Term, deadline (ajal)

Ajal in the lexicon is the term of a thing, the time when it falls due. The participle ajil (deferred) is the opposite of 'ajil (immediate). ¹

The word ajal is used of the end of life, of the fixed term for paying a debt, and of a period or time generally. ¹

Most jurists allow a power of attorney to be dated to a future time, and a salam to fix its object to a known time. ⁴

Staggered payment in a writing of freedom is a kind of term, and blood-money for quasi-intentional and accidental killing is owed by the kin in three yearly instalments. A deferred rent runs to its term; a staggered rent follows what the parties agreed. ⁵

This is the time mentioned in a contract to bring its effects forward; the jurists treat it in hire. If the term of a lease is fixed, the jurists do not allow fixing the work as well; Abu Hanifa, al-Shafi'i and the Hanbalis agree. ⁵

A term is shar'i (fixed by the law), qada'i (fixed by a judge) or ittifaqi (fixed by agreement). ²

The shortest and longest periods of pregnancy were derived from the Qur'an. A report says 'Umar meant to stone a woman who bore a child after six months, and 'Ali stopped him; jurists then derived that the least gestation is six months, from the two verses on suckling and weaning. ²

A truce with the polytheists may be as long as the interest of Muslims requires; al-Shafi'i and one Hanbali view limit it to ten years. The term for announcing a lost thing is fixed by law, from the report of Zayd ibn Khalid al-Juhani (may God be pleased with him): know its tie and its container, announce it for a year. ⁶

A husband's impotence is given a year, which the report from 'Umar, 'Ali and Ibn Mas'ud is said to fix, since the four seasons pass in it. A man who swears not to approach his wife is given four months by the text of the Qur'an. ⁷

The jurists differ on the period of suckling. The majority take two years from the report 'there is no suckling except within the two years'; Abu Hanifa takes thirty months from the verse on bearing and weaning. ⁸

Most jurists allow an option by stipulation; Abu Hanifa, Zufar and al-Shafi'i limit it to three days or less, while Abu Yusuf, Muhammad and the Hanbalis allow a known term however long, on the report about Hibban ibn Munqidh and the reasoning that deferral is needed. ³

Among the Shafi'is and Hanbalis the least menstrual period is a day and night and the most fifteen days. The Hanafis take three days as the least and ten as the most; a view of Abu Yusuf takes two days and the greater part of a third. The Malikis set no least period in time. ⁹

Jurists differ on fixing the age at which menstruation ends. Some do not fix an age; others fix fifty years, and a report from 'A'isha says a woman who reaches fifty has left the limit of menstruation. ¹⁰

A woman after childbirth leaves prayer for forty days unless she sees purity earlier. This is the view of the majority, including the Hanafis, Hanbalis, al-Thawri and Ishaq, relying on a report from Umm Salama. ¹¹

The duration of wiping over socks is fixed at three days and nights for a traveller and one day and night for a resident, while the Malikis do not fix a time for it. ^{12 13} The Hanafis define the journey that changes the rules as three days and nights by camel or on foot; Abu Yusuf puts it at two days and most of a third. ¹⁴

The judicial term is the term that a judge sets for the parties to attend or for a proof to be produced. ¹⁴

Jurists differ on whether a sale may stipulate that delivery of the thing sold is deferred for a known period. The Malikis and Hanbalis, and a weaker Shafi'i view, allow it, on the general command to fulfil contracts. ¹⁵

Most jurists require the capital of a salam to be paid before the parties separate; deferring it turns the matter into a debt sold for a debt. The Malikis allow the payment to be deferred for up to three days. ¹⁶

Rescission restores the original position according to the majority, so a deferred price stipulated in it is void while the rescission stands; the Malikis treat rescission as a sale. ¹⁷ The return of a loan is due at once in the majority view; a stipulated deferral is void. ^{17 18}

Blood-money for intentional killing is due at once from the killer's property, according to the majority. The Hanafis distinguish blood-money agreed by settlement, which is immediate, from blood-money owed when retaliation falls by a doubt, which is paid over three years. For quasi-intentional killing it is paid over three years by the kin, according to the Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis. ¹⁸

The Malikis, Hanbalis and al-Awza'i require the salam object to be deferred to a known term, on the report 'whoever makes a salam, let him make it for a known measure, weight and term'. Al-Shafi'i, Abu Thawr and Ibn al-Mundhir allow an immediate salam. ¹⁹

Jurists differ on whether the price of a mukatabah must be deferred to a fixed term. The majority hold that it must be, and the contract is limited by it: on payment the slave is freed, and if he cannot pay he returns to slavery. ^{19 20}

The majority hold that a loan is due at once; if a deferral is stipulated it is a promise of kindness that need not be kept. ²¹

The Malikis, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan and the Hanbalis allow muzara'a without a stated term, and it falls on the first crop. Most Hanafis require a known term, and the contract is void if the term is too short for planting or the parties may not live to it. ²⁰

A loan of the use of a thing may be limited to a term. ^{20 22} The Hanafis and Hanbalis allow a time limit on mudaraba; when the term passes the mudaraba ends, because the term restricts the agent. ²²

The Malikis and one Hanbali view do not require a waqf to be perpetual; it may run for a fixed term and then return to its owner. ²³ A sale cannot be limited in time, because it transfers ownership for good; a time limit voids it, as al-Suyuti and al-Kasani hold. ^{23 24}

The text reports Shafi'i cases of marriage limited to a lifetime or to the wife's lifetime, and one view that the plain marriage contract does not go beyond that, so such marriages should be valid. ^{24 25}

A term is either known or unknown. Its known or unknown character affects validity, because uncertainty brings hazard. ²⁶ Jurists agree that a term is valid when fixed by a known time that does not vary from person to person, such as a day, month and year, on the verse about writing down a debt for a named term. ²⁶

A term of months or years stated without qualification is taken as lunar, which is the usage of the law, on the verses about the crescents and the number of months. ²⁷ A term in months that Muslims know by name, such as the Syriac or Roman months, is valid for most jurists, since it is a known term. ^{27 28}

When the buyer and seller dispute the price and have no proof, they take mutual oaths. The Malikis and some Shafi'is hold the contract is dissolved, while the Shafi'is hold it is not dissolved by the oaths themselves but by agreement or by a ruling. ²⁹

The term is the right of the debtor, granted for his ease, so he may waive it and make the debt due at once. This is the view of most jurists, with some limits where it would harm the creditor. ³⁰ When creditor and debtor agree to waive a stipulated deferral, the waiver is valid by agreement. ^{30 31}

The Hanafis and Shafi'is hold that the term ends when the debtor dies, since his estate is ruined; it does not end when the creditor dies. ³¹ The Hanbalis hold that a deferred debt is not due on the creditor's death; on the debtor's death there are two views, one that it falls due, and one that it does not if the heirs or a guarantor are reliable. ³²

The Hanafis, Hanbalis and the stronger Shafi'i view hold that a bankrupt's deferred debts are not due, since the term is his right and bankruptcy does not end it. The Malikis and one Shafi'i view hold that deferred debts fall due on a judgement of bankruptcy, since his estate is ruined. ³³

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), signed I. Goldziher and W. Montgomery Watt, treats ajal, the appointed term of a man's life or the date of his death, as a topic discussed in kalam together with rizq. The idea that the date of death is fixed presumably belongs to pre-Islamic thought. The Quran uses ajal in several senses: the time when the embryo emerges from the womb (22:5), the period Moses served for his wife (28:28–29), the date a debt falls due (2:282), and the term God set for the heavens and earth (46:3; 39:5), which is tied to the coming of the Last Day. It is used for the term decreed for communities (23:43) and for individuals (63:10–11; 6:2). This term can be neither anticipated nor deferred, which explains why the wicked are not punished at once. ³⁴

The Quran stresses that the ajal is an irrevocable term with the epithet musamma (39:43; 40:69, and elsewhere), and that no one's life is prolonged or shortened except in a book (35:12). Commentators often refer the ajal musamma to the end of the world. According to tradition (al-Bukhari, Qadar; Muslim, Qadar), ajal and rizq are two of the four things determined for a man in the womb. Some early Mu'tazila suggested that a man who died a violent death had not reached his decreed term; Abu 'l-Hudhayl said he would have died another way, and al-Nazzam insisted that every man dies at his term, a view followed by the opponents of qadar, including al-Ash'ari. Al-Ka'bi tried to distinguish death from killing. The dogmatists also asked whether God lengthens or shortens the ajal as a reward or a punishment, which put the problem into the debate on bada'. Jewish religious philosophy treated the death of great masses by catastrophe or war from the same point of view. ³⁵