Welcome to this week’s episode of the series Islamic Human Rights. Today, we discuss the presence of a merited judicial system as a guarantee for materialization of the rights of individuals.

Last week, we mentioned a number of legal guarantees for meeting the rights and freedom of individuals. One of the most important guarantees for personal security is the presence of a merited and qualified judicial system, which promotes justice and peace via acceptance and materialization of the rights of seekers of justice, and punishment of the violators of human rights.

Appropriate organization of a merited judicial system is tied to fulfillment of a number of conditions, such as access to a competent court; independence of the judicial system; and responsibility of the judges.

Demand for justice is one of the primary rights of every individual, so that those, whose rights, freedom, and security have been violated would be able to refer to competent sources to achieve their rights and freedom.

This human right has been included in international documents. For instance, the first clause of Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights notes every individual maintains the right to have his case fairly and openly studied within an independent and impartial court.

The divine religion of Islam has emphasized the need for a judicial system in order to administrate justice and serve equality among the members of the community. Meanwhile, the view of sacred religion of Islam in regard to the status, nature, and sources of judgment, and the conditions that judges should fulfill, is largely different to other schools of thought. The conditions for judgment in the Islamic community have been set such that the lives, and belongings of people would not fall into wrong hands, and the rights of individuals and communities would be fulfilled.

Fair judgment and administration of justice is one of the main principles of Islam, after maintenance of faith in God. Islam has attached significant importance to the topic of judgment, in order to fulfill people’s rights and to establish social justice.

The 58^th ayah of Surat al-Nisa notes: “Indeed Allah commands you to deliver the trusts to their rightful owners, and, when you judge between people, to judge with fairness. Excellent indeed is what Allah advises you. Indeed Allah is all-hearing, all-seeing.”  

One of the divine duties of the Prophet of Islam was to judge and arbitrate. In addition to promotion of his divine prophecy, the Prophet of Islam solved people’s disputes and differences of opinion in different legal, familial, and criminal domains.

In the divine religion of Islam, judgment is a highly important and sensitive task. This is because administration of justice is the responsibility of the community and the Islamic ruling system. The Islamic judge should issue just rulings, so that nobody’s rights would be breached.

Given that judge’s verdict can change the destiny of individuals, a wrong verdict can lead to a difficult life for the individual and cause hardships for the one, whose rights have not been fulfilled. Hence, the judge should issue verdicts based on sufficient evidences and should hear out the remarks of both parties to the related lawsuit.

The Muslim judge, in addition to maintenance of piety and knowledge, should treat the parties to the related lawsuit on an equal footing.

The judge, in order to fulfill the rights of the oppressed should be in an appropriate physical and mental condition. The judge should not be angry or hungry at the time of judgment. This is because at the time of anger, one loses his control. Also, hunger makes it impossible for the individual to fully concentrate, and the hungry individual may therefore lack the necessary precision for studying a topic of importance.

Judges should also maintain an appropriate livelihood and should maintain their independence. Thus, in Islamic theology, the judge doesn’t have the right to receive an income from the parties to the lawsuit, and should receive a specific salary from the treasury.

The divine religion of Islam has placed paramount importance on the independence of judges, and no authority can impose his view and demand, in any form and shape, on the judge. This independence, power, and resoluteness, is part of the necessary conditions for judgment in the view of Islam.

MR/ME