Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, who attributed it to the Prophet: “The testimony of a treacherous man or woman is not admissible, nor that of one who bears rancor against his fellow Muslim, nor that of a person whose impartiality is suspect because of clientage or kinship, nor that of a household dependent (1) living with the family.” (2)
His saying, exalted is He: “lest one of them forget.” Hamzah read it as in taḍilla, with the initial vowel kasrah, and fa-tudhakkiru, with the final letter in the nominative. This makes it a conditional construction followed by a new clause. The verb taḍillu is jussive by virtue of the conditional, though this is not apparent in a verb with a doubled consonant. Fa-tudhakkiru is in the nominative because what follows the fa’ of the conditional apodosis begins a new clause. The common reading has the initial vowel fathah and the final letter of fa-tudhakkira in the accusative, connected to the preceding statement. Thus, taḍilla is in the accusative position governed by an, and fa-tudhakkira is coordinated with it.
The meaning of the verse is: let there be one man and two women, so that one of them may remind the other. The meaning of “forget” is that, if one of them forgets her testimony, the other reminds her, saying: “Did we not attend such-and-such a gathering and hear such-and-such?” Ibn Kathir and the scholars of Basrah read fa-tudhkira with a single consonant, while the rest read it with a doubled consonant. The two forms, adhkara and dhakkara, have the same meaning; both are transitive forms derived from remembrance, which is the opposite of forgetfulness. It is related from Sufyan ibn Uyaynah that he said: “It is derived from dhakar—male—that is, one of the two women makes the other as though she were a man, so that their testimony becomes like the testimony of a man.” The first interpretation is sounder, because it is coordinated with forgetting.
His saying, exalted is He: “Let not the witnesses refuse when they are called.” It was said that this means when they are called to serve as witnesses. They are called witnesses in anticipation of their becoming witnesses. According to some, this is an obligatory command. Others said: Responding is obligatory if there is no one else; but if someone else is available, he may choose (3). This was the view of al-Hasan. Others said that it is a recommendation, and that he may choose in all circumstances.
Some said that this concerns the giving and performance of testimony. Thus, the meaning of the verse is: “Let not the witnesses refuse when they are called” to give the testimony that they had undertaken. This was the view of Mujahid, Ata’, Ikrimah, and Said ibn Jubayr. Al-Shabi said: “A witness has the choice so long as he has not testified.” Al-Hasan said: “The verse concerns both matters: undertaking testimony and giving it, when one is free.”