from it, its development, the familiarity with it, and the extraction of provisions from it. It is unlikely that a city on a thoroughfare would be devoid of anyone other than its inhabitants. The statement of the Ansar: "We have no enemy in Khaybar except the Jews," indicates that there were others there who were not enemies. Because their partnership in enmity does not prevent the existence of Lawth (circumstantial evidence) in the case of one individual, nor does it prevent assigning him specifically to the claim while others share in the possibility of having killed him; therefore, it is more fitting that the presence of someone from whom the killing is unlikely should not prevent it. What they mentioned regarding possibility does not negate the Lawth, for it is not a condition of Lawth that there be certainty of the killing from the defendant, nor is it contradicted by mere possibility. If the killing were certain from the defendant, there would be no need for oaths. If the negation of possibility were a condition, it would not be valid to make a claim against one individual from a group because it is possible that the killer is someone else, nor would it be valid against the group as a whole because it is possible that not everyone participated in the killing.

The second report from Ahmad is that Lawth is that which causes the predominance of the assumption of the truthfulness of the claimant, and this is [in a house] [or otherwise], through several aspects. The first is the aforementioned enmity. The second is for a group to scatter from a dead body, which constitutes Lawth in the right of each one of them. If the guardian claims against one [individual] and he denies being with the group, then the statement is his along with his oath. This was mentioned by the Qadi, and it is the school of al-Shafi'i, because the basis is the absence of that unless proven by evidence. The third is for people to crowd in a narrow passage and a dead body is found among them. The apparent meaning of Ahmad's words is that this is not Lawth, for he said regarding one who dies in a crush on Friday: "His blood money is from the public treasury (Bayt al-Mal)." This is the view of Ishaq, and it is narrated from Umar and Ali. Said narrated in his Sunan from Ibrahim, who said: "A man was killed in a crush of people at Arafah. His family came to Umar, who said: 'Bring your evidence against the one who killed him.' Ali said: 'O Commander of the Faithful, the blood of a Muslim man shall not go unavenged; if you know his killer, then [take retribution], otherwise pay his blood money from the public treasury."