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