QASAMAH

The fourteenth book is the �Book of Oaths� (al-qasAmah).  QasAmah literally means �taking an oath,� but in the terminology of the sharI�ah, it is an oath of a particular type and taken under particular conditions.  For example, when a man is found slain, and the identity of his slayer is unknown, fifty persons from the nearest district take an oath that they neither killed the man nor knew who did it.  This establishes their innocence.

This was apparently the practice among the pre-Islamic Arabs, and Muhammad adopted it.  Once a Muslim was found slain.  His relatives accused the neighboring Jews.  Muhammad told them: �Let fifty persons among you take oath for leveling the charge of murder against a person among them, and he would be surrendered to you.� They declined to take the oath since they had not witnessed the murder.  Then Muhammad told them that �the Jews will exonerate themselves by fifty of them taking this oath.� They replied: �Allah�s Messenger, how can we accept the oath of unbelieving people?� Then Muhammad paid the bloodwite of one hundred camels for the slain man out of his own funds (4119-4125).

Another hadIs specifically tells us that Allah�s Messenger �retained the practice of QasAma as it was in the pre-Islamic days� (4127).

author : ram swarup

The fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth books all relate to the subject of crime: the forms and categories of crime, the procedure of investigating them, and the punishments resultant from having committed them.

Muslim fiqh (law) divides punishment into three heads: hadd, qisAs, and ta�zIr.  Hadd (pl. HadUd) comprises punishments that are prescribed and defined in the QurAn and the HadIs.  These include stoning to death (rajm) for adultery (zinA); one hundred lashes for fornication (QurAn 24:2-5); eighty lashes for slandering an �honorable� woman (husun), i.e., accusing her of adultery; death for apostatizing from Islam (irtidAd); eighty lashes for drinking wine (shurb); cutting off the right hand for theft (sariqah, QurAn 5:38-39); cutting off of feet and hands for highway robbery; and death by sword or crucifixion for robbery accompanied by murder.

The law also permits qisAs, or retaliation.  It is permitted only in cases where someone has deliberately and unjustly wounded, mutilated, or killed another, and only if the injured and the guilty hold the same status.  As slaves and unbelievers are inferior in status to Muslims, they are not entitled to qisAs according to most Muslim faqIhs (jurists).

In cases of murder, the right of revenge belongs to the victim�s heir.  But the heir can forgo this right and accept the blood-price (diyah) in exchange.  For the death of a woman, only half of the blood-price is due.  The same applies to the death of a Jew or a Christian, but according to one school, only one-third is permissible in such cases.  If a slave is killed, his heirs are not entitled to qisAs and indemnity; but since a slave is a piece of property, his owner must be compensated with his full value.

The Muslim law on crime and punishment is quite complicated.  Though the QurAn gives the broad outline, the HadIsalone provides a living source and image.

author : ram swarup

THE �GOD WILLING� CLAUSE

If one includes the proviso �God willing� (InshA AllAh) when taking an oath, the vow must be fulfilled.  SulaimAn (Solomon) had sixty wives.  One day he said, �I will certainly have intercourse with them during the night and everyone will give birth to a male child who will all be horsemen and fight in the cause of Allah.  � But only one of them became pregnant, and she gave birth to a premature child.  �But if he had said InshA� Allah he would have not failed,� observes Muhammad.  In other ahAdIs about the same story, the number of wives increases from sixty to seventy and then to ninety (4066-4070).

author : ram swarup

The twelfth and thirteenth books, on vows (al-nazar) and oaths (al-aiman), respectively, can be treated together.  Muhammad discourages taking vows, for a vow �neither hastens anything nor defers anything� (4020).  Allah has no need of a man�s vows.  A man once took a vow to walk on foot to the Ka�ba, but Muhammad said that �Allah is indifferent to his inflicting upon himself chastisement,� and �commanded him to ride� (4029).

Muhammad also forbids believers to swear by LAt or �UzzA or by their fathers.  �Do not swear by idols, nor by your father,� says Muhammad (4043).  But he allows you to swear by God, something which Jesus forbade.  �He who has to take an oath, he must take it by Allah or keep quiet,� Muhammad says (4038).

author : ram swarup