God, the Exalted, also warns the believer - lest hatred of a...

God, the Exalted, also warns the believer - lest hatred of a people and enmity to them should lead him to abandon justice and lest hatred should influence his judgement. The judge must be-guided by the laws of God, the Exalted, so that his anger is only for the sake of God, and his hatred for a people must not cause him an unjust ruling.

If the faculty of his `Anger' is regulated in this way, he will have no fear of anyone other than Allah and it will not be possible to influence him through the arousal of his `Anger'.

When man attains this kind of control over the self, and is possessed of knowledge and justice, and his intellectual and behavioural faculties have been moderated, then it is in order for him to apply himself to adjudication and occupy the position held by none other than the prophet or his authorized trustee (wasi) for even if he is neither a prophet nor authorized as a trustee through a special trusteeship (wisayah) as in the case of the Infallible Imams, peace be upon them-he is a trustee through a general trusteeship in accordance with the texts of appointment (nasb).

It is also proper that this judge should pave judgement through his knowledge, since all dicta are proved through knowledge whereas knowledge is a proof in itself. So if a just judge has knowledge of the truth, then he should judge according to his knowledge, so as to comply with the verses which command ruling with justice.

In fact, if the evidence produced is contrary to his knowledge or the denier takes an oath asserting something contrary to his knowledge, he should refrain from judgement or refer the case, for example, to another judge. It is not permissible for him to rule contrary to his knowledge, even if the evidence or the oath is acceptable.

It is not right that his judgement should be revoked or refuted, since this would be like refuting the Infallible Imam, which in turn would be similar to refuting God, the Exalted. That would actually amount to unbelief and practically to polytheism (shirk), though it may not involve creedal unbelief, because creedal unbelief concerns the outright denial of one of the fundamental doctrines of religion.