Testimony of an Illegitimately-Born Individual to Adultery in the Fiqh of the Four Sunni Schools of Law and Zaydiyyah

In Islamic Fiqh, the regulations related to illegitimately-born individuals have always been controversial. The topic of testimony is one of the regulations related to illegitimately-born individuals. Except for the Malikiyyah sect which does not accept the testimony of an illegitimately-born individual to someone else's adultery, all the four Sunni and Zaidiyyah sects have unanimously accepted the testimony of illegitimately-born individuals in all matters. All Sunni and Zaydiyyah sects have based their argument on the Quran's generalizations and implications regarding the acceptance of an honest and just person's testimony, and believe that the only condition set by the Quran is that the person testifying must be honest and just. In contrast, the Malikiyyah sect argues that its reason for not accepting the testimony of an illegitimately-born person regarding another person's adultery is the illegitimately-born person's desire to turn other people into individuals like himself, so that the burden of his misery gets alleviated, and regarding this issue, the Malikiyyah sect has had recourse to some traditional and rational arguments.