History, Form, Meaning and Use of Oaths

Imam Hamiduddin Farahi
(Tr. by: Tariq Haashmi)



Sometimes one needs to stress a statement or to emphasize promises in order to convince one’s audience. This is especially demanding in serious interpersonal, national, international and collective matters. When two persons, two nations, or a ruler and his subjects contract a treaty they consider it of utmost importance to assert that they are committed to their pledge by means of an oath. Thus they come to trust each other and differentiate between their allies and the opponents and between their protectors and enemies.



This social and cultural need called them to devise ways and select certain words which could depict such assertions. The original function of an oath is to reaffirm and solidify a statement.



Ancients expressed their commitments by taking the right hands of the other party. This practice remained customary among the Romans, the Arabs and the Hebrews. By taking the hand of the other party, one externalized his commitment. This act signified that both the parties vowed to stay tied together on the given affair and pledged their right hands on it. It was because of this custom that the word yamīn (literally: right hand) came to denote an oath. This fact has been clearly put by some of the poets. Jassās Ibn Murrah says:



I will fulfill the rights of my neighbor. My hands are pledged as surety for what I commit (yadī rahnun fi‘ālī).1



From this practice, the oath acquired the meaning of guarantee and surety. This signification of the oath is still present in the practice of shaking hands, clapping and striking hands while contracting a deal. This practice is still current among the Romans and the Indians. This is further corroborated by the fact that in Hebrew also the word yamīn is used to connote an oath. Psalms (144: reads:



Those whose mouths utter evil things and their oaths are false oaths.



The original Hebrew words are: (أشر فيهم دبر سوء ويمينام يمين شاقر) I wonder why the English translators failed to understand this meaning and they translated the verse as follows: “Their right hand is the false right hand.”2



They failed to appreciate that the word yamīn, in this context, connotes oath and translated it literally. This is an outrageously erroneous interpretation and proves that these translators of the Bible did not try enough to understand Hebrew, the original language of the Scripture. What is astonishing is that they did not mend this clear mistake in their recent efforts to improve the earlier translations.



Another example is found in the Proverbs. The Prophet Sulaymān (sws) says:



My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, if you have stricken your hands for a stranger. (Proverbs 6:1)



This proves that the Arabs and Hebrews followed a similar tradition of formalizing contracts and undertaking commitments. That is why the word yamīn signifies an oath in Hebrew as well as in Arabic.



When a large number of people were involved in a contract, all would dip their right hands in water. Since all hands touched the water, they took it to mean that all have taken the hands of each other and agreed on a matter of mutual interest. Water is the best thing to touch. It sticks with other substances best of all. They say “balla (literally: moisted) bi al-shay’i yadī” to mean that my hands have stuck to it. Ṭarafah Ibn al-‘Abd says:



When the nation hastens to take up arms, you shall find me secure while my hands have gripped the handle of the sword (ballat biqā’mihī).3



Sometimes they took scent and divided it among themselves and rubbed it on their hands. Thus they would depart while scented. Scent leaves more lasting traces than water. It is in fact more noticeable. This is why it has been called “a conspicuous thing” (‘urf) and “a diffusing one” (nashr). An example of this method of affirming contracts, in the history of the Arabs, is the famous legend of Manshim which goes as follows. Some people swore that they would fight their enemies jointly. They wanted a memorial of their covenant. They decided to use scent which they bought from a perfumer called Manshim. This legend got so famous that it developed into a parable. Zuhayr Ibn Abī Sulmā says:



You two recovered ‘Abs and Dhubyān while they had given themselves to war and while they had sprinkled among themselves essence of Manshim.4



Similarly, we see that participants in the oath of muṭayyibīn dipped their hands in perfume. The detail of this incident will be given in the tenth section.



At other occasions, they would slaughter an animal and sprinkle its blood on the bodies of the parties making a contract. This would either symbolize that the relation established thus was to be honored as blood ties or work as a symbolic expression of their vow to stand by their commitment to the extent of shedding their blood. It has been said in Exodus:



Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord, and Moses took half the blood and put it in basins and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said: “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.” And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said: “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you, according to all these words.” (Exodus 24:4-12)



We see that they vowed to their Lord by sprinkling the blood on themselves. They sprinkled the blood on the altar on behalf of their Lord. Thus they became the allies of their Lord. Such examples abound in the Torah. We find in Zechariah:



Because of the blood of your covenant, I set your prisoners free. (Zechariah 9:11)



Yet another method adopted in contractual obligations was that a party would bind a chord with that of their partners. They would then be considered allies. The word rope has acquired the meaning of a contract of guarantee and companionship from this very custom. The Qur’ān says:



Under a covenant (ḥabl) with God and a covenant (ḥabl) with men. (Q 3:112)