which he, God’s blessings upon him, undertook to compose himself, and I am not aware that any such letter exists among earlier letters of appointment to the judiciary. I have also seen fit, in addition to presenting the proof it contains for the arguments of this chapter, to perpetuate his eternal remembrance in this book, and in doing so I also gain perpetual remembrance and eternal honor through the praiseworthy qualities that the chosen Ward of God attributed to me therein. This is the verbatim text of the decree:
29 In the name of God, the Merciful and the Beneficent
This is a decree from the servant and Ward of God, Maʿadd Abū Tamīm al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh, the Commander of the Faithful, to the judge al- Nuʿmān ibn Muḥammad.
30 The Commander of the Faithful, because God has selected him for the lofty position of the caliphate and the exalted station of the Imamate, made him a shining lamp on His earth by which people might be guided and by whose light the path might be illuminated, and set him up as a landmark for His creation who might uphold His right, plant firmly the pillars of faith, confirm the covenants of Islam, and clarify the laws of his forefather Muḥammad the Messenger of God, has seen fit to exalt the status of the judiciary to the extent that God did so and to set forth the status of those whom he has appointed to it and considered qualified therefor, according to their entitlement on account of their piety, good administration, and freedom from corruption, so that whoever among them behaves properly and engages in sensible conduct, who is grateful for the favors he has received from his Lord, God, and from the Commander of the Faithful, his Imam, may increase in good behavior, and he who strives to do what will result in praise and recognition may yet increase his efforts. May God grant the Commander of the Faithful success, guide him aright, help him, and support him.
31 The Commander of the Faithful, having observed your piety, religiosity, trustworthiness, freedom from corruption, and praiseworthy conduct, hereby entrusts to you sole responsibility for judicial matters in al-Manṣūrīyah and its attached districts. He grants you absolute authority to examine the cases of those who submit grievances to you among the inhabitants of the cities where judges and magistrates are found as well as in all other regions and authorizes you to dispense justice against those for whom it is required and render rights to those who deserve them. Upon witnessing your sincere commitment to and devoted pursuit of the truth in your rulings, the admirable traits that trials have revealed of you, the mettle that tests have proven in you, and the noble deeds that you have performed for the cause of justice, he has deemed it proper to confirm, buttress, strengthen, reinforce, and augment your appointment in a public decree issued to you to that effect. He does this so that the hopes of plaintiffs before you might be raised, those against whom your sentences are to be carried out might remain in awe, and the hopes of those who would contravene justice by shunning your court and resorting to other judges might be dashed.
32 Let your command be enforced and your verdict be carried out for all those who raise grievances to you or against whom grievances are raised before you among all inhabitants of the territories of the Commander of the Faithful and the entire population of his provinces, both those near to him and those far from him. Let none of the judges of al-Mahdiyyah and al-Qayrawān overstep his bounds to hear the suit of any inhabitant of the surrounding rural districts, since the Commander of the Faithful had granted absolute authority to each judge in those two cities to hear cases in the city where he is located and the immediate environs, but not the right to transgress that to hear cases from areas outside th0se two, for he granted authority to other judges to hear cases from the outlying regions of their cities. Let none of them appoint a judge or trustee in any of the districts where there are no judges, and let none of them have jurisdiction over members of the entourage of the Commander of the Faithful, the various classes of his slaves, or the army stationed in his presence, but let the jurisdiction in all of this be yours, entrusted entirely to you without restriction. None of the other judges may contest you in this, and if one of the parties to a suit brings his case to you, and the other to another judge besides you, then the one who has brought suit before a judge other than you must bring the case with his opponent before you, willingly or otherwise.
33 Know that this is the considered opinion and command of the Commander of the Faithful: Submit and follow it, preface your commands and exhortations with it, and read the decree of the Commander of the Faithful on the pulpit, so that it might be disseminated among the populace and become generally known among the townsfolk and the inhabitants of rural regions, near and far. Proceed according to the charge the Commander of the Faithful has entrusted to you, continuing to dispense and uphold justice as God enabled you and guided you aright therein in the past, and imposing the canonical punishments on those who deserve them, treating the tyrannical with severity, championing what is right, supporting the oppressed, helping the forlorn, fortifying the weak, drawing in your rulings and judgments on the Book of God, «which invalidity cannot approach, either from before or from behind—a Revelation from One Wise and Praiseworthy.»73 For in it God explained His permitted and forbidden things, clarified His rulings, and illuminated His landmarks. Whenever you do not find the ruling regarding something in God’s Book or in the Practice of the forefather of the Commander of the Faithful, Muḥammad the Messenger of God, may God, the Lord of all Generations, bless him and his family, seek it among the opinions of the Imams from his pure progeny, the devout and rightly guided ones, the forefathers of the Commander of the Faithful, may the blessings of God be upon them all, to whom God entrusted the safeguarding of His religion, in whom He deposited the treasures of His knowledge and the secrets of His revelation, and whom He made guides for the believers, a light for all lands, lamps shining in the murk, leading out of the labyrinth of blindness and the gloom of perdition, the exemplary path to be followed in all matters, both spiritual and mundane.
34 Whenever something continues to perplex you and thus be difficult for you, and remains obscure and thus intractable, refer it in the final instance to the Commander of the Faithful, so that he might direct you to the correct ruling on the issue, so that you might adopt it and act upon it accordingly, for he is the remnant of the Caliphs who were guided by God and the descendant of the Rightly Guided Imams, for God, exalted and sublime be His praise, has decreed that people consult them, draw from their knowledge, and refer matters of importance to them. God said: «Had they referred it to the Messenger and to the Ones in Authority among them, then those who derived it from them would have known it.»74 He, glorious be His name, said: «So ask the People of Knowledge if you do not know.»75 The eloquent Prophet and the truthful Messenger, Muḥammad, said, “I have left among you two weighty matters, the Book of God and my progeny, the People of my House. You will not go astray as long as you hold fast to them, for they will not separate until they approach the heavenly pool.”76 He who adopts as guides God’s Wards in His earth has been led to the correct path, has grasped the strongest link, and has earned the fullest share of the blessings of this world and the next.
35 Open your door to litigants: remove obstacles between them and you, address them in a welcoming manner, extend your sessions for them, call yourself to patience with their disputes and conflicts, and avoid showing aversion for the opposing parties or vexation in your verdicts. Treat high and low alike with regard to access to your person, permission to approach you, and the obligation to maintain distance from you, and also with regard to your mien, your manner of speech, and the ways in which you listen, inquire, and explain. Do all this so that your impartiality and your justice might encompass and include them all. The powerless litigant should feel secure against injustice on your part, confident that you will treat him fairly, and reassured that his proof will not be blocked before you, while the powerful litigant should despair of your favoring him and so lose all hope of attaining what is not rightly his.
36 Be firm in your words and deeds. Advance slowly and surely in your affairs and eschew haste; proceed deliberately and avoid carelessness. Watch over the condition of your lower soul to keep your carnal instincts in check. Examine your performance in order to perfect it, to your credit, and in order to safeguard your verdicts from flaws that will prevent
