breaking promises

know that breaking promises is one of the qualities of the hypocrites, but if a muslim may not meet its promise for a reason that goes beyond its control: he was doing something haraam and therefore, is he seen as possessor of one of the qualities of the hypocrites or be forgiven?

praise be to allaah.

without a doubt, promises and keep our word are qualities of the believers, and break promises is a quality of the hypocrites, as it was narrated by ' abd-allaah ibn ' amr (may allaah be pleased with him) that the prophet (peace and blessings of allah be with him) said: "there are four (characteristics), those who have them is a hypocrite and whoever has one of the four has a characteristic of hypocrisy unless you leave": when you speak lies; when you make a promise breaks; when you make a commitment betrays it; "and when discussing resorted to bad offensive."narrated by al - bukhaari, 2327; muslim, 58.

the believer who makes promises to the people and does not meet them may have a reason or not. if it does then there is no sin in it, but if it doesn't then you are committing a sin.

there is no text - as far as we know - make exception to the prohibition of breaking promises, but it can be the promises are broken in situations in which the believer has a reason. for example:

to forget:

allah has forgiven us for lack of memory that ignored mandatory actions or committed haraam actions. allah says in the qur'an (interpretation of the meaning):

"lord!  "we do not punish if we forget or we were wrong." [2: 286]

and allah responded:  “yes” narrated by muslim, 125, by abu hurayrah. according to another version, he said:  "do that". narrated by muslim,  126, ibn ' abbaas.

who make a promise and then you forget or forget to comply once said, there is no sin in it.

(b) be forced to break the promise.

being forced is one of the impediments which allow a muslim to break his promise, such as that which they stop or prevent you from keep its promise, or is threatened with a painful punishment.

it was narrated by ibn ' abbaas that the prophet (allah give peace and bless you) said: "allaah has forgiven my ummah by their mistakes, they forget and what they are forced to do."

narrated by ibn maajah, 2045, and this hadeeth has many corroborating reports; considered saheeh by shaykh al - albaani in saheeh al - yaami', 1836.

(c) promise to do something haraam or not do something mandatory.

to whom promise that will do something haraam for him, or that it will not make something mandatory, is not allowed which fulfils that promise.

this can be proven by the hadeeth of 'aa'ishah - also known as the hadith of bareerah - which is narrated in al-saheehayn (bukhari and muslim). 'a'ishah (may allah be pleased with her) had promised the previous owners bareerah [the wala' of bareerah [the right to inherit from her when she died - which is the one who frees a slave - translator] belong to them even though 'a'ishah (may allah be pleased with her) was who was to deliver bareerah. but did not fulfill its promise because they had gone against the shari'ah and knew that the right of wala 'belonged to freeing the slave, so: how could' aa'ishah free and then the wala 'of bareerah belong to them?

as-shaafi'i said:

when reached them this news, which had stipulated a condition contrary to the mandate of allah and his messenger were sinners, there is punishment (hudud) to the sinner. one of the ways in which discipline the sinners is their conditions were cancelled and left without effect to deter them both to them as others do similar things. this is one of the best forms of discipline.

ikhtilaaf al-hadith, page. 165.

(d) if something unexpected happens to you who made the promise, such as illness, death of a relative or interruption of their means of transport, etc.

there are many reasons, all of which are subordinate to the verse quranic (interpretation of the meaning):

"allah does not require anyone beyond their possibilities" [2: 286]

and allaah knows best.

islam q & a