The wording of the vow...

The wording of the vow, be it in Arabic or any other language, should be couched in such a way that the ultimate objective is to seek the pleasure of Allah Almighty, and that such wording should include His name, i.e. Allah or any of his other exclusive names and attributes. * Should the person making the vow not say, “I am indebted to Allah, God, or the Merciful (ar-Rahman)”, what will happen? - There shall be no obligation to fulfil the vow. 2.

The thing offered for a votive offering should be ethically and religiously viable, especially when it comes to certain actions emanating from the vow. * What if it was not acceptable, yet it could be reprehensible, damaging, or permissible? - A vow is not in order, if the deed contingent on the vow was reprehensible or damaging. If it was permissible, it shall be deemed sound when the ultimate intention leads to a lawful action.

For example, if you make a vow to drink water to be more able to worship God, your vow shall become binding. 3. The person making the vow must be adult, sane, intent on carrying out the vow, have free choice and access to that which is related to his vow. 4. That which is vowed should be identifiable and affordable. * So, should I take it that, if a person makes a vow according to the conditions you have mentioned, he should be expected to fulfil such a vow?

●Yes, it becomes binding on him to carry out his vow, be it commission or omission of an action, during a prescribed period or for a lifetime, or donating anything. * What if the person, who made the vow, does not comply with it out of choice? - Kaffarah shall become due. That is emancipating a slave, or feeding ten poor people, or clothing the same number of poor people. * If the person could not do that because of want, for example? - He should fast three consecutive days.

* If a person makes a vow to donate some money to the holy shrines, what could be the avenues of spending that money? - It could be spent on repairing, maintaining, lighting, carpeting, heating and air conditioning the shrine. That is, if the donor did not specify any of these avenues, or others. * Should the person making the vow specify his donation to the person of, say, the Prophet (s.a.w.) or the Imam (a.s.), rather than the building, how is it going to be spent?

●The donated money could be distributed to the poor among the visitors of the shrine or spent on maintaining the building.

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