'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (o ye who believe! let there be witnesses between you) in settlement or upon travelling (when death draweth nigh unto one of you, at the time of bequest) of the dead person (two witnesses) should testify, just men from among you) two free men; it is also said: two of your own people, (or two others from another tribe) who adhere to your religion, as it is said that this means: two people from outside your own people. then, leaving the question in the case of settlement, allah mentioned the same question in the case of travelling, saying: (in case you are campaigning in the land) if you are out in the land or travelling (and the calamity of death befall you). this verse was revealed about three men who travelled together for trade to historic syria. on the way, one of them, budayl ibn abi mariyah, a client of 'amr ibn al-'as, who was a muslim, died. but before he died, he requested his two companions, 'adiyy ibn bida' and tamim ibn aws al-dari, who were christians, to hand over his property to his people. they however betrayed his testament. so allah said to the custodians of the deceased person: (you shall empanel them both) the two christians (after the prayer) of 'asr, (and, if ye doubt) o custodian of the deceased person that they gave back less than the deceased person had with him, (they shall be made to swear by allah (saying): we will not take a bribe) let them say: we will not exchange our oath for a paltry portion of this world, (even though it were (on behalf of) a near kinsman) even if the deceased person is one of our kinsmen (nor will we hide the testimony of allah) let them also say: we will not withhold our testimony, if asked, (for then) for if we withhold our testimony (indeed we should be of the sinful) i.e. of the wrong-doers.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : o you who believe, let testimony between you, when death, that is, [one of] its causes, draws near to one of you, at the time of a bequest, be that of two men of justice among you (ithnāni dhawā ‘adlin minkum, ‘two men of justice among you’, is the predicate expressed with the sense of an imperative, in other words, ‘let [two men] bear witness … [etc.]’; the genitive annexation of shahāda, ‘testimony’, and bayn, ‘between’, is meant to allow for a range [of alternatives]; hīn, ‘at the time of’, is a substitute for idhā, ‘when’, or an adverbial qualifier of time for [the verb] hadara, ‘draws near’); or of two others from another folk, that is, [from] other than your own religious community, if you are travelling in the land and the affliction of death befalls you. then you shall empanel them, you shall detain them (tahbisūnahumā, ‘you shall empanel them’, is an adjectival qualification of ākharān, ‘two others’) after the, mid-afternoon, prayer and, if you are in doubt, [if] you are uncertain about it [their testimony], they shall swear by god, both of them saying: ‘we will not sell it, [our testimony] in [swearing by] god, for any price, [for] any compensation that we might take in exchange for it from this world, neither by swearing by him [falsely], nor by testifying falsely for the sake of that [price]; even if he, the person before whom it is being sworn or the one for whose sake testimony is being given, be a near kinsman, a close relative of ours, nor will we hide testimony to god, which he has commanded us [to give], for then, if we were to hide it, we would surely be among the sinful’.
Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi
تفسير : (o ye who believe! let there be witnesses between you…) [5:106].
abu sa'id ibn abi bakr al-razi informed us> abu 'amr ibn hamdan> abu ya'la> al-harith ibn shurayh> yahya ibn zakariyya ibn abi za'idah> muhammad ibn abu'l-qasim> 'abd al-malik ibn sa'id ibn jubayr> his father> ibn 'abbas who said: “tamim al-dari and 'adiyy ibn badda' used to come to mecca. on one occasion, a man from quraysh, from banu sahm, travelled with the two of them. however, this man died in a land where there was not a single muslim and he had to entrust them with his belongings, with the understanding that they were to be given to his family. when the two of them arrived, they gave his belongings to his family but kept to themselves a silver bowl adorned with layers of gold. they denied having seen this bowl when they were asked about it. the two men were taken to the prophet, allah bless him and give him peace, who asked them to swear that they neither saw the bowl nor did they keep it. when they swore, he let them go. later this bowl was found with some of the people of mecca who said that they had bought it from tamim al-dari and 'adiyy ibn badda'. the heirs of the man from banu sahm took the bowl and two men from among them swore that the bowl belonged to their man, that their testimony is truer than the testimony of the other two men and that they did not transgress. these two verses were revealed about this event (o ye who believe! let there be witnesses between you) up to the end”.
