Selected Judgements of Imam Ali (a.s)

Introduction

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

The need of English version of the delivered in extraordinarily complicated cases, by Amir-ul-Momineen Hazrat Ali (A) bin Abi Talib was being felt by many among the English reading public since long. The number of these judgements being very large, we have selected some very important ones for this booklet.

These selections are made from various books on the subject in Arabic and some other languages, particularly Qazae Amir-ul-Momineen compiled by the celebrated Scholar, Al-Allama Al-Shaikh Muhammed Taqi Al-Tostari published, Najaf, 1963, duly acknowledged in this compilation, and they speak by themselves of the rare wisdom, quick with marvellous power of judgement and knowledge of Hazrat Ali (A) with regards to Mathemancs, Ancient History, Geography, Chemistry, Physics, Metaphysics Astronomy, Medical Science and even some of the modern sciences unknown to mankind in those days.

If Hazrat Ali (A)'s judgements contained in the following pages are thoroughly gone through they will be sufficient to convince the readers of the claim of almost all the great scholars that his unique judgements although delivered by him long long ago are still indispensable for those courts of law that desire their judgements to be most righteous in each case.

Published at the very beginning of this book are some instructions of Hazrat Ali (A) for the judges appointed by him or by the Chief Justice (Qazi Shareh) of a particular Province in his jurisdiction.

Although the number of these instructions is small, they are self sufficient as well as self-contained inasmuch as the duties and the path to be adopted by the judges while delivering judgements in various cases even to day is concerned, and will, we believe, be appreciated not only by those who belong to the sphere of judicature but all others such as the accused, coplainants, defendants and plaintiffs as well as the general public till Qiyamat (the day of Judgement).

It is expected that this humble effort will be received with the same zeal with which it is presented and will also serve the purpose it is brought out for. It would be ingratitude on my part if I do not thank the trustees of the Peer Mahomed Ebrahim Trust, Karachi, for without their moral and material help as well as encouragement this humble efforts on the part of the writer would not have seen the light of the day. In fact they are the people under whose patronage and sincere support such publications, which are most beneficial to the generality of Allah's creatures are being presented at a definetly below the cost price (free publications being mostly wasted and lose their value.)

Kaukab Shadani

Karachi 8th July, 1969