العروة الوثقى الزيدية - موقع إسلامي يهدف لتعريف الزائر بفكر وتراث المسلمين الزيدية

The Question

Question: If the judge comes to know, from the speech of one of the two disputants – through his innuendo, evasion, and lack of desire to end the dispute – that he wants to prolong the case and multiply its offshoots, while explicitly declaring and outwardly showing that he wants the ruling of Allah and to magnify the size of the case, then what is the judge to do in such a situation, knowing that every offshoot of that case requires claims, answers, and so on, while the outward appearance of his demands is [that they are] rightful?

The Answer

Answer: If the matter is like that, and the judge knows that what he wants is only to harm his opponent, then the judge must admonish him and frighten him from doing that; if the admonition benefits, then so be it, otherwise it becomes incumbent on the judge to restrain his harm from his opponent as far as possible.
As for if the judge knows that there is a particular point over which disagreement has arisen, and that it is what has caused the multitude of claims and their numerous offshoots, then the judge must address that sensitive point and resolve the dispute therein, and strike out what is besides it.

Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.2