Chapter: Adjudication

Abū al-ʿAbbās—may Allah sanctify his soul—said:

“A Useful, Comprehensive Observation”

The purpose of adjudication is to ensure that people receive their due and to put an end to disputes. Ensuring that people receive their due secures a benefit, while ending disputes removes a harm. The aim, therefore, is to secure that benefit and remove this harm. Ensuring that people receive their due is part of the justice by which the heavens and the earth are upheld. Ending disputes falls under “the prevention of injustice and harm.”

Each involves preserving what already exists and warding off what has not yet arisen. When rights reach those entitled to them, existing rights are preserved and their purpose is achieved. As for disputes, existing disputes are ended and those that have not yet arisen are prevented. When reconciliation is achieved, the dispute ends, thereby fulfilling one of the two objectives. As for “rights,” either they have been secured through the reconciliation, or the person entitled to them has willingly relinquished them, which is permissible.

When claims are adjudicated through a ruling, testimony, or the like, settling them may involve impugning judges and witnesses, or similar measures. These are among the harms that should only be resorted to out of necessity, as with litigation itself; for adjudication may give rise to difficulties between the litigants and others.