The Foundations of The Islamic Judiciary: Umar’s Letter to Abu Musa (Part One)

In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful. Asalam allaykum to everyone. This is something that I've been wanting to share now for around 20 years, which is letter of one of the great companions of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him that outlays the foundations of the Islamic Judiciary. The Islamic Judiciary really comes to standstill in 1955 when it is shut in Egypt officially under Abdul Nasa. You're talking about centuries of practical law and left to be imagined in numerous ways to be imagined by Muslims who because they have been cut off from that tra tradition are going to imagine it either in irresponsible way which leads to like it being laxed the law or in way which the law is just it's brutal. You cut it off. You cut it off from its human engagement. It becomes now theory. Becomes like Latin. May Allah protect us. We're talking about the Islamic judiciary. It's also important for non-Muslims, especially those of you who may be coming by to drop some hate, just take step back, man. Like, you got to have lot more time in your life than just to be prowling people on the internet like leaving crazy comments. Like, sit back and learn something. challenge yourself to grow as person. The anti-sharia bias that we see is sort of untethered from historical reality as well as the law itself because it's not really practiced and functioning in the way that it was in its heyday. It's become very rudimentary. It's been restricted in both cases with Muslims and non-Muslims just to few things. So this letter for Muslims is really going to invigorate you. Those of you may be involved in like justice movements. Those of you who are, you know, concerned about human rights and human dignity and what's happening in the world as well in the United States and you're Muslim, think you'll find some meaning through this historical religious meaning. And then those of you who may be non-Muslim but interested, you'll find that the sophistication of Islamic law is cool, really cool. And then finally for the haters. So what I've done actually at the end is put comparison between like the statutes found in this letter and the presidents found in this letter and the axioms found in this letter and things related to judicial conduct and personal conduct within the judiciary and compared it to what you see now in modern law. So that way we can see sort of what binds us together is stronger than what pulls us apart. So let's get to the letter. actually put it here in Arabic to you because it's like really hard to find in good print but I'll give you first some background. This letter was written by to one of the judges Abu Mus Alari. There was judiciary established in the time of the prophet peace be upon him and it stands as one of the most significant if not the most significant document in Islamic judicial history outside of what has been revealed by Allah to the prophet and what is outside of what is revealed in the Quran. This historic correspondence dating back to the early days of Islam establishes the fundamental principles of the Islamic judiciary that continue to influence legal systems today. The letter provides comprehensive framework for judicial conduct at personal, spiritual as well as courtroom level emphasizing justice, fairness and ethical behavior in the administration of law to create sense of trust in the legal system. Islam places lot of emphasis on civil society and trust in institutions. said about this letter, the famous letter of in judiciary or judicial conduct to has been widely circulated amongst used to be memorized. They built upon it principles and they relied upon it especially what it contains and things related to Islamic jurist prudence and principles of Islamic law. He said this in sunnah volume 6 page 71. Here's the letter in Arabic as said earlier and put it with the marks to help people. I'll share it along with the translation in the post. Once again, if you're liking this tuck content, please like, subscribe, and let other people know. To my knowledge, this is something that's hard to find within the English language. So let's get to the letter and then we'll go through some of the important points to to be to be extracting. So it begins in the name of Allah the most gracious the mer most merciful Muslims are it's considered commendable anything that we begin with we begin with God we recognize that he's the most gracious to most merciful from the slave of Allah the leader of the believers to Abdullah he's one of both of these are great esteemed companions of the prophet peace be upon him of course is the second major leader after the passing of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was called the khalifa to abd Abs from Yemen originally and for those of you interested he's the great great great grandfather of Im Abassi to proceed indeed the judiciary is an established is an established obligation meaning this is something that we have to be doing because justice is one of the main reasons for revelation says We sent books and we dispatch prophets so that people could establish justice. How any mechanism that can lead to that justice takes on the ruling of justice. We have great accent. Whatever allows us to complete an obligation becomes an obligation. So the the judicial system, the makama, the court system is one of the most important societal or or political instruments to maintain justice. And we see now in America the judiciary is under attack should concern people. When lived in Egypt, one of the things that Mubarak would attack constantly was the judiciary. He wanted to weaken the role of the judges. So in many ways they they hold the line as body in certain aspects and maintain and sandbag certain components that protect society from injustice ideally. So this is and established followed sunnah meaning the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam established this and we know that as said earlier the judiciary was established under the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Understand when cases are presented to you. So that's number one. Understand well. And implement justice when the truth becomes clear to you. Then implement justice. The goal is justice. For there is no benefit in speaking the truth without implementing it. Subhan Allah. So here we find those principles that are going to create credibility for for the the judicial system and judges. Treat people well. Treat people. He says you know treat people equally in your facial expressions, personal conduct, your justice and in your court sess sessions so that person of high status will not expect your partiality and the weak will not despair of your justice. This is such beautiful statement. This is this is who we are as as community. These are our spiritual giants. We're looking into the water like Simba. We see Satan Omar looking back at us so that person of high status will not expect your partiality and the weak will not despair of your justice. Then he touches on some of the axioms that may sound familiar to those of you unfamiliar with Shar Allah. He says the burden of proof is upon the claimant guilty innocent until proven guilty and the oath is upon the one who denies the claim. Of course, this is famous hadith, famous axiom of the prophetam. Reconciliation is permissible between Muslims except reconciliation that permits what is forbidden or forbids what is permitted. And this is interesting because as imbnam talks about in you know there were separate courts in the Muslim world for non-Muslims. The ro the Zorostrians for example had their own courts. The Jews had their own courts. This idea that Islam has come for example to the west to impose the sharia on people. Of course, if we look at crazy jihadists, they tried to kill me. If you look online, you look up my name, they tried to kill me. Those people are untethered from the depths of knowledge and the maturity needed to function in society. If Islam in the West was coming to dominate and ruin people's lives and take away their law, well, it didn't do it when it was ruling empire. Let not judgment you passed yesterday after which you reconsidered and were guided to the right course prevent you from returning to the truth. Judicial review for truth is eternal and returning to the truth is such beautiful axiom is better than persisting in falsehood. Actually, it's like stubbornness and falsehood is the words better sort of meaning and error. Exercise understanding regarding matters that cause uncertainty in your heart. And here he's going to start to lay out the hierarchy of evidence or proofs within the judiciary. So exercise understanding regarding matters that cause uncertainty in your heart which are not addressed in the Quran or Sunnah. Then recognize similarities and comparisons. Now you can understand why there were scholars like has book, IM has book. Why? Training jurists, training to recognize similarities and comparisons in things for analogy. And need to be be make point here. Ashbat means things that are com almost very similar to something else but not complete. So there's parts of it that are similar to something else. Okay are things that are almost 100% the same. It's called we talk about that in draw analogies accordingly. So these are the foundations of and seek that which is closest to Allah and most resembling the truth. Grant the claimment fixed period that ends. If he brings proof, grant him his right. Otherwise resolve the case for him. For that is clear in removing doubt and more conclusive for the justification. Muslims are considered reliable witnesses against each other except for the one who has been flogged for prescribed punishment. One known for false testimony or one suspected of bias due to relationship or kinship. These are not credible witnesses. Indeed, Allah has taken charge of your inner secrets and averted judgment based on mere suspicion by clear proofs and oaths. Beware of anxiety, impatience, annoyance with and hostility during disputes. For upholding truth in situations of truth brings great reward from Allah and excellent mention afterward. Whoever purifies their intention and focuses on self-improvement. Allah will suffice him and their affairs people. And whoever pretends to be what Allah knows they are not, Allah will expose them. What do you think of the reward with Allah in his immediate provision and treasures of his mercy? This is rhetorical question of course and he says peace be upon you. Next time inshallah we're going to go through number of principles and ideas as well as comparisons related to this letter. May Allah increase us. And hope that you have enjoyed this. If you have share something nice in the comments and let other people know. Wasam Muhammad.