«إِنْ شَهِدَ لَكَ عَدْلَانِ مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَإِلَّا فَاسْتَوْفِ مِنْهُ الْيَمِينَ»
If two upright Muslim men testify for you, present them; otherwise require his oath.
The governor asks for two upright witnesses, then indicates an oath if that testimony is unavailable. This moves the hearing from assertion to an evidential procedure.
The unusual oath that follows becomes part of the scheme. The stated procedure and a character’s tactical use of it should not be conflated; the episode is not a complete legal manual.
Narrative layerInterpretive statusDirect statementThe word or action explicitly recordedSupported inferenceA limited conclusion supported by contextUnsupported additionA detail that the passage does not establish
Applied question
What evidential sequence does the governor describe?