Overall meaning : Allah Almighty addresses the believers, saying: When death approaches any of you, you must make a will and let two Muslim witnesses who are known for their probity and trustworthiness act as witnesses; and if anyone of you is on a journey and death approaches him, he may appoint two non-Muslims to act as witnesses if he cannot find any Muslim witnesses. If Muslims doubt the non-Muslim witnesses’ honesty, they must detain them after the late afternoon (‘Asr) prayer and let them swear by Allah: We will not sell our testimony and swear falsely for any worldly gain, and we will not side with anyone even if he were a near relative; nor will we conceal the testimony Allah commands us to give; otherwise, we would then be sinners.
If it is turns out that they have betrayed their trust by unlawfully taking some of the deceased’s property or altering his will in any way, then two others who are the nearest in kin from among the deceased’s rightful heirs should take their place and swear by Allah that their testimony is truer than that of the two non-Muslim witnesses who are guilty of a breach of trust, and that they have not transgressed the bounds of duty and have told the whole truth in their testimony against them; if they did, they would surely be wrongdoers.
Making the witnesses swear under oath if it is suspected they are unfaithful to their trust, the Almighty asserts, will be more likely that they will bear true witness, or fear that their oaths will be refuted by the deceased’s rightful heirs’ testimony if they prove dishonest, in which case they will be exposed and publicly shamed. Allah then enjoins His servants to fear Him and to listen to what He says and fully obey His commands, stating that He does not guide to the truth those who disobey Him and reject His laws.