the claim, you would leave me alone. But if you remain silent, would I leave you alone? I would not leave you alone. This is how the author defines it. However, this definition is open to question, because a defendant may be left alone when the subject of the claim is insignificant—for example, ten riyals—such that it is not worth pursuing him, going to court, going to the police, or the like.

Some scholars therefore added a qualification, saying: the defendant is the one who, if he remains silent after a demand has been made, is not left alone. For if the matter claimed is something insignificant, it may be left without pursuing him or demanding it from him.

Others have said: the claimant is the one who attributes something to himself, and the defendant is the one who denies it, whether he would be left alone or not. Thus, if you assert a claim for something against another person and he denies it, you are the claimant and he is the defendant. This accords with the hadith: “The evidence is upon the claimant, and the oath is upon the one who denies.” (1) Accordingly, this definition is closer than the author’s definition, because the latter is undermined by the fact that a defendant may sometimes be left alone.

The author’s statement, “A claim and a denial are valid only from one who is legally competent to transact”: a person legally competent to transact is one who is an adult, sane, free, and mature in judgment.

The opposite of an adult is a minor. A minor’s claim or denial is not valid, except concerning matters in which he is permitted to transact, for we previously mentioned in the discussion of sales that a young child or minor may transact, with the permission of his guardian, in matters of negligible value.