Muwatta, Book of the oath procedure for homicide (qasama)

The Book of the Qasama (Oath of the Slain) is the thirtieth book of the Muwatta in the transmission of Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi from Malik ibn Anas, in the edition of Bashshar Awwad Ma'ruf (1997), in the second volume. It occupies pages 451 to 459 in the PDF pagination, and contains 17 numbered texts (2573–2589) in five chapters. It concerns the qasama, which is the set of oaths sworn by the heirs of the blood in a killing for which there is no proof, and who begins with the oaths, and the inheritance of blood-money, and the qasama for slaves. ^{1 2}

• Beginning with the oaths of the heirs of the blood in the qasama (2573–2580): the report of the killing of Abd Allah ibn Sahl at Khaybar, and that the qasama is due on the word of the one slain or on a sign of suspicion (lawth). ^{1 3}
• Which of the heirs of the blood may swear a qasama in deliberate killing (2581–2584): women have no qasama in deliberate killing, and the agnates and the clients have the better right to pardon. ^{4 5}
• The qasama in manslaughter (2585). ⁵
• Inheritance in the qasama (2586–2587): the inheritance of blood-money according to the Book of God, and each heir swears in proportion to his share of the inheritance. ^{5 6}
• The qasama for slaves (2588–2589). ²

Malik holds that the qasama is due only on the word of the one slain or on a sign of suspicion supported by some evidence, that the claimants begin with the oaths, and that the oaths are returned to the defendants when the claimants refuse to swear, in the case of those who may not pardon. He holds that women have no qasama in deliberate killing, and that blood-money in the qasama is inherited like the rest of the property, and that blood-money is not established until the blood is established. ^{7 6}

Each text of the book has its own record. It names the highest narrator and the chapter, gives the substance of the report in the museum's own wording, and records the editor's takhrij where it is needed. See Qasama for the places where its rulings appear in the book. ¹