Qualifications, Functions and Accountability of Qazis during the Salateen Period: An Overview
Keywords:
Legal System; Sultans, qualifications of Qazi; Administration of JusticeAbstract
The justice has been an inescapable element of Islamic governance, the governance rules for an Islamic state have to build upon justice as its base. That’s the reason that the judiciary had a core position in the doctrine of Islamic ruling history. In the honour of the office, a person for the selection of Qazi post had to strictly fulfill the criteria of the post-selection such as Islam, manhood(al-dhukuriyyah), adulthood(al-bulugh wa al-aql),freedom(al-huriyyah), intelligence, sound vision and hearing(alsalamah fi al-sam‘ wa al-Basar), profound scholarship(al-‘ilm) and piousness(al-Adalah).
In shariah, a Qazi, who is known as al-Ahkam al-Shariah's impartial interpreter (Islamic Law law), plays a special role. Being a distributor of adal (justice) must act honestly and impartially, and make independent, Amanah-based decisions (confidence or good faith). His decisions should be according to the laws that are imposed by the Islamic state. He is responsible for all public and criminal issues, whereas its duty includes the resolution of citizens' quarrels, the deterrence of any damage to ummah(community) interests and disputes settlement resulting from government mismanagement and misdemeanours. All the judgments were supposed to be done in the light of Islamic teachings let that be the decisions regarding “Waqf (Endowment), Marriages, Talaq”.The Salateen rulers also followed the Islamic judiciary system with advancement, they spread a network of the judicial system across the state.