Section: The Responsibility of the Muhtasib

The scope of public offices—whether broad or restricted—and the prerogatives the office-holder gains from his appointment are determined by wording, circumstance, and prevailing custom; the Sacred Law itself sets no fixed limit for this.1 Thus, what falls under a judge’s jurisdiction in one place or era may in another place or era fall under the military governor’s jurisdiction, and vice versa. The same fluidity applies to the hisba (public oversight) and to treasury administration.

All these offices are, at their root, Sharia-based authorities and religious posts. Anyone who deals justly in such an office, managing it with knowledge and fairness and obeying Allah and His Messenger as far as he is able, is among the righteous and upright. Whoever is unjust and acts within it out of ignorance belongs to the wicked wrongdoers. The decisive standard is the Almighty’s statement: “Indeed, the righteous will be in bliss, and the wicked will be in a blazing fire” (al-Infitar 82:13–14).

Accordingly, the office of war, as understood in our day in these Syrian and Egyptian territories, is limited to enforcing the penal limits that entail bodily harm—such as severing the hand of a thief or punishing a brigand—and it may also include punishments that do not destroy life or limb, like lashing the thief. It further embraces adjudicating disputes, brawls, and suspicions of wrongdoing for which there is no written documentation or witness testimony, whereas the judiciary is confined to matters that do involve written proof and witnesses, and is likewise restricted to establishing