An-Nahl (The Bee)

94. “And do not make your oaths a means of deceit among you, lest any foot might slip after its stability and you should taste evil for that you hindered (people) from the path of Allah, and for you there will be a great torment.”

According to Raqib, the Qur’anic term /sadadtum/ signifies both ‘being kept away from’ and ‘keeping others away’, and the Arabic word /daxal/ equates in rhyming and meaning as /daqal/ which means ‘deceit’.

A sinful act certainly leads to other sins, paving the way for them. Breaking of one’s words paves the ground for evil ending which itself would make preparation for being kept away and keeping others away from the path of Allah.

Anyway, to stress the importance of keeping one’s words and of standing up to performing one’s pledges, which are important in social stability, He declares:

“And do not make your oaths a means of deceit among you…”

The reason of it is that there are two main disadvantages attached to it: Firstly, it causes your firm steps in Faith to be shaky, for once you pledge to do something, and make an oath, while you do not intend to keep to it, and you repeat such a cycle, people’s confidence will be eroded and some believers may become weak in their faith.

Such circumstances lead them to believe that they have stood on firm grounds at first but they have found the grounds slippery afterwards.

Another disadvantage stated is that you will feel the dire consequences of such an act, which is hindering people from the path of Allah, in this world while the Great Divine Chastisement awaits you in the Hereafter.

The holy verse continues saying:

“…lest any foot might slip after its stability and you should taste evil for that you hindered (people) from the path of Allah…”

In fact, breaking of one’s promises and violation of swearing for pledges, on the one hand, would lead people to be pessimistic and would cause people to abhor the way of the truth.

It will also disintegrate the united front of the people and would lead to the loss of confidence among them as far as making people lose their interest in embracing Islam and in case they have made a commitment with you, they would not feel obligated or obliged to fulfill their promise, which would in turn lead to numerous complications, defeat and failures in the world.

On the other hand, it would bring forth the Divine punishment for you in the Hereafter.

The verse concludes:

“…and for you there will be a great torment.”

Incidentally, Hadrat Imam Baqir (as) and Hadrat Imam Sadiq (as) have been quoted in the following commentaries as saying:

“This noble verse is about the ‘mastership’ of Amir-ul-Mu’mineen (as), and allegiance with him, and when it was revealed, the Prophet (S) addressing the people, declared: “Convey your greetings to Ali (as) as the leader of the believers.”1

The Philosophy of Respect for Pledges

We know that the most important capital of a society is the reciprocal confidence of the individuals with respect to one another.

Principally, what causes firm coherence among the members of a society, who are in a disintegrated and separate group of individuals, thus making them into coherent unity, is this same mutual confidence which backs up and supports the harmonious activities and cooperation at a broader level in the society.

Pledging, committing and swearing all stress upon the preservation of this solidarity and mutual confidence. However, the day when promises are broken one after another, there will be nothing left out of such public confidence which is a great investment by itself, and the seemingly-integrated society will be disintegrated into individual units which lacks power.

It is for this reason that we find repeated and wide-spread talk of keeping of one’s promises in the Qur’an as well as in traditions of Islam, the breaking up of which is considered as once of the capital sins.

Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (as) has made allusions in his command to ‘Malik-i-’Ashtar’ as to the importance of such issue in Islam and during ‘the Age of Ignorance’, regarding it as one of the prime importance and the most general issues, emphasizing that even the pagans had been aware of its significance, sticking to it for they had found out about the painful consequences of breaking of promises.¹

We have it in the Islamic War Commandments that when even one ordinary soldier gives respite of security to one or a group of the enemy army it must be observed by all Muslims.

Historians and commentators are of the opinion that among reasons which caused groups of people to embrace the Great Divine way, was the Muslims’ keeping to their promises and having regards for their oaths.

This went as far as we read in quotations from Salman-i-Farsi (R.A.) who said:

“The extermination of this nation might be only brought about because of their breach of treaties.”3

That is, as keeping of one’s promise will bring about power, splendor and progress, breaking of one’s promises will also result in his weakness, inability and his self-annihilation.