Analysis of the Legal Duty with Regard to Inequality of Testimony; A Solution Based on the Interpretation of Words in the Context of Their Formation

The authority of Bayyinah, i.e. the testimony of two righteous and just persons, is a jurisprudential necessity; however, there is disagreement about the basis of the authority of Bayyinah as to whether it is a matter of intent or proximity to Allah or about the number of witnesses as well as the gender of witness depending on the nature of dispute. In recent decades, equating the testimony of two women with the testimony of one man in the verse 282 of the Sura Al-Baqarah, due to women's forgetfulness and based on some narratives indicating their rational imperfection, has caused a lot of controversy. The question arises here as to what is the reason behind the inequality of testimony of woman and man and how the provisions of the above-said verse and narratives are justified? Regardless of the contradictive answer of accepting the testimony of one woman in certain cases, the authors will say in a descriptive-analytical study, far from unconventional interpretations: First, in jurisprudential literature, witnessing and testifying are not considered as rights to cause a defect in women’s rights. Second, testimony must be about tangible issues and it doesn’t relate to the intellect. In addition, the narratives containing the rational imperfection are contrary to verse 282. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the words in the context of their formation. Considering the evidence in the text of the narratives, the meaning of intellect is “reminding” and "ability to manage and administer the affairs which is an adventitious matter and the result of acquiring knowledge and experience”.