the requirement to pronounce a particular formula of testimony, nor is such a condition related from a single one of the Companions; neither analogy nor juristic reasoning points to it. On the contrary, the combined proofs found in the Qur’an, the Sunnah, the statements of the Companions, and the very usage of the Arabic language all deny it.” End quote.
Bearing testimony in matters that concern human rights rather than the exclusive right of Allah is a communal obligation (fard kifaya). If a sufficient number undertake it, the rest of the Muslims are absolved because the purpose has been fulfilled; but if only the minimum number exists and none of them steps forward, it becomes an individual duty (fard ʿayn) upon that person. Allah the Exalted says, “Let not the witnesses refuse when they are called” (Qur’an 2:282)—meaning, when they are summoned to assume the testimony, they must answer. The verse is general, covering both taking on the responsibility of testimony and later delivering it. Ibn ʿAbbās and others held that the verse refers to accepting the duty of testimony and recording it before the judge. Because society needs this to establish rights and contracts, it is therefore obligatory, just like enjoining right and forbidding wrong.
As for delivering the testimony, it is an individual obligation upon the one who has assumed it whenever he is summoned. Allah says, “Do not conceal the testimony; whoever conceals it, his heart is sinful” (Qur’an 2:283).
The meaning of this noble verse is: when you are called to give testimony, do not hide it or withhold it. “Whoever conceals it, his heart is sinful”—that is, his heart is corrupt. This is a severe threat of the heart’s distortion, and the heart is singled out because it is the repository of the knowledge of the testimony. Hence the verse establishes that delivering testimony, once summoned, is an individual obligation upon whoever has borne it.
The eminent Imām Ibn al-Qayyim said, “Both assuming and delivering testimony are rights; neglecting them is sinful.”
He also said, “According to the legal analogy of the school, if a witness conceals testimony that establishes the truth…"