Meaning: their oaths · Also translated as: your oaths, your right hands, oaths, in your oaths
Forms in the Quran
أَيْمَٰنِكُمْ×15
أَيْمَٰنِهِمْ×15
ٱلْيَمِينِ×12
بِيَمِينِهِۦ×4
أَيْمَٰنٌۢ×3
يَمِينِكَ×3
ٱلْأَيْمَٰنَ×2
بِيَمِينِكَ×2
Its root in the classical dictionaries
اليمين: أصله الجارحة، واستعماله في وصف الله تعالى في قوله: والسماوات مطويات بيمينه
قوله تعالى: ﴿إنكم كنتم تأتوننا عن اليمين﴾ [الصافات: 28] أي عن القوة والقهر، أي غلبتمونا وقهرتمونا حتى أطعناكم، وركبوا معاصيهم على قادتهم. قال ابن عرفة: أي تمنعوننا من طاعة الله، أي تأتوتنا من قبل الحق فتلبسوه علينا. والعرب تنسب الفعل المحمود إلى اليمين والمذموم إلى الشمال. قال الشماخ: [من الوافر]
And make not
God's (name) an excuse
In your oaths against
Doing good, or acting rightly,
Or making peace
Between persons;
For God is One
Who heareth and knoweth
All things.
As for those who sell
The faith they owe to God
And their own plighted word
For a small price,
They shall have no portion
In the Hereafter:
Nor will God
(Deign to) speak to them
Or look at them
On the Day of Judgment,
Nor will He cleanse them
(Of sin): they shall have
A grievous Penalty.
If ye fear that ye shall not
Be able to deal justly
With the orphans,
Marry women of your choice,
Two, or three, or four;
But if ye fear that ye shall not
Be able to deal justly (with them),
Then only one, or (a captive)
That your right hands possess.
That will be more suitable,
To prevent you
From doing injustice.
Also (prohibited are)
Women already married,
Except those
Whom your right hands possess:
Thus hath God ordained
(Prohibitions) against you:
Except for these, all others
Are lawful, provided
Ye seek (them in marriage)
With gifts from your property,—
Desiring chastity, not lust.
Seeing that ye derive
Benefit from them, give them
Their dowers (at least)
As prescribed; but if,
After a dower is prescribed, ye agree
Mutually (to vary it),
There is no blame on you,
And God is All-knowing
All-wise.
If any of you have not
The means wherewith
To wed free believing women,
They may wed believing
Girls from among those
Whom your right hands possess:
God hath full knowledge
About your Faith.
Ye are one from another:
Wed them with the leave
Of their owners, and give them
Their dowers, according to what
Is reasonable: they should be
Chaste, not lustful, nor taking
Paramours: when they
Are taken in wedlock,
If they fall into shame,
Their punishment is half
That for free women.
This (permission) is for those
Among you who fear sin;
But it is better for you
That ye practise self-restraint.
And God is Oft-forgiving,
Most Merciful.
To (benefit) every one,
We have appointed
Sharers and heirs
To property left
By parents and relatives.
To those, also, to whom
Your right hand was pledged,
Give their due portion.
For truly God is witness
To all things.
serve God, and join not
Any partners with Him;
And do good
To parents, kinsfolk,
Orphans, those in need,
Neighbours who are near,
Neighbours who are strangers,
The Companion by your side,
The way-farer (ye meet),
And what your right hands possess:
For God loveth not
The arrogant, the vainglorious;—
And those who believe
Will say: "Are these
The men who swore
Their strongest oaths by God,
That they were with you?"
All that they do
Will be in vain,
And they will fall
Into (nothing but) ruin.
God will not call you
To account for what is
Futile in your oaths,
But He will call you
To account for your deliberate
Oaths: for expiation, feed
Ten indigent persons,
On a scale of the average
For the food of your families;
Or clothe them; or give
A slave his freedom.
If that is beyond your means,
Fast for three days.
That is the expiation
For the oaths ye have sworn.
But keep to your oaths.
Thus doth God make clear
To you His Signs, that ye
May be grateful.
That is most suitable:
That they may give the evidence
In its true nature and shape,
Or else they would fear
That other oaths would be
Taken after their oaths.
But fear God, and listen
(To His counsel): for God
Guideth not a rebellious people:
They swear their strongest
Oaths by God, that if
A (special) Sign came
To them, by it they would
Believe. Say: "Certainly
(All) Signs are in the power
Of God: but what will
Make you (Muslims) realise
That (even) if (special) Signs
Came, they will not believe."?
"Then will I assault them
From before them and behind them,
From their right and their left:
Nor wilt Thou find,
In most of them,
Gratitude (for Thy mercies).
But if they violate their oaths
After their covenant,
And taunt you for your Faith,—
Fight ye the chiefs of Unfaith:
For their oaths are nothing to them:
That thus they may be restrained.
Will ye not fight people
Who violated their oaths,
Plotted to expel the Apostle,
And took the aggressive
By being the first (to assault) you?
Do ye fear them? Nay,
It is God Whom ye should
More justly fear, if ye believe!
They swear their strongest oaths
By God, that God will not
Raise up those who die
Nay, but it is a promise
(Binding) on Him in truth:
But most among mankind
Realise it not.
Do they not look
At God's creation, (even)
Among (inanimate) things,—
How their (very) shadows
Turn round, from the right
And the left, prostrating
Themselves to God, and that
In the humblest manner?
God has bestowed His gifts
Of sustenance more freely on some
Of you than on others: those
More favoured are not going
To throw back their gifts
To those whom their right hands
Possess, so as to be equal
In that respect. Will they then
Deny the favours of God?
Fulfil the Covenant of God
When ye have entered into it,
And break not your oaths
After ye have confirmed them;
Indeed ye have made
God your surety; for God
Knoweth all that ye do.
And be not like a woman
Who breaks into untwisted strands
The yarn which she has spun,
After it has become strong
Nor take your oaths to practise
Deception between yourselves,
Lest one party should be
More numerous than another:
For God will test you by this;
And on the Day of Judgment
He will certainly make clear
To you (the truth of) that
Wherein ye disagree.