oaths. If a fourth person arrives, it follows the same pattern. And Allah knows best.

Section: As for the hermaphrodite (khuntha mushkil), it is possible that they take the oath, because the cause for qasamah exists in their case, which is their status as one entitled to claim blood; and no obstacle to their oath has been verified. It is also possible that there is no qasamah upon them, because they lack the necessary reasoning (aql), and killing is not established by their testimony, thus they are analogous to a woman.

1526 - Issue: He [Ibn Qudama] said: (And if the deceased left three sons, the fraction [of the oath] is adjusted for them, so each one of them swears seventeen oaths.)

There is a difference in the narration from Ahmad regarding those upon whom the oaths of qasamah are obligatory. It has been narrated that the oath is taken by fifty men from the agnates (asaba), both those who are heirs and those who are not, with each of them taking a single oath. This is the opinion of Malik. According to this, those of them who are heirs and are entitled to claim the blood [of the victim] shall swear. If they do not reach [the number of] fifty, they are completed by the rest of the agnates, taking the closest of them, then the next closest from his tribe to which he is affiliated. The manner of their lineage from the victim must be known; as for someone known to be from the tribe but the manner of whose lineage is unknown, he does not perform the qasamah. For example, if the man is Qurayshi and the victim is Qurayshi, but the manner of his lineage to him is not known, he does not perform qasamah, because we know that all people are from Adam and Noah, and they all return to a single ancestor. If someone were killed whose lineage was unknown, the rest of the people would not perform qasamah on his behalf. If fifty men of his lineage are not found, the oaths are rotated among them and divided among them; if it results in a fraction, the fraction is adjusted for them until it reaches fifty, due to the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) statement to the Ansar: "Fifty men of you shall swear, and you shall be entitled to the blood of your companion." (1) The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) certainly knew that Abdullah ibn Sahl did not have fifty male heirs, for no one inherits from him except his brother, or one in his degree, or someone closer to him in lineage; and because he addressed his cousins with this, even though they were not heirs. The second narration is that none but the heir performs the qasamah, and the oaths are imposed (2) upon the heirs of the victim, to the exclusion of others, according to their shares of inheritance. This is the manifest...