O you who believe let testimony between you when death that is one of its causes draws near to one of you at the time of a bequest be that of two men of justice among you ithnāni dhawā ‘adlin minkum ‘two men of justice among you’ is the predicate expressed with the sense of an imperative in other words ‘let two men bear witness … etc.’; the genitive annexation of shahāda ‘testimony’ and bayn ‘between’ is meant to allow for a range of alternatives; hīn ‘at the time of’ is a substitute for idhā ‘when’ or an adverbial qualifier of time for the verb hadara ‘draws near’; or of two others from another folk that is from other than your own religious community if you are travelling in the land and the affliction of death befalls you. Then you shall empanel them you shall detain them tahbisūnahumā ‘you shall empanel them’ is an adjectival qualification of ākharān ‘two others’ after the mid-afternoon prayer and if you are in doubt if you are uncertain about it their testimony they shall swear by God both of them saying ‘We will not sell it our testimony in swearing by God for any price for any compensation that we might take in exchange for it from this world neither by swearing by Him falsely nor by testifying falsely for the sake of that price; even if he the person before whom it is being sworn or the one for whose sake testimony is being given be a near kinsman a close relative of ours nor will we hide testimony to God which He has commanded us to give for then if we were to hide it we would surely be among the sinful’.
