Book of Acknowledgments (Iqrar)

Every person who is adult, free, legally competent, and of sound judgment—his acknowledgment is valid and binding upon himself in everything he admits concerning his property while he is in good health. Likewise, his confession regarding his own person of any matter that entails qiṣāṣ (retaliation) or a ḥadd (prescribed punishment) is equally valid whether he makes it when ill or when healthy. The acknowledgment of one placed under interdiction and that of a child, in favor of anyone, is null and void. A Muslim’s acknowledgment in favor of a non-Muslim, a non-Muslim’s in favor of a Muslim, that of men for women and women for men, are all treated alike.

Whoever, while sound and healthy, acknowledges to an heir or a non-heir some portion of property or a debt, or declares discharge, or receipt of the price of goods sold, his acknowledgment is binding upon him; no suspicion attaches to it, nor is he thought to be practicing tawlīj (a covert bestowal). In this respect a stranger and an heir are the same, as are a close and a distant relative, an enemy and a friend—acknowledgments made in good health are treated identically for them all.

One who, while healthy, admits or summons witnesses that he has sold something or received its price is not required to show that the price was actually taken into his possession. No exception is made unless the person in whose favor the acknowledgment is given is known for coercion, compulsion, and wrongdoing, and the claimant produces evidence that lends credibility to the suspicion. In that case the acknowledger must swear that he indeed paid the price attested to by his witnesses.

As for the sick person’s acknowledgment in favor of some