Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
It makes no
sense and it is not prescribed in Islam in any way to expose your religious
commitment to the whispers (waswaas) of the Shaytaan so that he may toy with
it as he wishes and make you mess about with your religious commitment like
someone who is gambling by swearing oaths and making vows. Your religious
commitment is too important and too precious for this kind of risky
behaviour. Your enemy is lying in wait for you and seeks to instil in your
heart his devilish whispers, doubts and bad thoughts, so as to distract you
from worship and weaken your commitment to it. And he seeks to instill
anxiety and distress in your heart. You have seen how you have ended up with
his whispers (waswaas).
The matter
is much more straightforward than that. A person’s act of worship cannot be
ended or invalidated on the basis of mere uncertainty, let alone the waswaas
that is attacking you, that is closer to being a sickness than wellbeing.
Shaykh
al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked: what if a
person does wudoo’ and stands to pray, then feels some wetness (such as a
drop of urine etc) whilst he is praying. Does that invalidate his prayer or
not?
He replied:
Merely
feeling something does not invalidate wudoo’ and it is not permissible for
him to exit an obligatory prayer on the basis of mere uncertainty. If he is
certain that urine has been secreted to the outside of the penis, then his
wudoo’ is invalidated and he has to wash himself (istinja’), unless he is
suffering from urinary incontinence. But the prayer is not invalidated by a
mere feeling, if he has done what is enjoined upon him.
End quote
from Majmoo‘ al-Fataawa, 21/219-220
Shaykh Ibn
Baaz (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
The believer
should not pay any attention to this waswaas (devilish whisper) because that
will make the Shaytaan try harder and seek to instil even worse waswaas; the
Shaytaan is keen to spoil the good deeds of the son of Adam, such as his
prayer and other deeds. So it is essential to be aware of his tricks and
whispers, to put your trust in Allah and to regard whatever happens to you
of waswaas as being from the Shaytaan, so that you will not pay attention to
it. If anything comes out and you are certain of it, without a doubt, then
you should wash yourself again (istinja) and repeat wudoo’. But so long as
there is any uncertainty, even if it is small, you should not pay any
attention to that, so as to maintain that your wudoo’ is valid and so as to
combat the Shaytaan.
End quote
from Majmoo‘ Fataawa Ibn Baaz, 10/123
What you
must do in order to rid yourself of this waswaas is seek refuge with Allah
from the accursed Shaytaan and carry on with your worship, without paying
attention to any whispers that the Shaytaan may try to put into your mind;
you should also offer a great deal of supplication (du‘aa’), asking Allah to
keep his plots away from you.
Shaykh Ibn
‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
As for this
waswaas (whispers from the Shaytaan) that happen to some of the sons of
Adam, whether they have to do with beliefs or with religious matters such as
prayer, wudoo’, purification and the like, the remedy for this disease that
we ask Allah to keep us and our Muslim brothers safe from is to seek refuge
with Allah from the accursed Shaytaan, and to ignore it (the waswaas) and
not pay any attention to it at all. So if the Shaytaan whispers to him that
something is impure (najis) or that he has nullified his wudoo’, when he is not certain of that, he should not pay any attention to it. If he persists in
ignoring it and not paying any attention to it, it will go away with Allah’s
help.
End quote
from Fataawa Noor ‘ala ad-Darb by Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, 6/122
Secondly:
With regard
to your oath and vow, you made a grievous error by doing that, unless it was
the waswaas that got the better of you to such an extent that you did not
know what you were saying. We hope that you will be pardoned for it.
You should
understand that this vow on its own does not put you beyond the pale of Islam; rather it is a vow that was aimed at preventing the one who made it from doing that, because of his hatred and revulsion of kufr (disbelief). So you have to
offer expiation for breaking the oath (kafaarat yameen), and also repent to
Allah, regret what you did, and pray a great deal for forgiveness (istighfaar).
Shaykh
al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
The one who
swears such an oath is committing himself to something he dislikes if he
breaks his oath, such as if he says: If I do such and such, I will be a Jew
or a Christian, or my wife will be divorced and my slave will be free and I
will be obliged to walk to the House of Allah. These and similar phrases constitute an oath. This is unlike one who intends consequences, such as
one who makes a vow or divorces his wife; he intends to comply with what he
committed himself to. In both cases there is commitment, but the one who is
regarded as swearing an oath is the one who dislikes what he has committed
himself to if the conditions are met, such as if he said: if I do such and
such, I will be a Jew or a Christian, because he hates kufr, even if that
condition is met. The one who intends to carry out what he committed himself
to doing, whether it is something he wants to do or not, is just fulfilling
what he committed himself to, but it is not to be regarded as an oath. In
both cases there is a commitment connected to a condition, but the one who
is regarded as swearing an oath does not like to do the action he has
committed himself to do. The difference between the two is proven from the Sahaabah (companions) and senior Taabi‘een (successors), and is indicated by the Qur’aan and the Sunnah; it is also the view of the majority of scholars.
End quote
from Majmoo‘ al-Fataawa, 33/60
The scholars
of the Committee were asked:
What is the
Islamic ruling on one who says: If I do such and such I will be a kaafir –
then he does that thing time after time? Please note that I pray regularly
and frequently complete readings of the Holy Qur’aan. Will my previous good
deeds be cancelled out? For my part, I uttered the Shahaadatayn (twin declaration of faith) and did ghusl (bathed), based on my own understanding, but now
I am living in a state of constant anxiety. Please note that I recite the
shahaadah a great deal and I always pray and do acts of obedience and pray
for forgiveness?
The
committee replied: It is not permissible for the Muslim to swear to follow a
religion other than Islam, because of the proven report from the Prophet
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) that forbids that. In as-Saheehayn (Bukahri and Muslim) it is narrated from the Prophet (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him) that he said: “Whoever swears (if he does something or
fails to do something) that he will follow a religion other than Islam,
falsely and deliberately, then he is as he said, and if he meant what he
said, he will never come back to Islam with his faith intact.” If he does
what he swore not to do or he fails to do what he swore to do, then he has
to offer expiation for breaking an oath (kafaarat yameen) and also repent to
Allah and not swear such an oath again. But he does not become a kaafir
thereby; it is sufficient for him to repent and do righteous deeds, because
Allah, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And
verily, I am indeed Forgiving to him who repents, believes (in My Oneness,
and associates none in worship with Me) and does righteous good deeds, and
then remains constant in doing them, (till his death)”
[Ta-Ha
20:82].
His good
deeds are not cancelled out, because he did not become a kaafir; all he
wanted to do was make sure that he would do something or not do something.
End quote
from Fataawa al-Lajnah ad-Daa’imah, 23/196-197
See also the
answer to question no. 10160
and 155510
And Allah knows best.