Tarakhi (delay in performing a duty)

Tarakhi is performing an act later than its first possible time, up to the point where it may be lost. Its opposite is fawr, performing it at once. ¹

Tarakhi comes from holding back from a thing, and a matter that is tarakha extends in time. Fawr in the language is the present moment with no delay; in law it is performing an act at the first possible time. ¹

Usulis disagree on a bare command with no sign of its time: whether it requires prompt performance, delay, or both. Those who take a command to mean repetition say it requires promptness. Those who take it to mean one act hold four views: that it is a bare demand shared by promptness and delay (the sounder Hanafi and Shafi'i view); that it requires promptness (the Malikis and Hanbalis); that it permits delay; or that it is ambiguous. The hajj is an example: is it prompt or delayed? ^{1 2} The majority of usulis hold that a prohibition implies permanence and generality. ² The fuller treatment is in the usul appendix. ²

The author of Musallam al-Thubut lists among cases that are not called permissions one where the ruling of a cause is delayed while the cause remains, as with a traveller or sick person breaking the fast, on the hadith of Hamza ibn Amr al-Aslami. The particle "then" originally marks conjunction with succession and delay; Abu Hanifa and his companions differ on its effect. ⁵

• Return of usurped goods: the Shafi'is and Hanbalis require prompt return where the taker has no excuse, on the hadith that the hand is answerable for what it took until it returns it. ^{5 3}
• Gift: the Shafi'is do not allow acceptance to be delayed after the offer; the Hanbalis allow it while the parties remain in the session. ³
• Pre-emption: the Hanafis, the sounder Shafi'i view and the Hanbalis require claiming it promptly once known; the Malikis allow up to a year. ³
• Bequest: the Shafi'is and Hanbalis do not require acceptance to be prompt; it may be accepted after the testator's death. ³
• Marriage: the Hanafis and Hanbalis allow acceptance to be delayed while the parties have not parted; the Shafi'is and Malikis require promptness, the Malikis allowing a slight delay. ⁶
• Defect option in marriage: delayed for the Hanbalis, prompt in the Shafi'i school, and not recognized by the Hanafis. ^{6 4}
• A wife's divorce of herself under delegation: not limited to the session for the Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis; the Shafi'is in the newer view take the delegation as prompt. ⁴