The third is establishing jurisdiction over those who are barred from managing their property because of insanity or minority, and placing under legal interdiction anyone whom he deems should be interdicted on account of prodigality or insolvency, in order to preserve the assets for those entitled to them.
The fourth is overseeing endowments: preserving their principal assets, developing their revenues, collecting their income, and disbursing it for their designated purposes. If someone has been appointed to oversee them, he supervises him; otherwise, he assumes that responsibility himself.
The fifth is executing bequests in accordance with the testator’s conditions, insofar as permitted by the Sharia. If they are made to specified beneficiaries, he executes them by delivering the bequeathed property; if they are made to unspecified beneficiaries, their execution is left to the exercise of legal judgment in overseeing them.
The sixth is arranging marriages for women who have no husbands with suitable men, when they have no legal guardians and seek marriage.
The seventh is enforcing the fixed legal penalties against those liable to them. If a penalty is one of Allah’s rights, he alone carries it out without a claimant’s request, once it has been established by confession or legally probative evidence. If it is one of the rights of human beings, its enforcement depends on the request of those entitled to it.
The eighth is overseeing the public interests within his jurisdiction, including preventing encroachment on roads and open spaces, and ordering the removal of projecting structures and buildings. He may take up these matters on his own, even if no opposing litigant is present.
The ninth is scrutinizing his witnesses and trustees, and assessing the deputies who act on his behalf, deciding whether to retain them and rely upon them so long as they remain sound and upright; and dismissing and replacing them when discredit or treachery becomes manifest. If one of them proves incapable of handling his responsibilities, he may either replace him with someone stronger or assign another person to assist him. Ahmad said, according to a report from Hanbal: “A man should inquire about his witnesses every so often, for a man’s condition changes from one state to another.”
The tenth is treating the powerful and the weak, and the noble and the lowly, equally in judgment, and not following his own inclination when judging.
It has been related from Shurayh that he said: “The Commander of the Believers, Ali—may Allah be pleased with him—found one of his coats of armor, which had fallen from him while he was heading to Siffin, in the possession of a Jew. He said, ‘Jew, this armor fell from me at night while I was heading to Siffin.’ The Jew replied, ‘Rather, it is my armor, and it is in my possession.’ So he brought him before Shurayh, and Ali was seated above the Jew. Then he said to Shurayh, ‘Were he not a dhimmi (a protected non-Muslim subject), I would sit with him as one of the litigants.’”