What Is the Authority of a Qadi in a Non-Muslim Country?

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

What is the role of the Qadi (judge) in Islam, and can the office exist in a non-Muslim country such as the Netherlands?

What authority does he hold, and what are his limits? Can he enforce punishments or summon witnesses?

If I face a crime such as robbery, am I required to go to a Qadi, or may I go directly to the police?

Answer

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

Welcome, and may Allah reward your care in asking.

The short answer is that the formal office of the Qadi (Muslim judge) does not exist in a non-Muslim country such as the Netherlands. That office is a delegation of public judicial authority, and only a Muslim sovereign can confer it.

What can exist, by the consent of the parties, is voluntary arbitration (tahkim) and community committees that handle private religious matters between Muslims. These bodies hold no coercive power. They cannot impose punishments, summon unwilling witnesses, or replace the Dutch courts.

For crimes such as robbery, call the police. That is itself an act of religious obedience under the covenant of safety (aman) you accepted by lawful residence. Alongside that obedience, the believing community carries a collective obligation (fard kifaya) to preserve the rights of its members and the wider society, in this world and the next.

The Purpose of Judging Between People

Before its institutional form, the office of the judge must be understood by its purpose.

Allah Most High says, “Verily, Allah commands you to deliver trusts to those they are due, and that when you judge between people, you judge with justice.” [Quran 4:58; Keller, The Quran Beheld]

The classical Hanafi jurists treated this verse as the foundation of the office of judging between people (qada).

Imam Kasani opens his discussion of the office by naming its purpose: to lift oppression, secure rights between people, establish what Allah has prescribed, and protect the order of the community. [al-Kasani, Bada’i al-Sana’i, kitab adab al-qadi]

Imam Sarakhsi frames qada as the means by which the rights of Allah and the rights of His servants are upheld together [al-Sarakhsi, al-Mabsut, kitab adab al-qadi].

Imam Quduri presents the office in his Tajrid as one of high public trust, entrusted to a competent and just appointee under the authority of the Muslim ruler. [al-Quduri, al-Tajrid]

Imam Jassas anchors the office in the same verse and reads it as a public command for the community to organize itself to deliver justice. [al-Jassas, Ahkam al-Quran, sura al-Nisa]

The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “When a judge gives a ruling, striving and reaching the truth, he has two rewards; and when he gives a ruling, striving but missing the truth, he has one reward.” [Bukhari; Muslim]

The Prophet (peace be upon him) also said, “Judges are of three kinds: one in the Garden and two in the Fire. The one in the Garden is a man who knew the truth and ruled by it. The two in the Fire are a man who knew the truth and ruled against it, and a man who judged between people in ignorance.” [Abu Dawud; Tirmidhi; Nasa’i]

For these reasons, the Hanafi tradition classified the office of judging as a collective obligation (fard kifaya) on the Muslim community. If a competent appointee fulfills it under lawful authority, the rest are relieved.

If no one does, the whole community bears the responsibility. [al-Sarakhsi, al-Mabsut; al-Kasani, Bada’i al-Sana’i]

Why the Office Does Not Transfer to Non-Muslim Lands

Two conditions hold at once, and neither can be met in a country such as the Netherlands.

There is no Muslim sovereign on Dutch soil, so no one can lawfully appoint a Qadi. The office is a delegated trust (wilaya) conferred by a ruling Muslim authority that does not exist in this setting. A self-appointed judge, or a council that claims the powers of a state magistrate, claims an authority no one has given it.

The Sharia is also realistic about institutions. A judgment without lawful means of enforcement is opinion, not qada, and pretending otherwise invites disorder (fitna), which the Sharia takes great care to prevent. [Ibn Taymiyya, al-Siyasa al-Shar’iyya; al-Jassas, Ahkam al-Quran]

The public coercive aspect of judging requires the state’s public coercive power.

This is the established position among contemporary Hanafi scholars.[Usmani, Fiqhi Maqalat; Rahmani, Jadeed Fiqhi Masail].

The formal office does not transfer. What can exist is something different in name, basis, and scope.

What Can Exist: Voluntary Arbitration and the Community Committee

Two voluntary forms are recognized:

The first is voluntary arbitration (tahkim). Two Muslims with a dispute may agree to submit it to a learned, trustworthy arbitrator and to abide by his ruling. [Ibn Qudama, al-Mughni, kitab al-qada; al-Sarakhsi, al-Mabsut]

The Hanafis treat adjudication (tahkim) in the chapter on judges and recognize it under specific conditions: both parties consent freely; the arbitrator is qualified to judge the matter, with knowledge, integrity, and capability; and the subject is one that the parties have the right to settle between themselves.

The arbitrator may rule on financial claims, contractual disputes, inheritance shares, and many family matters. His ruling binds the two who chose him, but no one else. He may not adjudicate the fixed punishments or any matter that belongs to the public authority of the state.

The second is the community judicial committee, sometimes called a sharia council, a house of judging (dar al-qada), or a religious arbitration panel.

These are organized bodies of qualified scholars and trusted community members. The clearest Sunni example today is the dar al-qada network established by Qadi Mujahid al-Islam al-Qasimi (Allah have mercy on him) through the Islamic Fiqh Academy India and Imarat-e-Shariah Bihar.

Comparable bodies exist on a smaller scale in various countries.

They handle marriage validation, divorce facilitation, judicial annulment (faskh), bridal-gift (mahr) disputes, and reconciliation. When they are competent and modest about their scope, they meet a real religious need that secular courts cannot, because secular courts hold no theological authority over the marriage contract (nikah).

The Three Hard Limits

There is no enforcement of the fixed punishments (hudud), nor of retaliation (qisas), nor any corporal punishment, imprisonment, or fine collected by force.

Classical Hanafi law excludes the fixed punishments and retaliation from voluntary arbitration even within a Muslim state. [al-Marghinani, al-Hidaya, kitab al-qada; al-Sarakhsi, al-Mabsut, kitab al-siyar; al-Kasani, Bada’i al-Sana’i]

Outside a Muslim state, the exclusion is total.

No community body, no agreement between parties, and no claim of consent or necessity overrides it. Any group that attempts to impose such penalties acts unlawfully twice over, under Dutch law and under the Sharia.

There is no coercive authority over anyone who has not voluntarily submitted.

A community body cannot subpoena, arrest, or bind a third party. If you decline to participate, you cannot be compelled on religious grounds.

There is no parallel court system. Voluntary forums adjudicate private religious matters between consenting Muslims.

They do not displace local laws in criminal law, civil divorce, custody, property, inheritance, employment, or contracts. The Dutch courts hold lawful authority in all of these, and you are bound to use them.

Witnesses Within the Voluntary Scope

Within voluntary adjudication, a committee may request witnesses and weigh evidence. A woman seeking judicial annulment on grounds of abandonment or harm will be asked to produce witnesses or documentation.

The body cannot compel a witness to appear or compel anyone to take a legally enforceable oath. Where someone refuses, the body proceeds with what is available or postpones the matter.

This is the meaningful difference from the classical judge. He is summoned by state power; a community committee asks, waits, and rules within consent.

For Crimes Such as Robbery, Call the Police

This is the heart of your practical question, and the answer is clean.

If you are robbed, assaulted, threatened, or your property is stolen, call the local police. Not eventually; immediately. Not as a second option, but as the first and right one.

There is no Islamic obligation to consult a Muslim judge or a community body before reporting a crime. There is no Islamic body in the Netherlands with the authority to investigate, apprehend a suspect, recover stolen property, or restrain a dangerous person.

The Dutch police hold that authority, and the Sharia recognizes the lawful instruments of the state in which you reside [Ibn Taymiyya, al-Siyasa al-Shar’iyya].

The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Help your brother, whether he is wronged or wrongdoing.” His Companions asked how one helps a wrongdoer. He answered, “By restraining him from wrongdoing.” [Bukhari].

In a non-Muslim country, reporting a violent or harmful actor to the police is exactly that restraint.

Senior contemporary scholars across the Hanafi tradition and the wider Sunni mainstream have been explicit on this. Reporting crimes to the authorities is permitted, often obligatory, and a duty to your neighbors and to public safety.

This holds even when the offender is also a Muslim.

Aman and the Collective Obligation to Preserve Rights

When you took up lawful residence in the Netherlands, you entered, religiously, into a covenant of safety (aman) with the Dutch state and its people [al-Sarakhsi, al-Mabsut, kitab al-siyar; al-Jassas, Ahkam al-Quran].

That covenant obliges you to respect Dutch law, refrain from harming Dutch persons or property, and deal honestly with the institutions of the state.

In return, you enjoy the protection of those institutions, the safety of your home, freedom to practice your faith, and full access to Dutch courts and public services.

Paying local taxes, obeying the traffic laws, registering a marriage civilly, calling the police when threatened: each is part of honoring the covenant, not a concession to a secular order.

The only exception is a direct command to commit what Allah has forbidden, and Dutch law does not issue such a command. Within its ordinary scope, the law of the land is to be respected and used [Usmani, Fiqhi Maqalat].

Public Duties in Non-Muslim Lands: Community and Society

Alongside that obedience, the Muslim community in a non-Muslim country carries a forward-looking duty as a collective obligation (fard kifaya): to preserve the rights of its members and the wider society, individual and collective, worldly and religious.

The classical jurists treated this category of duties, which the community needs but no single person is named to do, as a shared trust.

If enough Muslims fulfill it, the community is relieved; if no one does, the community as a whole answers for the neglect. [al-Sarakhsi, al-Mabsut; al-Kasani, Bada’i al-Sana’i]

In a setting such as the Netherlands, that collective obligation takes many concrete forms. Organizing competent scholars and councils to handle marriage, divorce, and reconciliation with care.

Building legal aid and advisory services so that vulnerable Muslims are not left to navigate alone. Teaching the religion to children and new Muslims with seriousness.

Cooperating with public institutions on safety, social cohesion, and the protection of vulnerable people. Advocating for the rights of Muslims and others under local law. Addressing harm done by Muslims to other Muslims and to wider society.

None of this requires a Muslim state. All of it is the believing community’s standing duty wherever it lives.

Allah Most High says, “Let there be of you a community that calls to the good, enjoining the right and forbidding the wrong; those, they are the successful.” [Quran 3:104; Keller, The Quran Beheld].

The Muslim community in any non-Muslim society is exactly such a community in formation, and your asking is part of its formation.

A Word on Family Matters

A brief note on the situation most likely to bring a Muslim before a community body in a non-Muslim country.

If you marry one day and the marriage breaks down, two layers come into play. Civil law (registration, civil divorce, custody, property) is under state jurisdiction.

The religious layer (validity of the marriage contract, issuance of a divorce, granting of a woman-initiated divorce or judicial annulment, settlement of the bridal gift) falls under the competence of a competent local scholar or a recognized community committee.

The two layers are complementary, not in competition. Muslim couples in the West handle both in coordination.

May Allah deepen your knowledge, place barakah in your life and community, and gather you among those who serve Him with sound understanding and beautiful conduct.

And Allah knows best.

[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani

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Shaykh Faraz Rabbani is a recognized specialist scholar in the Islamic sciences, having studied under leading scholars from around the world. He is the Founder and Executive Director of SeekersGuidance.