Book of Testimony (Kitāb al-Shahādāt)

The conditions for a valid witness are: that he be a Muslim, free, legally competent, upright (ʿadl), possessed of social probity (murūʾah), and untainted by any suspicion.

Uprightness is realized by avoiding major sins and by not persisting in minor ones. According to the sounder view, it is forbidden to play nard (dice); chess is merely disliked, but if both players stake money it becomes gambling. Chanting to urge on camels (ḥidāʾ) and listening to it are permitted. Singing without instruments and listening to it are disliked, whereas the use of instruments identified with drinkers—such as the tunbūr, the ʿūd, the ṣanj, or the Iraqi reed-pipe—and making people hear them is, on the sound view, unlawful.

I [the author] say: the more correct opinion is that it is prohibited—Allah knows best. Beating the hand-drum (daff) is permissible at weddings and circumcisions, and, according to the sounder position, on other occasions as well, even when it contains jingles. It is forbidden to strike the kubah, a long drum narrow in the middle. Dancing is not prohibited unless it involves affected swaying like that of an effeminate man. Composing poetry and reciting it are lawful unless it contains satire, obscenity, or indirect reference to a particular woman.

Murūʾah is maintained by adopting the comportment customary among one’s peers in one’s own time and place. Thus, eating in the marketplace, walking bare-headed, kissing one’s wife or slave-girl in public, excessive telling of humorous anecdotes, a jurist wearing a qabāʾ and cap where such dress is not the norm, continual preoccupation with chess, singing or listening to it, or persistent dancing—all undermine it. The ruling varies according to persons, circumstances, and locales. A demeaning occupation—such as cupping, sweeping, or tanning—when taken up by someone for whom it is unfitting also mars murūʾah; but if the person is accustomed to it and it was his father’s trade, then, on the sound view, it does not.

Suspicion (tuhmah) is anything that would procure a benefit for the witness or ward off a harm from him.