#651: Fulfilling One`s Promise made to a Deceased
QUESTION:
HOW DO I FULFILL THE PROMISE OF A GIFT I MADE TO SOMEONE WHO PASSES AWAY?
Assalāmu alaykum
Pls help me find out abt this issue
What if someone promises a person a gift and the person who was promised dies. How will that someone fulfil the promise?”
ANSWER:
Wa Alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh
Alhamdulillāh.
Firstly it should be known that majority of the Ulamā from the Hanafī, the Shāfi’ī and the Hanbalī Schools have mentioned that the fulfilment of a promise once made is not Wājib but a Mustahabb if there is a reason for it’s unfulfillment. They were followed by some of the Malikis in this regard. By this saying, if a person makes a promise and does not fulfil it, he falls into no sin but has done something very disliked. Imām Ibn Hazm mentioned this in Al-Muhallā and Al-Qarāfī in Al-Furūq.
“The position held by Ibn Shubrumah and a few is that it was Wājib to fulfill any promise made and the one who doesn’t fulfil it falls into sins.”
The official position with the Mālikiyyah is that it is Wājib to fulfill the promise if the one who was promised committed himself to certain things by virtue of his expectance of what was promised, and in his coming out of it would be harm to him.
What is apparent in all of these positions is that it is not obligatory to fulfil a promise when there is a preventative factor hindering it’s fulfillment such as the death of the one who was promised as in this case.
However we must mention here before it is misunderstood that refusal to fulfill a promise is among the traits of the Munāfiqūn and whosoever persistently fails to fulfill it is a Munāfiq. We seek Allāh’s refuge in that. The Believers always try hard to fulfill promises they have made.
In the case depicted, it is possible for you to give what you have promised to the children of the deceased, his wife or any of his Inheritors if it is something that can be given to them.
We ask Allāh to be merciful to us and to the Muslims who have passed unto the next world, Amīn
Bārakallāhu Fīkum
Jazakumullāhu Khayran
1st Al-Muharram, 1440A.H
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