Oaths in the Qur'an

Oaths in General can be used as an expression of anger, for a skeptical audience and also used in court or in testimony.


Oaths in old Arabic were usually said for no reason at all, [this has still continued today when our Arab/Somali friends begin their sentences with "wallahi"] Pre-Islam Oaths are also used to get attention. For example a caller would run to the top of a mountain, stand naked and swear by the next morning. Either the people would hear the oath and realise that something bad would happen the following morning or the people would see the crier naked and realise there is some sort of emergency. This was the mass media of that time. Prophet pbuh used the mass media but took the filth [standing naked] out of it. When he was commanded to spread the message of Islam to his people, he too climbed to the peak of a mountain and began by swearing an oath which caught the people's attention to gather round.


Oaths in the Qur'an vary through the surahs where Allah swt swears by time [surah 103], the sun [surah 91], the fig and the olive [surah 95]. Scholars have contended that whatever Allah swears by is important. Additionally Allah also used the oaths as a means of capturing the listener's attention. As we know there are 2 parts to an oath, the object and the subject of an oath. For example if someone says "I swear I did not see your ice-cream." The actual oath 'I swear' is the object and the latter part of the sentence is the subject. The object is there to get you ready for the subject, it is proof of the subject and it is a witness for the subject. In surah 103, Allah says 'By time, certainly man is in loss.'

A beautiful example of the use of oaths in the Qur'an to capture the listeners attention can be seen in Surah 100 - Surah al-'Aadiyaat. As the Qur'an was revealed in the rich language of Arabic and sent to a people who cherished their language, the Qur'an uses the oaths to capture their attention -something that was familiar to that society as well. Before we begin looking at the ayaat in the surah mentioned, it is important to note that whilst in that time the Arabs did not have access TV and film, their entertainment of that kind was captured in rich Arabic language in the form of poetry. In addition to this, the Arabs really took pride in their horse [it's the equivalent of a fast sports car for us today!] Therefore Allah swt grabs their attention immediately in the following verses of Surah al-'aadiyat in the form of powerful oaths.

Allah delivers the fast action of the horses in the form of a verbal movie trailer through the rhyme of the words in the ayaat. Below is a video of the impact the verses had on the listener then.

The trailer stops here, as this was the object to grab the attention of the listener. It only then dawns upon the listener what the message behind these verses is. The example given is that of the much loved animal, the horse and its loyalty to its master. But when it comes to your master, you are not as loyal to it, as the horse is to its master. SubhanAllah the lesson learnt from this and many more examples from the Qur'an really does show how universal the Qur'an really is.

[This post was a write up of my notes from Nouman Ali Khan's Divine Speech Seminar in London Dec 2011]

Qur'anic Criticisms of Various Modes of False Reasoning

This post will deal with the deception in winning a debate. In a battle or a debate of some sort you always need proofs to crush your opponent as is clearly the case in a court of law. But when people find they are out of proofs, they can resort to cheating mechanisms to deceive their oponent into thinking they have actually lost the argument. Clearly when someone resorts to cheating it shows immediately that they could not win a fair fight. The following show the various modes of cheating mechanisms that can and have been undertaken for false reasoning in examples from the Qur'an and even society today:



1) The threat of force in debate

This is simply when anger overtakes someone and they cannot refute the argument and so they resort to the cheating mechanism of threatening their oponent. For example when Ibrahim [as] challenged his people when he broke their idols. They responded by saying "Burn him and protect your gods if you do anything at all!" [21:68] They win the argument by using the threat of force in debate, but in turn it only prooves their actual defeat as they could find no other way to respond to his argument.


2) Character Assassination
This is when one is belittled in response to an argument when you cannot think of anything better to say. It's actually not a real response to an argument, it's an insult. The example from the Qur'an is when Firawn belittles Musa [as] because of his stutter: "Am I not better than This (Moses), who is a contemptible wretch and can scarcely express Himself clearly?" [43:52] Firawn used the idea of character assassination to belittle Musa and thus deceived himself and others into thinking he actually defeated him.


3) Stirring up an emotional crowd
This tends to be ok in sport, but in debate or discourse, clapping or cheering to support the speaker is not proof of an argument. The crowd cannot validate your response. As we know this is used a lot in contemporary debate, especially in politics. Again Pharaoh tried to use this to his advantage when he invited the nation to watch his battle against Musa [as]. This can be seen in the following verses from the Qur'an: "They said 'These two are certainly (expert) magicians: their object is to drive you out from your land with their Magic, and to do away with your Most cherished institutions. Therefore concert your plan and then assemble in ranks: He wins today who gains the upper hand'." [20:63-64]


4) To make the opponent question their own modesty or loyalty
 A clear example of this can be seen in the role of family pressures during cultural weddings. People will make you feel like you are disloyal because you don't conform to family practises. After all, the way a wedding is conducted says alot about your family and  culture. But when some Muslims struggle today between culture and Islam during weddings a key question that tends to pop up [especially amongst the south Asian Muslims at least] is "What are people going to say?" or in the case of Ibrahim [as] where his father said "We found our fathers worshipping them" [21:53] in response to Ibrahim questioning his father about the images to which he was devoted. Immediately the questionner implies where the opponents loyalty stands, this would not justify or validate an argument at all.

5) To rephrase the opponents position falsely and to refute it
Many a times we may have come across this - or heard a misquotation 'So what you're saying is...'Allah swt corrected the misquotation of Eesa being the son of God with this ayat clearly stating he is not the son of God: 'the similitude of Jesus before Allah is as that of Adam; He created Him from dust, then said to him: "Be", and he was.' [3:59]



6) Asking strategically distracting questions
This is something the Quraysh would do when questioning the Prophet pbuh to distract him from his original message. Sometimes we find our selves a victim of this when in dialogue with non-Muslims. We don't finish answering the actual question before other distracting questions are posed one after the other. We end up explaining to them what Islam is not rather than what it actually is. Surely whoever asks the questions, controls the conversation!

[This post was a write up of my notes from Nouman Ali Khan's Divine Speech Seminar in London Dec 2011]

Qur'anic Examples - The varying states of hearts

The purpose of an example is that it can help you to understand what the writer or speaker is actually saying. So what makes an example a good example? A good example is something that the whole audience can understand. Thus it is an example related to their time and their culture etc. The main purpose of examples in the Qur'an is so that one is left to ponder. It is written in such a way that one can be lost in thought, thus through one example in the Qur'an many lessons are learnt.

The following ayaat from the Qur'an will show how lessons are truly learnt from the examples provided and how they are relevant to the people of their time thus refuting the arguments put forth by non-muslim academics who critique the examples portrayed in the Qur'an.

Thenceforth were your hearts hardenend: They became like a rock and Even worse in hardness, for among rocks there are some from which rivers gush forth; others there are which when split asunder send forth water; and others which sink for fear of Allah, and Allah is not unmindful of what you do.

The ayat above is in reference to the 3 kinds of hearts in which an example of the rock is given. The 3 kinds of rock are as follows:
1) The rock that bursts open and water gushes out of it
2) The rock that cracks open and a small amounts of water seeps out of the crack
3) The rock that falls from the fear of Allah

If this example of the rock is in reference to the heart, then the heart which falls from the fear of Allah (the 3rd rock) is like being in the fold of Islam. The heart which cracks open (the 2nd rock) and the little water comes out is when a person is in the state of Imaan. The heart which bursts open (the 1st rock) and water gushes out is when one is in a state of Ihsaan.

To further understand this, let's take the example of Umar ibn al Khattab's conversion to Islam. It wasn't until the 6th year after the Prophet pbuh's first revelation that Umar came to Islam. So at first his heart was hardened like the rock. It only cracked open a little when he went out with intent to kill the Prophet pbuh; he found the Prophet pbuh by the Ka'bah praying and the words of the Qur'an moved him that he changed his mind. It was later on when he found out his sister had converted to Islam that he returned home and once he heard the message of the Qur'an that his heart [the rock] cracked open and the faith poured out. Faith inside the heart is like water in the rock.

Whilst this example above portrayed an analogy of the states of our hearts, the actual example Allah chose about the rock and comparing it to the varying states of the heart was for a specific reason and a specific audience. This particular verse is taken from Surah al-Baqarah in which Allah addresses as we know Bani Israeel. This example was thus given to Bani Israeel. Why? Because they already know the example of when water gushes out of the rock! [When Musa alayhi-salaam hit his stick on the rock and the 12 springs gushed forth - Quran 26:63]. Therefore, Allah swt used the example  they [Bani Israeel] were already aware of! SubhanAllah! Who better to give an example to His creation than the Creator Himself!

[This post was a write up of my notes from Nouman Ali Khan's Divine Speech Seminar in London Dec 2011]