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 desires of those who would contravene justice by shunning your court and resorting to other judges might be cut off.
٣٢
وليكن أمرك جاريًا وحكمك نافذًا في كلّ من تظلّم إليك أو تظلّم١ منه عندك من كافّة أهل مدائن أمير المؤمنين وعامّة كوره الدانية منه والشاسعة عنه٢ وأن لا يتطاول أحد من قضاة المهديّة والقيروان إلى رفع أحد من أهل البوادي التي حولهما إلى أنفسهم إذ كان أمير المؤمنين إنّما أطلق لكلّ قاض ٍ فيهما النظر في المدينة التي هو فيها وما أحاط به قطرها، وليس له أن يتعدّى إلى النظر فيما خرج عنها، وأطلق لغيرهم من القضاة النظر في بوادي مدنهم، وأن لا يقيم أحد منهم حاكمًا ولا أمينًا بجميع الكور التي لا قضاة فيها ولا ينظر بين أحد من أولياء أمير المؤمنين وطبقات عبيده وسائر جنده المقيمين بحضرته، وأن يكون النظر في جميع ذلك كلّه لك مطلقة فيه يدك لا ينازعك فيه أحد من القضاة والحكّام. وإن تشاجر خصمان فدعا أحدهما صاحبه إليك، ودعا الآخر٣ إلى قاض ٍ أو حاكم غيرك، كان على الداعي إلى سواك أن يرتفع مع خصمه إليك طائعًا أو مكرهًا.
١ ل: تظلّه. ٢ ل: منه. ٣ ز، ل: آخر.
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 those 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.
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فاعلم ذلك من رأي أمير المؤمنين وأمره وامتثلْه وقدّمْ به أوامرك وزواجرك، واقرأ كتاب أمير المؤمنين هذا على المنبر ليذيع بين الناس وينشر في حاضرهم وباديهم ودانيهم وقاصيهم. وامضِ على ما قلّدك أمير المؤمنين من ذلك جاريًا على ما تقدّم به توفيق الله لك وتسديده إيّاك من إنفاذ الحقوق وتقويتها وإقامة الحدود على أهلها وشدّة الوطأة على الظلوم ونصرة الحقّ ومعونة المظلوم وإغاثة١ اللهيف وتقوية الضعيف مقتديًا في أحكامك وأقضيتك بكتاب الله عزّ وجلّ الذي {لَّا يَأْتِيهِ ٱلْبَٰطِلُ مِنۢ بَيْنِ يَدَيْهِ وَلَا مِنْ خَلْفِهِۦ ۖ تَنزِيلٌ مِّنْ حَكِيمٍ حَمِيدٍ} فإنّ الله جلّ ذكره قد بيّن فيه حلاله وحرامه وأوضح أحكامه وأنار معالمه. وما لم تجد فيه نصّه ولا في سنّة جدّ أمير المؤمنين محمّد رسول الله ربّ العالمين حكمه التمسه في مذاهب الأئمّة من ذرّيّته الطاهرين البررة الراشدين آباء أمير المؤمنين صلوات الله عليهم أجمعين الذين استحفظهم الله أمر دينه وأودعهم خزائن علمه ومكنون وحيه وجعلهم هداة العباد ونور البلاد ومصابيح الدجى من حيرة العمى وغياهب الردى والطريقة المثلى والمقتدى بهم في أمر الدين والدنيا.
١ خ، ل: إعانة.
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