The Table Spread

Surah: 5

Ayat: 107

Verse:

But then, if it is afterwards ascertained that both of them merit (the suspicion of) sin, let two others take their place of those nearly concerned, and let them swear by Allah, (saying): Verily our testimony is truer than their testimony and we have not transgressed (the bounds of duty), for them indeed we should be of the evil-doers.

Tafseer:

But if it be discovered if it be ascertained after they have sworn their oaths that both of them have merited the suspicion of sin that is that they have done something to incur it in the way of a breach of faith or perjury in the testimony; for example if what they are accused of is found with them and then they claim that they had bought it from the deceased or that he had bequeathed it to them then two others shall take their place so that the oaths are to be taken from them being the nearest al-awlayān is a substitution for ākharān ‘two others’; a variant reading has al-awwalīn plural of awwal as an adjectival qualification of or a substitution for alladhīna ‘of those’ in kinship to the deceased of those most concerned with the bequest namely the inheritors and they shall swear by God to the breach of faith of the two witnesses and they shall both say ‘Verily our testimony our oath is truer is more faithful than their testimony their oath and we have not transgressed we have not overstepped the bounds of truth in our oaths for then we would assuredly be among the evildoers’ meaning let the one about to die call two men as witnesses to his bequest or let him instruct in his bequest that the two be from among his co-religionists or from among others if he cannot find any from among the former because he is travelling or for some similar reason. If the inheritors have doubts about the two men and claim a breach of faith on the part of the two for having taken something or given it to some other person — alleging that the deceased bequeathed it to him — then let the two men swear in full in the way mentioned above. If then some indication surfaces that the two men have been lying and these two then claim some motivation for this action of theirs the nearest of the inheritors in kinship to the deceased shall swear to the perjury of the two men and to the truth of what they the inheritors suspected. This stipulation holds for the two trustees but is abrogated in the case of the two witnesses. Likewise the testimony of non co-religionists is abrogated.