Mishkat al-Masabih 3744 — The Offices of Commander and Qadi

Ibn Mauhib Narrated from:

When ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan asked Ibn ‘Umar to act as qadi among the people he asked the commander of the faithful to excuse him. He asked him what objection he had to that when his father had been holding such an office, and he replied that it was because he had heard God’s Messenger say, “If anyone is a qadi and fulfils the office with justice he should rather turn away from it with neither credit nor blame.”* After that he did not ask him again. Tirmidhi transmitted it. * Or, ‘without reward or punishment’.Razin’s version on the authority of Nafi' tells that Ibn ‘Umar said to ‘Uthman, “Commander of the faithful, I shall not pronounce judgment between two men.” He replied, “Your father used to do so.” He said, “If anything was dubious to my father he asked God’s Messenger, and if anything was dubious to God’s Messenger he asked Gabriel, but I can find no one to ask, and I heard God’s Messenger say, ‘He who seeks refuge in God has sought refuge in a great One.’ I also heard him say, ‘Grant refuge to him who seeks refuge in God’, and I seek refuge in God from your making me a qadi." So he excused him, but said, “Do not tell anyone.” Razin.