“I once asked abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of a man who has a house and he remains absent from it for thirty years; but he leaves his family there, then news of his death comes. We do not know what may have happened in his house as well as to his children. We however, do not know of anything happening to his house and no birth of children has happened to him. This house is not divided among his heirs whom he had left in his house so that two just witnesses can testify that this house is the house of so and so son of so and so who has died and has left behind as legacy for so and so. Can we testify about it? He (the Imam) said, ‘Yes, you can do so.’ I then said that a man has a slave and slave woman. He says that his slave has run away, his slave woman has run away and they are found in the town. The judge asks for proof that this is the slave of so and so whom he has not sold or gifted; if we can testify about it if we are asked and we do not know if anything has happened or not. He (the Imam) said, ‘Whatever goes out of the hands of a Muslim man, slave or slave woman or is absent from you, do not testify about it.’”