Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Ruling on swearing by the life of the Qur’aan

I swore an oath that my brother should not sleepin the house, and I
said "By the life of the Qur'aan, you shall never sleep in the house."
Then he slept in the house. What do I have todo?.
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
In the answer to question no. 122729 we stated that it is permissible
to swear by the names and attributesof Allah.
The Qur'aan is the word of Allah, and His word is one of His
attributes, so it is permissible to swearby the Qur'aan. The scholars
of the Standing Committee said:
It is permissible to swearby Allah and His Attributes. The Qur'aan
isthe word of Allah, which is one of His attributes, so it is
permissible to swear by it.
End quote from Fataawa al-Lajnah ad-Daa'imah, 1/354
Secondly:
Swearing by the life of the Qur'aan is not mentioned, as far as we
know, in Islam, either in the Book of Allah or the Sunnah of His
Messenger(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) or the words of
any of his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them).
It seems that the one who swore by this oath intended to swear by the
Qur'aan and spoke inthe manner of the common folk when they swear by
the life of that by which they are swearing. What appears to be the
case is that it comes under the same rulings as the ruling on one who
swears by the Qur'aan.
Shaykh Ibn Baaz (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked:
We have many people who swear by things other than Allah. For example
they say, "By the life of the Prophet Muhammad (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him)" or "By the life of 'Eesa" or "By the life of Moosa
(peace be upon him)" or "By the life of the Qur'aan" or "By the life
of my father's grave" or "I swear by my honour". Please advise me
about that; may Allah reward you with the best of rewards.
He replied: Swearing by anything other than Allah is not permissible.
Rather the oath should be by Allah alone, may He be glorified and
exalted, because it is proven that the Messenger of Allah (blessings
and peace of Allah be upon him) said: "Whoever swears an oath, let him
not swear by anything except by Allah, or else let him remain silent."
And he said: "Whoever swears by anything other than Allah has
associated something with Him (shirk)." Swearing by anything other
than Allah is one of the haraam actions that constitute kufr
(disbelief), but it comes under the heading of minor shirk, unless he
meant that this by whichhe swore was as great asAllah, or that it has
control over the universe, or that it deserves to be called upon
instead of Allah, in which case it becomes major kufr (al-kufr
al-akbar) – Allah forbid.
So if he said "By the life of So and so" or "By the life of the
Messenger" or "By the life of Moosa" or "By the life of 'Eesa" or "By
my father's grave", or he swore by honesty or by the Ka'bah and so on,
all of that is swearing by something other than Allah, and all of that
is not permissibleand is an evil action.
What should be done is to not swear by anything except Allah, may He
be glorified and exalted, or by one of His attributes, or by one of
His names. The Qur'aan isthe word of Allah, and the Qur'aan is one of
theattributes of Allah. So if aperson says "By the Qur'aan" or "By the
life of the Qur'aan", there is nothing wrong with that, because the
Qur'aan is the word of Allah, may He be glorified and exalted.
End quote from Fataawa Noor 'ala ad-Darb by Ibn Baaz (p. 236-237)
Thirdly:
If a person swears that his brother or someone else should not sleep
in the house, then he sleeps there, he has to offer expiation for
breaking an oath (kafaarat yameen).
The scholars of the Standing Committee were asked:
I swore an oath to someone, saying: "By Allah, you should not
slaughter the animal," but he did not heed my words and he slaughtered
it, and I ate some of it. Is there any sin on me, and is there any
expiation I have to offer? If there is any expiation I must offer,
please advise me about it.
They replied: If the situation is as you describe, there is no sin on
you for eating from it, but you have to offer expiation for breaking
an oath (kafaarat yameen), by feeding ten poor persons with the same
kind of food as youeat, or clothing them, or freeing a believing
slave.If none of that is possible, then you have to fast for three
days.
End quote from Fataawa al-Lajnah ad-Daa'imah, 23/85
Ibn Baaz (may Allah havemercy on him) was asked:
I have children and I often swear that they should not do such and
such, but they do not respond to my words. DoI have to offer any
expiation in this case?
He replied: If you swear an oath to your children or anyone else, with
the aim that they should do something or should notdo something, then
they go against that, you have to offer expiation for breaking an oath
(kafaarat yameen). End quote from Majmoo' Fataawa Ibn Baaz (23/119)
Fourthly:
If your oath to your brother that he should not sleep in the house was
the result of an argument, then it is not Islamically appropriate.
When you swore that oath, what is Islamically prescribed in your case
is to break the oath and offer expiation for it, because of the report
narrated by al-Bukhaari (6718) and Muslim (1649) from Abu Moosa
al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him), according to which the
Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allaah,
if Allaah wills, I do not swear an oath then see something better than
that, but I expiate my oath and do that which is better."
And Muslim (1650) narrated that Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased
with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah
be upon him) said: "Whoever swears an oath then sees that something
else is better than it, let him do that and offer expiation for his
oath."
An-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
These hadeeths indicate that if a person swears to do something or not
to do something, and breaking the oath is better than adhering to it,
it is mustahabb for him to break the oath and he has to offer
expiation. This is something agreed upon.End quote.
And Allah knows best.

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