He states in Sharḥ al-Iqnāʿ: It is permissible to testify on the basis of istifāḍah (widespread attestation) when the witness has learned the matter from a number of people whose report engenders certainty. Al-Majd and al-Shaykh preferred that even a single person who inspires confidence would suffice.

2 – Both al-Shāfiʿī and Aḥmad held that testimony founded on istifāḍah may be acted upon.

In Fatḥ al-Bārī it is said: The scholars differ over the precise limits of what testimony by istifāḍah establishes. According to the Shāfiʿīs it is valid with regard to lineage, birth, death, patronage (walāʾ), endowments, marriage, declaring a narrator reliable, declaring him unreliable, bequests, legal maturity (rushd), and prodigality (safah). Some Shāfiʿī jurists extended it to a little over twenty situations.

As for the Ḥanbalīs, testimony based on istifāḍah is admissible in nine matters: lineage, death, absolute ownership, marriage—both at the time of contracting and in its continuance—endowments, manumission, khulʿ, divorce, and guardianship. It is accepted in all of these because it is usually impossible to witness them directly or to observe their causes, hence resorting to widespread attestation is allowed.

The Ḥanafīs accept it in five matters: marriage, lineage, death, patronage, and the appointment to the office of judge.

Al-Qudūrī, together with his gloss, said: A person may testify about these matters when informed by someone he trusts, because the causes underlying them are ordinarily witnessed only by a select few, while the rulings that depend on them endure for generations and years. Were hearsay not accepted here, those rulings would be suspended. A witness may only testify on the basis of notoriety when he has been informed by two upright men, or one man and two women, so that a degree of knowledge is attained.

4 – The scholars have cited, as proof of the obligation to verify testimony, the Almighty’s words: “Do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the sight, and the heart—each of those will be called to account” (17:36). The noble verse forbids a person from asserting what he does not know, for these blessings that