and the jurists of Madinah, and it is this report on which actual practice and formal legal opinions are based, in contrast to the position of Ibn al-Qāsim. In the ʿUtbiyyah Ibn al-Qāsim relates from Mālik an illustration of the matter: Mālik was asked about a man who denied a debt. The creditor wished to have him swear, “You did not lend me anything,” while the defendant proposed to swear, “By Allah, he owes me nothing.” Mālik replied, “I am of the view that he should swear, ‘By Allah, he owes me nothing, and what he alleges against me is sheer falsehood.’” Sahnūn transmitted this from Ibn al-Qāsim in the ʿUtbiyyah.

ʾAṣbagh said: “I was present with Ibn al-Qāsim when he ruled that the oath should be, ‘I did not lend him anything.’ He further held that the oath is not to be taken on the pulpit, nor before him, in any city except Madinah, and that he does not require it unless the claim reaches a quarter of a dinar, or three dirhams, or their equivalent in all types of goods. In other cities it suffices for the litigant to swear wherever he chooses within the main mosque; if he swears at the pulpit there, no objection is raised. We only say that compulsion is confined to Madinah, at the Prophet’s pulpit—peace and blessings be upon him.

“It is preferable, in my view,” he continued, “that the litigant be directed to a place in the mosque that he reveres and fears, so that he will think twice before committing perjury. Mālik considered it sounder for the oath to be taken while standing. A litigant is not required to swear in the congregational mosque of a provincial capital unless the claim amounts to a quarter dinar, three dirhams by weight, or their equivalent, exactly as we said concerning the Prophet’s pulpit. For any amount less than that, the oath may be taken in the other mosques; and in our estimation the mosque remains preferable to the court chamber.

“The valuation of merchandise is reckoned by three dirhams, not by a quarter dinar. In cases of qiṣāmah (collective oaths in homicide) and liʿān (mutual imprecation between spouses), the oath is administered at the pulpit, preferably immediately after the prescribed prayers. Men and women are alike in this regard: both swear in the main mosque. If a woman is not accustomed to going out during the day, she may go out at night to take the oath in the mosque, provided her opponent accepts this.”