Fatwa ID: 01364

Answered by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Question:

I hope you are able to help me. I have been struggling with porn for many years now. Finally, I tried to overcome the addiction, which I hate immensely, by making several oaths, so that if I watched porn again I would to have to pay an amount kaffarah that would ruin me economically.
More specifically I made oaths like this: "I make this oath by Allah swt that I will not watch the first millisecond of a porn movie/picture", "I make this oath by Allah swt that I will not watch the second millisecond of a porn movie/picture", "I make this oath by Allah swt that I will not watch the third millisecond of a porn movie/picture" etc. I made so many oaths that if I watched just tiny parts of a porn movie I would have to pay around 120 000 dollars in kaffarah money.

Answer:

In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful.

In the aforementioned scenario you will only be required to give one kaffarah. This ruling is based on a principle where the “hukm” (order) is incorporated into the “sabab” (cause). This principle applies for both physical and monetary punishments. For example, if a person committed adultery ten times before he his caught and convicted, the punishment will be given only once and not ten times. (Athmarul Hidayah p.208 v.2) 

Therefore, the conclusion is that you will only be required to give one kaffarah for breaking the oath.

The Kaffrah (Explation) of breaking an oath is mentioned in the Holy Quran Allah (SWA) says;

“……its expiation is to feed ten poor person at an average of what you feed your family with or to clothe them or to free a slave. And whoever, finds none shall fast for three days. That is expiation for you oaths when you have sworn…”(Surah Maaidah v.89)

In this verse the first expiation used in connection with Kaffarah of oaths is “itam” which could either mean ‘feed’ or ‘give food’ to someone, hence the jurists have said that the individuals can invite ten poor persons and feed them or he can give the food in their possession. In the first situation, it is necessary that he should feed ten poor persons two meals of the day to take their fill and in the second situation he should give to each of the ten poor persons at the rate of one fitrah per person, that is ,

1.      Approximately 1.6kg of wheat

2.      Approximately 3.2kg of barley

3.      Or the equivalent of the above in cash which will be between £1-£3

If a person is unable to feed the poor then he would fasts for three days consecutively according to the Hanafi Fiqh. (Raddul Muhtar p.532 v.2 & Maariful Quran p.244 v.3)

Only Allah Knows Best 

Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham