Abū ʿUbayd said, “The scholars of the Hijaz and Iraq are unanimously agreed that testimony to testimony is to be carried into effect in financial matters.”
Imam Aḥmad was asked about testimony to testimony and replied, “It is permissible.”
Necessity likewise calls for it, for were such testimony not admitted, evidence for endowments and other claims whose proof is delayed before the judge—or whose original witnesses die—would be lost. That would inflict harm and great hardship upon people; therefore it must be accepted just as the principal testimony is.
The acceptance of testimony to testimony is contingent on several conditions:
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The principal witness must authorize the subsidiary witness, since the latter is acting on his behalf and may do so only with his permission.
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The case must be one in which a judge’s letter to another judge is admissible—that is, matters concerning human rights, not the rights of Allah, Exalted is He.
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The principal witness must be unable to appear because of death, illness, travel beyond the distance that allows the shortening of prayers, fear of a ruler, or the like.
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The excuse preventing the principal witness from testifying must remain in place until judgment is rendered.
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The upright character of both the principal and the subsidiary witness must continue until the judgment is issued.
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The subsidiary witness must identify the principal witness from whom he received the testimony.
As for retracting testimony: if the witnesses to a property claim withdraw after judgment has been passed, the judgment is not overturned, because it has