Hadith 2408

Yahya related to me from Malik that Yahya ibn Said said, "I vowedto walk, but I was struck by a pain in the kidney, so I rode until Icame to Makka. I questioned Ata ibn Abi Rabah and others, and theysaid, 'You must sacrifice an animal.' When I came to Madina Iquestioned the ulama there, and they ordered me to walk again from theplace from which I was unable to go on. So I walked."Yahyasaid that he had heard Malik say, "What is done among us regardingsomeone who makes a vow to walk to the House of Allah, and then cannotdo it and so rides, is that he must return and walk from the placefrom which he was unable to go on. If he cannot walk, he should walkwhat he can and then ride, and he must sacrifice a camel, a cow, or asheep if that is all that he can find."Malik, when askedabout a man who said to another, "I will carry you to the House ofAllah", answered, "If he intended to carry him on his shoulder, bythat he meant hardship and exhaustion to himself, and he does not haveto do that. Let him walk by foot and make sacrifice. If he did notintend anything, let him do hajj and ride, and take the man on hajjwith him. That is because he said, 'I will carry you to the house ofAllah.' If the man refuses to do hajj with him, then there is nothingagainst him, and what is demanded of him is cancelled."Yahyasaid that Malik was asked whether it was enough for a man who had madea vow that he would walk to the House of Allah a certain (large)number of times, or who had forbidden himself from talking to hisfather and brother, if he did not fulfil a certain vow, and he hadtaken upon himself, by the oath, something which he was incapable offulfilling in his lifetime, even though he were to try every year, tofulfil only one or a (smaller) number of vows by Allah? Malik said,"The only satisfaction for that that I know is fulfilling what he hasobliged himself to do. Let him walk for as long as he is able and drawnear Allah the Exalted by what he can of good."