and administers it in ignorance is among the wicked and unjust. The governing criterion is simply Allah’s statement:

“Indeed, the righteous will be in bliss.”

“And indeed, the wicked will be in Hellfire.”

Accordingly, under the present conventions in these lands of Syria and Egypt, military and executive authority has particular responsibility for carrying out prescribed punishments involving death or permanent bodily injury, such as amputating a thief’s hand, punishing brigands, and the like. Its jurisdiction may also include punishments that do not involve such injury, such as flogging a thief. It also includes adjudicating disputes, physical altercations, and matters giving rise to suspicion where there is neither documentary evidence nor witnesses. Judicial authority, by contrast, has particular responsibility for matters involving documentary evidence and witnesses, establishing rights and adjudicating such cases, and overseeing the administrators of endowments, the guardians of orphans, and other familiar duties.

In other lands, such as the Maghrib, the military governor has no adjudicative authority at all; he merely implements the orders of the judge. This follows the earlier practice. The reasons for these differences, rooted in legal schools and customary practices, are discussed elsewhere.

As for the public-oversight officer, his responsibility is to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong in matters that do not fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of governors, judges, administrative officials, and the like. Many religious matters are shared responsibilities among those in authority. Whoever fulfils the required duty in any such matter must be obeyed in it. Thus, the public-oversight officer must instruct the public to perform the five daily prayers at their appointed times and punish those who do not pray with beating and imprisonment; execution, however, falls under another official’s authority. He must also oversee the prayer leaders and callers to prayer;