Praise be to Allah, and prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah, and so on: The judge is an honorable position and comes with a great responsibility, and ruling based on the judge's knowledge is considered one of the insidious and dangerous means. The judge is prohibited from ruling based on his knowledge except in validation or invalidation of witnesses, and according to what is considered legal evidence to what happens before him in the judicial court after seeking his judgement. The

more »

... judge is also prohibited from ruling contrary to his knowledge, even if the evidence was presented. And the saying that the judge is prevented from ruling based on his knowledge is the one that corresponds to the purposes of the Sharia, consideration of interests, prevention of mischief, and its regulations in prevention of pretexts. The evidence is based on the Qur'an, Sunnah, Athar and analogies. In addition, ruling based on the judge's knowledge is a valid reason to accuse the judge of injustice, and there is no dispute among knowledgeable scholars about the accusation having an impact on legal rulings. If ruling based on the judge's knowledge was to be allowed, It would be a means for bad judges to rule with injustice, and to base the ruling on their knowledge alone, especially in these times of corruption, the prevalence of suspicions, desires and temptations. It is a great corruption, and it can only be prevented by cutting off its means, which is: Ruling based on knowledge. For this reason, the System of Legal Pleadings and Penal Procedures prevent the judge from ruling based on his knowledge. What is meant by ruling based on the judge's discernment: is his ruling based on conjecture and assumption, which is done according to his discernment and his intuition when judging the case, the evidence, and claimants. It is not based on witness, hearings or evidence. There is no disagreement among the knowledgeable scholars that it is not permissible for the judge to rule based on just his discernment without relying on a valid way of judgment. However, it is permissible for the judge to reach to a valid, legal evidence in judicial terms based on his wit, acumen and intelligence; like acknowledgement or evident presumption. May Allah grant success, and may Allah's peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad and his followers until the Day of Judgment.