Does a promise to give charity on getting a job count as a vow, and what if one is unsure?

A question about a man who, while praying, promised God to increase his charity if he got a job and later doubted whether he had made a vow, in which the fatwa centre of IslamWeb answered that a mere promise is not a vow unless worded as a commitment or made allusively with intention, that doubt about the wording or the intention is resolved by the default of freedom from obligation so nothing is binding on him, and that if he is certain he vowed he must fulfil it, with what he has already given in that intention counting towards it. ¹

The questioner said he had been in a poor state of mind and great distress over wanting a job, and that he used to give ten per cent of his salary in charity; he prayed to God saying that he promised, if accepted for a job, to give twenty per cent, and to raise the charity to thirty and forty per cent as his salary rose, and he cannot be sure whether he used the word 'vow'. He was accepted, forgot what he had said for about three years while keeping up a monthly charity, then read that this might be a vow, having been ignorant of the rules. ¹ He said that in those three years he bought a flat for his mother and one for his own marriage, saved about nine months' salary for his sister's wedding and his own, works without a pension, earns ten thousand dirhams which he spends in Egypt, and has already increased his charity; he is terrified by God's words in al-Tawba 77 about those who broke what they promised God, and asked what is required of him for the past and the future. ¹

The centre answered that saying 'I promise You, Lord, that if I get a job I will give such-and-such in charity' is not by itself a vow unless accompanied by an intention, because a vow is concluded only by a wording that conveys commitment; a mere promise becomes a vow only where an intention accompanies it, in which case it is an allusive form, and on the correct view a vow is concluded by allusive wording, so it must then be fulfilled. ¹ It quoted al-Khatib al-Shirbini in Mughni al-Muhtaj that the formula requires a wording that conveys commitment, so a vow is not concluded by intention alone, though it should be concluded by a speaker's allusive wording together with intention, as his teacher said; and al-Ramli in Nihayat al-Muhtaj that a statement such as 'if God heals my patient I will build such-and-such a mosque' is void, being a promise bare of commitment, though if the speaker intended commitment by it its validity is not far-fetched. ¹

The centre ruled that since the questioner is in doubt whether he uttered the word 'vow' or had the intention at the time of the promise, the default is that he did not, so nothing is binding on him; it relied on what al-Izz ibn Abd al-Salam lays down in Qawa'id al-Ahkam on presuming the original state: one who is bound by an act of worship or a debt and then doubts whether he performed one of its elements must perform it, because the default is that it remains his responsibility, whereas one who doubts whether any such thing became binding on him, or doubts whether he made a vow, is bound by nothing, because the default is that his obligations are clear, God having created His servants free of His claims and those of other people until the causes of their obligation are established. ¹ It said that if he becomes firmly certain that he vowed in express words or allusively with intention, he must fulfil that vow; what he has given in charity with the intention of fulfilling it counts, and he completes the remainder of what he owes, reckoning how much he has given and how much remains and giving the rest as he intended, because a vow must be fulfilled and one may not be released from it except through complete inability, according to the hadith in al-Bukhari that whoever vows to obey God should obey Him. ¹

The fatwa centre of IslamWeb published this fatwa on islamweb.net as no. 539521, dated 21 Jumada al-Ula 1448, 1 November 2026. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.