The Book of Judicial Rulings

The author’s statement: “Judicial ruling.” Linguistically, qaḍāʾ means to bring a matter to completion and perfect it; it may also mean decree. When it concerns a religious command, qaḍāʾ means decisive enactment. When it concerns something decreed, it may refer either to the eternal decree or to bringing a matter to completion. Thus, Allah the Exalted says:

“And He completed them as seven heavens.” [Surah Fussilat 41:12]

That is, He completed them. And He says:

“And We decreed for the Children of Israel in the Scripture...” [Surah al-Isra 17:4]

That is, We decreed it from eternity. And He says:

“And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him.” [Surah al-Isra 17:23]

That is, He legislated it as a firm ordinance, obligatory upon His servants.

In the legal sense, judicial ruling comprises three matters: clarifying the legal ruling, making it binding, and deciding legal claims or disputes.

Our saying, “clarifying the legal ruling,” is a general expression that includes the issuing of legal opinions, for the mufti clarifies the legal ruling. Thus, if you were to say, “In the legal sense, judicial ruling is the clarification of the legal ruling,” the definition would not be valid or comprehensive enough to exclude what does not belong to it, since it would include legal opinions, although they are not judicial rulings; for the mufti clarifies the legal ruling.

Our saying, “making it binding and deciding disputes,” excludes the issuing of legal opinions, for the mufti does not make a ruling binding. Does he decide legal claims or not? He does not. However, if the mufti is appointed as an arbitrator—that is, if two people bring their dispute before him—and they say, “We accept you as an arbitrator between us,” and he judges between them, then his ruling becomes binding, like the ruling of a judge,