Separate vows should be fulfilled separately

13-8-2015 | IslamWeb

Question:

I am now a student in one of the faculties, and I used to be in community service. After finishing the exams of the first term and before the results appeared, I vowed to slaughter a sacrifice for the sake of Allaah Almighty and invite my family and friends to a banquet if I succeeded. Unfortunately, I did not succeed in the first term. In the second term, however, I did succeed, praise be to Allaah Almighty, and was transferred from community service to a regular student. After a period of time, I bought a car and I vowed to slaughter a sacrifice and also invite my family and friends. What should I do, Shaykh? May I combine the two intentions in one sacrifice?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

If your first vow is conditional upon success in the exams of the first term, then you are not obliged to do anything because the condition, which is success. did not occur. However, if it was not conditional on a specific school term or was not conditional on something, then you should fulfill it in the same way that you have specified.

Moreover, you should fulfill the vow that you made afterwards. Each of them is a separate vow. They are not related to the same issue. Hence, fulfilling one of them does not clear your liability concerning the other.

Allaah Knows best.