from the practical standpoint, if the claimant says, “I am certain that it is a dinar,” then the scrupulous course in this matter is to give him a dinar, because the acknowledger is uncertain while his counterpart is certain—especially if the claimant is a truthful, trustworthy, and reliable man. In that case, it becomes all the more incumbent upon him to give him the dinar.

If he says, “He is owed from me one dirham or one dinar,” then one of the two is binding upon him. If he says, “He is owed from me dates in a sack,” or “a knife in a sheath,” or “a gemstone in a ring,” and the like, then he has acknowledged the first item. And Allah knows best.

His statement: “If he says, ‘He is owed from me dates in a sack,’ or ‘a knife in a sheath,’ or ‘a gemstone in a ring,’ and the like, then he has acknowledged the first item”: If he says, “He is owed from me dates in a sack,” and a sack is a container in which dates are placed, has he acknowledged the sack, the dates alone, or both together? He says: the first item—that is, the dates. Thus, if he says, “He is owed from me dates in a sack,” we say: You owe only the dates; then specify whether the quantity of dates is large or small. This is because it is quite common for a person to bring dates belonging to someone else, having stolen them, taken them by mistake, or something similar, and place them in a sack that he himself owns.

Likewise, if he says, “a knife in a sheath,” only the knife is binding upon him, not the sheath. He may have taken someone’s knife by mistake, through theft, or by usurpation, and then placed it in a sheath that he owns; this is common. Thus, he acknowledges only the first item. This differs from saying, “a sword in a sheath,” for then he has acknowledged both of them. The difference is that a sheath generally, or always, accompanies a sword, and one hardly finds an unsheathed sword. A knife, however, is usually not in a sheath. It is like saying, “a knife in a cardboard box”: the box is not included; or “a knife in a chest”: the chest is not included. Thus, there is a difference between what normally accompanies something and what does not.