Al-Maaida • EN-ASBAB-AL-NUZUL-BY-AL-WAHIDI
﴿ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ شَهَٰدَةُ بَيْنِكُمْ إِذَا حَضَرَ أَحَدَكُمُ ٱلْمَوْتُ حِينَ ٱلْوَصِيَّةِ ٱثْنَانِ ذَوَا عَدْلٍۢ مِّنكُمْ أَوْ ءَاخَرَانِ مِنْ غَيْرِكُمْ إِنْ أَنتُمْ ضَرَبْتُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَأَصَٰبَتْكُم مُّصِيبَةُ ٱلْمَوْتِ ۚ تَحْبِسُونَهُمَا مِنۢ بَعْدِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةِ فَيُقْسِمَانِ بِٱللَّهِ إِنِ ٱرْتَبْتُمْ لَا نَشْتَرِى بِهِۦ ثَمَنًۭا وَلَوْ كَانَ ذَا قُرْبَىٰ ۙ وَلَا نَكْتُمُ شَهَٰدَةَ ٱللَّهِ إِنَّآ إِذًۭا لَّمِنَ ٱلْءَاثِمِينَ ﴾
“O YOU who have attained to faith! Let there be witnesses to what you do when death approaches you and you are about to make bequests: two persons of probity from among your own people, or -if the pangs of death come upon you while you are travelling far from home -two other persons from [among people] other than your own. Take hold of the two after having prayed; and if you have any doubt in your mind, let each of them swear by God, "We shall not sell this [our word] for any price, even though it were [for the sake of] a near kinsman; and neither shall we conceal aught of what we have witnessed before God -or else, may we indeed be counted among the sinful."”
(O ye who believe! Let there be witnesses between you�) [5:106]. Abu Sa'id ibn Abi Bakr al-Razi informed us> Abu 'Amr ibn Hamdan> Abu Ya'la> al-Harith ibn Shurayh> Yahya ibn Zakariyya ibn Abi Za'idah> Muhammad ibn Abu'l-Qasim> 'Abd al-Malik ibn Sa'id ibn Jubayr> his father> Ibn 'Abbas who said: �Tamim al-Dari and 'Adiyy ibn Badda' used to come to Mecca. On one occasion, a man from Quraysh, from Banu Sahm, travelled with the two of them. However, this man died in a land where there was not a single Muslim and he had to entrust them with his belongings, with the understanding that they were to be given to his family. When the two of them arrived, they gave his belongings to his family but kept to themselves a silver bowl adorned with layers of gold. They denied having seen this bowl when they were asked about it. The two men were taken to the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, who asked them to swear that they neither saw the bowl nor did they keep it. When they swore, he let them go. Later this bowl was found with some of the people of Mecca who said that they had bought it from Tamim al-Dari and 'Adiyy ibn Badda'. The heirs of the man from Banu Sahm took the bowl and two men from among them swore that the bowl belonged to their man, that their testimony is truer than the testimony of the other two men and that they did not transgress. These two verses were revealed about this event (O ye who believe! Let there be witnesses between you) up to the end�.