Islamic Fiqh > Judgment and testimony > Testimony (chahada) > The degrees of testimony and the required number
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Updated on 06 October 2026 at 10:50 PM
The minimum number of witnesses (nisab al-shahadah) varies according to the nature of the right involved: four male witnesses for zina, two male witnesses for the other legal punishments (hudud) and legal retaliation (qisas), one man and two women for debts and property, and the testimony of women alone for what men do not see, such as childbirth or breastfeeding. The juristic tradition also settles delicate cases: the testimony of zina whose number is not complete, judgment by a witness and an oath, the formula required to deliver testimony, and testimony upon testimony. The following sheets present the positions of the schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali) with their textual proofs, their hadiths and their classical references.