O.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Hughes, Thomas Patrick
[For further information on the subject of Oaths, see Hamilton’s Hidāyah, book vi.; the Durru ʾl-Muk͟htār, the Raddu ʾl-Muḥtār, and the Fatāwā-i-ʿĀlamgīrī, in loco, in which there are chapters devoted to the consideration of oaths and vows made under all circumstances of life, e.g. with respect to entering places of residence; with regard to actions; with respect to eating and drinking, speaking and conversing; of vows in manumission and divorce; with respect to buying and selling, marriage, clothing, wearing ornaments, striking, killing, the payment of money, &c. &c.]
OATH, The administration of an. An oath in a court of justice is not worthy of credit unless it be taken in the name of God, because Muḥammad said, “Whosoever takes an oath otherwise than in the name of God, is most certainly a polytheist.” It is incumbent upon the Qāẓī, or judge, to request the swearer to corroborate his oath by reciting some of the attributes of God. For example, “I swear by God, the Righteous, the Knower of Secrets,” &c. A defendant must not be required to swear by divorce or emancipation, as if he should say: “If it be true my wife is divorced, or my slave is free.”
If an oath be administered to a Jew, he should say, “I swear by God who revealed the Taurāt to Moses.”
If to a Christian, he should say, “I swear by God who revealed the Injīl to Jesus.”
If to a Majūsī or fire-worshipper, he should say, “I swear by God who created fire.”
An oath cannot be administered to an idolater otherwise than in the name of God, in accordance with this verse in the Qurʾān, “If ye ask of them who hath created you, verily they will say God Almighty.” (Sūrah xxxix. 39.)
An oath cannot be administered to infidels in their places of worship, because the Qāẓī is not allowed to enter such a place. This applies to the places of worship of the Jews and Christians as well as of idolaters. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 77.)
Women are not in Muslim law (as in Jewish, Mishna Sheb. iv. 1), forbidden to bear witness on oath.
OBSEQUIES OF THE DEAD. [JANAZAH.]
OFFENCE AGAINST THE PERSON. [JINAYAH.]
OFFERINGS. The Arabic word naẕr (نذر) is often used for an offering, but in its strict theological meaning it expresses a vow. K͟hairāt (خيرات), pl. of K͟hair, is used for ordinary acts of charity. Ṣadaqah (صدقة) also expresses the same meaning. Niyāz (نياز) is an offering to a saint. Zakāt (زكوة), the legal alms.
[For an account of these offerings refer to the words.]
OHUD. [UHUD.]
OLD TESTAMENT. Al-ʿAhdu ʾl-ʿAtīq (العهد العتيق). Muḥammad, in his Qurʾān, professes to receive all the inspired books of the Old Testament. (See Sūrah ii. 130): “We believe in God, and what has been revealed to us, and what has been revealed to Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the Tribes, and what was brought unto the Prophets from their Lord: and we will not distinguish between any of them, and unto Him are we resigned” (i.e. Muslims). But there is no evidence that Muḥammad had ever seen the Jewish Scriptures, as now received by both Jews and Christians. In the Qurʾān, he mentions the Taurāt of Moses, the Zabūr (Psalms) of David, and makes several references to the historical portions of the Old Testament; but Jonah is the only name amongst the writers of the prophetical books (either greater or minor), of the Old Testament scriptures, mentioned in the Qurʾān.
Muḥammadan writers say there have been 124,000 prophets, but only eight of these have been apostles to whom the Almighty has revealed books, and that only one hundred portions, or ṣuhuf, and four books, or kutub, have been given to mankind. Ten portions to Adam, the first of the prophets, fifty to Seth (not once mentioned in the Qurʾān), thirty to Idrīs or Enoch, and ten to Abraham. One book to Moses, another to David, another to Jesus, and the fourth to Muḥammad.
Six of the prophets are said to have brought in new laws which successively abrogated the preceding, namely Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muḥammad.
It is impossible to read the Qurʾān carefully without arriving at the conclusion that Muḥammad derived his knowledge of the events of Old Testament scriptures rather from the Rabbins and their Talmudic teaching, than from the inspired text itself. Mr. Emanuel Deutsch truly says: “Judaism forms the kernel of Muḥammadanism, both general and special. It seems as if he (Muḥammad) had breathed from his childhood almost the air of contemporary Judaism, such Judaism as is found by us crystallised in the Talmud, the Targum, and the Midras.” (Literary Remains, p. 89.)
The following Old Testament characters are mentioned by name in the Qurʾān:—
Aaron, Hārūn; Abel, Hābīl; Cain, Qābīl; Abraham, Ibrāhīm; Adam, Ādam; Terah, Āzar; David, Dāʾūd; Goliath, Jālūt; Enoch, Idrīs; Elias, Ilyās; Elijah, Alyasaʿ (al-Yasaʿ); Ezra, ʿUzair; Gabriel, Jibrīl; Gog, Yājūj; Magog, Mājūj; Isaac, Isḥāq; Ishmael, Ismāʿīl; Jacob, Yaʿqūb; Joseph, Yūsuf; Job, Aiyūb; Jonah, Yūnus; Joshua, Yūshaʿ; Korah, Qārūn; Lot, Lūt̤; Michael, Mikāʾīl; Moses, Mūsā; Noah, Nūḥ; Pharaoh, Firaun; Solomon, Sulaimān; Saul, T̤ālūt.
The following incidents of Old Testament history are related in the Qurʾān, with a strange want of accuracy and a large admixture of Talmudic fable:—
Aaron makes a calf. Sūrah xx. 90.
Cain and Abel. Sūrah v. 30.
Abraham visited by Angels. Sūrah xi. 72, xv. 51.
Abraham ready to sacrifice his son. Sūrah xxxvii. 101.
Adam, his fall. Sūrah vii. 18, ii. 34.
David’s praise of God. Sūrah xxxiv. 10.
Jacob goes to Egypt. Sūrah xii. 100.
Manna and quails given. Sūrah vii. 160, xx. 82.
Moses strikes the rock. Sūrah vii. 160.
Noah’s ark. Sūrah xi. 40.
Solomon’s judgment. Sūrah xxi. 78.
Queen of Sheba. Sūrah xxvii. 22.
The compiler of the Kashfu ʾz̤-Z̤unūn (ed. Flügel, vol. ii. p. 458, article, Taurāt) attempts an account of the Old Testament scriptures.
He divides the whole into four sections, and gives the names of the books as follows:—