Does Islamic jurisprudence stipulate a minimum of three witnesses for a punishment or any worldly matter?
The issue is permissible only for three types of individuals: a man who undertakes a financial guarantee (hamalah) until he fulfills it and then abstains, a man whose wealth has been swept away by a calamity (jaihah) so that the issue becomes permissible for him until he acquires a subsistence living, and a man afflicted by destitution (faqah) until three people of sound judgment from his community attest to his poverty, whereupon the issue becomes permissible for him until he acquires a subsistence living. Some jurists have used this as evidence for requiring three witnesses to prove the poverty of someone who was once wealthy, while the majority () said: the testimony of two just witnesses is acceptable, like in cases other than adultery, and they interpreted the hadith as being recommendatory.
Summary from Ftawy's records · added here
Reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
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