or mockery of people, negligence concerning obligatory duties, consuming what is unlawful, and so on. Therefore, the correct view regarding testimony is that testimony is accepted when it is more likely to be true and accurate, for Allah, Exalted is He, says: “from among those you accept as witnesses” [al-Baqarah 2:282]. Moreover, Allah did not command us to reject the testimony of an immoral person; rather, He commanded us to verify it, saying: “O believers! If an evildoer brings you any news, verify it” [al-Hujurat 49:6].

Along with uprightness, it is stipulated that one have sufficiently strong eyesight for his claim to be plausibly true. If his eyesight is weak, his testimony is not accepted, even if he is upright, because if an upright person has weak eyesight, we know that he is mistaken.

The evidence for this is that strength and trustworthiness are two fundamental conditions for work. In the account of Moses and the man of Midian, one of his daughters said: “O my father! Hire him. Indeed, the best one you can hire is the strong and trustworthy” [al-Qasas 28:26]. And the powerful one from among the jinn, who undertook to bring the throne of the Queen of Sheba, said: “Indeed, I am strong and trustworthy for this” [al-Naml 27:39]. Testimony likewise requires the trustworthiness entailed by uprightness, and it requires the strength through which the matter testified to may be perceived. Thus, the author omitted here the condition that the witness have strong eyesight. If someone wished to excuse the author, he might say: An upright person with weak eyesight cannot testify to something he does not see.

We say: This is not an excuse, because if an upright person mistakenly thinks that he has seen the crescent, he will insist that he saw it, owing to his religious conscientiousness, which leads him to believe that he is obliged to report it so that people may fast or end their fast. Therefore, the condition of strong eyesight must be added.