Chapter Eleven
Swearing by Other than Allah, and Seeking Intercession or Relief from Created Beings

Clarifying the ruling on swearing by other than Allah and on seeking intercession and relief from a created being

(a) Swearing by other than Allah

An oath is a solemn affirmation in which one invokes something held in reverence to confirm a statement. Veneration, however, is a right that belongs to Allah alone, and it is therefore impermissible to swear by anything other than Him. The scholars have reached unanimous consensus that an oath may be taken only by Allah, or by His Names and Attributes, and they are likewise unanimous in prohibiting oaths taken by anything else (1).

Swearing by other than Allah constitutes shirk, for Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whoever swears by other than Allah has committed disbelief or shirk.” (2) This is classified as minor shirk—unless the thing sworn by is revered to the point of being worshipped, in which case it becomes major shirk. Such is the condition we observe today among those who worship graves: they fear and revere the occupants of those graves more than they fear and revere Allah, so that when one of them is asked to swear