by two upright witnesses who accurately preserve its wording and every legal implication that follows from it. That is one opinion. A second opinion—reported from Imam Aḥmad—allows a judge to act upon the letter of another judge once he recognizes the writer’s hand, even if no witnesses have attested it; in our own day the official court seal can suffice in place of such attestation.

Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “The Companions unanimously agreed on acting upon written documents, and the caliphs after them did likewise. People’s reliance for knowledge is on books; were their contents not put into practice, the Sharia would come to a standstill.”

He also said: “Caliphs, judges, governors, and officials have continually relied on each other’s letters. They neither require the bearer to testify to the contents nor read the document aloud to him. This has been the practice of the people from the time of their Prophet up to the present.”

And he said: “The aim is to obtain certainty that the handwriting belongs to its author. Once that is known with confidence, it is like attributing spoken words to him. Allah has placed in every scribe’s writing distinguishing marks, just as He has made each person’s appearance unique. People routinely give unhesitant testimony that a given script is indeed the handwriting of so-and-so.”

Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn (Ibn Taymiyyah) said: “When a person’s handwriting is known—whether by his own acknowledgment, by documents he has composed, by contracts, or through witness testimony—that handwriting may be relied upon …” End quote.

As for testimony to testimony (shahādat ʿalā al-shahādah), it occurs when someone says to another, “Bear witness to my testimony regarding such-and-such,” or, “Testify that I bear witness to such-and-such,” and the like. It therefore involves deputization: the original witness is called the principal witness, while the one deputized for him is called the subsidiary witness.