Section on the rulings of acknowledgement (iqrār)

Iqrār is the admission of a right. The term is derived from al-muqarr, meaning “the place,” as though the one who makes the acknowledgement is placing the right in its proper location.

It is a report affirming an already existing right that belongs to someone else; it does not create a new right.

Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) said:

“The correct clarification is this: if a person informs about something owed by himself, he is an acknowledger. If he informs about something owed by another person to himself, he is a claimant. If he informs about something owed by one person to another, then—if he has been entrusted with that matter—he is simply an informant; otherwise, he is a witness. The judge, the agent, the scribe, the executor, and the one who has been authorized are all entrusted in the capacities for which they have been appointed, so when they speak after their dismissal their statement is not an acknowledgement but merely information. Iqrār does not establish a right; rather, it discloses and reports what already exists in reality.” End quote.

For an acknowledgement to be valid, the acknowledger must be legally competent (mukallaf). It is therefore invalid when made by a minor, a lunatic, or a sleeping person. It is, however, valid from a minor who has been permitted to trade, but only within the limits of the permission granted to him.