Has Hearing a Video I Swore to Not Watch Broken My Oath?

Answered by Ustadh Tabraze Azam

Question: Assalam alaykum

I made an oath that I would stop watching YouTube videos from a particular channel for 14 days. In the morning I received notifications of comments, I clicked on one to read which led me to the video of the particular channel. As soon as I heard the video I took it off immediately. Did I break my oath?

Answer: Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,

No, you did not break your oath to avoid watching the said videos by hearing something from one of them. This is because watching something entails looking, and merely listening or hearing doesn’t fulfil this condition.

This would be the case if you uttered something to the effect of, “By Allah, I will not watch videos from this channel for fourteen days.” If the phrase was merely in your mind, without any utterance, none of the rulings related to oaths would be applicable in any case.

[`Ala’ al-Din `Abidin, al-Hadiyya al-`Ala’iyya (189)]

Please also see: Is There a Difference Between Breaking an Oath and Breaking a Promise? and: Expiation for a Broken Oath

And Allah Most High alone knows best.

[Ustadh] Tabraze Azam

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadh Tabraze Azam holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Leicester, where he also served as the President of the Islamic Society. He memorised the entire Qur’an in his hometown of Ipswich at the tender age of sixteen, and has since studied the Islamic Sciences in traditional settings in the UK, Jordan and Turkey. He is currently pursuing advanced studies in Jordan, where he is presently based with his family.