- Accurate memory.
- Upright character (ʿadālah).
Uprightness is assessed by two factors:
a. Religious rectitude—performing the obligatory acts together with their regular sunnah practices and avoiding the prohibited. Accordingly, the testimony of an openly sinful person—one who commits a major sin or habitually persists in a minor one—is inadmissible.
b. Observance of social propriety (murūʾah): doing what ennobles and adorns him and refraining from what debases and disgraces him.
If a non-Muslim embraces Islam, a child attains puberty, an insane person regains his sanity, or a profligate repents before giving testimony, it is accepted.
Section
(Impediments to testimony)
The testimony of direct ascendants and descendants for one another is not accepted, nor that of either spouse in favour of the other—though it is accepted against him or her. It is likewise rejected if the witness stands to gain a benefit or ward off harm for himself, or if he gives it against an enemy, such as one who has slandered him or waylaid him on the road. By contrast, the testimony of a brother on behalf of his brother, or of a friend and the like, is admissible.
Section
(Number of witnesses)
In cases of fornication, or an admission of it, nothing is accepted short of four male witnesses.
For the remaining ḥadd penalties, discretionary punishments, and matters that do not involve property nor are intended to secure property—matters to which men normally have access, such as marriage, divorce, revocation after a first or second divorce, khulʿ, lineage, and allegiance—the testimony of two men is sufficient.
In matters of property and whatever aims at property—such as a sale, a deferred term, an option attached to it, or an agency concerning wealth,