7. Letters of Hazrat Umar (RA) and Hazrat Ali (RA) to Public Authorities

Umar's (RA) Letter to Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (On Judgeship)

• A foundational charter of Islamic judicial ethics:
  • Equal treatment of all litigants, "so that the powerful do not expect favouritism and the weak do not despair of justice."
  • Thorough examination of evidence before ruling.
  • Encourages reconciliation (Sulh) between disputing parties as praiseworthy.
  • Permits — indeed encourages — revising a mistaken judgment upon realising the truth: "returning to truth is better than persisting in falsehood."
  • Patience/reflection before ruling on ambiguous matters.

Ali's (RA) Letter to Malik al-Ashtar (Governor of Egypt) — Nahj al-Balaghah

• A comprehensive manual of ethical statecraft:
  • The ruler must love for the people what he loves for himself.
  • "Your subjects are of two kinds: either your brothers in religion or your equals in creation."
  • Merit-based appointments free of nepotism and bribery.
  • Special care for the poor, orphans and the voiceless disadvantaged.
  • Direct, unobstructed public access to the ruler.
  • Avoidance of anger and haste in judgement; continuous oversight of subordinate officials against corruption.

Common Themes Across Both Letters

• Rulers and judges are trustees answerable to Allah first.
• Justice and equality are non-negotiable.
• Accountability must be institutionalised, not left to goodwill alone.
• Administration must be humane and welfare-oriented.

Hadith/Source Evidence

📘

النَّاسُ عَندَكَ فِي الْحَقَّ سَوَاءٌ

اردو: تمہارے سامنے لوگ حق میں برابر ہونے چاہئیں۔

English: "Treat the people equally in your presence, your court, and your judgement, so that the noble does not aspire to your partiality, and the weak does not despair of your justice."

— Ibn Qayyim's I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in

وَأَشْعِرْ قَلْبَكَ الرَّحْمَةَ لِلرَّعِيَّةِ

اردو: اپنے دل میں رعایا کے لئے رحم پیدا کرو۔

English: "Your subjects are of two kinds: either they are your brothers in religion, or they are your equals in creation."

— Nahj al-Balaghah, Letter 53

CSS Exam Tips

• Discuss the guidance given by Hazrat Umar (RA) and Hazrat Ali (RA) in their letters to public authorities regarding good governance and accountability.
• Cross-reference: Bravery and Judicial Wisdom of Hazrat Ali (RA), Responsibilities of Civil Servants.

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20-Mark Enrichment — Analytical Material

Core Argument

The administrative letters of ʿUmar (RA) and ʿAlī (RA) are the earliest civil-service manuals in Islamic history — and arguably in world history. They are not exhortations but operational instructions: how to appoint, how to pay, how to adjudicate, how to supervise, how to treat merchants, soldiers and the poor, and how the officer must conduct his own person. The 20-mark thesis: read together, ʿUmar's letter to Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī gives the judicial code, and ʿAlī's letter to Mālik al-Ashtar gives the executive code — and between them they anticipate almost every principle of modern public administration.

1. ʿUmar's (RA) Letter to Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī — the Judicial Code

Transmitted by al-Dāraquṭnī and al-Bayhaqī and treated by jurists as a foundational text of Islamic procedure. Its substance:

• Adjudication is a binding duty: "judgment is a firm obligation and a followed practice; understand well when a matter is put to you, for it is of no use to speak a right that is not enforced."
• Equality of the parties: "treat people equally in your presence, in your assembly and in your judgment, so that the noble does not hope for your partiality and the weak does not despair of your justice." — This triple equality (of gaze, of seating and of decision) is more demanding than most modern codes, which regulate only the outcome.
• Burden of proof: "the burden of proof is on the claimant and the oath upon the one who denies" — the classical statement of al-bayyinatu ʿalā al-muddaʿī wa'l-yamīnu ʿalā man ankar.
• Judicial self-correction: "do not let a judgment you gave yesterday prevent you, upon reconsideration and being guided to what is right, from returning to the truth — for truth is ancient, and nothing invalidates it; returning to the truth is better than persisting in falsehood."
• Reconciliation preferred: "settlement between Muslims is permissible, except a settlement that makes lawful what is forbidden or forbids what is lawful."
• Time for evidence: grant the absent claimant a defined period; if he fails to produce evidence, decide against him — an early rule against indefinite adjournment.
• Competence of witnesses: the presumption is of integrity, except one proven to have given false testimony or one suspected by reason of kinship or interest.
• Judicial temperament: avoid anger, agitation, annoyance with litigants, and quarrelling in the places of justice — "for judging with truth in the places of right earns reward and beautiful mention."
• Sincerity: "whoever's intention is sincere between him and Allah, Allah suffices him in what is between him and the people."

2. ʿUmar's (RA) Broader Administrative Instructions

• To governors on appointment: "I did not appoint you over the Muslims to take their blood or their property, but to lead them in prayer, judge among them with justice, and distribute among them fairly."
• Asset audit (muḥāsabat al-ʿummāl): recording an official's wealth on appointment and auditing it afterward through Muḥammad ibn Maslamah, confiscating unexplained accretion — precisely the logic of modern disproportionate-assets proceedings.
• Public complaint mechanism: summoning governors to Ḥajj so that any citizen could complain in the presence of the caliph.
• Restrictions on official privilege: governors forbidden to ride Turkish horses, eat refined food, wear fine clothes or close their doors to petitioners — visible austerity as an anti-corruption device.
• Adequate remuneration: officials paid generously so that need would not be an excuse.
• Conditions of appointment: dismissal on complaint, even of highly successful commanders, to preserve the principle that no individual is indispensable.

3. ʿAlī's (RA) Letter to Mālik al-Ashtar — the Executive Code

Preserved in Nahj al-Balāghah (compiled by al-Sharīf al-Raḍī) and widely cited across the Muslim world; UNESCO and the UNDP have commended it as a model of just governance, and it is worth naming that reception. Its principal instructions:

• The ruler's disposition toward the people: "Fill your heart with mercy, love and kindness for your subjects... for they are of two kinds: either your brother in religion or your equal in creation." — the most quoted line in Islamic political ethics, and an explicit statement that non-Muslims are owed the same administrative care.
• On the officer's own faults: do not regret pardoning; do not exult in punishing; do not be hasty in anger when restraint is possible; do not say "I am commanded and I command," for that corrupts the heart.
• Justice as the state's interest: "the most beloved of matters to you should be the one most moderate in truth, most general in justice, and most comprehensive in the satisfaction of the governed — for the discontent of the general public nullifies the satisfaction of the elite, and the discontent of the elite is pardonable if the general public is content." This is a remarkable early statement of the priority of mass welfare over elite capture.
• Selection of officials: appoint after testing (ikhtibār), not by favour or nepotism; choose those of experience, modesty and good families; avoid those who served unjust rulers.
• Salaries as an anti-corruption measure: "extend their provisions generously, for that strengthens them to reform themselves and removes their need for the property under their charge, and leaves them no argument if they disobey your command."
• Supervision: appoint trusted, truthful observers over officials — secret oversight that encourages faithfulness and deters abuse; act on evidence, in public, so the correction is exemplary.
• On judges: select the most excellent, one not narrowed by disputes, who does not persist in error, who is not tempted by greed, who examines evidence exhaustively and is least troubled by the pressure of litigants; pay him amply so that he is beyond need; and give him a rank at court that no one may aspire to influence.
• On the classes of society: the army, the officials, the judges, the taxpayers, the merchants and craftsmen, and the lowest class of the needy — each described with its function and its due.
• On the poor: "Allah, Allah, regarding the lowest class — those who have no resource... appoint a share of the treasury for them; assign a part of your time to those who come to you personally, and sit for them in a public assembly, humbling yourself before Allah, and keep away your guards and attendants so that their spokesman may speak without fear."
• On taxation: be more concerned with the prosperity of the land than with the collection of revenue, "for revenue cannot be had except by cultivation, and whoever demands revenue without cultivation ruins the country and destroys the people." — a principle of development economics stated in the seventh century.
• On merchants: encourage trade, but be alert to hoarding and monopoly (iḥtikār), which the Prophet ﷺ prohibited.
• On treaties: never break a covenant, and never exploit an ambiguity in its wording to escape it.
• On the danger of blood: "beware of shedding blood without lawful cause, for nothing is more inviting of retribution, greater in consequence, or more likely to remove a blessing and cut short a term."

4. Comparing the Two Letters

5. Principles Common to Both

1. Justice is the purpose of office, not a constraint upon it.
2. Merit and testing precede appointment; nepotism is prohibited.
3. Adequate pay is a structural anti-corruption instrument, not a concession.
4. Supervision and audit are permanent, not exceptional.
5. Accessibility to the ordinary citizen without intermediaries or fear.
6. Impartiality between rich and poor, Muslim and non-Muslim.
7. Self-restraint of the officer — over anger, pride, haste and privilege.
8. Correction of error is a virtue, not a weakness.

6. Mapping onto Modern Public Administration

• Judicial conduct codes (Bangalore Principles) ↔ ʿUmar's equality of gaze, seat and judgment.
• Reasoned reconsideration and review ↔ "do not let yesterday's judgment prevent you from returning to the truth."
• Competitive, tested recruitment ↔ appointment after ikhtibār.
• Pay-and-integrity theory in civil-service reform ↔ generous provision so that need is no excuse.
• Internal audit, inspection wings, performance monitoring ↔ trusted observers over officials.
• Ombudsman and open kutchery / public hearing ↔ the assembly for the needy with guards removed.
• Growth-first fiscal policy ↔ prosperity of the land before revenue collection.
• Competition law and anti-hoarding regulation ↔ vigilance against iḥtikār.
• Pacta sunt servanda in treaty law ↔ the prohibition on exploiting ambiguity to escape a covenant.

7. Contemporary Relevance for Pakistan

• The letters answer, in indigenous terms, the country's central administrative pathologies: politicised appointment, elite capture, inaccessible officialdom, revenue extraction without development, and the culture of never admitting error.
• ʿAlī's (RA) rule on the discontent of the general public versus that of the elite is a direct rebuke to policy made for a narrow constituency.
• The instruction on not appointing those who served unjust predecessors raises a genuinely difficult modern question about institutional continuity — a good point to acknowledge rather than assert.
• For a serving officer, the most usable single line is ʿAlī's (RA) "either your brother in religion or your equal in creation" — a complete statement of the duty owed to every citizen without exception.

Qur'anic Evidence Bank

• al-Nisāʾ 4:58 — trusts to those entitled; judge with justice.
• al-Nisāʾ 4:135 / al-Māʾidah 5:8 — impartiality even against oneself; no injustice from hatred.
• al-Naḥl 16:90 — justice, excellence and generosity commanded.
• al-Ḥadīd 57:25 — justice as the purpose of revelation.
• al-Baqarah 2:188 — bribery of officials.
• Ṣād 38:26 — "O Dāwūd, We have made you a vicegerent on earth, so judge between people with truth and do not follow desire, lest it lead you astray." The Qur'anic charter of judicial office — cite it in any judiciary question.
• al-Dhāriyāt 51:19 — the right of the poor in the wealth of the rich.

Hadith / Seerah Application

• كُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ (Bukhārī & Muslim).
• إِذَا حَكَمَ الْحَاكِمُ فَاجْتَهَدَ ثُمَّ أَصَابَ فَلَهُ أَجْرَانِ... (Bukhārī & Muslim) — the licence for honest error that ʿUmar's self-correction rule presupposes.
• الْقُضَاةُ ثَلَاثَةٌ: وَاحِدٌ فِي الْجَنَّةِ وَاثْنَانِ فِي النَّارِ — judges are three: one in Paradise (who knew the truth and judged by it) and two in the Fire (one who judged in ignorance, one who knew and judged otherwise) (Abū Dāwūd, Tirmidhī). A powerful and rarely cited text.
• Ibn al-Lutbiyyah on gifts to officials (Bukhārī & Muslim).

Critical / Analytical Angle

The distinguishing analytical move is to read the two letters as institutional design rather than moral advice. ʿAlī (RA) does not merely tell Mālik to appoint honest officials; he specifies the mechanism — test them first, pay them enough that theft is not necessary, place trustworthy observers over them, and punish publicly on evidence so that the correction is exemplary. That is a four-part incentive system: selection, compensation, monitoring and sanction — the same four levers modern institutional economics identifies for controlling agency problems. Similarly, ʿUmar (RA) does not merely instruct Abū Mūsā to be fair; he prescribes observable procedures — equal seating, allocation of the burden of proof, a defined period for producing evidence — because impartiality that cannot be seen cannot be trusted. The letters are valuable precisely because they do not rely on the officer's virtue alone; they build the structure that makes virtue easier and vice harder — and that is exactly what contemporary Muslim administrations, rich in exhortation and poor in mechanism, have failed to reproduce.

Model 20-Mark Answer Skeleton

1. Introduction (2) — the two letters as the earliest civil-service manuals; judicial code and executive code.
2. ʿUmar's letter in detail (5) — equality of the parties, burden of proof, self-correction, settlement, evidence periods, temperament.
3. ʿUmar's wider administrative practice (3) — asset audit, Ḥajj complaints, austerity rules, adequate pay.
4. ʿAlī's letter in detail (6) — mercy and "brother or equal"; general public over elite; testing before appointment; salaries; oversight; judges; the poor; taxation through development; treaties; blood.
5. Common principles and comparison (2).
6. Modern mapping and Pakistan relevance (1); conclusion (1).

✍️ Full Model Answer — Exam-Ready Prose

Introduction (2 marks): The administrative letters of ʿUmar (RA) and ʿAlī (RA) are arguably the earliest civil-service manuals in recorded history. ʿUmar's letter to Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī supplies the judicial code, and ʿAlī's letter to Mālik al-Ashtar supplies the executive code — together they anticipate almost every principle of modern public administration.

ʿUmar's Letter to Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī in Detail (5 marks): ʿUmar (RA) instructed his judge to "treat people equally in your presence, your assembly and your judgment, so that the noble does not hope for your partiality and the weak does not despair of your justice" — a triple equality of gaze, seating, and decision more demanding than most modern codes. He established that "the burden of proof is on the claimant and the oath upon the one who denies," permitted defined periods for absent parties to produce evidence, and — most remarkably — instructed judicial self-correction: "do not let a judgment you gave yesterday prevent you, upon reconsideration, from returning to the truth, for truth is ancient and nothing invalidates it." He further commended reconciliation between disputants and warned against anger and agitation in the seat of judgment.

ʿUmar's Wider Administrative Practice (3 marks): Beyond the judiciary, ʿUmar (RA) told his governors, "I did not appoint you over the Muslims to take their blood or their property, but to judge among them with justice and distribute among them fairly." He recorded officials' wealth before appointment and audited it afterward (muḥāsabat al-ʿummāl), summoned governors to Ḥajj so citizens could complain directly, forbade them fine clothing and closed doors, and paid them generously so poverty could offer no excuse for corruption.

ʿAlī's Letter to Mālik al-Ashtar in Detail (6 marks): ʿAlī's (RA) letter, preserved in Nahj al-Balāghah and commended by UNESCO and the UNDP as a model of just governance, instructs Mālik to "fill your heart with mercy, love and kindness for your subjects... for they are of two kinds: either your brother in religion or your equal in creation" — extending administrative care explicitly to non-Muslim citizens. He is told that "the discontent of the general public nullifies the satisfaction of the elite," to appoint officials only after testing (ikhtibār) rather than favour, to pay them generously so they have no need of what is under their charge, to place trusted observers over them, to be more concerned with "the prosperity of the land" than mere revenue collection, and never to exploit an ambiguity in a treaty to escape its terms.

Common Principles and Comparison (2 marks): Both letters converge on the same architecture: justice as the purpose of office, merit before appointment, adequate pay as an anti-corruption device, permanent supervision, accessibility to the ordinary citizen, and the willingness to correct one's own error. ʿUmar's letter is concise and procedural; ʿAlī's is expansive and philosophical — together, a judicial code and an executive code.

Modern Mapping, Pakistan Relevance, and Conclusion (2 marks): These principles anticipate the Bangalore Principles of judicial conduct, pay-and-integrity theory in civil-service reform, and internal audit and inspection systems still being built today. As the Prophet ﷺ taught, "a judge who reasons and is correct has two rewards, and one who reasons and errs has one" (Bukhārī & Muslim) — the doctrinal licence underlying ʿUmar's rule of self-correction. ʿUmar told a judge to seat the noble and the weak alike, and ʿAlī told a governor that his subjects were either his brothers in faith or his equals in creation — fourteen centuries on, no code of administrative conduct has improved on either sentence.

One-Line Conclusion for a 20-Mark Answer

ʿUmar told a judge to seat the noble and the weak alike, and ʿAlī told a governor that his subjects were either his brothers in faith or his equals in creation — fourteen centuries on, no code of administrative conduct has improved on either sentence.

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📌 Past Paper Questions — CSS 2017–2026

Every FPSC question on this topic, linked to its solved model answer. Open the year page and jump to the Q number.

Asked directly (1 time):

• 2024 · Q8(b) — The importance of epistles of Hazrat Ali (RA) (10 marks). → 2024 — Islamic Studies (CSS)

Related questions:

• 2018 · Q5 — Responsibilities of civil servants in the light of Islamic teachings. → 2018 — Islamic Studies (CSS)

🎯 Exam pattern: The letter to Malik al-Ashtar (governor of Egypt) is the core — taxation, judges, army, the poor, choosing officials on merit. Mention that the UN's 2002 Arab Human Development Report cited it on good governance.