‘He owes me five.’ Should the legatee then deny owing those five, the court will grant him only five dinars, because the moment the testator said, “He owes me five,” he reduced the bequest to that amount.

ʿĪsā relates from Ibn al-Qāsim the case of a man who entered a gathering and said, “I call you to witness that so-and-so owes me such-and-such a number of dinars,” while that very person was sitting with the group. He remained silent, saying neither yes nor no, and the witnesses asked him nothing. Later, when the claimant pressed him for payment, he denied the debt. Ibn al-Qāsim ruled that the debt is binding upon him, because he kept silent instead of saying “No.” Others maintained that he is not liable unless he expressly says “Yes.”

Likewise, if someone comes to a group and declares, “I call you to witness that I have received from so-and-so the hundred dinars he owed me; I now hold nothing against him,” and afterward the witnesses meet that man and say, “So-and-so called us to witness that he has taken from you the hundred dinars he claimed you owed,” whereupon he replies, “He is lying. He never had anything against me; rather, I was the one who lent him those very hundred dinars,” Ibn al-Qāsim and al-Makḥzūmī say that the word is the lender’s, backed by his oath, unless the other produces evidence. Others hold that the word rests with the one who made the acknowledgement.