testimony that has been offered, given the manifest uprightness he knows them to possess.

If a judge delivers a ruling and then denies having done so, and two witnesses testify that he did in fact pronounce that judgment, their testimony is accepted; the ruling stands and is not nullified by his denial.

If the judge claims he has already judged a certain case but the litigant against whom the judgement is said to have been given denies it, the judge’s statement is not admitted unless evidence is produced confirming his ruling.

When a judge admits that he deliberately issued an unjust decision which caused someone’s property to be lost or destroyed, he must make good the loss; if the injustice involved bloodshed, retribution is taken from him.

The judge may imprison anyone whose case warrants imprisonment. Detention is obligatory in all rights-based claims, whether they involve an exchange of wealth or something else. The insolvent, however, is not to be jailed; once his insolvency is established he must be granted a respite, and the law sets no fixed maximum term for detention.

The judge should regularly review the condition of those in custody and not neglect their affairs: whoever is known to be recalcitrant remains confined, while whoever is shown to be insolvent is released and given time.

It is impermissible for him to adjudicate in favour of his father, his son, or anyone whose testimony on his behalf would be inadmissible.

In issuing judgment he must confine himself to what is found in the Book of Allah. If he finds no text there, he turns to what has been authoritatively established by the Sunnah of Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him. Failing that, he considers what has come down from the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them; if they are at variance, he chooses the view that is best and most consonant with the Book and the Sunnah. He should adopt the same approach with the opinions of the scholars who followed them, and he is not permitted to contradict them or to introduce anything new from his own invention.

If no guidance is found, he exercises personal reasoning, seeks Allah’s guidance, and examines the matter thoroughly. Should the issue remain unclear, he consults those scholars whose grasp of the law and whose piety he trusts, then selects the best of their opinions—the one closest to the truth—and rules accordingly. Yet if he judges that an opinion contrary to theirs is better and nearer to the truth, he rules by it.

He may invalidate his own judgments only in the same situations that would invalidate another judge’s decision before him—that is, whatever contravenes