在关于hukm（判断、裁定）的诸多问题中，最重要、且最需要加以阐明的一个，是确定hukm由谁发出，也就是谁是hākim（立法裁定者）。对这一问题的认识，决定了对hukm及其种类的认识。这里所说的hākim并不是指以其权力执行一切事务的行政权威，而是指拥有对行为和事物作出判断之权利的那一方。因为一切可以被感官感知的存在，要么是人的行为，要么是不属于人之行为的事物。人作为在这个宇宙中有生命的存在，是研究的主体，而hukm之所以被发出，正是因为人，并且与人相关。因此，对人的行为以及与这些行为相关之事物作出判断是必要的。那么，谁才是唯一拥有对此作出判断之权利的一方呢：是安拉，还是人自己？换言之，是沙里亚（shar'）还是理智（'aql）？使我们能够了解安拉之hukm的，是沙里亚；而人据以作出判断的，是理智。那么，对（行为和事物）作出判断的，究竟是沙里亚，还是理智？

Among the most important of inquiries related to the hukm, one of priority and requiring explanation, is the knowledge of who it is the issuing of the hukm returns to, that is, who is the hākim? Upon the knowledge of this rests the knowledge of the hukm and its types. The intent of ‘hākim’ here is not the executive authority who executes all the affairs with the authority it possesses. Rather, the intent of hākim is the one who possesses the right of issuing the hukm upon actions and things, because all that exists of the sensorially perceivable comprises either of the actions of the human or of the things which are other than the actions of the human. The human, by his description of being alive in this universe, is the subject of the study, and the issuing of the hukm is only because of him and is related to him. Therefore the hukm upon the actions of the human and upon the things related to these actions is necessary. Who then is the one who alone has the right to issue the hukm upon that: it is Allah, or the human himself? In other words, is it the shar’ or the intellect [‘aql]? That which allows us to know the hukm of Allah is the shar’, and that which the human judges by is the intellect. So what judges (upon the actions and things), the shar’ or the intellect?