Qiyafa (legal rulings)

Linguistically, qiyafa is following a trace and knowing a resemblance; as a term, it is the knowledge of lineage by looking at a child's bodily features and likeness ¹. Scholars divide it into tracking footprints (qiyafat al-athar) and reading human likeness (qiyafat al-bashar) ².

Qiyafa is distinct from augury (iyafa), the reading of birds, which is tied to soothsaying, whereas qiyafa rests on observation and experience ⁵. It is also distinct from firasa, since the qa'if gathers and weighs evidence through trained skill, while firasa rests on personal insight or what God places in the hearts of his friends ². Qiyafa is a kind of circumstantial indicator ².

The jurists differ. The Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow it in a dispute when no stronger proof exists, citing the case of Usama ibn Zayd (may God be pleased with him), the case of Umm Sulaym, and the practice of Umar with children of the pre-Islamic period ⁶. The Malikis mainly limit it to the child of a slave woman rather than of a wife, and the Hanbalis accept it where two men have had intercourse with a woman in a way that establishes lineage ³.

The Hanafis reject it for lineage, since the law confines the proof of lineage to the marriage bed (firash), and qiyafa only shows the origin of formation from water, not the bed; they cite the saying "the child belongs to the bed, and the adulterer gets the stone" ⁷. They hold that a man's lineage is established by its cause, marriage or ownership of a slave woman, and the qa'if's work does not reach either ⁴.

• Experience: the Shafi'is require that he be tested in practice, by presenting the child among women or men, several times, with and without the mother or father ⁴.
• Probity and Islam: required by the Shafi'is and Hanbalis; the Malikis differ on probity ^{4 8}.
• Number: the preferred view of the majority is that one qa'if suffices, like a judge; one view requires two, like witnesses ^{8 9}.
• Male, free, sighted and hearing, and free of suspicion: the jurists state these, so the qa'if is not an enemy of the person whose lineage is denied, nor a forebear or descendant of the person whose lineage is claimed ^{8 9}.

• No legal bar to attributing lineage by likeness. If a husband denies his child, he performs mutual imprecation (li'an) and likeness is not considered; likeness does not outweigh the bed, as in the case of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and Abd ibn Zam'a ^{9 10}.
• A real dispute over a child, by denial or claim, with no decisive proof ⁹. A claim by one person alone stands without dispute ⁹.
• The judge's endorsement of the qa'if's finding in a dispute, required by the Shafi'is ^{9 10}.
• Living status: the Malikis require the claimed person to be alive and many of them require the father to be alive, though a dead man may be presented if he is not decayed or buried; the Shafi'is and Hanbalis do not require this ^{10 11}.

When qa'ifs disagree, their views are reconciled if possible, and otherwise the stronger is followed. If one attaches a child to one claimant and another to a different one, the Malikis and Shafi'is delay the matter until the child reaches maturity and lets him choose, while the Hanbalis attach him to every person a qa'if names ^{11 12}. The Hanbalis cite the practice of Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him) with two men who claimed one child: after the qa'ifs said he resembled both, Umar attached him to both ¹².

Ibn Taymiyya allowed a judge to rely on qiyafa in property matters, such as a felled trunk with a place in the house, shared possession, found property, and disputed animals or goods ^{12 13}. A tracker may be used to arrest suspects, and his testimony counts in crimes and claims; the tradition records judgments by the trace on a sword in the case of the two sons of Afra and in the case of the 'Uraynites ^{13 14}. Yet it is not conclusive: the book tells of a butcher found beside a corpse who was saved only by the real killer's confession ¹⁴.