Tazwir (forgery and falsification, including false testimony)

Tazwir is making a thing look other than it is, so that the hearer takes falsehood for truth. It is forbidden in testimony, in acts, in coin, weights and measures, and in documents. ^{1 2}

Tazwir is decorating a thing and describing it contrary to its nature, so that the hearer or viewer thinks it is otherwise; it is disguising falsehood as truth. ¹

• Lying (kadhib) is telling what does not match the fact; tazwir is wider, since it may be by word or act. ²
• Tadlis, talbis, taghrir and ghish are close terms; tadlis is limited to concealing a defect. ²

The rule is that forgery in testimony is forbidden, as it destroys a right or establishes a falsehood, on the verse of surah al-Hajj (22:30) on avoiding the word of falsehood, and the hadith that the greatest of the great sins are associating others with God, disobedience to parents, and false speech. ^{2 3} Lying is excepted in three cases: in war, to soothe one's wife, and to reconcile people; al-Nawawi held that the literal lie is permitted in these, though allusion is better. ³ The book gives examples from war, such as the story of killing Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf and the stratagem of Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud among the allies. ^{3 7 8}

The Malikis, Shafi'is, Hanbalis, Abu Yusuf, Muhammad and Zufar, and the view followed by the Hanafis, hold that a judge's ruling on false testimony takes effect outwardly, not inwardly. Abu Hanifa held that it takes effect outwardly and inwardly in contracts and annulments when the subject allows it and the judge did not know. ⁸

Forgery in an oath is forbidden: the oath of deliberate lie, which the majority hold is a false oath when the swearer lies knowing it. It may be permitted or obligatory under compulsion or necessity. ^{8 4} False witnesses make good what their testimony caused; a sum is returned to its owner, and a loss is paid by them. The Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold retaliation due from false witnesses who testify falsely to a deliberate killing that is carried out; the Malikis and Hanafis hold blood-money due. False witnesses to adultery incur the penalty for slander. ⁴

Forgery in sale is hiding defects and decorating goods, as with holding back a ewe's milk or dyeing goods, and lying about the price in trust sales (murabaha, tawliya and hatiyata). It occurs in marriage by hiding a defect, in dyeing hair to deceive, and in imitating a judge's handwriting or signature. ⁵

Forgery in these is by reducing their content, by alloying them or changing their weights or sizes. It is forbidden, and falls under the saying: whoever cheats us is not of us. The market inspector checks the standard of weights and measures; the ruler may not strike adulterated coin, and it is worse for others to do so. ^{5 9}

The manuals of the market inspector and the Tabsirat al-Hukkam describe forgery in documents: changing names by a slight alteration, adding a figure, and leaving a blank at the end of a line. They advise that only a learned, just and trustworthy man write documents. ^{9 10}

Forgery is proved by the forger's confession, or by a lie that is certain, such as testifying to a killing of one who is alive, or to an act at a time when the man had died. For documents, some Malikis and Hanafis hold that where a claimant produces a paper in the defendant's hand, the defendant is compelled to write before just men, and if the two hands are alike, the paper is evidence. ⁶