Understanding The Prophet's Life
From Issue: 910 [Read full issue]
Edicts and Judgements
[continued from issue 909]
2. Issuing Edicts (fatwa)
The capacity of issuing edicts has signs such as the report mentioned in Muwatta and the authentic collections of Bukhari and Muslim on the authority of Abd Allah ibn Amr and Ibn Abbas that, during the farewell pilgrimage, the Prophet (peace be upon him) stopped for people at Mina, and they asked him about different matters, while he was still mounted on his she-camel. A man came and said to him: "I sacrificed before throwing the stones." He advised: "Throw, and don't worry." Then another came and said: "I shaved before sacrificing", and the Prophet answered him: "Sacrifice, and don't worry." He was not asked about anything that one would, out of ignorance or forgetfulness, do after or before without his saying, "Do it, and don't worry."
3. Adjudication (qada)
The capacity of judgeship refers to what emanates from the Prophet when settling disputes between people. Any action of the Prophet performed without the presence of adversaries is not classified as an instance of judgeship. One of the indicators of the capacity of judgeship is the explicit statement of the adversary: "judge between us" or the Prophet's statement: "I will certainly judge between you." An example of this is the report mentioned in Muwatta from Zayd ibn Khalid al-Juhani, who said:
A Bedouin who came to the Prophet with his adversary said: "O Messenger of God, judge between us by the Book of God." His adversary, who was wiser than he, said: "Yes, Messenger of God, judge between us by the Book of God, and allow me to speak." Then, each one of them made his case. God's Messenger said: "I will assuredly judge between you according to what God has revealed in His Book..."
..... [to be continued]
Compiled From:
"Treatise on Maqasid Al-Shariah" - Ibn Ashur, pp. 35, 36