Omar

You are very tired, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen!

Wouldn't you rather go back and have some sleep?

No. I will just rest here a little.

Daughter, get up and add some water to the milk.

In the morning you need to go out and sell it.

God forbids, mother.

Ameer Al-Mu'mineen sent a crier making clear that milk must not be mixed with water.

You cannot be seen here by Umar or his crier.

Get up and do as I told you.

I would not obey him in public and disobey him in private.

A small income with obedience to God is better than plenty with a sin.

If Umar cannot see us, God who never sleeps sees us.

Know the place, Aslam.

Tomorrow, find out who said what to who, and whether they are married or not.

- Ameer Al-Mu'mineen! - May we come in?

What is the matter, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen? I hope it is something good.

Bring in your daughter please.

I went out on night watch last night, then I felt tired.

I reclined against your wall

and God made me hear you conversation concerning that milk you have.

I repent, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen.

God forgives sins and accepts repentance.

Indeed, but He is also stern in punishment. So fear God and never do it again.

I will not. Certainly not.

As for you, how good you are.

I enquired about you and learnt that the young woman is unmarried.

- Would you like to marry... - Zainab. She is Zainab.

This is my son, Asim, and he is unmarried.

I spoke to him about you and encouraged him. He is willing.

Would you like to look at him and let him look at you.

If you both like what you see, we will marry you.

She must look at him first.

Do you accept him?

Why wouldn't she accept Ameer Al-Mu'mineen's son?

You are the guardian of both of them. Silence is the sign of acceptance.

Do not be taken in by his being Ameer Al-Mu'mineen's son.

He has no money of his own.

If he does badly, I will give him double punishment.

May God unite you two well and give you goodly children.

You were not so shy and silent in Istakhr when I tried a bit of flirtation.

Had I known that you were the Emperor, the king of kings.

I myself did not know. My mother had told me that

I am the grandson of the great emperor, Khosrau Parvez,

and that she hid me so that my uncle Shirweih could not lay his hands on me

and kill me as he killed his father, brothers

and all male descendents of his father.

She kept telling me not to let anyone know this truth.

She told me that I must remain an ordinary person.

Then you know what happened.

Now we are here in the white palace which belonged to my forefathers.

How do you feel, your majesty, now that you have regained your heritage?

I don't know.

I mean... sometimes I feel a stranger.

I have been used to ordinary life. I look around me

and see princes, commanders, nobility and servants prostrating themselves to me.

I have the treasure of my forefathers.

I only have to give a signal for someone to be killed,

or to fall from luxury to misery, or to rise from misery to luxury.

This makes me feel that I am bigger than life, greater than death,

and that a light of the Great Spirit is now inside me.

It is what brought me to the throne of my forefathers

and to the white palace. Why wouldn't all this please me?

I do know now why princes have fought each other for the throne, killing one another.

Enter please.

- Peace be to you, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen. - And to you be peace.

Sit down, both of you.

My Lord, help me against them both.

Each one of them wants me to slip in his favour.

Fear God concerning your dispute.

We only judge in accordance with what appears to us to be right.

We have no knowledge of what is in people's hearts.

Remember what the Prophet said: "You come to me with your disputes.

Some of you may have a better argument

and I may judge for him according to what I hear.

If I give a person something that rightfully belongs to his brother,

he should not take it. I am only giving him a brand of fire."

Present your complaint, Dahhak, before your opponent.

I have at Al-Urayyid a spring of water. In between the spring and my farm

lies a plot of land belonging to Muhammad Ibn Maslamah.

If I want to run the water to my land, it must go through Muhammad's land,

but he denied me that.

I said to him: "It is a benefit to you: you can have your drinking water

and irrigate your land if you wish. It will not be of any disadvantage to you."

But he refuses.

Why do you deny your brother something that benefits him

when it is of benefit to you too? You can use it without any disadvantage.

It is my land, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen

I am free to do whatever I like with it, permitting anything or refusing it.

I fear that if I let this go that he and his family take advantage of that,

enter it and spoil my things there. It is as if I leave it to any passerby.

That it is your property is acknowledged.

However, your refusal harms him.

It is as if you are preventing him to benefit by his land.

This does not bring you any benefit,

while letting the water through will benefit both of you,

without giving you any disadvantage. Do you give priority to harm over benefit?

We are only in charge of what God has given us.

We should use it for benefit to ourselves and others.

The purpose is to build the earth.

You may stipulate that he must not harm your land. If he does, I will punish him.

Won't you let me have a choice in my own land, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen?

There is no choice in this matter.

He shall have his water running despite your objections. This is final.

- Peace be to you. - And to you be peace.

Enter!

- It is a complaint? - Yes, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen.

- Against Hatib Ibn Abi Balta'ah? - Against these servants of his.

They work for me, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen.

- What have they done? - They stole my she-camel.

- Did you? - We did, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen.

Then we will implement the punishment for theft against you.

Tell me first, what have you done with his she-camel?

We slaughtered it, ate of it and fed other people.

Why did you that?

Speak out. Do not worry about him.

Because of hunger, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen. It has bitten hard at us.

Don't you give your servants enough to eat, Hatib?

All power operates by God's will. Where has compassion gone?

You employ them and leave them hungry?

Even if any of them eats what God has forbidden, he will incur no sin,

as God says: "He who is driven by necessity, not intending to transgress

nor exceeding his need, incurs no sin. God is much-forgiving, merciful."

I am sparing them the mandatory punishment because of suspected necessity.

In cases of doubt, it is better to suspend mandatory punishments

than to implement them. All three of you leave now.

What about my she-camel, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen?

By God, as I have spared them the punishment,

I shall fine you heavily. You are the one who caused this offence.

How much were you offered for your she-camel?

- Four hundred dirhams. - Go and give him eight hundred.

- Am I to give him double price? - Yes, you will.

I shall be enquiring about your servants. If I hear that you have kept them hungry,

causing them to incur a mandatory punishment, you will suffer that punishment.

The case is settled.

- Peace be to Ameer Al-Mu'mineen. - And to you be peace with God's mercy.

- I am seeking your advice. - Speak!

I have a daughter. In pre-Islamic days I took her out aiming to bury alive.

When I put her under the dust, I was overwhelmed with compassion

and I took her out. Then we embraced Islam.

When she was a young woman, she incurred a grave sin.

You mean adultery.

She took a blade to commit suicide.

We saved her after she had cut some of her veins.

I had her treated until she regained her health.

Subsequently she truly repented and she is of good character.

She is thus one of those whose bad actions God changes into good ones.

Now someone wants to marry her. Should I inform him of what happened?

Would you expose something God wants to remain hidden?

If you tell anyone of what she did,

I will make of you an example to all people in all provinces.

Give her in marriage as a chaste Muslim woman.

You have removed my burden, Ameer Al-Mu'mineen.

May God remove all worry from you in this life and in the hereafter.

Do not do that. It will be a negative point for you,

and an act of pride on my part, which God dislikes.

I am only one of the Muslim community,

but my test is harder than yours because of my position.

Go to your business, may God bless you.

My Lord, I have tried my best to arrive at the right rulings

on questions to which nothing in the Qur'an or the Sunnah

of the Prophet appeared applicable.

My aim is to set things to right, as far as I can.

This is my understanding of Your faith. If I am right,

it is because of Your guidance,

and if I am wrong, it is because of my own faulty understanding.

In you I place my trust, and to You I turn.

Abu Al-Hasan,

I have been having too many cases of complaints to look into.

I would love that you will share these with me,

so that you judge in disputes as I do.

You are the depository of knowledge of Islam and guide to the truth.

Suppose that I give a ruling on a certain case,

and you hear of my ruling but disagree with it. What will you do?

Where there is a clear statement in God's book or the Prophet's sunnah,

we can have no dispute. You know them better than anyone else.

On cases left to personal discretion, we are equal.

Everyone judges as he sees right.

I will not abrogate a ruling given by Abu Al-Hasan on the basis of his discretion,