ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Islamic System of Judiciary in the Qur'an The Rules of Conduct For the Judge It has been made clear that the judiciary is necessary to protect human society and that its criterion is nothing other than revelation. In this section, we wish to discuss its external realization and how it can exist in the desirable form that will afford the application of divine justice derived from revelation.

The administration of justice in human society is possible through a judge who has knowledge of the divine criterion for judiciary and who believes in it and acts in conformity with it. If knowledge, faith, and action did not exist together, the criterion itself would not have any effect, for it would be like a lamp in the hand of a blind person who can neither benefit from it himself nor benefit others. He would not be safe from stumbling and the lamp would either break or be extinguished.

Thus, the practising judge has to be a just scholar (`alim `adil). Man is controlled by three important faculties from which springs felicity or misery. They are: his intellect (`aql), through which he grasps matters; his Desire (shahwah), through which he seeks things and wants them for himself; his Anger (ghadab), through which he repels from himself what he dislikes.

Knowledge and justice must inform these three faculties, so that the judge may not deviate in judgement or depart from the path of truth. His intellect should be directed towards acquiring and teaching that which has been brought by the prophets, so that desires (ahwd') do not affect him. There is no room for personal judgement (ray) in' religion, and whoever rules through his personal judgement perishes.

He who abandons the Book of Allah, the Exalted, and the Sunnah of His Prophet, has disbelieved; he who relies on himself when faced with a problem is led astray and he who relies on his judgement in ambiguous matters is as one who has made himself his own leader (imam). Justice should inform his Desire, and he should not rule out of a liking for a particular matter or a specific person.

Nor should he rule out of a desire for wealth, status, or position, or for other reasons springing from vain urges. His Anger should be temperate, and he should not rule out of hatred for a matter or hostility to a person, or out of fear of a threat or intimidation, or for any other reason related to anger, hatred, and the like.