Testifying that a man was the deceased's son so he could inherit, then learning he was adopted

A question from a man who testified that a person was a deceased man's son so that he could inherit, and then found he was adopted, in which the fatwa centre of IslamWeb answered that testifying contrary to what the witness knows is false testimony, among the gravest of major sins, and that repentance from it is by seeking forgiveness, returning to the court to declare the testimony void, and restoring the right to its owners. ¹

The questioner said he had recently testified for a person so that he could inherit, but that the person was in fact adopted and not the son of the deceased, who could not have children, though he was registered in the family record as his son; some time earlier he had believed him to be a real son, and when they called him to testify he found the judge drawing up the document, signed and left. He asked whether this counts as false testimony, and if so whether he owes an expiation, adding that he regrets it. ¹

The centre answered that false testimony is testimony contrary to the truth, a major sin against which prohibition and warning are established, as in the hadith of Abu Bakra in Sahih al-Bukhari in which the Prophet ﷺ counted among the gravest of major sins associating partners with God and disobeying parents, then sat up from reclining and said 'and false speech and false testimony', repeating it until the narrator wished he would stop; it quoted Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari that the criterion of falsehood is describing a thing contrary to what it is. ¹ It ruled that if at the time of his testimony the questioner testified contrary to what he knew, he gave false testimony, and should hasten to repent to God and seek forgiveness abundantly; part of his repentance is to go to the court where he testified and declare his testimony void and that the person whose sonship he attested has no blood relationship with the man in question, as al-Iqna fi Hall Alfaz Abi Shuja states that repentance from a verbal sin requires speech, so of false testimony one says 'my testimony is void and I regret it', while repentance from a non-verbal sin requires desisting, regret, resolve not to return, and restoring what was wrongfully taken from a person where that is involved. ¹ It said this testimony may have many harmful consequences, among them that the person he testified for will inherit another's wealth and be attached to a particular family, with endless risks and harms, so the questioner should hasten to set right what he spoiled and remedy the matter, which is extremely serious. ¹

The fatwa centre of IslamWeb published this fatwa on islamweb.net as no. 539313, dated 15 Jumada al-Ula 1448, 26 October 2026. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.