Qadi
In the Islamic world, Qadi Arabic قاضى" is a "judge". In countries where Sharia, the traditional law interpreted from the Qur'an or the Hadith, is the law, qadi refers to a judge according to the Sharia. There is no appeal. His responsibility is restricted to issues connected to religion, involving marriage and divorce, and inheritance, including the pious bequests (waqf), of which a qadi was often the trustee. In practice, Islam makes no distinction between religious and secular existence. The judgment of the qadi must be founded on the Qur'an, but the choice of which surahs will be applicable offers broad latitude of discretion. Charges of favoritism and corruption in the qadi are as ancient in Islam as anti-clericalism is in the West. In Islamic countries under constitutional government, such as Turkey, where Shariah is not the basis for the legal system, Qadi is the equivalent of a judge or magistrate. In countries that practice a hybrid legal system, such as Egypt, a Qadi makes an initial ruling in all civil and criminal matters. In some Islamic countries the position of qadi, formerly reduced to simply being responsible for the initial hearing of cases or even abolished, in the process of Westernization, has been recently reinstated, as in some Islamic provinces of northern Nigeria. When it involves a severe penalty, his decision has to be approved by a Mufti, certainly in capital punishment cases, to ensure that verdict is in compliance with the Muslim law.
External linkEncyclopedia of the Orient: qadi
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