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Draft:Concealment of testimony

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This page is about Concealment of testimony. For concealment of truth, see Concealment of Truth.
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Concealment of testimony (Arabic: کِتمان الشَّهادة) is the refusal to present a borne testimony before a competent authority. It is considered an instance of concealing the truth, which has been reproached in the Qur'an and narrations. Concealment of testimony is among the Greater Sins and is forbidden. To derive its ruling, jurists have relied on Qur'anic verses, narrations from the Fourteen Infallibles, and certain jurisprudential rules such as the Rule of La Darar (no harm). Jurists consider giving testimony a Kifa'i obligation.

According to legal scholars, the criminalization of concealing testimony has a history of more than four thousand years. Its status as a crime has been legislated in several countries.

Definition and Importance

Concealment of testimony is defined as the refusal to provide a borne testimony before a competent authority.[1] Template:Note In the view of jurists and legal scholars, testifying in legal systems is the most prominent way to prove a claim.[2] The necessity of giving testimony, and consequently the necessity of not concealing it, is raised in rights of people (ḥuquq al-nas); whereas testimony in rights of God (ḥuquq Allah), such as sexual sins, is not only unnecessary but even considered reprehensible.[3] Concealment of testimony in Shi'a fiqh and social laws is the opposite of providing or giving testimony and is related to Bearing testimony.[4] In this way, whenever the legislator makes bearing testimony obligatory, they also consider its delivery obligatory.[5] The Qur'an, in verse 106 of Sura al-Ma'ida and verse 140 of Sura al-Baqara, has mentioned concealment of testimony as a sin of the heart and an act of oppression.[6] According to narrations, the concealer of testimony will be resurrected on the Day of Judgment with a dark face.[7] Researchers acknowledge that concealment of testimony is not only forbidden and a greater sin from the perspective of the Qur'an, but punishment has also been promised to its perpetrator.[8] Template:Better source It is said that in Shi'a jurisprudence, no worldly punishment has been stated for the concealment of testimony.[9]

Jurisprudential Ruling of Concealment of Testimony

Shi'a jurists are divided into two groups regarding the religious ruling on concealing or disclosing testimony; some believe concealment is forbidden, while others, considering narrations that leave a person free to testify, have accepted its non-prohibition.[10] Testimony involving harm or hardship (ḥaraj) is not considered obligatory by the consensus of jurists. The reason for this ruling is the general proofs of the rule of negating difficulty and hardship, as well as verse 283 of Sura al-Baqara, which indicates that no harm should come to the witness.[11]

Jurisprudential Proofs for the Prohibition of Concealment

To derive the prohibition of concealing testimony, jurists have cited narrations, the Rule of La Darar,[12] and verses such as verse 283 of Sura al-Baqara; the verse 282 of Sura al-Baqara;[13] verse 135 of Sura al-Nisa', and verse 106 of Sura al-Ma'ida. Some researchers also consider not testifying as an instance of concealing the truth and have argued based on verses forbidding the concealing of truth, such as 159 and 174 of Sura al-Baqara.[14]

Fatwa Differences on the Prohibition of Concealment

Some of the views of jurists regarding the religious ruling on concealing testimony are as follows:

  • The prohibition of concealing testimony and the necessity of giving it. Al-Shahid al-Thani in the book Masalik attributes this view to all Shi'a jurists.[15]
  • Some Shi'a jurists condition the prohibition of concealing testimony and the necessity of its delivery on the case where the owner of the right has requested the witness to bear testimony. Otherwise, the famous early jurists such as al-Shaykh al-Tusi, Abu l-Salah, and Ibn Junayd do not consider giving testimony as obligatory.[16] Some, like the author of al-Riyad, consider giving testimony to be an Ayni obligation if the bearing of testimony was requested, and a Kifa'i obligation if it was not requested.[17] Sayyid Sadiq al-Ruhani also in the book Fiqh al-Sadiq considered giving testimony obligatory in cases where the witness knows that by concealment, the right of the owner of the right will be lost.[18]
  • Giving testimony is a kifa'i obligation and only becomes obligatory in case of fear of harm to the truth; this is considered the view of al-'Allama in al-Mukhtalaf.[19]
  • In the view of Ibn al-Barraj, a student of al-Shaykh al-Tusi, the obligation of giving testimony and the prohibition of its concealment apply when testimony is requested from the witness and delivering it does not cause harm to religion or oppression to believers.[20]

Some researchers believe that if the failure to testify causes loss or destruction of property, the witness is considered liable (damin).[21]

Criminalization of Concealment of Testimony in Law

According to legal scholars, the history of the criminalization of concealing testimony dates back to more than two thousand years before Christ to the Code of Ur-Nammu.[22] Template:Note Rahim Nowbahar, a faculty member at Shahid Beheshti University, has enumerated the criminalization of concealing testimony in today's world in some countries such as France, Egypt, Morocco, and Kuwait.[23] He believes that at the level of criminalization, the obligation to give testimony helps in the discovery of truth and is not equal to torture for obtaining information.[24] Furthermore, considering the foundations of Shi'a jurisprudence for the criminalization of concealing testimony or the obligation to deliver it, one can cite reasons such as the aiding in sin, the obligation to create an obstacle in the realization of the haram, the necessity of forbidding the evil, and the obligation to deliver testimony based on social interest.[25]

Some legal scholars believe that although concealment of testimony is forbidden in Islamic jurisprudence, there has been negligence regarding its criminalization in the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran.[26]

Notes

  1. ↑ Bīgī, "Jurmangārī-yi kitmān-i shahādat wa chālish-hā-yi ān dar ḥuqūq-i Īrān", p. 147.
  2. ↑ Sajjādīnizhād, "Adā-yi shahādat dar fiqh wa ḥuqūq", p. 140.
  3. ↑ Sajjādīnizhād, "Adā-yi shahādat dar fiqh wa ḥuqūq", p. 140.
  4. ↑ ʿĀmilī, al-Iṣṭilāḥāt al-fiqhiyya, Beirut, p. 13; al-Shahīd al-Thānī, Masālik al-afhām, 1413 AH, vol. 14, p. 263.
  5. ↑ Nowbahār, "Barrasī-yi fiqhī-yi ilzām bi adā-yi shahādat dar daʿāwī-yi kīfarī", p. 110.
  6. ↑ Sajjādīnizhād, "Adā-yi shahādat dar fiqh wa ḥuqūq", p. 140.
  7. ↑ al-Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, Islamiyya print, vol. 7, p. 380.
  8. ↑ Bīgī, "Jurmangārī-yi kitmān-i shahādat wa chālish-hā-yi ān dar ḥuqūq-i Īrān", p. 153.
  9. ↑ Ashrāfī and Raḍāyī, "Shahādat-i durūgh wa kitmān-i shahādat dar ḥuqūq-i Bayn al-Nahrayn wa Īrān-i bāstān", p. 125.
  10. ↑ al-Shahīd al-Thānī, Masālik al-afhām, 1413 AH, vol. 14, p. 263; al-Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, 1404 AH, vol. 41, p. 180; al-Rūḥānī, Fiqh al-Ṣādiq (a), 1412 AH, vol. 25, p. 339.
  11. ↑ Nowbahār, "Barrasī-yi fiqhī-yi ilzām bi adā-yi shahādat dar daʿāwī-yi kīfarī", p. 119.
  12. ↑ Bīgī, "Jurmangārī-yi kitmān-i shahādat wa chālish-hā-yi ān dar ḥuqūq-i Īrān", pp. 151-156; al-Shahīd al-Thānī, Masālik al-afhām, 1413 AH, vol. 14, p. 263; Foulādvand, Qur'an Translation, 1418 AH; Sajjādīnizhād, "Adā-yi shahādat dar fiqh wa ḥuqūq", p. 144; al-Rūḥānī, Fiqh al-Ṣādiq (a), 1412 AH, vol. 25, p. 338.
  13. ↑ al-Khūʾī, Mawsūʿa, 1418 AH, vol. 41, p. 170; Foulādvand, Qur'an Translation, 1418 AH.
  14. ↑ Bīgī, "Jurmangārī-yi kitmān-i shahādat wa chālish-hā-yi ān dar ḥuqūq-i Īrān", p. 152; Sajjādīnizhād, "Adā-yi shahādat dar fiqh wa ḥuqūq", p. 141.
  15. ↑ al-Shahīd al-Thānī, Masālik al-afhām, 1413 AH, vol. 14, p. 263.
  16. ↑ al-Rūḥānī, Fiqh al-Ṣādiq (a), 1412 AH, vol. 25, p. 340.
  17. ↑ al-Rūḥānī, Fiqh al-Ṣādiq (a), 1412 AH, vol. 25, p. 340.
  18. ↑ al-Rūḥānī, Fiqh al-Ṣādiq (a), 1412 AH, vol. 25, p. 340.
  19. ↑ al-Rūḥānī, Fiqh al-Ṣādiq (a), 1412 AH, vol. 25, p. 340.
  20. ↑ Ibn al-Barrāj, al-Muhadhdhab, 1406 AH, vol. 2, p. 560.
  21. ↑ Nowbahār, "Barrasī-yi fiqhī-yi ilzām bi adā-yi shahādat dar daʿāwī-yi kīfarī", p. 126; Ashrāfī and Raḍāyī, "Shahādat-i durūgh wa kitmān-i shahādat dar ḥuqūq-i Bayn al-Nahrayn wa Īrān-i bāstān", p. 125; Hāshimī, "Barrasī-yi dīdgāh-i farīqayn nisbat bi ḥurmat-i kitmān-i shahādat wa wujūb-i adā-yi ān", p. 6.
  22. ↑ Ashrāفī and Raḍāyī, "Shahādat-i durūgh wa kitmān-i shahādat dar ḥuqūq-i Bayn al-Nahrayn wa Īrān-i bāstān", p. 125; Bīgī, "Jurmangārī-yi kitmān-i shahādat wa chālish-hā-yi ān dar ḥuqūq-i Īrān", p. 150.
  23. ↑ Nowbahār, "Barrasī-yi fiqhī-yi ilzām bi adā-yi shahādat dar daʿāwī-yi kīfarī", pp. 96-97.
  24. ↑ Nowbahār, "Barrasī-yi fiqhī-yi ilzām bi adā-yi shahādat dar daʿāwī-yi kīfarī", pp. 96-97.
  25. ↑ Nowbahār, "Barrasī-yi fiqhī-yi ilzām bi adā-yi shahādat dar daʿāwī-yi kīfarī", pp. 126-139.
  26. ↑ Ashrāfī and Raḍāyī, "Shahādat-i durūgh wa kitmān-i shahādat dar ḥuqūq-i Bayn al-Nahrayn wa Īrān-i bāstān", p. 128; Nowbahār, "Barrasī-yi fiqhī-yi ilzām bi adā-yi shahādat dar daʿāwī-yi kīfarī", pp. 151-152; Bīgī, "Jurmangārī-yi kitmān-i shahādat wa chālish-hā-yi ān dar ḥuqūq-i Īrān", p. 149.

References

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  • Bīgī, Jamāl. "Jurmangārī-yi kitmān-i shahādat wa chālish-hā-yi ān dar ḥuqūq-i Īrān". Du-faṣlnāma-yi Āmūzish-hā-yi Ḥuqūq-i Kīfarī, no. 14, 1396 SH.
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