وَعْد

وَعْد

Wa'd, lexically, is used for good and for evil; 'idda is the promise. Technically it is the statement that a good thing will reach someone in the future. ¹

Related words: 'ahd, a promise tied to a condition, which calls for fulfilment, while wa'd calls for carrying it out; wa'y, a promise firmly bound by the one who promises, which Abu Hilal al-Askari says is not limited to a time, while the promise may be. ¹²

Fulfilling a promise: a promise of a forbidden thing must not be fulfilled and must be broken; a promise of an obligatory thing must be fulfilled; a promise of a permitted or recommended thing ought to be fulfilled, since fulfilment is part of good conduct, and the book cites the praise of Isma'il in sura Maryam for keeping his promise. ²

On the fulfilment of a promise of a permitted act, there are seven views. ²³ The first: fulfilment is obligatory, held by Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, Ibn Shubruma, a Hanbali view chosen by Ibn Taymiyya and a Maliki view, citing sura al-Saff (cited by sura only) and the hadith that the sign of the hypocrite is three, including breaking a promise. ³ The second: obligatory unless there is an excuse, the view of Ibn al-'Arabi, who relies on the report of Zayd ibn Arqam that one who promises meaning to keep it and does not is not sinful; al-Tirmidhi weakens that report because two of its transmitters are unknown. ³ The third: obligatory before God but not in court, the view of Taqi al-Din al-Subki. ⁴ The fourth: recommended; omitting it loses the merit and is a strongly disliked act, but not a sin. This is the view of most Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis; al-Nawawi calls fulfilment strongly recommended and breaking it strongly disliked. Ibn Muflih says it is not obligatory, since a promise is like a gift before possession; al-Jassas says it is better to fulfil it when possible. ⁴ The fifth: a bare promise is not obligatory, but a conditional one is binding; this is the Hanafi view, and the Majalla of Ottoman law, article 84, states that promises in the form of conditions are binding. The book gives the example: a man who says pay my debt from your money, and is not held if he does not; a man who says sell this to so-and-so and if he does not pay I will, is held to pay, since the condition gives the promise force. ⁴⁵ Those who deny the duty read the blame in sura al-Saff as directed at one who promises while intending to break it, and read the hadith on the hypocrite as directed at one who intends to break the promise at the time of promising, not one who is prevented by something later; al-Ghazali says this. ⁵

The sixth view: a promise tied to a cause that the promisee has entered must be kept, as a contract must be; if the promisee has not begun the cause, the promiser owes nothing. An example: a man promises to lend the price of a house which the promisee then buys, or to lend a dower on which the promisee marries relying on the promise. This is the well-known and preferred Maliki view, which al-Qarafi attributes to Malik, Ibn al-Qasim and Sahnun. ⁶

The seventh view: a promise tied to a cause must be kept by judgement, whether or not the promisee has entered the cause; a promise not tied to a cause need not be kept. Asbagh, as al-Baji reports, distinguishes: if the promise is explicit, as when one says 'I will lend you my mount to a place' and the other says 'I will lend it tomorrow', he judges it binding; if it is vague, as when one asks for a loan of a hundred without giving a need, he does not. The ordinary Maliki view runs against this. ⁶⁷

Promising with a reservation: most jurists hold it is best to add 'if God wills', following the verse of sura al-Kahf, since the promiser does not know whether he will fulfil it. Al-Ghazali holds the reservation better; al-Jassas holds that a promise without it is disliked; the Hanbalis hold a promise without it forbidden. ⁷

Mutual promising (mu'ada): a promise made by both sides, where a promise made by one alone is an 'idda. The Malikis, on the principle of blocking means, forbid promises about what cannot be done at the moment: for example, promising marriage during the waiting period, promising to sell food before receiving it, promising a sale at the time of the Friday call, or selling what one does not possess. ⁷⁸ On promising currency exchange, the Malikis have three views: permitted, forbidden (the better-known view), and disliked. Al-Wansharisi explains the difference: the prohibition applies where the contract itself is forbidden, while the exchange contract is not forbidden in itself. Al-Shafi'i says two men may promise to exchange silver and later trade it. ⁸