Discover the meaning of the term Al-qasaama (قَسَامة) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 4 min readOaths administered to the accused in the matter of blood, among the people of the quarter. In al-Mughrib: a noun in the sense of sharing. In al-Sahah: oaths administered to the claimants in the matter of blood.
With fatha, on the ghariba pattern: a noun in the sense of oaths; then said of oaths administered to the people of the quarter when a slain man is found in it. In Kanz al-Daqa'iq: a slain man found in a quarter, his killer unknown: fifty men of them swear, that is, from the people of that quarter; those men are those the slain man's guardian selects; each swears saying: I did not kill him, and I know not his killer; if they swear, the indemnity falls on the quarter's people; the guardian swears not, and the detained one is held until he swears; if the number is not completed the oath is repeated to complete fifty; and there is no qasama for a minor, an insane person, a woman, or a slave; and the rest of the rulings is in the rest of the fiqh books.
In language: in the sense of the oath, it is the oath absolutely, standing for the masdar of their saying: 'I swore with aqsama and qasama'. The poet said: your ally, by God, Lord of the people, earnest in the qasama, go with it, go with it, at the dove's neck. It is said the oath was named qasama because it is apportioned over the blood's claimants. One says: 'the man swore (aqsama)': when he took the oath. It is also said: it is the group, then applied to oaths. Technically: in Kanz al-Daqa'iq: it is used of the oath administered to the people of the quarter when a slain man is found among them, his killer unknown: fifty men of them swear, that is, from the people of that quarter; those men are those the slain man's guardian selects; each swears saying: I did not kill him, and I know not his killer; if they swear, the indemnity falls on the quarter's people; the guardian swears not, and the detained one is held until he swears; if the number is not completed the oath is repeated to complete the number, fifty; and there is no qasama for a minor, an insane person, a woman, or a slave.
They are oaths administered to the accused in the matter of blood.
The oath of him deserving the slain man's blood.
Oaths administered to the slain man's claimants when they allege blood.
With fatha: they are oaths administered to the people of the quarter among whom the slain man was found. Al-Sayyid said: 'they are oaths administered to the accused in the matter of blood; and with damma: the alms' wealth, and what the qassam sets apart for himself'.