Swearing on the Quran in Courts
 

Where did this concept arrive from and what is it's significance today bearing in mind the courts in most if not all countries are secular?

we are not supposed to swear by the Quran..we only swear by Allah

in uk courts you dont have to swear on the quran.

you can opt to just take the oath to speak the truth

Salaam and thank you for your responses.

The process in the courts is to put your hand on the Quran and swear to tell the truth (I'm aware you can also affirm in the UK courts). The purposes of my question however, was to try and understand where this concept derived from and whether it had any Islamic principles attached to it?