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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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The Difference Between the Oath of Immersion and the Oath of Idle Talk

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Question:
Someone asks Your Eminence, saying: What is the difference between the oath of immersion (al-ghumus) and the oath of idle talk (al-laghw)? The oath of al-ghumus is one in which one intentionally lies.

Answer:
Mm. A liar, a liar, “By Allah, I did not sell such-and-such,” and he is lying; “By Allah, I did not travel except to such-and-such,” and he is lying; and the like of that. This is called the oath of al-ghumus, meaning it immerses its owner in sin, and then in the Fire, or in the terror mentioned in the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): “Whoever swears an oath in which he lies will meet Allah with His wrath upon him.” The other wording is
He who appropriated the right of a Muslim by (swearing a false) oath, Allah would make Hell-fire necessary for him and would declare Paradise forbidden for himمن ارتطع حق مسلم بيمينه فقد أوجب الله له النار وحرم أهله الجنة
Sahih Muslim 137a
. This is said of the people of the immersed oath, the false and wicked oath that a person intends.
As for the oath that is not intended to lie, it is one that slips from the tongue without intent, as in the saying of the Exalted:
Allah does not impose blame upon you for what is unintentional in your oathsلَّا يُؤَاخِذُكُمُ اللَّهُ بِاللَّغْوِ فِي أَيْمَانِكُمْ
[Al-Baqarah 2:225]
Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) said: It is when a man says, "No, by Allah," or "By Allah," and it slips from his tongue without intent, occurring in his conversation with people, without any intention to lie or tell the truth; it merely slips from his tongue in the course of speech. This is called the idle oath (laghw al-yamin). Likewise, an idle oath is one where a person swears believing he is telling the truth, but it turns out he was mistaken; such an oath is void and carries no consequence. For example, if someone says, "By Allah, so-and-so has arrived; he came yesterday," but then it becomes clear to him that he was wrong and it was not his companion but someone who looks like him, this is called void because he did not intend to lie. Yes, yes. If he says, "So-and-so has arrived," or "By Allah, so-and-so has traveled," believing so because he saw him and he was mistaken about his identity, thinking it was him, but then it becomes clear to him that he was mistaken and that the one who traveled or arrived was not his companion. Yes.

The presenter:
May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good. Fine.
Source قناة «فضيلة الشيخ ابن باز Alsheikh Binbaz»، 3850 - الفرق بين يمين الغموس ويمين اللغو - نور على الدرب — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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