The regulation and legislation of evidentiary rules and methods for proving rights and crimes in jurisprudence, law, and social relations hold special significance. This is to design and establish a well-founded legal order in judicial proceedings that serves social interests, possesses general applicability and clarity, and minimizes the possibility of subjective interpretation. Achieving this objective in lawmaking and its application requires identifying, studying, and analyzing fundamental and overarching legal sources. Considering this necessity, according to the provisions related to the evidence of claims, the judge's knowledge is regarded as one of the admissible types of evidence. However, these provisions exhibit a degree of vagueness and lack of explicitness. Additionally, the existing body of research on this issue does not comprehensively address its legal and legislative ambiguities, necessitating further examination.
Accordingly, the main research question is: What is the nature, scope, and criterion of the validity of the judge's personal knowledge in judicial proceedings from the perspective of Islamic jurisprudence, and how has it been addressed within the Iranian legal system? This article, using a descriptive-analytical method and drawing on library resources, internet sources, and computer software, outlines the legal approach to the judge's knowledge and its evidentiary value, highlights the deficiencies and gaps in the relevant legal provisions, and provides a detailed analysis of the nature, scope, and jurisprudential grounds for the validity of the judge's knowledge as a means of proof.