Özet:

Along the history, witnessing has been an indispensable tool of proof in law, some conditions have been necessary in terms of jurists in order to ensure justice and fairness for a long time. Various criteria have been sought about witnessing in the Islamic judicial procedure. In addition to these general criteria for witnessing, it is seen that there are some additional conditions and principles in criminal law in order to witness a crime and testify about a crime in court. Since criminal cases have more serious and irreversible consequences than the cases that fall under the scope of civil law today, the prophet and the rashid caliphs showed a more sensitive attitude in these cases, and the mujtahids, who took their words and practices as evidence, showed a meticulous approach to the validation of the testimonies in criminal cases. Their approach, on the one hand makes testimony difficult in criminal cases, on the other hand, it protects the individual by preventing him from being easily considered guilty and punished. In this article, it is aimed to determine the words and practices of the prophet and the rashid caliphs and the principles adopted in the classical doctrine on imposing strict conditions on testimony and some responsibilities on the witness in criminal cases. The examples obtained from the hadith sources were handled chronologically, and then the views of the four sects were conveyed in a comparative way by making use of some important books in the classical literature.

Anahtar Kelimeler: