Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
We ask Allaah to reward you for your eagerness to pray in
congregation, and for your efforts to do so regularly. We ask Him to enable
you to do all that is good.
It should be noted that you are dealing with a Lord Who is
generous, kind and merciful; He is more merciful towards His slaves than
they are to themselves. He is watching over your heart and He knows what is
on your mind. If He sees that your intention is sincere, He will decree the
reward for you in full, and He will overlook every mistake and shortcoming.
Sharee’ah excuses the one who falls asleep, if he misses
prayer in congregation or he misses the time of prayer altogether, so long
as he availed himself of the appropriate means and tried hard to catch up
with the prayer in congregation. If sleep overtook him after that because of
something that was beyond his control, without any shortcoming or negligence
on his part, then Allaah will forgive him, for He does not burden any soul
beyond its scope.
Al-Bukhaari (570) and Muslim (681) narrated from Abu Qataadah
(may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him) was with some of his companions on a journey, and
they halted at the end of the night. He lay down his head, then he said:
“Guard our prayer for us.” The first one to wake up was the Messenger of
Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). When the sun was on
his back. We woke up, startled, then he said, “Ride on.” So we rode on and
traveled until the sun had risen, then he stopped and called for the water
vessel I had with me, in which there was a little water. He did wudoo’ from
it, using less water than usual. A little water was left in it, and he said
to Abu Qataadah, “Guard your water vessel, for you will see something happen
with it.” Then Bilaal gave the call to prayer and the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) prayed two rak’ahs, then he
prayed Fajr, and did as he did every day. The Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) rode on and we rode with him,
and we began to whisper to one another, saying: What expiation is there for
what we have done by neglecting our prayer? Then he said: “Do you not have
an example in me?” Then he said: “There is no negligence in sleep, rather
negligence is the fault of one who does not pray until the time for the next
prayer comes. Whoever does that, let him pray when he remembers it, and if
it is the following day, then let him pray at the time of the prayer (that
he missed).”
Think about what the Prophet (peace and blessings of
Allaah be upon him) said to his companions: “Guard our prayer for us.” You
will see that it indicates that it is essential to take the necessary means
to offer prayer on time and to pray in congregation, but the effort and
exhaustion caused by travel prevented them from waking up at the time of
Fajr, and they only woke up when the sun has risen, so they had an excuse in
that case.
Al-Nawawi said in Sharh Muslim (5/186):
This is evidence for that on which the scholars are
unanimously agreed, that the sleeper is not accountable. End quote.
It says in al-Mawsoo’ah al-Fiqhiyyah (7/187):
It may be understood from this hadeeth that if a person
thinks it most likely that if he sleeps he will miss the prayer, he should
tell someone to wake him up. End quote.
To sum up: If you need to sleep before the prayer but are
keen to wake up, and you tell someone in your family to wake you up, or you
set an alarm clock, there is nothing wrong with that, and the Muslim is not
sinning if he misses prayer in congregation or misses the time for prayer
(in that case).
Secondly:
As for the vow you made, you should have fulfilled it. As you
did not do that, you have to offer the expiation for breaking an oath
(kafaarat yameen), because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah
be upon him) said: “The expiation for breaking a vow is kafaarat yameen.”
Narrated by Muslim (1645). You only have to offer one expiation, even if
there were many days on which you slept before ‘Asr, because the vow is
dissolved when it is broken and it does not remain in effect.
Kafaarat yameen is freeing a slave or feeding ten poor
persons with the average kind of food that you eat, or clothing them. If you
cannot do one of these three things, then you have to fast for three days.
See also the answer to question no.
45676
And Allaah knows best.