The Appointment of Wazirs (3/3)

It is not permitted for a woman to undertake this office even if she has sufficient experience in such matters as a saying of the Prophet, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, indicates that the exercise of such authority has not been granted women: "A people who entrust their affairs to a woman will not be successful;" moreover, application of judgement and resoluteness of determination are diminished in women, and they would have to deal directly and openly with people, something which is prohibited to them.

An executory wazir may be of the people of dhimmah, although not a delegatory wazir; the difference between these two ministries varies according to their different functions in four ways: 1. A minister of delegation may himself make legal judgements and have jurisdiction over acts of injustice whereas a minister of execution may not; 2. The minister of delegation may proceed independently with the appointment of officers whereas the latter may not; 3. The former may dispatch armies and conduct wars but not the latter; 4. The former may dispose of treasury monies, taking what he has a right to take to make necessary payments, but not the former.

There are no other matters besides these four which would prevent a dhimmi from being an executory minister, except if they display arrogant behaviour as they are forbidden from being arrogant.

Because of these four differences between the two, four further conditions are required of the two ministries: 1. The status of a freeman is required for the wazir of delegation but not for the executory wazir; 2. That he be a Muslim is required of the former but not the latter; 3. That the former have knowledge of the laws of the shari'ah but not the latter; 4. That knowledge of the two matters of war and kharaj tax are required in the former but not the latter.

Thus the above two ministries differ in four ways regarding the conditions of appointment just as they differ in four aspects regarding their realm of jurisdiction; they are, however, the same regarding their rights and conditions in other than these aspects.

It is permitted for the Khalifah to appoint two executory ministers acting together or separately, but he may not appoint two delegatory ministers to work together because of the general nature of their powers of authority: likewise two Imams may not be appointed because they might dispute with each other in the arrangement or cancellation of matters and in the appointing or dismissal of officers. Allah, may He be exalted, has said, "If there were a god other than Allah in the heavens and the earth they would both have been corrupted" (Qur'an, Surah Al-Anbiya’, 21: 22).

If he appoints two ministers of delegation, their appointment must necessarily be one of three kinds:

1. The Khalifah delegates general authority to each of them both, in which case it would not be valid because of the evidence and reasoning we have mentioned above. Such appointments should be investigated: if they were both made at the same time, both are invalidated; if one of them preceded the other, the appointment of the first is valid and the second invalid. The difference between the invalidity of an appointment and a dismissal is that the former prevents the execution of what he has already authorised whereas dismissal does not;

2. The Khalifah ensures they both share jurisdiction and does not give it to one of them alone: this is valid and the ministry is then shared between them such that they may execute what they jointly agree upon but not what they differ about - this being dependent on the judgement of the Khalifah and outside the jurisdiction of these two ministers. This ministry is restricted with respect to the ministry of delegation proper in two aspects: their execution of something together is dependent on their mutual agreement whereas their authority ceases over what they differ about.

If they agree after having differed then the matter is investigated: if it is based on a judgement the justice of which they have both agreed upon after having disagreed about it, then it comes under their jurisdiction and their joint execution of it is valid: this is because a previous difference does not preclude a subsequent agreement. If, however, one of them follows his colleague in the matter, while both retain their contrary opinions, it is excluded from their joint jurisdiction as it is invalid for a wazir to carry out something which he does not judge to be correct.

3. In this case the Khalifah does not share jurisdiction between them but rather accords to each an authority for matters over which the other has no sway; this may occur in one of two ways: either he grants to each a specific task over which he has general jurisdiction - giving to one, for example, the ministry of eastern territories and to the other, that of the western territories - or he grants each special jurisdiction in a region where both have general authority - by appointing one of them, for example, minister for war and the other for kharaj tax. Appointment is valid in both the above ways although neither of them is a plenipotentiary minister but rather both are functionaries responsible for two different tasks; ministry of delegation should be concerned with what is general, and thus these two ministers should be able to execute all tasks and exercise full jurisdiction: in fact the appointment of each is restricted to each person's particular task and neither can oppose the other's jurisdiction or particular responsibility.

The Khalifah may appoint two ministers, a delegatory minister and an executory minister, such that the first is completely free to act as he wishes and the second is restricted to executing the commands of the Khalifah; moreover the executory minister may not reappoint someone who has been dismissed nor dismiss someone who has been appointed. The delegatory minister may, however, do both of these, but he may not dismiss someone appointed by the Khalifah. The executory minister may not sign on his own behalf nor on behalf of the Khalifah, except on his orders, whereas the minister of delegation may write orders using his own signature to his own agents and those of the Khalifah and they must accept his signatures. He may not, however, sign on behalf of the Khalifah except on his orders, both in general and particular matters.

If the Khalifah dismisses the executory minister none of the officials are thereby dismissed. If he dismisses the minister of delegation, executory agents are dismissed while delegatory agents are not as the former are representatives and the latter are functionaries.

A plenipotentiary minister may appoint someone to stand in for him but an executory minister may not, as this substitution would represent an appointment and this is valid coming from the former but not from the latter If, however, the Khalifah orders the plenipotentiary minister not to appoint a substitute then he should not appoint a substitute. If he does allow the executory minister to appoint a substitute, this is permitted as each of the two ministers are subject to the command or interdiction of the Khalifah, even though at the time of appointment each assumes different jurisdictions.

If the Khalifah grants the direction of the provinces to their governors but gives jurisdiction to those who have seized power over them, (as is the case amongst our people today), the ruler of each province may appoint ministers and the relationship of these ministers to the ruler is the same as that of the Khalifah's ministers to the Khalifah - that is with regard to the validity of the two types of ministry and the rulings regarding the two types of jurisdiction.