﴿ وَالطُّورِ ٭ وَكِتَابٍ مَّسْطُورٍ ٭ فِي رَقٍّ مَّنشُورٍ ٭...

There is no doubt that if swearing by other than God is tantamount to polytheism and associating partners to God, the Holy Qur’an which is the charter of monotheism and unity of God would not have resorted to it, and if such a way of swearing is exclusive to God, the verses of the Qur’an would have warned people from doing so lest they should commit mistakes. 2.

All Muslims of the world regard the Holy Prophet (S) as their model and consider his conduct and behavior as the criterion for distinguishing right from wrong. Muslim scholars and compilers of Sahih s and Musnad s have mentioned so many instances of the Holy Prophet’s (S) swearing by other than God. In his Musnad , Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the chief of the Hanbalis, thus narrates from the Messenger of Allah (S): "فلعمري لأن تتكلم بمعروف تنهى عن منكر خير من أن تسكت." “By my life!

If you would enjoin good and forbid evil, it will be better than keeping silent.”[^8] In his Sahih , which the Ahl as-Sunnah consider one of the six authentic compilations of hadith , Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj states: "جاء رجل إلى النبيّ صلى الله عليه وأله وسلم فقال: يا رسول الله أيّ الصدقة أعظم أجراً؟ فقال: أما وأبيك لتنبانه أن تصدق وأنت صحيح شحيح تخشى الفقر وتأمل البقاء." There came a person to the Prophet (S) and asked the Messenger of Allah: “Which charity is the most rewarding?” He said: “By your father, it is the charity which you give in a state when you are healthy and close-fisted, haunted by fear of poverty, and hoping to live (as rich).”[^9] How can those who consider a great part of global Muslims as polytheists because they believe that it is permissible to swear by other than God justify this explicit act of the Prophet (S) (i.e., swearing by a person’s father)?