Читать книгу A Dictionary of Islam. Being a cyclopedia of the doctrines, rites, ceremonies, and customs, together with the technical and theological terms, of the Muhammadan religion онлайн

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The evidence of one woman is admitted in cases of birth (as where one woman, for instance, declares that a certain woman brought forth a certain child). In the same manner also, the evidence of one woman is sufficient with respect to virginity, or with respect to the defects of that part of a woman which is concealed from man. The principle of the law in these cases is derived from a traditional saying of the Prophet: “The evidence of women is valid with respect to such things as it is not fitting for man to behold.” Ash-Shāfiʿī holds the evidence of four women to be a necessary condition in such cases.

The evidence of a woman with respect to istihlāl (the noise made by a child at its birth), is not admissible, in the opinion of Abū Ḥanīfah, so far as relates to the establishment of the right of heritage in the child; because this noise is of a nature to be known or discovered by men; but is admissible so far as relates to the necessity of reading funeral prayers over the child; because these prayers are merely a matter of religion: in consequence of her evidence, therefore, the funeral prayers are to be repeated over it. The two disciples, Muḥammad and Abū Yūsuf, maintain that the evidence of a woman is sufficient to establish the right of heritage also; because the noise in question being made at the birth, none but women can be supposed to be present when it is made. The evidence of a woman, therefore, to this noise, is the same as her evidence to a living birth; and as the evidence of women in the one case is admissible, so also is it in the other.