Absolute Justice, Kindness and Kinship — Page 244
Testimony of Muslims against Non-Muslims and Vice Versa 239 The one verse they quote in their favour is verse 283 of S u rah al-Baqarah, which includes the instruction 'from among your men'. This, the mullahs misinterpret by maintaining that it refers only to Muslim men. It is amazing that the ulema fail to realise that this verse cannot be applicable to everyday occurrences such as criminal offences and accidents. In such cases, the witnesses just happen to be present on those occasions regardless of their faith or gender. Sometimes there will be no witness to the event, at others it may be that only one woman saw what happened. To generalise a rule which is laid down for a specific situation, without proper proofs and without using one’s common sense, is an injustice to the Quran. The same subject is taken up at another place: … …and call to witness two just persons from among you; and bear true witness for Allah. (S u rah al- T al a q; Ch. 65: V3) This is another verse which the ulema present in favour of their belief that witnesses have to be from among the Muslims. They argue that 'from among you' refers to only Muslims because the verse addresses the Muslim society. If this deduction is correct, what do the ulema make of the following verse where it is said that if witnesses cannot be found