Defendant

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DEFENDANT. Arabic mudda'a alaihi مدعي عليه
Lit. "A claim upon him." 
The author of the Hidayah (vol iii p 63) says a defendant is a person who, if he should wish to avoid the litigation, is compellable to sustain it. Some have defined a plaintiff, with respect to any article of property, to be a person who, from his being disseized of the said article, has not right to it but by the establishment of proof; and a defendant to be a person who has a plea of right to that article from his seizing or possession of it. 
The Imam Muhammad has said that a defendant is a person who denies. This is correct; but it requires a skill and knowledge of jurisprudence to distinguish the denier in a suit, as the reality and not the appearance is efficient, and it frequently happen that a person is in appearance the plaintiff, whilst in reality he is the defendant. Thus, a trustee when he says to the owner of the deposit, "I have restored to you your deposit,' appears to be plaintiff, inasmuch as pleads the return of the deposit; yet in reality he is the defendant, since he denies the obligation of responsibility, and hence his assertion, corroborated by an oath, must be credited.

Based on <a href="https://www.juancole.com/library/dictionary-of-islam-hughes">Hughes, Dictionary of Islam</a>

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