upon your first vow that it will be in every future salary that you receive, then you are not obligated to do anything about the salary that you receive afterwards, and that is for the following two reasons:

1- The term that you mentioned does not indicate repetition, so you do not have to do anything about the salaries that you receive in the future.

2- The basic principle is that you are free from liability of the vow in the new salary.

The fact that you are doubtful about whether or not the new salary is included in the vow, then this indicates that you did not intend to continue the first vow in every salary.

For more benefit on fulfilling a vow and whether or not it requires repetition, please refer to Fataawa 8800, 1125, 29377, 367117, and 249157.

Allah Knows best.