Breaking promises made to Allah Fatwa No: 350863
- Fatwa Date:21-8-2017
I have made 21 promises to Allaah. I never said, "By Allaah I will not do this or do that." What do I need to do? My intentions were not to break them, but because I made so many promises, I was unsure whether I had said them or not and then ended up breaking most of my promises.
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.
If these promises were merely internal (between you and yourself), then you are not obliged to do anything for breaking them. Oaths and the like do not become effective except by uttering them. But if you had uttered them with your tongue, using terms of making an oath to Allah, then this is like a vow, and in that case you are obliged to expiate for breaking this vow. For more benefit, please refer to fatwas 118909and 177249.
If the oaths that you had made to Allah were about one thing, then you only have to expiate once. But if they were about many things, then you have to expiate for every oath that you had made to Allah and then broke.
Allah knows best.