Exalted is He:
“And call to witness two witnesses from among your men” (al-Baqarah 2:282).
All the jurists agree that judgment is to be given on the basis of two witnesses alone, without requiring the plaintiff’s oath, except Ibn Abī Laylā, who maintained that the plaintiff must also swear.
They likewise concur that proprietary rights are established by the testimony of one upright male and two women, citing His words:
“…then one man and two women from among those you approve as witnesses” (al-Baqarah 2:282).
They differed, however, over the admissibility of women’s testimony in ḥudūd cases. The majority hold that it is not accepted there—neither alongside a man nor on its own. The Ẓāhirīs contend that it is accepted so long as a man testifies with them and the women number more than one, taking the verse at its literal import.
Abū Ḥanīfah rules that women’s testimony is admissible in financial matters and in non-ḥudūd rulings that pertain to the body—such as divorce, revocation, marriage, and emancipation—whereas Mālik does not accept it in any bodily ruling.
Mālik’s disciples disagreed about its admissibility in bodily rights connected to property—agency, wills that concern only wealth, and the like. Mālik, Ibn al-Qāsim, and Ibn Wahb hold that one man and two women suffice; Ashhab and Ibn al-Mājishūn require two men.
As for women’s testimony on its own—that is, with no male witnesses—the majority deem it acceptable in bodily matters to which men usually have no access, such as childbirth, the infant’s first cry, and defects particular to women.
There is no disagreement on this except in the case of nursing, for Abū Ḥanīfah does not accept women’s testimony there unless men join them, holding that it is a bodily matter witnessed by both men and women.
Those who permit women’s testimony on their own in such cases have disagreed over the required number. Mālik says that two women suffice—some say when the matter is widely known, others when it is not. Al-Shāfiʿī maintains that fewer than four are insufficient, for God, Mighty and Majestic, has made the equivalent of one male witness two females and stipulated duality. A group require no fewer than three, a position devoid of substance.
Abū Ḥanīfah further allows a woman’s testimony concerning matters that occur between the navel and the knee.
I believe that the Ẓāhirīs—or some of them—do not allow women’s testimony on their own in any matter, although they accept it when combined with men’s testimony in all matters; this appears to be their stance.
With regard to the testimony of a single woman about nursing, the jurists have also differed, because the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said to the solitary woman who bore witness to nursing, “How can that be, when she has suckled both of you?” This, on its face, conveys rejection; hence Mālik’s consistent ruling that such testimony is disfavored.