• Among his universal rulings is that the default rule concerning acts of worship is prohibition; only what God and His Messenger have instituted is allowed. By contrast, the default in all dealings and practical usages is permissibility; nothing in that sphere is forbidden except what God and His Messenger have forbidden.
In accordance with this principle fall all rulings of worship, transactions, and innumerable other matters. Hence, whoever embarks (1) on an act of devotion that has not been transmitted from the Lawgiver is an innovator, and whoever declares any customary practice unlawful without evidence from the Lawgiver is likewise an innovator.

• Another universal ruling is his urging of conciliation and reconciliation between parties who have claims against one another—especially when those rights are ambiguous, mutually contested, or when full recovery is impossible or excessively difficult. In every such situation the Law prescribes a just settlement and adopting the course most suited to the case as circumstances require, a course that yields benefits and wholesome fruits beyond reckoning.

• Yet another universal ruling is the requirement that witnesses be upright and acceptable; the standard of acceptability varies with circumstances and individuals. The Lawgiver accepts the testimony of an approved, upright witness, discards the testimony of a liar or slanderer until he repents, and commands verification when the report comes from a sinner—and likewise when it comes from an unknown person—for the Lawgiver has stipulated people’s confidence in a witness’s integrity. This quality, therefore, must be established.
As for the number of witnesses and the evidentiary threshold, these differ according to the matter being attested, as the scholars have detailed.