Ada' al-shahada (performing testimony: the duty on request, the excused witness, and the wording)

Giving testimony is a communal obligation (fard kifaya), on the basis of Qur'anic passages in the sura of Divorce and the sura of the Cow that command upholding testimony and forbid refusing when called. If enough witnesses give it, the call on the rest lapses, since the aim is the preservation of rights, which some witnesses secure. If all refuse, all are sinful, on the verse of the Cow about not concealing testimony; testimony is a trust, so it must be given when asked. ¹ It becomes an individual obligation when no one else can do it and the right depends on that witness. ¹

Where the testimony concerns a purely human right that the claimant may waive, such as a debt or retaliation, the duty to give it arises only when the beneficiary asks for it. A witness who refuses after the request is sinful, and a witness may not testify before he is asked, since the testimony belongs to the beneficiary. If the right-holder does not know that the witness has borne the testimony, the witness is advised to inform him. ¹

Where the testimony concerns a right of God other than the hudud, such as divorce, manumission and other causes of prohibition, the witness must give it as a duty to God when needed, without a request from any person. For causes of the hudud (fornication, theft, drinking wine) concealment is recommended, since the offender is to be spared the penalty; the Hanafis say concealment is better unless the offender is openly profligate, and the Malikis agree. ¹

A witness who cannot attend because of distance (beyond the distance of shortening prayer), or who would suffer harm to his body, property or family, is not obliged, on the verse of the Cow forbidding harm to the scribe and witness and the principle that there is no harm nor reciprocating harm. Some jurists held that the duty lapses when the judge is not upright; Ahmad is reported to have said he would not testify before a man who is not upright. ^{1 2}

Most jurists require the word of testimony in giving it: the witness says "I testify that he acknowledged such-and-such", because the word carries a meaning others do not. "I know", "I am certain" or "I recognise" is not counted, and the testimony is not accepted. Some Malikis require no fixed formula: what shows the witness's knowledge, such as "I saw" or "I heard", suffices, and they regard this as the sounder view. ² The conditions of bearing and giving testimony are treated in the entry on testimony (shahada). ²