Avoid Excessive Swearing

📖Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1607
Abu Qatadah reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Beware of swearing many oaths while trading. Verily, it helps trade but erases the blessing.”

• This hadith warns against excessive swearing or using oaths unnecessarily during business transactions.
• “Swearing” here refers to invoking Allah’s name or making solemn oaths repeatedly to convince customers or exaggerate the truth in trade.
• While it may temporarily convince buyers or help close a deal, the hadith explains that it removes the barakah (blessing) from the earnings.
• Barakah is the spiritual quality that increases wealth, sustenance, and satisfaction. When trade is conducted with excessive oaths or dishonesty, Allah may allow the wealth to exist materially but without true benefit, increase, or satisfaction.
• Practically, this teaches honesty, moderation, and sincerity in business – even if it seems that excessive persuasion helps, it can spiritually and morally diminish the reward and blessings.

Types of Swearing That Can Cause Loss of Blessing:

1. Swearing to exaggerate the quality of goods.

2. Swearing to promise delivery or payment that may not be fulfilled.

3. Repeatedly invoking Allah’s name to manipulate or pressure the buyer.

4. Making oaths out of habit without sincerity.

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How Blessings Can Be Lost (Here and Hereafter):

1. Losing Blessings in This World:

• Dishonesty in trade: As above, excessive swearing or cheating may help temporarily but remove barakah.
• Neglecting prayers or duties: Ignoring obligations like Salah can reduce spiritual blessings in life.
• Harmful behavior: Arrogance, envy, backbiting, and injustice can strip blessings from wealth, health, and family.
• Unlawful earnings: Consuming wealth through forbidden means (usury, bribery, theft) removes blessings.

2. Losing Blessings in the Hereafter:

• Ignoring Allah’s commands: Continuous disobedience without repentance may reduce reward and blessings in Jannah.
• Sinful accumulation of wealth or deeds: Wealth gained through sin may not benefit on the Day of Judgment, even if it seemed prosperous in this world.
• Failing to use blessings rightly: If a person hoards wealth, oppresses others, or misuses time and health, it can lead to loss of reward in the afterlife.

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Quranic Context:

📖Quran 2:224
And do not make Allah’s name an excuse in your oaths against being righteous and pious, and do good and fear Allah. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing.

• Trying to impress others: Swearing by Allah may make someone want to sound more convincing.
• Exaggerating facts: To appear trustworthy or persuasive, they might overstate something.
• Accidental lying: In trying to impress, a person may say something untrue without intending to.
• Misusing Allah’s name: Using Allah’s name as a tool for influence or persuasion disrespects its sacredness.
• Encouraging dishonesty in others: Customers or others may get used to trusting words with oaths, rather than honesty itself.
• When someone swears by Allah to impress a customer, and the customer is non-Muslim, they might misunderstand the intention.
  The customer could think the person is exaggerating, lying, or being manipulative, because they don’t share the same religious understanding.