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" ANCIENT ORIENTAL CADI ANCIENT ORIENTAL CADI   By   Taki Ahmed Khan, M.A., Barrister-at-Law   Judge Dole observed in the case of Clarke versus Harlaysarile, Mut, Causaltry (123 FLD 499 at page 502) "we sit after all as an Appellate Court administering justice under the law not as an Ancient Oriental Cadi dispensing a rough and ready equity according to the dictates of his own unfettered discretion"   This sentiment was repeated by Judge Framfurther in the case of Terminiella versus Chicago (337 US I at page 11) when he wrote "this is a Court of Review not a Tribunal unbounded by rules. We do not sit like a Cadi under a tree dispensing justice according to considerations of individual expediency".   To American public, the above said judgments convey the picture of a Muslim jurist as if he coins legal rules with unbridled arbitrariness. Nothing is far from the reality. Muslim Judges have down the ages stuck closely to the sacred laws revealed in Qur'an or found in the Traditions. Every effort by the despotic Kings to deviate from the Injunctions of Islam has incited resistance. In the reign of Mamun-ur-Rashid (814 A.C to 833 A.C.) Mutazilas backed by the sovereign were in the ascendancy. They extolled reason against revelation. The King accepted the Mutazilas doctrine and sought to enforce it in his kingdom. Imam Ahmed Bin Hambal rejected the rationalism advocated by followers of Wasil Bin Atta and risked torture and imprisonment. Even when Imam Ahmed was being bashed he demanded, "bring something from Qur'an (to convince me)".   The rules of inheritance; marriage, divorce, wills and wakfs are extensive and fixed. The schools in which the Cadies were educated were spread over whole of the Muslim World.  …