Chapter on Qasāmah

Qasāmah is not initiated on the mere claim of a minor, a slave, or a dhimmī. In the school of Mālik, the oath-procedure is not required for a blood-claim against an alleged killer—whether the killing was deliberate or accidental—unless one of two conditions is met. The first is that two witnesses, or one upright witness, testify that the free, adult, Muslim victim, while still alive and in a sound state, said: “So-and-so killed me,” or, “So-and-so struck me, whether intentionally or by mistake.”

Some hold that the victim’s declaration—“My blood is upon so-and-so,” or “So-and-so killed me”—is not established unless it is confirmed by two upright witnesses.

As for a single upright witness, his testimony obliges qasāmah only when he states that so-and-so struck another until he killed him deliberately, or struck him unintentionally and the victim died from that blow.

Mālik was consistent in ruling that if two upright witnesses relate that a dying man said, “So-and-so killed me deliberately,” and then he dies, that statement constitutes luʾth (presumptive evidence) that makes qasāmah incumbent.