Section

The general remit of judicial authority includes settling disputes, seizing rights and restoring them to their rightful owners, supervising the property of orphans, the insane, the prodigal, and the absentee; imposing interdiction for prodigality or bankruptcy; overseeing charitable endowments so that they operate according to their founding conditions,1 and arranging the marriage of a woman who has no guardian.

It does not, however, extend to market inspection (ḥisbah) of merchants or compelling them to comply with the law.2

His rulings are not enforceable outside the jurisdiction for which he was appointed.

Section

Ten qualities are required of a judge: that he be of age, of sound mind, male, free,3 Muslim, upright, able to hear, able to see, able to speak, and qualified to exercise ijtihād—even if only within the school of his own imām, when necessity demands.

If two or more disputants agree to submit their case to a person fit for the judiciary, his judgment is valid in every matter in which the ruling of someone appointed by the imām or his deputy would be valid. The disagreement is thereby resolved, and it is unlawful for anyone to set his decision aside once he has judged correctly.