Hadhayan (delirium: its effect on acts and testimony)

هَذَيان

Hadhayan in the lexical sense is speech without sense, in illness or otherwise; technically it is speaking without reflection. ¹ It differs from lagh, speech with no legal weight, and from laghat, noisy talk whose meaning is intended. ^{1 2} All scholars agree that the divorce of one who has lost his reason, without intoxication, does not take effect; the Hanafis hold that the words of one whose speech is mostly delirious carry no weight. ² The Malikis hold that one who divorces in delirium and later says he did not notice is not bound, unless evidence shows his reason was sound; if he says something happened that he did not understand, Ibn Naji holds the divorce binds him, and al-Dardir objects that a sick man may imagine things and speak accordingly. ^{2 3} Among the conditions of uprightness, the Hanafis require little idle talk and delirium; a man given to lying or delirium is not accepted as a witness. ³