The saying “By my father and mother”, is it considered as an oath?
Question:
Assalamualaikum.
Ustadz, may Allah bless you, i have a question that I haven’t been able to find the answer for it up until now. That is; as we know that an oath must only performed using the name of Allah. But what about the oath that was uttered by Abu Bakr, when he said, “By my father and mother.” Then how could we differentiate between the oaths above? May Allah reward you with goodnesses.
From: Mukhlish Abu Dzar Al-Batawy
Answer:
Wa’alaikumsalam warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. May Allah bless you too.
The saying of “بابي و امي” is not included as an oath, rather, it is a sentence that the Arabs used to utter their depth of love to a person and the greatness of his position. (See: Al-Minhaj Syarh Shahih Muslim bin Al-Hajjaj, An-Nawawy 15/184).
The origin of this sentence was: أنت مَفْدِيٌّ بأبي وأمي or فَدَيْتُكَ بأبي وأمي which means: I will redeem you with my father and mother (that is if something bad happened), then it was abbreviated into: بابي و امي , since it has been frequently used and since it is already known about the people that is meant in the sentence. (See: An-Nihayah fii gharibil Hadist wal Atsar, Ibn al Atsir 1/20 by. Dar Ihya At-Turats Al-’Araby, and Lisanul ‘Arab, Ibn Mandhur page 17 published by Darul Ma’arif,)
Thus, if you’d like to translate it, then you should translate it completely, “I will redeem you with my father and my mother,” or, “My father and mother be your ransom,” etc, and not “By my father and my mother”, which means an oath.
And Allah knows best.
Answered by: Ustadz Abdullah Roy, Lc.
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