In this excerpt, Māwardī, commenting on Q. 50:21 (“Every soul shall come, and with it a driver [sāʾiq] and a witness [shahīd]”), relates a report from Ḍaḥḥāk that explains the sāʾiqas God’s command. As for shahīd, Māwardī addresses the thorny question whether God, being all-knowing, should need witnesses by proposing two interpretations. First, he suggests that the witness (shahīd)is the resurrected themselves; second, he states that the sinner’s own hands and …
This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, ed. Intisar A. Rabb and Abigail Krasner Balbale(ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of primary sources and other material used in and related to the book.