1206 – Abu Bakrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, “No one should decide between two people while he is angry.” Agreed upon. (1)

Glossary of the ḥadīth
– “while he is angry” (wa-huwa ghaḍbān): the word ghaḍbān takes no tanwīn because it is diptote, being an adjective on the faʿlān pattern with an extra alif and nūn.

Lessons derived from the ḥadīth
1 – Anger is a reaction that makes the heart’s blood boil in search of revenge. If a judge’s anger reaches this eruptive stage, he is likely to lean in his ruling against the one who provoked him and to lose balance in judging anyone else; once the fire of anger grows strong, it blinds him to the truth.

2 – The ḥadīth forbids judging while angry, because anger removes a person from the realm of justice and from striking the truth. Al-Rawḍ al-Murbiʿ and its marginal commentary state: “It is forbidden to judge in a state of intense anger—though not in mild anger, for mild anger does not prevent understanding of the ruling. Intense anger muddles the heart and mind, blocks complete comprehension, bars thorough consideration, and obscures the paths to knowledge and right intention; it is a form of mental closure (ighlāq).”

3 – If someone disobeys this directive and issues a judgment yet still reaches the truth, his judgment takes effect because it accords with what is correct.

I say: Concerning the validity of a judgment issued in anger, this is the view of the majority of scholars, for there is no necessary contradiction between anger and the permissibility of judging; anger is only a likely cause of error, a disturbance—