Weighing witnesses to chastity against witnesses to sin

Question

Question: Some witnesses say that the marital relations continued until the husband’s death; these witnesses are testifying to the chastity of the spouses. The witnesses of talaq, on the other hand, portray the woman and the man as committing impermissible and haram acts. In such a situation, is the statement of the witnesses to chastity valid, or that of the witnesses of talaq and of the claimant who, after his brother’s death, is calling his dead brother a fornicator and a fasiq (sinner)?

Answer

The statement of the witnesses to chastity will be deemed valid: [ar]شهدا على أنه مات وهي امرأته، وآخران أنه طلقها، فالأولى أولى[/ar] “If two testified that he died while she was his wife, and two others that he divorced her, then the first is preferable” (al-Ashbah, p. 348). And the statement of the witnesses to sin will not be given preference over the witnesses to chastity.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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