Chapter: The Oath Together with a Single Witness

Mālik and his companions hold that judgment may be rendered on the basis of an oath joined to a single upright witness in every region, and that people are to be compelled to act accordingly. It is impermissible to oppose their view, for a continuous stream of reports attests to it from the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—and from both the earliest and later generations among the people of Madinah, while the well-known practice there corroborates it. We have already cited those narrations in al-Tamhīd.

Yet in this matter our own teachers did not fall back on any foundational principle of the people of Madinah; instead they followed the path of the scholars of Iraq and took shelter behind al-Layth ibn Saʿd, even though they disagree with him in many other instances, preferring their own opinion without evidence and without treating him as an authoritative proof. Allah is the One whose help is sought.

Issues Concerning the Oath with a Single Witness

Every case in which the testimony of two women alongside men is admissible, so too is