Note 48 — Chapter VIII

Note 48.—On Oaths. To explain this passage, I must repeat, with a few slight additions, some remarks which I have made in a former publication.380—Among a people by whom falsehood, in certain cases, is not only allowed but commended,381 oaths of different kinds are more or less binding. In considering this subject, we should also remember that oaths may sometimes be expiated.382 There are some oaths which, I believe, few Muslims would falsely take; such as saying, three times, "By God the Great!" (Wa-lláhi-l-Aẓeem), and the oath upon the muṣ-ḥaf (or copy of the Ḳur-án), saying, "By what this contains of the word of God!" This latter is rendered more binding by placing a sword with the sacred volume; and still more so, by the addition of a cake, or piece, of bread, and a handful of salt. But a form of oath which is generally yet more to be depended upon is that of saying, "I impose upon myself divorcement!" (that is, "the divorce of my wife, if what I say be false"); or, "I impose upon myself interdiction!" which has a similar meaning ("My wife be unlawful to me!"); or, "I impose upon myself a triple divorcement!" which binds a man by the irrevocable divorce of his wife. If a man use any of these three forms of oath falsely, his wife, if he have but one, is divorced by the oath itself, if proved to be false, without the absolute necessity of any further ceremony; and if he have two or more wives, he must, under such circumstances, choose one of them to put away.