Seventh: The amir may compel those who commit crimes to repent, while displaying such threats as will lead them to repent voluntarily. There is no objection to his threatening them with death in matters where killing is not required, because this is a terrorizing threat that passes beyond the category of falsehood into the sphere of taʿzīr (discretionary disciplinary punishment).

Eighth: The amir may hear the testimony of members of various professions, and of others whose testimony judges are not permitted to hear, when their number is large.

Ninth: The amir may consider cases of mutual assault, even when they entail neither financial liability nor a fixed legal penalty. If neither party bears any visible injury, he hears the claim of the one who lodged it first. If one of them bears an injury, it has been said that he should begin by hearing the claim of the injured party, without considering who lodged the claim first. Most jurists, however, hold that he should hear the claim of whichever of the two was first to lodge it, and that the one who initiated the assault bears the graver guilt and should receive the more severe disciplinary punishment.

It is permissible to differentiate between them in disciplinary punishment for two reasons. First, according to the difference in their respective culpability in committing the offense; and second, according to the difference in their personal bearing and degree of self-restraint. If the amir deems it beneficial, as a deterrent to the rabble, to expose them publicly and proclaim their crimes, he may do so.

Thus, a distinction arises between amirs and judges with respect to investigating the circumstances of a case and accepting proof establishing a right: the amirs are vested with governance, while judges are vested with adjudication. Once their crimes have been established, however, there is no difference between amirs and judges in imposing fixed legal penalties upon them. Their crimes are established in two ways: by confession and by legally acceptable evidence.

Fixed legal penalties are of two kinds. The first consists of those pertaining to the rights of Allah Most High, and the second of those pertaining to the rights of human beings. Those pertaining exclusively to the rights of Allah Most High are themselves of two kinds: the first is what is prescribed for neglecting an obligatory duty, and the second is what is prescribed for committing a prohibited act.