Evidence with respect to Wills.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Hughes, Thomas Patrick
The evidence of two executors to the appointment of a third is not valid, unless he claim or admit it, and the evidence of orphans to the appointment of an executor is not admitted if he deny it.
The testimony of executors with respect to property on behalf of an infant or of an absent adult is not admitted.
The mutual evidence of parties on behalf of each other to debts due to each from an estate is valid, but not their evidence to legacies, unless each legacy respectively consists of a slave.
A mutual evidence of this nature is void where it involves a right of participation in the witnesses.
WINDS. Arabic riyāḥ (رياح), pl. of rīḥ. Heb. רוּחַ rūak͟h. There are four special winds mentioned in the Qurʾān: Ṣarṣar, a violent hurricane (Sūrah lxix. 6); ʿaqīm, a barren wind (Sūrah li. 42); lawāqīḥ, fertilizing winds (Sūrah xv. 22); mubashshirāt, harbingers of rain (Sūrah xxx. 47). And it is related that the Prophet said he was assisted by an east wind at the battle of the Ditch, and that the tribe of ʿĀd was destroyed by a west wind. A special chapter is devoted to the Prophet’s sayings with regard to the wind, as it appears that he had a superstition of it. ʿĀyishah said, that when the clouds appeared, the Prophet used to change colour, and come out of his house and walk to and fro, nor would his alarm cease until the storm had passed away. When she expressed her surprise at his excitement, he said, “O ʿĀyishah, peradventure these winds be like those which destroyed the tribe of ʿĀd.”
WINE. Heb. חֶמֶר k͟hemer, Is. i. 22, “old wine.” Wine under the term k͟hamr (خمر), which is generally held to imply all things which intoxicate, is forbidden in the Qurʾān in the following verses:—
Sūrah ii. 216: “They will ask thee concerning wine and games of chance. Say: In both is great sin, and advantage also, to men; but their sin is greater than their advantage.”
Sūrah v. 92: “O believers! surely wine and games of chance, and statues, and the divining arrows, are an abomination of Satan’s work! Avoid them, that ye may prosper. Only would Satan sow hatred and strife among you, by wine, and games of chance, and turn you aside from the remembrance of God, and from prayer: will ye not, therefore, abstain from them? Obey God and obey the Apostle, and be on your guard: but if ye turn back, know that our Apostle is only bound to deliver a plain announcement.”
Al-Jalālān, the commentators, on these verses, say, “Only that wine is forbidden which intoxicates the brain and affects the steadiness of the body.” But all Muslim doctors hold that wine of any kind is forbidden.
Imām Abū Ḥanīfah says: “This doctrine is founded upon a precept of the Prophet, who said, ‘Whoever drinks wine, let him suffer correction by scourging as often as he drinks thereof.’” (Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. ii. 53.)
If a Musalman drinks wine, and is seized whilst his breath yet smells of wine, or be brought before the Qāẓī whilst he is yet intoxicated, and two witnesses give evidence that he has drunk wine, scourging is to be inflicted. The punishment is eighty lashes for a free man, and forty lashes for a slave.
Mr. Lane says: “Several stories have been told as to the occasion of Muḥammad’s prohibiting the drinking of wine. Busbequius says: ‘Muḥammad, making a journey to a friend at noon, entered into his house, where there was a marriage feast, and, sitting down with the guests, he observed them to be very merry and jovial, kissing and embracing one another, which was attributed to the cheerfulness of their spirits raised by the wine; so that he blessed it as a sacred thing in being thus an instrument of much love among men. But, returning to the same house the next day, he beheld another face of things, as gore-blood on the ground, a hand cut off, an arm, foot, and other limbs dismembered, which he was told was the effect of the brawls and fightings occasioned by the wine, which made them mad, and inflamed them into a fury, thus to destroy one another. Whereon he changed his mind, and turned his former blessing into a curse, and forbade wine ever after to all his disciples.’ Epist. 3. This prohibition of wine hindered many of the Prophet’s contemporaries from embracing his religion. Yet several of the most respectable of the pagan Arabs, like certain of the Jews and early Christians, abstained totally from wine, from a feeling of its injurious effects upon moral, and, in their climate, upon health; or, more especially, from the fear of being led by it into the commission of foolish and degrading actions.
Thus Keys (Qais), the son of Asim, being one night overcome with wine, attempted to grasp the moon, and swore that he would not quit the spot where he stood until he had laid hold of it. After leaping several times with the view of doing so, he fell flat upon his face; and when he recovered his senses, and was acquainted with the cause of his face being bruised, he made a solemn vow to abstain from wine ever after.”—Lane’s Arabian Nights, vol. i. pp. 217, 218.
WITNESS. Arabic shahīd (شهيد), dual shahīdān; pl. shuhadā, or shuhūd.
Terms which are used for witness in legal cases, an account of which is given in the article on EVIDENCE; and also for those who die as martyrs for the Muslim faith, or meet with sudden death from any accidental circumstance. [MARTYR.]
WITR (وتر). Lit. “An odd number.” Witr rakʿahs are an odd number of rakʿahs, 3, 5, or 7, which may be said after the last prayer at night, and before the dawn of day. Usually they are added to the Ṣalātu ʾl-ʿIshā. Imām Abū Ḥanīfah says they are wājib, that is, ordered by God, although they are not authorised by any text in the Qurʾān. But they are instituted by traditions, each of which is generally received as a Ḥadīs̤ Ṣaḥīḥ; and so witr rakʿahs are regarded as being of divine authority. Imām Shāfaʿī, however, considers them to be sunnah only.
The Traditions referred to are:—
The Prophet said: “God has added to your prayers one prayer more: know that it is witr, say it between the Ṣalātu ʾl-ʿIshā and the dawn.”
On the authority of Buzār, it is recorded that the Prophet said: “Witr is wājib upon Muslims,” and in order to enforce the practice, he added: “Witr is right; he who does not observe it is not my follower.”
The Prophet, the Companions, the Tābiʿūn and the Tabaʿu ʾt-Tābiʿīn, all observed it.
The word witr literally means “odd number,” and a tradition says: “God is odd, He loves the odd.”
Musalmāns pay the greatest respect to an odd number. It is considered unlucky to begin any work, or to commence a journey on a day, the date of which is an even number.
The number of lines in a page of a book is nearly always an odd number. [SALATU ʾL-WITR.]
WIVES. Arabic zauj (زوج), pl. azwāj, also zaujah, pl. zaujāt. Although Muḥammad himself claimed the special indulgence of eleven lawful wives, he limited his followers to four, allowing at the same time as many female concubines or domestic slaves as the master’s right hand possessed. See Qurʾān, Sūrah iv. 3: “Marry what seems good to you of women, by twos, or threes, or fours, or what your right hand possesses.” [MARRIAGE.]
According to the Shīʿahs, he also sanctioned temporary marriages, an account of which will be found in the article on MUTʿAH.
Regarding the treatment of wives, the following verse in the Qurʾān (Sūrah iv. 38) allows the husband absolute power to correct them: “Chide those whose refractoriness you have cause to fear. Remove them into sleeping chambers apart, and beat them. But if they are obedient to you, then seek not occasion against them.”
(For other injunctions in the Qurʾān on the subject, see the article WOMEN.)
The following is Muḥammad’s teaching, as given in the Traditions (see Mishkāt, Arabic edition; Bābu ʾn-Nikāḥ):—
“That is the most perfect Muslim whose disposition is the best, and the best of you is he who behaves best to his wives.”
“When a man has two wives and does not treat them equally, he will come on the Day of Resurrection with half his body fallen off.”
“When a man calls his wife, she must come, although she be at an oven.”
“The Prophet used to divide his time equally amongst his wives, and he would say, ‘O God, I divide impartially that which thou hast put in my power.’ ”
“Admonish your wives with kindness, because women were created from a crooked bone of the side; therefore, if you wish to straighten it, you will break it, and if you let it alone, it will always be crooked.”
“Not one of you must whip his wife like whipping a slave.”
“A Muslim must not hate his wife, for if he be displeased with one bad quality in her, then let him be pleased with another that is good.”
“A Muslim cannot obtain anything better than an amiable and beautiful wife, such a wife who, when ordered by her husband to do a thing, will obey, and if her husband looks at her will be happy; and if her husband swears by her, she will make him a swearer of truth; and if he be absent from her, she will honour him with her own person and property.”
It is related that on one occasion the Prophet said: “Beat not your wives.” Then ʿUmar came to the Prophet and said, “Our wives have got the upper hand of their husbands from hearing this.” Then the Prophet permitted beating of wives. Then an immense number of women collected round the Prophet’s family, and complained of their husbands beating them. And the Prophet said, “Verily a great number of women are assembled in my home complaining of their husbands, and those men who beat their wives do not behave well. He is not of my way who teaches a woman to go astray and who entices a slave from his master.”
The legal position of a wife under Sunnī, and, with some slight differences, under Shīʿah law also, may be generally stated as follows:—
Her consent to a marriage is necessary. She cannot legally object to be one of four wives. Nor can she object to an unlimited number of hand-maids. She is entitled to a marriage settlement or dower, which must be paid to her in case of divorce or separation. She may, however, remit either whole or part of the dower. She may refuse to join her husband until the dower is paid. She may be at any time, with or without cause, divorced by her husband. She may seek or claim divorce (k͟hulʿ) from her husband with her husband’s consent. She may be chastised by her husband. She cannot give evidence in a court of law against her husband. According to the Sunnīs, her evidence in favour of her husband is not admissible, but the Shīʿahs maintain the opposite view. Her husband can demand her seclusion from public. If she becomes a widow, she must observe ḥidād, or mourning, for the space of four months and ten days. In the event of her husband’s death, she is entitled to a portion of her husband’s estate, in addition to her claim of dower, the claim of dower taking precedence of all other claims on the estate.
There are special arrangements made by Muslim law for the partition of the husband’s time amongst his wives in case he may have two or more wives. For it is related that Muḥammad said, “The man who has two or more wives, and who, in partition of his time, inclines particularly to one of them, shall in the Day of Judgment incline to one side by being paralytic.” And ʿĀyishah relates that the Prophet said, “O God, I make an equal partition amongst my wives as to what is in my power; do not, therefore, bring me to account for that which is not in my power, namely, the affections.” It is therefore ruled that the wife of a prior marriage and of a recent one, are all alike in the matter of the partition of time spent with them. The husband can, however, arrange and determine the measure of the partition of his time as to whether it be one day or more at a time. But if a man marry two wives, the one a free woman and the other a bond-maid, he must divide his time into three portions, giving two portions to the free woman and one to the bond-maid. When the husband is on a journey, his wives can make no claim to accompany him on the journey, and it is entirely at his option to carry along with him whomsoever he pleases, but it is preferable for him to cast lots and take with him on the journey her upon whom the lot may happen to fall. The time of the journey is not to be counted against a husband, and he is therefore not obliged to make up for the partition lost within that time.