Islam Museum Islam Museum islam.museum
Search ⌕ ARENUR
Accessibility
Text size 100%

Saved on this device only — nothing is sent anywhere.

The head (ra's) in the rulings

الرأس (في الفقه)

In lexicon ra's is the top of anything, and by metaphor the chief of a people. 1 Wiping the head in ablution is required by agreement; a man in the state of ihram for hajj or umra may not cover his head and owes a ransom if he does; for prayer a man is recommended to cover his head with a turban or the like, and a woman must cover hers. 1 2 The majority hold that the head of a person under the hadd or discretionary punishment is not to be struck, while Abu Yusuf allows it. 2

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Global / Diaspora
Review
Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it

Worship and the pillarsLaw and courts

Summary

In the lexicon ra's is the top of anything, and by metaphor the chief of a people. 1

General ruling

Wiping the head in ablution is required by agreement of the jurists. A man in the state of ihram for hajj or umra may not cover his head, and whoever does owes a ransom. For prayer, a man is recommended to cover his head with a turban or the like, and a woman must cover her head. 1 2

The majority hold that the head of a person being punished by a fixed penalty or a discretionary one is not to be struck; Abu Yusuf disagrees and allows it. 2

People and things also explored

God's debt (dayn Allah): obligations owed to God that remain in the liability· Slaughter (dhaba'ih): the lawful killing of animals for food in fiqh· Gold (dhahab) in the rulings· Taste (dhawq) in the rulings: fasting, injury to it, and oaths· Halak (destruction of property and its legal effect)· Hay'a (the recommended forms of prayer, and the dignified offenders)· The no-harm maxim· The Prophet's written charge to Amr ibn Hazm on sending him to Yemen

Sources

  1. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.8529
  2. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.8530
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The head (ra's) in the rulings”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/ras-fiqh/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

Improve this page on GitHub · Report an error · JSON

Wing

Objects

Manuscripts, art, architecture and relics from collections worldwide. Related

God's debt (dayn Allah): obligations owed to God that remain in the liability

God's debt is a right of God that stays in the liability of the obligated person, with no human claimant: vows, expiations, the zakat of fast-breaking, pilgrimage, fasting, and a prayer whose time has passed, all of which must be made up. A right of God becomes a debt in the liability when its time passes before performance, when the due property is destroyed, or when the person was unable to perform it when it fell due. Financial debts to God may be paid by a proxy by agreement; bodily worship may not be done for the living, and the schools differ on proxies for the dead. The schools also differ on whether it binds the estate of the dead, whether it blocks zakat, and whether it lapses through hardship, apostasy or death.