In one particular instance, where the matter relates to financial affairs, there it is suggested by the Holy Quran that instead of one man, have two women testify to this agreement, so that if one forgets, the other may remind her. It is never said that both should offer their testimony together and that would make one. It only says, in case one forgets, the other should remind her. So the testimony remains single. But in this case, sir, that the other woman should be present to remind her in the case of evidence. If she’s alive, of course.
This means two women should be there. If she’s alive, if she’s available, otherwise not. But I learned, sir. That is a preference over a single lady because, as I explained earlier, most often than not, in most parts of the world, the ladies don’t look after the business affairs and particularly they are weak in keeping count of finances and understanding these financial transactions. So it is only in this reference that the Holy Quran says, in the context of the financial transactions, that instead of one man, if no man is available, have two ladies. And why two ladies? Not so that they should testify together, only because if during the testimony the lady has not fully understood what was said about these financial transactions and intends to forget, the other lady should sit and just remind her, no, no, this happened like this. Otherwise the testimony of the single lady is enough. And if the other lady dies, still the testimony would hold good. This is what the mullahs don’t know. And intend to forget, intentionally perhaps, because there is no guarantee for both of the ladies to remain available all the time. It is a suggestion that it would be better to have two ladies because of this reason. But it does not say anywhere in the Holy Quran, it’s never said in the Holy Quran, that if the other lady is not available, then what?
Obviously, then the testimony of the single lady would be acceptable. Moreover the testimonies are of two types. Some testimonies can be organised and you have plenty of time to have witnesses to a will, to have witnesses to an agreement. These are occasional instances where you can organise and arrange testimonies. But most often than not, in all the criminal cases particularly, no testimony, no witness can be organised.
At a certain moment, if somebody is present, he would see and bear witness to that incident. Otherwise there will be no witness. So how can you conceive of such a stance to be taken by the Holy Quran against nature, against human experience, that everywhere there have to be two women present? If a crime is committed in the mosque, in the male section, and there are certain, that that mosque belongs to a certain sect, for instance, and no man present is going to bear witness against his own sect, according to these mullahs, two witnesses should be concocted if there are no men available among the ladies, or one man should be invented from somewhere else to bear witness, this is what is happening in fact in Pakistan nowadays.
For every occasion they can concoct witnesses. So because they can, so no problem, even men can be concocted and women can be concocted, but in real life, where things happen just by accident, in passing phases, there it is impossible to find sometimes a male witness, not to mention the female witnesses. So how can you expect things to happen always in conformity with this injunction of the Holy Quran? Because they don’t happen like that.
So it is wrong to say that if somebody, if an accident has taken place, a woman is passing by and she has observed that accident, and if she comes as a witness in any Pakistani court nowadays, if it is ruled by the Sharia law, they would reject it. They should say, why didn’t you bring another person along with you to be witness of that accident, we are not going to accept it. The Holy Quran never meant it, it never spoke of this, it only mentioned in a certain particular situation about financial affairs in particular, and that too, not making two ladies witness necessary.
As you infer for instance, this one aspect which you have just pointed out, that is tantamount to having two witnesses. If it is tantamount to having two witnesses, why didn’t the Holy Quran say it in so many words that both these ladies should bear witness? Because sometimes four witnesses are called, so why not these two witnesses? The obvious reason is that the Holy Quran is the word of God and Allah knows how life is acted upon in reality, how the drama of life is being played in reality.
The Holy Quran knows, I mean that Allah knows, that a lady may not be available, a lady may die, and in that case the Holy Quran had said it in so many words that two lady witnesses are required to give testimony, in that case with the death of one witness, the whole testimony would die out. So that is the sense behind it.
