Nouman Ali Khan – Why does the testimony of two women equal one man in the Quran- Q&A

Most business transactions were being conducted by men.

That was just the nature of that society,

okay?

And in that context, sometimes, even if women

were present, they weren't paying attention, they weren't

part of the deal.

So now there's a court ruling, and you're

bringing a woman who's saying, yeah, I was

there, I think that's what they said, or

she gets nervous.

So Allah said, women, in a sense understood,

if they don't have the background, there should

be another one to help them in case

they get confused.

Some of our non-Muslim colleagues ask about

why the Qur'an says that two women's

testimony is equal to one man's testimony.

So I'll say a few things about that.

Let's start with our hadith tradition.

In our hadith tradition, one of the most

learned from a hadith come from Aisha radiallahu

anha, who is one woman, and she's testifying

that she heard the Prophet say, especially salallahu

alayhi wasalam, in situations where there's nobody else

around, it's just her and her husband, right?

So if the Muslims thought that the testimony

of a woman across the board is only

half that of a man, then we would

have to apply that to the mother of

the believers too, like Aisha radiallahu anha.

So that would be a problem.

In our hadith tradition, there are women that

were teaching scholars hadith also, not just sahabiyat,

other women.

There's a list of them.

Those of you that are interested, there's a

book called Al-Muhaddithat, it's been translated into

English also, by the author himself, Dr. Akram

Madui.

He collects a list of, I think, 2

,500 Islamic scholars, women across Islamic history, whose

testimony in report collection is something that's part

of our tradition, right?

So the idea that somehow Muslims thought that

women's testimony is half that of a man,

it doesn't hold true historically.

But that still doesn't answer the question, why

is that in the Qur'an?

What's in the Qur'an is actually a

few things.

In the Qur'an, a woman comes to

the Prophet ﷺ and complains that my husband

does this, this, and this.

Okay?

She complains about her husband.

And the Qur'an came to her defense.

The Qur'an didn't come to the Prophet

ﷺ and say, wait, if a woman comes

to you, tell her to bring one more

woman before she testifies to anything.

You don't see that in the Qur'an.

You actually see one woman saying something and

it's completely acceptable.

In fact, acceptable to Allah Himself.

Acceptable to Allah Himself.

So already within the Qur'an, you're seeing

that this is not a consistent rule.

Now let's come zoom in on the ayah

itself.

The ayah is actually talking about witness intimidation.

It's talking about two things, witness intimidation and

it's talking about prior knowledge.

So what happened in Arabian society, you might

know the vast majority of people were not

literate.

The vast majority of people did not know

how to write and read and write.

That was a minority.

And in that ayah, in that same ayah,

this is the longest ayah of the Qur

'an.

In that ayah, Allah made it a responsibility

for the few people who know how to

read and write to show up when a

loan document is being signed so they can

take dictation from both sides.

It's kind of like jury duty, right?

So it's because the citizen's responsibility to provide

this public service, right?

And it's the same or it's like being,

it's not like being drafted in the military

but being drafted for public service because you're

one of the few people that is able

to provide this public service, okay?

فَلْيَكْتُبْ مِمَّا عَلَّمَهُ اللَّهِ From what Allah has

taught them, that person should document.

Fine.

So now we're talking about the minority situation

where only some people are capable of documenting

these kinds of things.

Now, the next component of that is most

business transactions were being conducted by men.

That was just the nature of that society,

okay?

And in that context, sometimes even if women

were present, they weren't paying attention.

They weren't part of the deal.

So now there's a court ruling and you're

bringing a woman who's saying, yeah, I was

there.

I think that's what they said or she

gets nervous.

So Allah said, women, if they're in a

sense understood, if they don't have the background,

there should be another one to help them

in case they get confused.

Now the other thing is the ayah never

said if they forget.

It didn't say, أَن تَنْسَى إِحْدَاهُمَا فَتُذَكِّرَ إِحْدَاهُمَا

الْأُخْرَى It said, أَن تَضِلَّ إِحْدَاهُمَا If one

gets confused, if one gets lost, the other

can remind her.

So being confused is not the same as

being forgetful.

Here's another interesting component, witness intimidation.

So ذِلَّى can also be used as a

woman's being told, hey, if you testify, then

it's not gonna be good for you.

You know what I'll do or you know

what can happen to you.

So because they were in a greater threat

or when you leave this place, you'll see

what's gonna happen.

So Allah essentially kind of provided somewhat of

a cover by having two women come and

testify in those kinds of situations.

Meaning two women are being pulled into court.

You can't just pull one woman into court.

Two have to come.

If you can't come up with two, then

don't bother them.

Right?

So it's easier to draft men into a,

like get a letter that they have to

have a court appearance.

And it's twice as hard for a woman

to be called into a court appearance actually.

So that's the original context of the ayah

in question.

It can in some societies.

Yeah, I think in some societies it can.

And I think it can, its application can

be used in the context of witness intimidation.

You know, you have for example, what do

you call those restraining orders?

Right?

Restraining orders, right?

It's usually not men that are getting restraining

orders from women.

That happens too.

But it's most of the time women getting

restraining orders from men.

Right?

It's the other way around.

So there's a physical danger.

It was an interview I was listening to

from a police officer, a female police officer

who carries extra weapons.

Right?

She has like a knife in her sock

and she has like all kinds of stuff.

And she was like, look, the fact of

the matter is as the female of the

species, I'm walking around next to people that

are potentially capable of killing me with their

bare hands.

Right?

So like there is a biological fact to

the, you know, the * of the male

over the female physically speaking.

Right?

So that intimidation is a reality in society.

It's not something that can be ignored.

You know, as much as we want to

pretend men and women are equal in every

way, that's just pretend.

There are some things in which women are

given an advantage, other things men are given

an advantage.

And clearly a physical advantage is there.

Now, if you want to bring up Vanessa

Williams as an example to beat me up,

you can.

But the exception proves the rule.

Right?

I hope you guys enjoyed that video clip.

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