Tasadduq (mutual attestation of a claim)

Tasadduq is the confirmation by one party of the other's claim, the opposite of contradiction. ¹

Confirmation in human rights, or in rights of God that doubts do not avert, binds the one who confirms, and he may not retract; it is stronger than testimony because it is a kind of acknowledgement. ¹ For rights of God that doubts avert, confirmation does not bind unless proved by evidence. ^{1 2}

Confirmation counts from a sane, free adult; a child's or an insane person's confirmation does not. ¹ It may be by word or by what stands for it, such as a sign, writing or silence; a sick man's nod is a confirmation if his meaning is understood. ¹ The one confirmed must be entitled, and the confirmer must not have contradicted him; if he contradicted him and then withdrew, the withdrawal counts for nothing unless the other returns to what he acknowledged. ¹

Confirmation of descent has its own place. Confirmation of money is of two kinds: unrestricted, which binds the confirmer to pay what he confirmed, and restricted, which is treated under the entry on acknowledgement. ²

If two parties confirm the waiver of a right of God, the confirmation counts only with evidence. ² If a man divorces his wife before consummation after seclusion, and she can bear intercourse, the waiting period is due by the Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali views even if both confirm that intercourse did not happen, because the waiting period is a right of God. ² The confirmation that intercourse did not happen is applied to what is their own right: no maintenance, no full dower, and no return to her by him. ²

Marriage is not established by mutual confirmation for non-Malikis, since witnesses are a condition of it. For the Malikis, the marriage of two people of the same town is established by mutual confirmation, but not between two strangers merely by confirmation. ^{2 3}

If a man acknowledges a divorce made before the time of his acknowledgement, and has no evidence, the wife's waiting period runs from the time of his acknowledgement, since he is suspected of dropping the waiting period; with evidence it runs from the time the evidence gives. ³ For the rights of the spouses each is treated by his or her own acknowledgement. The Shafiis hold that if the wife confirms the date he gives, the waiting period runs from that date. ³

A wife's confirmation of her husband's claim to poverty is enough, and stands in place of evidence. ^{3 4}

Retracting a confirmation is not allowed for human rights or for rights of God that doubts do not avert, such as zakat. ⁴ A confession that establishes a hadd penalty alone may be retracted, and the hadd then falls, since the Prophet ﷺ invited Ma'iz to retract. ⁴ The reason for the prohibition in human rights is that retraction undoes what was said and affects another's right. ⁴