Development of law, theology and institutions

Family: How Islam changed over time · 260 entries

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• Uthman ibn Affan

  c. 576 CEThird caliph (644–656); the early community married him to two of the Prophet's daughters in succession. Under him the Qur'an was standardized into a single recension; he was killed by rebels in Medina, opening the first civil war.

• Umar ibn al-Khattab

  c. 584 CESecond caliph (634–644); under his rule the early community conquered Syria, Egypt and much of the Sasanian Empire. Remembered in Sunni tradition as al-Faruq, the model of just rule. ومن مناقبه في الصحيح القصر الذي رآه له النبي في الجنة فأخلى النظر إليه حياءً لغيرته ، ولبن الرؤيا الذي أوله النبي بالعلم فناوله إياه. ويروي هو صعوده إلى مشربة النبي حين اعتزل أزواجه فرأى أثر الحصير في جنبه فبكى فقال له «أما ترضى أن تكون لهم الدنيا ولنا الآخرة». ورأى حلة سيراء عند باب المسجد فعرضها على النبي ليلبسها يوم الجمعة وللوفد فقال «إنما يلبسها من لا خلاق له في الآخرة» ثم أهداها إليه بعد فكساها أخاً له مشركاً بمكة.

• Mu'adh ibn Jabal

  c. 603 CEA young Ansari convert of the pledges of Aqaba, remembered as the most learned of the community in what is lawful and forbidden; the Prophet sent him to Yemen as its teacher and judge.

• Zayd ibn Thabit

  c. 611 CEA young Ansari who became the Prophet's scribe of revelation; Abu Bakr set him to gather the Qur'an, and Uthman's committee under him produced the standard recension still read today.

• Abdullah ibn Abbas

  c. 619 CEThe Prophet's young cousin who grew up in Medina and became the tradition's founding authority on the interpretation of the Qur'an — remembered as the father of tafsir.

• Al-A'mash, Sulayman ibn Mihran

  680 CE · 61 AHA hadith scholar, reciter and expert in inheritance law, nicknamed al-A'mash for weakness of sight. Accounts of his birthplace differ.

• Abu Hanifa al-Nu'man ibn Thabit

  699 CE · 80 AHal-Nu'man ibn Thabit of Kufa, Abu Hanifa, the imam of Iraq's jurisprudence in the second century; in al-Baladhuri: he, with Sufyan al-Thawri, al-Awza'i, Malik, Ibn Abi Dhi'b and Abu Yusuf, holds that the Taghlibi pays double what the Muslim pays on land, livestock and wealth — the Iraqis, his companions among them, taking double sadaqa from the minor's and incompetent's land but nothing of their livestock.

• Al-Awza'i, Abd al-Rahman ibn Amr

  706 CE · 88 AHThe imam and foremost jurist of Syria in his time. Historians differ on the origin of his nisba al-Awza'i.

• Malik ibn Anas

  c. 711 CE · 93 AHImam of Medina and author of the Muwatta; born in Medina, he studied with its scholars and taught there until his death in 179 AH. The Maliki school of law bears his name.

• Khalid ibn Abi Imran

  A Tunisian jurist of the Tujib tribe, with the kunya Abu Umar, and one of the Successors in Ifriqiya.

• داود الظاهري

  c. 815 CE · c. 200 AHDawud ibn Ali al-Isbahani — Kufa-born (c. 200), Baghdad-bred (d. 270); a zealous Shafi'i who wrote al-Shafi'i's virtues then broke away to found the literalist Zahiri school, rejecting qiyas and holding to the evident text.

• Abu Awana, Ya'qub ibn Ishaq

  845 CE · 230 AHA hadith scholar, memorizer and jurist from Isfara'in, known for his extract on Sahih Muslim. He was the first to spread the Shafi'i school in Isfara'in.

• Hamdis al-Qattan

  845 CE · 230 AHAhmad ibn Muhammad al-Ash'ari, Abu Ja'far, known as Hamdis al-Qattan — said to be of the progeny of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari — a Maliki jurist among the companions of Suhnun. The text describes him as a sea of merit and a model of goodness, firm in the doctrines of the people of the Sunna, thoroughly pious, trustworthy and keeping his distance from the people of whims and from rulers. He travelled and met Abu Mus'ab and others in Medina, and the companions of Ibn al-Qasim, Ibn Wahb and Ashhab in Egypt; a group transmitted from him, among them Ibn al-Labbad and al-Abyani. The encyclopedia dates him 230–289 AH.

• Al-Barbahari, al-Hasan ibn Ali

  847 CE · 233 AHA Hanbali, named after barbahar, a drug imported from India.

• al-Baghdadi Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Jabir

  850 CE · 235 AHMajor scholar of the Zahiri legal school, which traces to Dawud ibn Ali al-Isfahani; wrote on the differences among jurists; died 310 AH (922 CE).

• Al-Istakhri, Abu Sa'id al-Hasan ibn Ahmad

  858 CE · 244 AHOne of the Shafi'i authorities of Baghdad and judge of Qumm; named after Istakhr in Fars.

• Abu al-Arab al-Tamimi, Muhammad ibn Ahmad

  865 CE · 251 AHA Maliki jurist, hadith scholar and historian from Kairouan.

• Al-Mundhir al-Balluti

  886 CE · 273 AHQadi al-jama'a of Cordoba under al-Nasir; when the caliph's mania for building al-Zahra' kept him from three consecutive Fridays at the mosque, Mundhir opened his sermon with 'Do ye build a sign on every height?' until the caliph wept — then, refusing to dismiss him, swore he would be ashamed before God to lose so pious an intercessor at Friday prayer.

• Ali ibn Muhammad al-Tanukhi

  891 CE · 278 AHFrom the Tanukh tribe and father of Abu Ali al-Muhassin al-Tanukhi. His father's name was Dawud ibn Ibrahim ibn Tamim.

• Al-Abhari, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd Allah

  901 CE · 289 AHA Maliki jurist who combined the Qur'anic readings, high-grade chains of transmission and sound jurisprudence; from Abhar, between Qazvin and Zanjan.

• Ibn Batta al-Ukbari, Ubayd Allah ibn Muhammad

  917 CE · 304 AHBorn in Ukbara near Baghdad, a Hanbali jurist and hadith scholar.

• al-Thumami Abu al-Hasan Abd al-Aziz ibn al-Harith

  929 CE · 317 AHOne of the leading Hanbali scholars of law, legal theory and inheritance, of the Tamim tribe; died 371 AH (982 CE).

• Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Jurbadhaqani

  933 CE · 321 AHA philologist, man of letters and Shafi'i jurist, born in Jurbadhaqan.

• Abu Ali al-Muhassin al-Tanukhi

  938 CE · 327 AHA judge and man of letters from the Tanukh tribe, who compiled reports on judges and on those who did good.

• Abu al-Faraj al-Laythi

  Umar ibn Muhammad al-Laythi al-Baghdadi, Abu al-Faraj, a Maliki jurist who studied fiqh under the qadi Isma'il and other Malikis. Abu Bakr al-Abhari, Abu Ali ibn al-Sakan, Abu al-Qasim al-Shafi'i, Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Bandar and Umar ibn al-Mu'ammal al-Tarsusi transmitted from him. He held the judgeship of Tarsus, Antioch, al-Massisa and other towns. His works include al-Hawi on the madhhab of Malik and al-Luma' on usul al-fiqh. The encyclopedia dates his death to 331 AH.

• Al-Kharaqi, Umar ibn al-Husayn

  A Hanbali jurist, author of the widely used Mukhtasar on Hanbali law.

• Al-Barqani, Ahmad ibn Muhammad

  948 CE · 336 AHA Shafi'i jurist from Khwarazm, known as al-Barqani after the village of Barqan near Kath.

• al-Halimi Abu Abd Allah al-Husayn ibn al-Hasan

  949 CE · 338 AHScholar of the fourth century AH; born 338 AH (949 CE), died 403 AH (1012 CE).

• Al-Isfara'ini, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad

  c. 949 CE · 337 AHA Shafi'i theologian and jurist from Isfara'in, between Nishapur and Gurgan. He studied theology and legal theory in Baghdad.

• Abu al-Abbas Abd Allah al-Abyani

  A scholar of Ifriqiya in the fourth century AH. Al-Asili and Abu al-Hasan al-Qabisi were among those who narrated from him; his lifetime spanned the late Aghlabid and early Fatimid periods.

• Abd al-Wahhab ibn Ali al-Baghdadi

  973 CE · 362 AHA Maliki jurist, legal theorist, hadith scholar and poet from Baghdad, known as Ibn Nasr.

• al-Tanukhi al-Qadi Abu al-Qasim Ali ibn al-Muhsin

  975 CE · 365 AHJudge Abu al-Qasim Ali ibn al-Muhsin al-Tanukhi, companion and pupil of Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri; died 474 AH (1081 CE).

• Ubayd Allah ibn al-Husayn al-Jallab

  A Basran Maliki jurist.

• al-Bayhaqi Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn al-Husayn

  994 CE · 384 AHImam, hadith memorist, legal theorist and jurist Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Bayhaqi of Khusrawjird in Khurasan; born 384 AH (994 CE), died 458 AH (1066 CE).

• al-Tanukhi al-Mufaddal ibn Muhammad

  1000 CE · 390 AHOf Ma'arrat al-Nu'man in Syria; came to Baghdad in 390 AH, studied law there, and died 442 AH (1050 CE).

• Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi

  c. 1003 CE · 393 AHA Shafi'i jurist and usulist, author of Tabaqat al-fuqaha and al-Muhadhdhab; born at Firuzabad in 393 AH, studied in Fars, Basra and Baghdad, and became one of the leading Shafi'i jurists of his time; he declined the chief qadiship when the caliph offered it.

• Razaq Allah ibn Abd al-Wahhab al-Tamimi

  1010 CE · 401 AHA Hanbali jurist and historian of Baghdad, whose biography is recorded in works including those of Ibn al-Jawzi.

• Al-Baji, Abu al-Walid Sulayman ibn Khalaf

  1012 CE · 403 AHA hadith scholar, jurist, man of letters, poet, theologian and legal theorist from Beja in al-Andalus, a Maliki.

• Abu al-Hasan al-Ibadi

  1024 CE · 415 AHAli ibn Abi Asim Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Abbad al-Ibadi al-Harawi, Abu al-Hasan, a Shafi'i jurist counted among the leading scholars of Khurasan, and the son of Imam Abi Asim al-Ibadi. His works include Kitab al-Raqm on fiqh. The encyclopedia dates him 415–495 AH.

• al-Bazdawi Abu al-Yusr Muhammad

  1030 CE · 421 AHHanafi jurist of Bukhara and judge of Samarqand, to whom the leadership of the Hanafi school passed in his time; died 493 AH (1100 CE).

• Al-Baghawi, al-Husayn ibn Muhammad

  1044 CE · 436 AHA hadith scholar and jurist from the town of Baghh in Khurasan, between Marw and Herat. His works include Sharh al-Sunna.

• al-Jullawi Abu Ali Hasan ibn Ali

  Jurist named after Jullula, a place near Qayrawan; died before 450 AH (about 1057 CE).

• Ilkiya al-Harrasi, Ali ibn Muhammad

  1058 CE · 450 AHOne of the leading Shafi'i authorities in jurisprudence, legal theory and disputation, and in memorizing the texts of hadiths on rulings. From Tabaristan.

• Ibn Khumays, al-Husayn ibn Nasr

  1073 CE · 466 AHA hadith scholar and jurist from Mosul, of the Juhayna tribe, born in 466 AH and died in 552 AH.

• Ibn al-Ajdabi, Ibrahim ibn Isma'il

  A jurist from Tripoli in Libya, named after the town of Ajdabiya. The sources give only a brief biography, and his death is given as around 470 AH.

• al-Khabri Abu Hakim Abd Allah ibn Ibrahim

  Imam Abu Hakim Abd Allah ibn Ibrahim al-Khabri, a Shafi'i scholar named after Khubr; died 476 AH (1083 CE).

• Ibn al-Barraj, Abd al-Aziz ibn Nahrir

  Judge of Tripoli in Syria under its emirs; known by the honorific Izz al-Mu'minin.

• Al-Asmandi, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Hamid

  1095 CE · 488 AHA scholar recorded in the biographical dictionaries. The sources differ on his kunya and origins.

• al-Baghdadi Malik al-Nuhat al-Hasan ibn Safi

  1096 CE · 489 AHGrammarian, jurist and man of letters of Baghdad, known as the King of Grammarians; born to a freedman father; lived 489–568 AH (1096–1173 CE).

• Abu Ya'la al-Saghir

  1100 CE · 494 AHMuhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn ibn Muhammad ibn Khalaf ibn Ahmad al-Farra', Imad al-Din, Abu Ya'la al-Saghir — son of the qadi Abu Khazim and grandson of the qadi Abu Ya'la — a Baghdadi Hanbali jurist and the shaykh of the madhhab in his time. He heard hadith from his father and his uncle the qadi Abu al-Husayn and their peers, studied fiqh under them, excelled in the madhhab, the divergences and disputation, and he gave fatwa, taught and held judgeship. A large circle read the madhhab and the divergences under him, among them Abu Ishaq al-Saqal, Abu al-Abbas al-Qati'i, Abu al-Hasan ibn Warkhadh and Abu al-Baqa' al-Ukbari. His works, as legible in the scan, include al-Ta'liqa on the questions of divergence, al-Mufradat and al-Nukt wa-l-Isharat. The encyclopedia dates him 494–560 AH.

• Al-Janabadhi, Abd al-Aziz ibn Mahmud

  1129 CE · 524 AHA hadith scholar and jurist of Baghdad, of the Janabadh family, known for learning in Baghdad.

• Mahmud al-Marghinani

  1156 CE · 551 AHMahmud ibn Ahmad ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Umar ibn Maza al-Marghinani al-Bukhari, Burhan al-Din — a Hanafi jurist among the chief imams of the madhhab, counted by Ibn Kamal Pasha among the mujtahids in the questions, from a great house of learning in his country. He was born in Marghinan and died in Bukhara (the scan reads 'bi-Bukhari'), studied under his father al-Sadr al-Sa'id and his uncle al-Sadr al-Shahid Umar, and was the father of Sadr al-Islam Tahir ibn Mahmud. His works include al-Muhit al-Burhani fi al-Fiqh al-Nu'mani, al-Dhakhira, al-Tajrid, Tatimmat al-Fatawa, a commentary on al-Khassaf's Adab al-Qada, a commentary on al-Jami' al-Saghir, and al-Tariqa al-Burhaniyya. The encyclopedia dates him 551–616 AH.

• Al-Tadmiri, Ahmad ibn Abd al-Jalil

  From Tudmir, east of Cordoba in al-Andalus.

• Al-Baydawi, Abd Allah ibn Umar

  1172 CE · 568 AHA jurist, Qur'an commentator, theologian and legal theorist, author of Anwar al-Tanzil.

• Al-Bukhari, Iftikhar al-Din Tahir ibn Ahmad

  A Hanafi jurist from Bukhara, who is thought to have been born in the nearby village of Maymurgh.

• al-Hawfi Abu al-Qasim Ahmad ibn Muhammad

  One of the leading specialists in inheritance law and contract formulas in al-Andalus; died 588 AH (1192 CE).

• Isa ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Jazuli

  A Maghribi jurist of Berber origin. His name means the owner of good fortune in Berber.

• Ibn al-Tayn, Abd al-Wahid ibn Umar

  A scholar from Sfax in Tunisia, known as Ibn al-Tin.

• Imam al-Nawawi

  c. October 1233 CE · Muharram 631 AHThe jurist and ascetic Imam Abu Zakariyya Yahya al-Nawawi; compiler of the 'Arba'un', forty-two concise hadiths built on Ibn al-Salah's twenty-six, which became one of the most memorised and commented collections in Islam.

• Ibn Jama'a, Badr al-Din Muhammad ibn Ibrahim

  1241 CE · 639 AHA Shafi'i jurist, hadith scholar and grammarian, among the leading scholars of Cairo and Damascus in his time.

• Ibn Bakr, Muhammad ibn Yahya

  1276 CE · 674 AHA Maliki jurist from Malaga in al-Andalus, known as Ibn Bakr.

• Al-Shayhi, Ali ibn Muhammad

  1279 CE · 678 AHA Baghdadi scholar of jurisprudence and hadith in the eighth century AH.

• Al-Adfawi, Ja'far ibn Tha'laba

  1286 CE · 685 AHCombined jurisprudence with literature. From Adfu in Upper Egypt; died in 748 AH.

• Ibn Ruzgan, Muhammad ibn Muhammad

  1299 CE · 699 AHA Shafi'i born and raised in Baalbek, who lived in the eighth century AH.

• Al-Isnawi, Abd al-Rahim ibn al-Hasan

  1305 CE · 704 AHA Shafi'i jurist from Isna in Upper Egypt. He memorized the Qur'an and al-Tanbih by al-Shirazi in its mosque.

• al-Tilimsani al-Sharif Muhammad ibn Ahmad

  1310 CE · 710 AHImam of the Maghrib and a leading figure of the Maliki school, born in Tlemcen in 710 AH (1310 CE); died 771 AH (1370 CE).

• Faraj ibn Qasim ibn Lubb

  1310 CE · 710 AHA scholar of Granada and of al-Andalus in the eighth century AH.

• Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali

  c. 1335 CE · Rabi' I 736 AHThe Hanbali hadith master and jurist Zayn al-Din Abu al-Faraj Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad, known as Ibn Rajab after his grandfather Rajab; born in Baghdad in 736 AH, moved to Damascus in 744, travelled for learning to Egypt, the Hijaz and Jerusalem, and died in Damascus in 795 AH. Author of 'Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam'.

• Al-Barzali, Abu al-Qasim ibn Ahmad

  1339 CE · 741 AHThe jurist and leading scholar of Tunis, author of the large legal compendium al-Diwan al-Kabir. Born in Kairouan and lived in Tunis.

• Abd Allah ibn Miqdad al-Aqfahsi

  1344 CE · 745 AHThe Maliki jurist Jamal al-Din Abd Allah ibn Miqdad al-Aqfahsi of Cairo, to whom the leadership of the Maliki school and fatwa in Egypt passed in his time; he also held the judgeship.

• Al-Abbi, Muhammad ibn Khalfa

  c. 1344 CE · c. 745 AH†A Maliki usuli scholar from the Maghrib, known for the rational sciences, memorization and rigorous editing; named after the village of Abba in Tunisia.

• Ibn al-Khalkhali Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Muzaffar

  Shafi'i imam named after Khankhal, a village near Sultaniyya; died 745 AH (1344 CE).

• Al-Ardabili, Faraj ibn Muhammad

  A Shafi'i jurist who combined transmitted and rational sciences. Named after Ardabil; died in 749 AH.

• Al-Tasuli, Ibrahim ibn Abd al-Rahman

  A Maliki jurist of the Maghrib, known as Ibn Abi Yahya.

• al-Husni Taqi al-Din Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad

  1351 CE · 752 AHShafi'i jurist of Damascus, known as al-Husni and called Taqi al-Din; born 752 AH (1351 CE), died 829 AH (1426 CE).

• Abu al-Safa Salah al-Din Khalil al-Aqfahsi

  1362 CE · 763 AHThe Egyptian Shafi'i jurist Abu al-Safa Salah al-Din Khalil ibn Muhammad al-Aqfahsi, placed in the twenty-fourth class of al-Suyuti's biographies and known as al-Ashqar.

• al-Jundi Abu al-Diya Khalil ibn Ishaq

  Maliki jurist known as al-Jundi; died 767 AH (1365 CE).

• al-Babarti Akmal al-Din

  Hanafi jurist and theologian who worked in Cairo under the Mamluk sultans; died 786 AH.

• Al-Ibshitay, Ahmad ibn Isma'il

  1399 CE · 802 AHA Cairene jurist, first Shafi'i and then Hanbali; born in Ibshit in the Gharbiya province of Egypt.

• Ahmad ibn Imad al-Aqfahsi

  The Shafi'i jurist Ahmad ibn Imad al-Aqfahsi, known as al-Imad, of Cairo; the sources do not record his date of birth precisely.

• al-Khazraji Muwaffaq al-Din Ali ibn al-Hasan

  Shafi'i jurist of Zabid, known as Ibn al-Naqqash; died 812 AH (1410 CE).

• Hululu al-Qarawi, Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahman

  1412 CE · 815 AHA Maliki jurist of Kairouan, known as Hululu al-Qarawi, of a family from Yazlitan.

• Mahmud ibn Ahmad Ibn al-Amshati

  1412 CE · 815 AHThe Cairene Hanafi scholar Muzaffar al-Din Abu al-Thana Mahmud ibn Ahmad, known as Ibn al-Amshati, of Egyptian residence and Ayntab origin.

• al-Tadmuri Taj al-Din Ishaq ibn Ibrahim

  Scholar included in the Maliki biographical dictionaries; died 833 AH (1430 CE).

• Ibn al-Himsi, Ahmad ibn Muhammad

  1437 CE · 841 AHOf Homs origin, born and died there, with a share in the learning of his age.

• al-Busrawi Ala al-Din Ali ibn Yusuf

  c. 1438 CE · c. 841 AH†Shafi'i jurist of Damascus, a student of Shaykh al-Islam Radi al-Din al-Ghazzi, named after Busra al-Sham; died 1499 CE.

• Al-Tattai, Muhammad ibn Ibrahim

  1451 CE · 855 AHA Maliki jurist, author of Tanwir al-Maqala on Maliki law.

• Bakhraq, Muhammad ibn Umar

  1465 CE · 869 AHA Shafi'i jurist from Yemen, known as Bakhraq.

• Ibn al-Ju'an Abu al-Baqa Muhammad ibn Yahya

  Shafi'i judge of Damietta origin, known for learning and charity; died 902 AH (1496 CE).

• Lutfullah al-Tawqani

  Molla Lutfi of Tokat — Mehmed II's keeper of the royal library, set by Bayezid to Murad's madrasa then one of the Eight; he wept while dictating the Sahih but was long-tongued against his peers until Rum's scholars charged him with unbelief and had him executed on Molla Khatib-zada's ruling, repeating the shahada — it was said — even after his head fell; works: Sharh al-Tali', glosses on al-Sayyid al-Sharif's Sharh al-Fattah, the 'Seven Difficulties', and a treatise enumerating a hundred sciences; d. 904.

• Al-Akhdari, Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad

  1514 CE · 920 AHA Maliki jurist and versifier from the Maghrib, known for verse treatises on law and worship that were taught in the Quranic schools.

• al-Tajuri Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad

  Scholar from Tajura near Tripoli in Libya, after which he is named; died 960 AH (1553 CE).

• al-Buhuti Mansur ibn Yunus

  1591 CE · 1000 AHHanbali jurist, shaykh of the Hanbalis in Egypt in his time, named after Buhut in the Gharbiyya province; wrote extensively on Hanbali law and also on exegesis, legal theory and inheritance; born 1000 AH (1591 CE), died 1051 AH (1641 CE).

• Al-Haskafi, Muhammad ibn Ali

  1616 CE · 1025 AHA Hanafi mufti of Damascus of Hisn origin, author of al-Durr al-Mukhtar on Hanafi law.

• Ali ibn Muhammad al-Masakini

  1669 CE · 1080 AHA jurist and educator from Tunis, founder of a school at the end of the Husaynid period.

• Al-Khalwati, Muhammad ibn Ahmad

  An Egyptian Hanbali jurist, named after Buhut, known as al-Khalwati.

• Al-Bayadi, Ahmad ibn al-Hasan

  A Hanafi scholar of Rumi origin, linked to Bosnia, known as Kamal al-Din.

• al-Hifnawi Abu al-Makarim Najm al-Din Muhammad ibn Salim

  1690 CE · 1101 AHShafi'i jurist of the Khalwati Sufi order, named after Hifna in the Sharqiyya province of Egypt; born 1101 AH (1690 CE) and died 1181 AH (1767 CE).

• Muhammad al-Tardi ibn Sawda

  1707 CE · 1118 AHA jurist from a family of scholars in Fez, who was also a hadith scholar and a Sufi.

• Bayram al-Thani, Muhammad ibn Muhammad

  1748 CE · 1162 AHA Tunisian scholar of the Bayram family, teacher of the younger Bayram and son of the elder Bayram.

• al-Rahmati

  1762 CE · 1176 AHMuhammad ibn Mustafa ibn Muhammad ibn Rahmat Allah, al-Ayyubi, al-Ansari, al-Dimashqi, Abu al-Barakat, known as al-Rahmati — a Hanafi jurist, a polymath of precise discernment between the explicit wording and its implication. He travelled to Medina and studied under its learned men, among them the scholar Ahmad Efendi, mufti of Medina, and Muhammad Efendi Mirghani, mufti of Mecca. He taught the qadi Iyad's Kitab al-Shifa in the Prophet's Mosque by order of the sultan. His works include a gloss on al-Ala'i's Mukhtasar Sharh al-Tanwir, a gloss on al-Minh, and Sharh al-Tariq al-Salik ala Zubdat al-Manasik. The encyclopedia dates him 1176–1250 AH.

• Uthman ibn Sanad al-Basri

  1766 CE · 1180 AHA jurist, man of letters, poet and historian from Najd, with contributions across several fields of learning.

• Muhammad al-Tafilalti

  A Moroccan mufti from Tafilalt, a Maliki who later followed the Hanafi school.

• Al-Bajuri, Ibrahim ibn Muhammad

  1784 CE · 1198 AHA Shafi'i theologian and jurist, born in al-Bajur in the Minufiya province of Egypt. He memorized the Qur'an there and then moved to al-Azhar.

• Bayram, Muhammad ibn Muhammad

  1786 CE · 1201 AHA Tunisian scholar of the Bayram family, son of Bayram al-Thani.

• Muhammad ibn Mustafa Bayram

  1840 CE · 1256 AHA Tunisian scholar of the Bayram family who lived through the early French period.

• Khallaf Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abd al-Wahid

  1888 CE · 1305 AHJurist of legal theory, preacher and legal scholar, born in Kafr al-Zayyat in Gharbiyya in 1305 AH (1888 CE) and died 1375 AH (1956 CE).

• Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti

  1894 CE · 1311 AHA prominent Muslim scholar: a legal theorist, jurist, reformer, philologist and editor, born in Damascus into an old family.

• Abdallah Bin Bayyah

  1935 CE · 1354 AHMauritanian jurist (born 1935 in Timbedra), a former minister of education and of justice and vice-president of Mauritania, who now chairs the UAE Council for Fatwa, presides over the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, and teaches at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah.

• Shawki Allam

  12 August 1961 CE · 1381 AHEgyptian jurist (born 12 August 1961 in Beheira Governorate), professor of jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University, who served as Grand Mufti of Egypt from 2013 until 11 August 2024, succeeding Ali Gomaa and succeeded by Nazir Ayyad; since 2025 he has been dean of the Higher Institute of Islamic Studies and a member of the Egyptian Senate.

• Umar bin Hafiz

  27 May 1963 CE · 1383 AHYemeni teacher (born 27 May 1963 in Tarim, Hadhramaut) of the Ba 'Alawi tradition, founder of Dar al-Mustafa in Tarim, ranked first in The Muslim 500's 2024 edition.

• Habib Ali al-Jifri

  16 April 1971 CE · 1391 AHYemeni scholar (born 16 April 1971 in Jeddah) of the Ba 'Alawi tradition, a student of Umar bin Hafiz in Tarim, based in Cairo; founder of the Tabah Foundation and a recipient of the Eugen Biser Award for his work on A Common Word.

• Muhammad Ali al-Sayis

• Muhammad al-Tatwani

  A jurist, historian and journalist from Tetouan, of Andalusian descent.

• Abbas Shouman

  Deputy Grand Imam of al-Azhar and author of Glances at Renewal (Islamic Research Academy, 1439 AH / 2018 CE). The book presents itself as articles first published in newspapers and sets out his view of renewal in contemporary jurisprudence. His dates in office have not been checked against a second source.

• Abu al-Wafa Mustafa al-Maraghi

  A senior scholar of al-Azhar and former Assistant Secretary-General of the Islamic Research Academy (p. 2). The cover gives his death as 1401 AH / 1981 CE (p. 1); this needs a second source. His book on work and wealth in Islam is the source for this card.

• Abu Bakr al-Khallal

  He gathered Imam Ahmad's transmitted answers and wrote them down with their chains of transmission in the book al-Jami', which counts as the foundation of the school, and so prepared the way for the writing down of Hanbali jurisprudence.

• Abu Bakr Abd al-Aziz (Ghulam al-Khallal)

  A Hanbali jurist, author of al-Shafi and al-Tanbih in the school's jurisprudence; he wrote on his copy of the Mukhtasar of al-Kharaqi a note on questions in which al-Kharaqi differed.

• al-Bazmawi Shams al-Din Muhammad

  Scholar of law, Arabic grammar and inheritance who was shaykh of the Fakhriyya school in Cairo, taught at the Salahiyya in Jerusalem, and composed verse works on legal theory, inheritance and prosody; he made the Hajj in 828 AH (1424 CE).

• al-Kharaqi

  Author of the famous Mukhtasar al-Kharaqi on the jurisprudence of Imam Ahmad; he died in Damascus in 334 AH.

• al-Qaysari

  Al-Qaysari, a Shafi'i jurist whom Ibn al-Salah counted among the leading scholars of Iraq. The text gives neither his name nor his dates.

• Ibn al-Banna

  A jurist, Qur'an reciter, hadith scholar and preacher of Baghdad; the book records that he wrote nearly five hundred works, among them al-Mujarrad on jurisprudence and a commentary on al-Kharaqi.

• Ibn Hamid

  The leading Hanbali scholar and teacher of his time, the master of the judge Abu Ya'la; he wrote al-Jami' fi al-Madhhab and a commentary on al-Kharaqi.

• Ibn Shaqla

  A Hanbali jurist and legal theorist who died in 369 AH; Ibn Badran's book lists him in this way among the notables who are referred to by shortened names.

• Mahmud Shaltut

  Former Grand Imam of al-Azhar (d. 1383 AH / 1963 CE), born in Munyat Mansur in Beheira; he held the Grand Imamate from 1378 AH and championed the Islamic Research Academy; his book Islam, Creed and Law is the source for this card. Dates come from Muhammad Imara's introduction and are not yet checked against a second source.

• Shams al-A'imma al-Awjandi

  Mahmud ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Awjandi, the qadi, a Hanafi jurist bearing the titles Shams al-A'imma and Shaykh al-Islam, and the grandfather of Qadi Khan. He studied fiqh under Shams al-A'imma al-Sarakhsi, who died in 483 AH. The text gives no dates of birth or death.

Event

• The Strife over Declaring the Hanbalis Unbelievers and the Looting of the Nizamiyya Market

  October 1077 CE · 2 Shawwal 470 AHIn 470 Nizam al-Mulk's letter reached Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi rebuking the anti-Hanbali agitation in his own Nizamiyya: 'Sultan's policy and the rule of justice oblige us to lean to no madhhab over another; we did not build this school but to shelter the people of learning — not to split the community — and the madhhab that dominates Baghdad and its quarters is that of the imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal.' The Hanbalis circulated it and were strengthened. Then on Tuesday 2 Shawwal a madrasa student called al-Iskandarani went to Suq al-Thulatha pronouncing the Hanbalis unbelievers; pelted with a brick he fled back to the madrasa market, whose men sallied out and looted the other market — until the mob reversed it, burst into the madrasa market, plundered their quarter and killed a sick man in his room. The Daylamite guards shot dead some fifteen, and the bodies were carried to the diwan for the qadis and witnesses to attest.

Concept

• Biting and the liability for injury it causes (add)

  In the lexicon, add is gripping a thing with the teeth and holding it. If a person bites another without right and a wound results, the biter must pay the damages for the wound, assessed as a just award by experts. If one man bites another's hand and the bitten man pulls it free so that the biter's front teeth fall out, most jurists hold that there is no liability, relying on a prophetic judgement in such a case; the Shafi'is limit this to a bitten man who chose the easiest means of release, and the preferred Maliki view requires compensation.

• Justice and uprightness (adl)

  Linguistically, adl is the opposite of injustice: it means aiming at what is right and standing between excess and deficiency, and adala is the quality that keeps a person away from what damages manliness. In the jurists' usage, an adl is one whose good deeds outweigh his bad ones, a person of good standing who is not open to suspicion. Uprightness is a condition in many chapters: leading the prayer, the zakat collector, sighting the crescent of Ramadan, the qibla, the purity or impurity of water, the marriage guardian, the executor, the trustee of an endowment, the guardian of a minor, the supreme imamate, judgeship and testimony and the transmission of hadith, besides justice in judgement and between wives and children.

• Contagion (adwa)

  Linguistically, adwa is a sickness passing from its owner to another; as a technical term it is the same idea. Most scholars hold that disease does not pass by its own nature but by God's act and decree, and they reconcile the hadith 'no contagion' with the hadith 'the diseased should not be brought to the healthy'. Umar and a group of early scholars deny contagion; another group affirms it, citing the hadith about a leper of the Thaqif delegation and the hadith 'flee from the leper'. Fear of contagion is not forbidden so long as it does not prevent an obligatory act; but entering a land stricken by plague is forbidden by the text.

• Pardon (afw) in purity, worship, contracts and penalties

  In the lexicon, afw means removing or pardoning, and also abundance, going away and giving; the jurists use it mainly for dropping or overlooking a right. It is distinguished from pardon by forgiveness of the wrong (safh) and from the forgiveness of sins (maghfira), dropping a right (isqat) and settlement (sulh). Its ruling depends on the right: pardon is recommended where the right is purely the individual's; where the right belongs to God, as in the fixed punishments, there is no pardon once the matter is before the judge. In worship, the schools disagree on pardon for small amounts of impurity, such as blood, pus and street mud, on the interval between the two thresholds of the camel and the cattle tax, on some things that do not break the fast, and on forgotten wearing of sewn clothes or perfume during pilgrimage. In contracts, pardon of pre-emption, of a debt, and of a dower are treated. In retaliation, pardon is lawful and recommended; if one of several heirs pardons, the retaliation falls and the others' shares become money, by the consensus the text reports; the schools differ on the effect of pardon during injury, on the capacity of the pardoner, and on settlement for money. There is no pardon for the fixed punishments of adultery and theft; the jurists differ on slander, and pardon in discretionary punishment (ta'zir) is allowed where it concerns a person's right or the ruler's discretion.

• Covenant (ahd) and the duty to keep it; oath by the covenant of God

  In the lexicon, 'ahd is covenant, pledge, safe-conduct, guarantee and oath, and whatever is between people by way of agreement; it differs from the contract ('aqd) in that a covenant may be a binding pledge or a promise without binding force. Promise (wa'd) is a notice of something to be made in future, and bay'a is an oath of obedience. Islam requires keeping the covenant; the Prophet kept his covenants, breaking one is forbidden, and he counted breaking a covenant as treachery. Islam forbids wronging a covenant partner, and breaking a covenant before its term ends. An oath by God's covenant is an oath with the consequences of any oath, and the Shafi'is require that the swearer intended an oath by it.

• Term, deadline (ajal)

  Ajal is the term of a thing, the time when it falls due. For jurists it is a period on which a legal rule depends or which the parties agree in a contract; by source it is shar'i (fixed by the law), qada'i (fixed by a judge) or ittifaqi (agreed). Shar'i terms include the periods of pregnancy, suckling, the vow of abstention, impotence and menstruation; agreed terms include the option of stipulation and deferred payment.

• Hired worker (ajir)

  A hired worker is one who works for a wage. The law orders that his wage be paid before his sweat dries. When a worker is competent to contract, meets the conditions, can deliver the benefit and the work is lawful, he must perform the contract. A private worker must surrender himself to his employer for the term and not work for others, except for the obligatory prayers; a shared worker must do and deliver the work and is paid on delivery.

• Stranger, outsider (ajnabi)

  Ajnabi in the lexicon is a stranger, someone foreign in fact or in meaning. Jurists give no single definition; the word is read in each place by its context. Its senses include a relative with no kinship tie, and one outside a contract or other matter. A person with a relation to a matter becomes a stranger when the cause ends, when an obstacle arises, or by a judgement; for example, the divorced wife, the apostate spouse, and a ward held to be incompetent. When a person with a relation and a stranger are both present, the person with the relation has priority. A person who acts for another without authority is called a fudul, and jurists differ on whether his act is valid.

• Reward or wage (ajr)

  For jurists, ajr is the consideration for work, whether from God or from people, though a reward from God is a bounty. It also means the price of a benefit, whether of land or of a movable. The Qur'an calls a woman's dowry an ajr, and what is given to a nurse for suckling is also called ajr. The jurists treat questions of ajr for work and benefit within the lease.

• al-Awasim

  al-Awasim — al-Rashid's self-governing frontier district 'that shields the borders', from Antioch to the Euphrates, charged with supplying the thughur; matched by the Byzantines' own Taurus defence line.

• Gradualism in legislation (tadarruj)

  For al-Sha'rawi, God brings rulings about habits in stages, so that a habit such as wine is set aside over time rather than in one blow, because the self needs a gradual passage. Creed admits no stages: the oneness of God and the refusal of association are stated at once.

• Action (amal) and the five rulings that govern it

  In the lexicon, 'amal is a trade and an act; in the scholars' general usage it covers the acts of the limbs and of the heart, and some define it as bringing a thing about by speech or by deed. The five rulings govern it: what the Lawgiver requires as binding is obligatory, what he requires without binding is recommended, what he forbids bindingly is forbidden, what he discourages without binding is disliked, and what he leaves to choice is permitted. The servant is rewarded for obedience and punished for disobedience, unless God pardons him.

• The practice of the people of Medina ('amal ahl al-Madina) as evidence

  Jurists use the phrase 'practice of the people of Medina' for what the people of Medina agreed upon as a practice in the first three centuries, which the Prophet called the best, and which they inherited. The majority hold that the agreement of the people of Medina on a practice is not binding on those who disagree; Malik held it binding on others, and it is reported that he meant that their transmission should be preferred. The full treatment is in the legal-theory appendix.

• Land taken by force in war ('anwa) and its legal status

  In the lexicon, 'anwa is overpowering and seizure by force; as a term among the jurists it is what is taken from land in war by force and conquest, as against land taken by treaty. The jurists agree that movables taken in war are part of the spoils; they differ on land taken by force. The Hanafis hold that the imam chooses between dividing it and leaving its people on it for a land tax (kharaj), so that the army does not own it. The Malikis hold, in the preferred view, that it becomes an endowment for the Muslims. The Shafi'is hold that a fifth goes to the purposes named in the Qur'anic verse on spoils and the rest is divided among the fighters, unless they give it up for the public interest. The details are treated under «ghanima».

• Immovable property, real estate (aqar) and its legal effects

  In the lexicon, aqar is anything with a fixed base and a settled place, such as land, a house, an estate or palms; as a term it is what cannot be moved from one place to another, such as land and a house, while movables are what can be moved. The distinction has effects: pre-emption applies to real estate and, by the majority, not to movables sold on their own; easements attach to real estate; the rules of sale for a minor's or a bankrupt's property differ; and endowments of real estate are valid by agreement. Prayer on usurped land is valid according to the majority, though sinful, and invalid on the preferred Hanbali view. There is no zakat on needs such as a home, and by the majority none on rented property; a Hanbali view requires it. An owner may sell his real estate in full or a share, subject to rules on harm to co-owners, the sale of a guardian over a minor's property, and possession by delivery; the schools differ on the fruits of a defective sale returned and on planting or building on land whose title fails or which is leased. Every item that may be sold may be mortgaged, and the rules of usurpation apply to real estate according to the majority.

• The contract (aqd): elements, offer and acceptance, and its kinds

  In the lexicon, aqd is tying, binding, guarantee and covenant. In the general sense it is any undertaking a person binds himself or another to; in the specific sense, which is meant here, it is what arises from two wills so that its legal effect appears in the object. Most jurists count three pillars: the two contracting parties, the formula (offer and acceptance) and the object; the Hanafis count only the formula. The formula may be spoken, written, signalled or given by exchange, according to the school; the Shafi'is and Hanbalis require the word for marriage in a marriage contract, the Hanafis and Malikis do not, and some cases follow the purpose over the wording. The acceptance must match the offer and be joined to it in one session; the offerer may retract before acceptance according to the majority, and the majority do not require immediate acceptance. The parties need capacity, authority and consent; the object must exist or be capable of the contract's effect, be known and deliverable, with exceptions for gifts. Contracts are divided into financial and non-financial, binding and revocable, exchange and gratuitous, valid, void and defective, effective and suspended, and fixed-term and open-ended. A contract ends by rescission, dissolution by agreement, expiry, destruction of the object, death of a party, usurpation, or a successful claim by a third party.

• The Arabic language in jurisprudence (arabiyya)

  In the lexicon, 'Arabic' (arabiyya) describes a language that is eloquent and pure; the Arabic language is what the Arabs spoke, and the Qur'an came down in it. The jurists' usage stays within this meaning. The opposite of Arabic is 'ajamiyya (non-Arabic); language (lugha) is wider, covering any speech by which a people express their aims. Arabic has merit as the tongue of the people of paradise, and a person is rewarded for learning and teaching it. Al-Shafi'i holds that knowing the Arabic language is obligatory on every responsible Muslim as far as his effort allows, and more so for the mujtahid; the jurists require Arabic for the Qur'an's recitation, the dhikr in prayer, the call to prayer and the Friday sermon.

• Courtyard or open plot (arsa)

  In the lexicon, arsa is the courtyard of a house, an open wide space with no building on it; some say any open place without building. Jurists use it in two senses: a narrow one, the open yard between houses, and a broader one, any plot of land whether or not it lies between houses. Related words are hareem, what surrounds a thing and serves its rights and uses, and fina', what extends from a thing and serves its purposes. In a sale, an arsa with a building and trees on it enters the sale when described as land, courtyard or plot; pre-emption over it is disputed: the Malikis deny pre-emption over the courtyard, while the Shafi'is and Hanbalis tie it to whether the plot can be divided. In oaths and bequests the rules differ: a person who swears not to enter a house that collapses into a courtyard does not breach the oath according to the majority, and building on a bequeathed courtyard counts as retraction according to the Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis.

• Agnatic kin (asaba) in inheritance, guardianship and custody

  In the lexicon, asaba are a man's sons and his paternal relatives, who inherit from him. As a term they are the heirs who have no fixed share in the inheritance agreed upon, and who take what remains after the sharers take theirs, or the whole estate if there are no sharers. They are set against the sharers (ashab al-furud), who have a fixed share in the Book of God, and against the distant kin (dhawu al-arham), who are relatives with neither a fixed share nor agnatic standing. Agnates in inheritance are of three kinds: the agnate in his own right, such as a son; the agnate through another, such as daughters with their brothers; and the agnate with another, such as sisters with daughters. They take what the fixed shares leave, and the whole estate if alone. Agnates also have priority in the washing and funeral prayer of the dead, the right to contract a marriage on behalf of a woman, custody of a child when no woman entitled to it is available, and the bearing of blood money for manslaughter, with the Shafi'is excluding the ascendant and descendant from that burden.

• Trace, effect, report (athar)

  In the lexicon, athar means the remainder of a thing or a report. Jurists and usulis use it for the remainder of an impurity, for a report traced to a Companion or to the Prophet's chain, and for what follows from a thing. If the trace of an impurity cannot be removed, it is excused. For a contract, its effect is what the contract was made to produce, such as the transfer of ownership in a sale or the lawfulness of enjoyment in a marriage.

• Increase of the shares ('awl) in inheritance

  In the lexicon, 'awl is rising and increase; in inheritance it is the enlargement of the common base of the shares, so that each sharer's portion falls when the base cannot cover the fixed shares; it is a lawful practice. 'Umar was the first to apply it and the companions followed him; Ibn 'Abbas disagreed in the caliphate of 'Uthman, and his saying on the order of the shares is reported. The bases of the shares are seven, and the detail belongs to inheritance.

• Swimming (awm) and the instruction to learn it

  In the lexicon, awm is swimming, and a 'awwam is one skilled in it; the technical sense does not differ. Swimming is among the skills Islam urged, with horsemanship and archery, to strengthen the body and drive away idleness; a report from Ibn 'Umar urges teaching children to swim.

• Original ruling (azima) and concession (rukhsa)

  In the lexicon, azima is effort and earnestness in a matter, and the azima of God is His obligation. As a technical term it is what is made easier for the person in a case of excuse and inability while the forbidding cause still exists; by another definition it is the original ruling, free of any opposing ruling. The Hanafis divide azima into obligation, necessity, sunna and voluntary; al-Qarafi restricts it to the obligatory and the recommended; al-Baydawi holds that all five rulings apply to it, while some restrict it to the obligatory. Sometimes the law lifts hardship, so that the person may choose between the original ruling and the concession, and the jurists differ on which to prefer. The full discussion is in the legal theory appendix.

• Dismissal from office and withdrawal (azl)

  In the lexicon, azl means removal or setting aside, as in removing someone from a post. The supreme imamate is established by the allegiance of those who bind and loose and lasts while its conditions last. Most jurists allow the imam to resign, while one view forbids it. A minister may not dismiss himself, but the imam may dismiss the minister he appointed. A judge may resign; the death of the imam who appointed him does not end his office according to the jurists; and the jurists differ on whether the imam may dismiss him, in three views. A judge loses office on losing a condition such as sanity, speech, hearing or sight, and some schools also count apostasy and wrongdoing; the dismissal does not take effect until word of it reaches him, according to the majority. Dismissal of an agent, guardian, partner in a profit-sharing contract, surety and administrator of an endowment is treated in turn. The entry also treats, under the same heading, withdrawal from a wife or slave-woman: the majority permit it, the wife's consent is disputed, and the jurists list excuses that make it lawful.

• The bay'a (oath of allegiance)

  The bay'a in legal usage is the contract of submission and obedience; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia treats its articles from the contract of bay'a to its oaths.

• The burqa

  The burqa in juristic usage is a garment by which the woman veils her face; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia lists it among the terms related to hijab alongside khimar, niqab and litham.

• Conflict between two falsehoods

  Sha'rawi holds that there is only one truth, so a battle between truth and falsehood is short, while a battle between two falsehoods lasts unless a common principle or a reconciling third party appears. In his own age, he says, the absence of such a party prolongs wars.

• Dahri (the naturalist who holds that time is eternal)

  As a term the Dahriyya are a group of disbelievers who held that time is eternal and attributed events to it, denying the existence of a Creator who chooses, and denying the Hereafter, resurrection and recompense. The jurists distinguish the Dahri from the zindiq, the mulhid, the hypocrite and the apostate, though all of them share disbelief with him; an original disbeliever of this kind is treated as a harbi, a musta'min or a dhimmi according to his residence.

• Da'wa

  Da'wa in Islamic usage is the conveying of Islam to people; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia lists 'conveying the Islamic call' among its entries.

• Da'wa (the fiqh article: call, invitation and summons)

  In fiqh the word da'wa covers three senses the encyclopedia treats: conveying the religion and entering it, calling someone and asking them to attend, and the food to which one invites people. A call takes the ruling of what it summons to: calling to Islam is a binding duty, a collective obligation on the Muslims according to the stronger view; answering a summons to a required act is binding, while answering most meal invitations is recommended or permitted; there are recognised excuses that end the duty to answer.

• The state (in fiqh and siyasa shar'iyya)

  In fiqh the state rests on three pillars: the territory, the subjects (Muslims and protected non-Muslims), and sovereignty. It is made of several offices, and the supreme imam holds them as the nation's agent: the heir apparent, the people of loosening and binding, the muhtasib, the judiciary, the public treasury, the viziers and the military command. The majority hold that two imams may not hold office at one time.

• Writing down debts and calling witnesses

  Sha'rawi reads the debt verse as documentation that protects the debtor from himself and from circumstances. He holds that the scribe is a third party with no stake, and that the witness bears testimony and performs it without being harmed. He explains the pairing of two women by saying women are generally less involved in dealings. This is his own stated view.

• Discoveries as the birth of hidden secrets

  Sha'rawi divides the unseen into what God has given means for, which inquiry can reach, and what has no means, which God bestows on whom He chooses. He reads scientific discoveries as the appearance of secrets God has allowed to appear, and holds that no one encompasses God's knowledge except as He wills.

• Attributes such as 'hand': the salaf and khalaf approaches

  On the verse about God's hand (48:10), Sha'rawi sets out two approaches: that of the salaf, to take the word as God said it without describing its mode, and that of the khalaf, to interpret it as an established attribute. He holds that the attribute is taken from God with no likeness.

• God repelling some people by others

  Sha'rawi holds that the verse on God repelling some people by others states a cosmic law. The earth would be corrupted if one power ruled alone; balance between powers keeps the world in order, and God repels evil through human hands.

• Diwan (the state register: the office books of troops, taxes, judges and governors)

  A diwan is a register in which names or documents are entered, and which keeps what concerns the state's business, funds and officials. The jurists differ over keeping one: the Malikis allow it, the Shafi'is recommend it, the Hanbalis say it is fitting; Umar ibn al-Khattab is the first to have set one up. The state's diwan has three parts: the army (enrolment and pay), the business of revenue (tithe, land-tax, the non-Muslims' poll tax and the frontier duties), and the officials (appointment, dismissal and their stipends); a judge's diwan holds his records and minutes.

• Fiqh

  Fiqh.

• Fleeing from death

  On verse 243, about those who left their homes in fear of death, Sha'rawi holds that the Qur'an leaves their time, place and cause unnamed on purpose. He argues that death and life are in God's hand by compulsion, and that caution cannot avert what God decrees. He reports the exegetes' differing causes without weighing them.

• Hadm (demolition, real and legal)

  Hadm in the lexical sense is tearing down a building, destruction or collapse; the technical sense does not depart from this. It is of two kinds: real demolition of a structure, and figurative demolition of something else, such as a contract, meaning annulment. Real demolition is required in several cases: a church built by People of the Book in a city the Muslims founded, a building within a river's buffer, a projecting structure over a public road that harms passers-by (the judge orders it removed), and a leaning wall, whose demolisher bears no liability. Real demolition has legal effects: demolishing a mosque wall obliges its restoration, a buyer who demolishes part of the house confirms the sale, and one who demolishes a house decorated with figural images owes its value. The figurative case is triple divorce: a woman divorced three times returns to her husband, after another marriage, under a new marriage, the earlier divorce being demolished.

• Halal (the lawful)

  Halal is lexically the opposite of haram, and technically what the law permits; for the majority it covers recommended, permitted and disliked acts, and for the Hanafis also obligatory acts. The Hanafis count as disliked-but-lawful what is nearer the lawful, and as forbidden-leaning dislike what is nearer the forbidden or proved forbidden by a probable proof. On silent matters the majority of Hanafis and Shafiis hold the default is permission, some Hanafis suspend judgement, and some traditionists hold the default is prohibition. The majority argue from the Quranic creation of all that is on earth for mankind and from the saying that what the law leaves silent is pardoned. Where the lawful and unlawful mix, the unlawful prevails, a rule the Shafiis limit to permitted acts and the Hanafis extend to obligatory acts; the rationale is to minimise changes to the rulings. Exceptions include the bird that dies after being shot and falls. Lawfulness arises from an intrinsic cause, such as using grain, or an extrinsic cause, such as a valid sale, lease or gift; lawful property has degrees according to how free it is of doubt.

• Haqiqa (literal sense)

  In technical use haqiqa is a word employed for what it was coined to mean in the convention through which speech is conveyed; its counterpart is metaphor, a word used for something other than its coinage because of a link between the two. Kinaya is speech whose intended meaning is hidden by usage though its literal sense is clear, so it needs intention or context to settle what is meant. Literal meaning is linguistic when set by the lexicographers, legal when set by the lawgiver, and customary when set by custom; the same word may be literal in one sense and figurative in another, as prayer is literal in the legal sense and figurative in supplication. Speech is taken literally by default and moved to metaphor only when the literal sense is impossible, hard or abandoned by custom, with branches in bequests, oaths and acknowledgements. Most usulis forbid taking the literal and figurative sense together in one use, the Shafiis allow it unless reason forbids; a general metaphor is admissible.

• Right (haqq)

  Haqq means, in Arabic usage, what is established, owed or certain, the opposite of falsehood. In the jurists' terms it has two senses: a judgement that matches reality, and a duty established by the law. It falls into the right of God and the right of the servant. Ibn al-Qayyim: God's right admits no compromise, as in the hudud, zakat and expiations, while the servant's right admits settlement, waiver and exchange. Usulis disagreed whether the right is the divine address itself or the act it binds. Al-Qarafi divides obligations into God's alone, the servant's alone, and the mixed case of slander. Ibn Rajab lists five kinds of the servant's right. Jurists also use the word for financial and non-financial entitlements, for contractual obligations, for state stipends and for easements. The source of every right is God, and the holder, the obliged party and the object of the right are its pillars; the object must be lawful. The jurists divide rights into God's pure right, the servant's pure right, and mixed rights. The servant's pure right is one whose benefit belongs to a specific person, such as debt and blood-money. In a mixed right one side prevails: slander (qadhf) is mainly God's right, so penalties merge, the penalty is not inherited, pardon does not cancel it, and the imam executes it. Retaliation for killing (qisas) is mainly the servant's right, so the victim's heirs may sue or not, pardon, or settle. The Malikis divide the servant's right into three: owed by God to him, owed in general, and owed by one servant to another. Al-Zarkashi sets the order when rights collide: God's rights such as prayer, zakat, fasting and pilgrimage come first, human rights come first in compulsion and concessions, and in zakat against a debt the sounder view gives God's right priority. God's rights cannot be waived by people, no one may contrive to drop acts of worship, and no settlement may be made over pure hudud. The servant's right may be waived by one who is competent to dispose and whose object is waivable; waiver covers objects, debts, usufructs and unrestricted rights, and the schools disagree on taking an exchange for a right. Al-Shatibi divides rights by whether their purpose is intelligible: worship is God's pure right and admits no partner. Acts of custom touch God's right through the universal ordering and the servant's right in the afterlife and worldly benefit. Rights divide by definition into fixed, unfixed and disputed; fixed rights (the five prayers, the zakat amounts, prices) bind the liability once their cause exists and do not lapse by silence or time, while unfixed rights (charity, spending on relatives) bind only after being fixed by agreement, settlement or a judge. The maintenance of a wife is disputed: the majority hold it binding on the liability, the Hanafis only once the ruler fixes it. Fixing varies with the holder, the obliged person, the object, the amount, the place, the time, the direction and the number. Rights are either complete or lightened by a lawful excuse. By inheritance, rights are inherited, passed by succession without inheritance, or not transferred at all, as with offices, agency and the choice among wives. Jurists disagree on inheriting the option of stipulation, choice, defect and acceptance, and on usufructs; the Hanafis and the Hanbalis deny inheritance of the stipulated option, the Malikis and Shafiis allow it, and retaliation accrues to the victim's heirs by succession, not inheritance. By financial value, rights fall into four kinds; by religious and judicial standing they are binding in conscience, binding before a court, or binding in both. The right of ownership and the permitted right are bare rights with no fixed object. Rights of acquisition are graded: the bare permitted right or right of acquisition, which has no specific object; the fixed or binding right, a right to acquire a specific thing by the holder's will once a cause of ownership exists; and the established right, which settles on a particular thing even before ownership. The fixed right differs from the bare one in that it attaches to a specific thing and its holder can raise it to ownership by acceptance alone. In spoils of war the established right becomes firm when the spoils are secured inside Muslim territory; it is then compensable on destruction, inheritable on the holder's death before division, and may not be sold before division. The established right resembles ownership in that it is compensable on destruction and inheritable by consensus, but it differs in that it cannot be sold or disposed of. Rights divide by how they are enforced: those that must go to a court (penalties and marriage-related rights), those that need no court (taking a specific object, a wife's or children's maintenance), and those disputed (collecting debts). The headword closes at the next entry, hiqqa (حُقّة). The headword closes at the next entry, hiqqa, p.7214.

• The hijab

  The hijab in juristic usage is that which veils the woman; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia gives it a dedicated entry distinguishing its material and figurative senses, connected to the jurists' rulings on covering.

• Hijra (migration for the sake of religion)

  In the technical sense, hijra is leaving the abode of unbelief for the abode of Islam, an act done for God's sake. The jurists divide it into kinds, the best known being the move from Mecca to Medina. It was first permitted, then made obligatory before the conquest of Mecca. The jurists then differed on whether it stayed obligatory afterwards: the Shafi'is and Hanbalis held it recommended for one who could practise his religion where he was, the Hanafis and al-Khattabi held it recommended in general, and the Malikis held leaving a land of wrong and temptation to be obligatory.

• Hikma (purpose of a ruling in usul)

  In lexical use hikma is the knowledge of things as they are and acting on it; in the Quran it is applied to prophethood. For the usulis hikma is the benefit that follows from tying a ruling to its cause or occasion (securing a good or removing or reducing a harm), and it also names the fitting quality that suits the ruling. A cause (sabab) is an apparent, regular attribute that defines a ruling; an impediment (mani') is what, when present, excludes the cause or ruling. The illa is the attribute the lawgiver made the criterion of a ruling; the hikma is the benefit itself, which may be hard to measure or hidden, so the usulis dispute whether a ruling may be tied to the hikma.

• Hilf (alliance and inheritance by alliance)

  Hilf is lexically a covenant or alliance for mutual support; in pre-Islamic Arabia alliances bound an individual to a clan, two individuals, or two clans, as in the alliance of the perfumed and the alliance of the virtuous. The ally protected his partner and bore his offences, and Islam forbade alliances for wrong or for inheritance beyond blood kin. The hadith 'no alliance in Islam, and whatever alliance existed in the age of ignorance Islam only strengthened' is read by some as forbidding alliances for inheritance and support in wrong, and by others as allowing alliances for good and for right. Inheritance by alliance was first practised and then abrogated, and the jurists differ on the abrogating verse. The majority hold inheritance by alliance abrogated; the Hanafis, al-Hakam, Hammad and a report from Ahmad hold it survives after the other heirs. For the Hanafis an alliance holder pays the blood-money for his patron and cannot shift his loyalty without consent; the majority deny that any blood-money arises from alliance. An alliance between two groups is allowed by some scholars for mutual support in right and the removal of wrong, and forbidden by most on the apparent reading of the hadith. The entry closes at the next headword, halq (حلق), on p.7261.

• Hukm (legal ruling)

  Hukm means judgement, lexically a prevention. For the majority of usulis the legal ruling is the address of the lawgiver concerning the acts of the obliged, by demand, choice or stipulation; for the jurists it is the effect of that address, such as obligation. The majority count five kinds of legal ruling (obligatory, recommended, permitted, forbidden, disliked); the Hanafis add two (wajib, and disliked-as-forbidden). The majority equate fard and wajib, the Hanafis separate them. The ruling by stipulation includes cause, condition, impediment, dispensation or strictness, and validity or nullity. The entry refers the reader to the separate headwords and to the usuli appendix for the details.

• Permissibility (ibaha)

  The Kuwaiti encyclopedia, in its section on the effects of permissibility, describes it as an act on which no sin follows. It divides it by source into original (what remains on its default state with no text) and legislated (where a text gives the choice), and by whole and part into four kinds; it divides people's leave into consumption and mere use. Its effects include lifting sin and difficulty, the holder's exclusive use of the benefit, and, in general, it does not exclude liability for damage.

• Invalidation (ibtal) of acts and contracts

  The Kuwaiti encyclopedia defines ibtal linguistically as the spoiling and removal of a thing, whether it is right or wrong. As a technical term it is a judgment that a thing is void, whether it was valid and a cause of voidness afterwards arose, or whether it existed in sense but not in law. It distinguishes ibtal from fasakh (dissolution), ifsad (corruption) and isqat (dropping). It records that the majority of jurists hold that a worship cannot be voided after it is completed, and that voiding an obligatory act once begun, without excuse, is forbidden; it sets out the schools' differences on voluntary prayer, the pilgrimage, the lesser pilgrimage and holy war; and that binding acts cannot be voided once they take effect except with the consent of both parties.

• Mourning of a widow (ihdad)

  Ihdad in the lexicon is giving up adornment to show grief; as a term it is a woman's abstention from adornment and similar things for a set period and in set circumstances, and from sleeping away from her own house. It is obligatory for a widow in the period of waiting after a valid marriage, by agreement, on the saying that a woman who believes in God and the last day may not mourn a dead man for more than three nights, except for a husband, four months and ten days. The mourning woman avoids what is adornment by law or custom, including scent, kohl and dyed clothes; the report names safflower and saffron dyes, which carry scent. She may go out for her needs; if she is away from her marital home she must return to it, and travel for pilgrimage or a long journey is treated in detail.

• Burning (ihraq)

  In jurists' usage ihraq is the fire's removing a thing entirely, or its effect on a thing while it remains, as in branding and roasting. If ground stained with an impurity is dried by sun or fire and its trace is gone, prayer on it is lawful according to the Hanafis. Using the fat of carrion to light a lamp is forbidden according to the Hanbalis and the apparent Hanafi view. Whatever is burnt to ash may not be used for tayammum, by agreement. On praying over a body burnt beyond washing the jurists differ: Ibn Habib, the Hanbalis and some Shafi'is allow it, while the Hanafis, most Shafi'is and the Malikis forbid it. On the property of a concealer of booty: his animals, the clothing he wears, his weapon and his provisions are not burnt, nor is property taken from the booty; what is not burnt stays with its owner.

• Keeping in a safe place (ihraz)

  Ihraz in the lexicon is keeping a thing and guarding it from being taken. Al-Nasafi defines it as placing a thing in a safe store. It is treated under the conditions of theft and in contracts that carry liability, such as deposit.

• Ihsan in the hudud (marital status for stoning and slander)

  Ihsan (in the sense of marital status for the penalties) means in the lexicon restraint, and among its senses chastity, marriage and freedom; technically it has two kinds: ihsan for stoning for adultery, and ihsan for slander. The main condition of ihsan for stoning is marriage, and of ihsan for slander chastity. Ihsan for stoning is eight conditions together; ihsan for slander is qualities in the one slandered that make the slanderer liable to flogging. The adulterer must be free, sane, adult and, by the majority, Muslim, and must have intercourse in the front passage in a valid marriage; the Hanafis and Malikis differ on many details.. On Islam, proof and slander: Islam is a condition for the Hanafis and Malikis but not for al-Shafi'i, Ahmad or Abu Yusuf; ihsan is proved by confession and testimony; the stoning does not depend on the marriage continuing; slandering the chaste brings flogging and loss of testimony; the loss of any condition removes ihsan..

• Squatting with arms around the knees (ihtiba')

  Ihtiba' in the lexicon is sitting on the buttocks with the thighs drawn to the belly and held by a cloth or the hands; the jurists use it in the same sense. It differs from iq'a, sitting on the buttocks with the knees raised, in that ihtiba' involves drawing both thighs and knees and holding them. Outside prayer it is lawful unless accompanied by something forbidden, such as exposure of the private parts; it is better left during the sermon and while waiting for prayer.

• Detention and retention (ihtibas)

  Ihtibas in the lexicon is restraint and holding back. It differs from hajr, interdiction, in that restraint serves the one who holds back, while interdiction serves the person interdicted. It differs from hasr, confinement with constriction, in that restraint need not include constriction. Whoever detains a person or an animal owes its maintenance; this is why a wife held back is owed maintenance, and a private worker is owed his wage simply by being held available. Prayer with wind or excrement held back is disliked, and the rain prayer is sunna when rain is withheld.

• The dying person (ihtidar)

  Ihtidar is the presence of death; the dying person is one in the throes of death, whose signs include slackening of the feet, bending of the nose and sinking of the temples. Among the right instructions for the dying is to tell the family to follow the sunna in preparing and burying the body and to avoid innovations. The jurists differ on reciting the Qur'an beside the dying: al-Nawawi recommends it, while the Malikis dislike any recitation at death, after it, or at graves.

• Cupping (ihtijam)

  Ihtijam is asking for cupping. Cupping is a medical act with the consequences of medicine; for instance, the cupper may look at the private parts of the cupped person in necessity. The blood of cupping is impure like other blood, though wiping suffices to clean the wound out of necessity, and the mosque must be kept free of cupping. Liability for harm caused by the cupper is treated under injuries.

• Wet dream (ihtilam)

  Ihtilam is emission of semen during sleep; it happens to both men and women. On how it is realised in a woman, the jurists differ: the Hanbalis, the Hanafis in the apparent report, and the Shafi'is for a married woman hold that it occurs when the fluid reaches the outer part of the private parts; the Malikis hold that it occurs when it leaves the passage. A man who finds wetness without remembering a dream must perform ghusl by the majority; where he doubts between semen and madhy the views differ. Ihtilam does not affect fasting, and by agreement it marks puberty.

• Retention and enema (ihtiqan)

  Ihtiqan in the lexicon is holding back urine; in law it is both holding back urine and taking medicine by enema through the rear. The Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold that holding back urine does not break ablution, although one who holds back is discouraged from praying. The judgement of a judge who is holding back is valid according to the majority, on the analogy of a judge who is angry; one Hanbali view invalidates it. In fasting, enema through the rear breaks the fast according to the majority, while the view on the front passage differs.

• Craft, trade (ihtiraf)

  Ihtiraf is practising a trade by which one earns a living and makes it one's habit. Jurists distinguish it from work, which is wider, and from earning, which is also wider; a craft with tools is called sina'a. Keeping up the crafts is a communal duty, so supplying craftsmen is an obligation, and the ruler may compel craftsmen who refuse to work at the fair rate. One who finds no gain in a trade should move to another after three tries, on reports from 'Umar and Ibn 'Umar.

• Counting for reward (ihtisab)

  In jurisprudence ihtisab means that an act is counted and accepted as valid by the law; for example, a latecomer is credited with a rak'a if he reaches the bowing with the imam. It also means seeking reward from God, such as waiving one's right to earn God's reward, as in freeing a slave, pardoning retaliation without compensation, or suckling an infant without payment.

• Cutting grass (ihtishash)

  Ihtishash is cutting grass. Outside the sanctuary it is lawful unless the grass is owned, in which case the owner's permission is needed. Inside the sanctuary the grass that no one owns may not be cut, except idhkhir and its kind; al-Shafi'i, the Hanbalis and one view of Abu Yusuf allow cutting it to feed animals. On theft of cut grass, the Malikis and Shafi'is cut the hand if it is taken from a store and reaches the threshold, and the Hanafis do not. A ruler may forbid cutting grass in a place he reserves as a protected pasture.

• Gathering firewood (ihtitab)

  Ihtitab is gathering firewood. Its legal ruling is that of ihtishash, but it differs on two points: cutting idhkhir and the 'awsaj inside the sanctuary is allowed for grass but not for wood, and some allow grass to feed animals but not wood.

• Stratagem (ihtiyal)

  Ihtiyal means seeking a stratagem, which is skill in arranging affairs until one reaches the aim. Usage has narrowed it to hidden paths by which a person reaches an aim that few would notice, as Ibn al-Qayyim said. A stratagem is forbidden when it breaks the rules of the law: for example, drinking wine or a sedative when the time of prayer comes so that its time passes, or giving away one's wealth before the pilgrimage to escape it. The Malikis and Hanbalis forbid disposing of property before the year to escape zakat; the Hanafis differ, Muhammad disliking it and Abu Yusuf allowing it.

• Caution, precaution (ihtiyat)

  Ihtiyat in the lexicon is taking the most prudent and secure course, and guarding against error. Jurists use it in these senses. Scrupulousness (wara') is avoiding doubtful matters for fear of falling into what is forbidden. One of the rules built on caution is that the forbidden prevails when the lawful and the forbidden are mixed; its scope is treated in the books of legal maxims. Whether caution applies to obligatory, recommended and forbidden acts is treated in the usul appendix. Note: the heading in the scan is spelled اختياط.

• Response, answer (ijaba)

  In the lexicon, ijaba means the return of speech; it is the same as istijaba. It is called a reply only after a request. A reply may be given by act, such as accepting an invitation to a wedding feast, by speech, by an understood gesture, or by silence, as the silence of a virgin when asked for consent to marriage. Its ruling depends on what is asked: it is obligatory in answering the call to Islam, a cry for help and a summons before a judge; recommended, as in answering the call to prayer by repeating it; and forbidden when the call is to sin. In contracts the reply is called acceptance (qabul), the answer to an offer.

• Lease and hire (ijara)

  Ijara is an exchange contract on known benefits for a consideration. Jurists call the lease of land, houses, ships and animals kira' (hire); ijara is used for the benefit of persons and for things that cannot be transferred apart from ships and animals. The majority hold that the contract is binding and may be dissolved only on grounds that dissolve other binding contracts, such as a discovered defect or the loss of the place of benefit; Abu Hanifa allows the tenant to cancel for a supervening excuse. Unlike istisna' (commissioned manufacture), in a lease the object is provided by the lessee and the labour by the worker. The lease is lawful by the Qur'an, the Sunna and consensus. It is formed by any wording that expresses it, and the Hanbalis allow a wide range of words. The parties must have reason, consent and capacity to contract; the object of a lease, for the Hanafis, is the benefit of the thing let.

• Ratification, licence (ijaza)

  Ijaza in the lexicon means to put into effect. For jurists it is the ratification of a transaction made by someone who lacked the right to make it, and it always follows the act, unlike permission (idhn), which comes before it. Its elements are a transaction that can be ratified, a ratifier who has the power to dispose of the matter, and knowledge that the object of the transaction still exists. Ratification may be by word, by act, by the passage of a fixed period in a time-limited transaction, or by strong circumstantial signs. The word also means a gift from a ruler, licence to issue fatwas or teach, and permission to transmit a report; the majority of hadith scholars allow transmission by licence and hold that the transmitted report must be acted on.

• Compulsion (ijbar)

  Ijbar in the lexicon means compulsion or coercion. Jurists gave it no separate definition, and their use does not depart from the lexical sense. Lawful compulsion includes a judge forcing a stubborn debtor to pay, a guardian's power to marry off one under his care, such as a young girl, and the compulsory taking of property for public benefit. Lawful compulsion does not void the transaction, and it may be automatic and without request, as in compulsory set-off. Other cases include forcing a hoarder to sell when he refuses the ruler's order, taking from a state official what he gained by his office, and the ruler's prohibition of marriage to Christian women for senior Companions, as reported.

• Abortion (ijhad)

  Ijhad in the lexicon is the early delivery of a child, and as a term it is the expulsion of a foetus before its time. After ensoulment, at about a hundred and twenty days, abortion is forbidden by consensus. Before ensoulment the jurists differ: some allow it only for an excuse, as the Hanafis do; some allow it at the earliest stage, as one Hanbali view does; and the Shafi'is forbid it once the drop has settled.

• Finishing off (ijhaz)

  In the lexicon ijhaz means haste, and to finish off a wounded man is to complete his killing; jurists use the word in this sense. Finishing off wounded enemy combatants is lawful, and that of wounded rebels is lawful where they have a group; it is obligatory for one sentenced to death for a fixed penalty or retaliation. For an animal that may not be killed at the outset, such as a donkey, the Hanafis and Malikis allow ending its suffering after injury, and the Shafi'is and Hanbalis forbid it.

• Consensus (ijma')

  In the lexicon ijma' means resolve, and sometimes agreement. For the usulis it is the agreement of all the mujtahids of the community after the Prophet's time on a matter of law. It is a definitive proof when the recognised scholars agree that it is a consensus; it is not used to prove what its own validity depends on, such as God's existence or the Prophet's mission.

• Ambiguity (ijmal)

  For the mutakallimun among the usulis, mujmal is what its meaning does not make clear. For the Hanafis it is what cannot be understood without an explanation from the speaker, so that it is not found by reflection alone. Ambiguity can lie in words or deeds; an example of a deed is the Prophet's salam after two rak'as when it was unclear whether he forgot or the prayer was shortened. Anything explained leaves ambiguity by agreement.

• Ijtihad (independent juristic reasoning)

  Ijtihad: the jurist's exertion of effort to derive a ruling from the revealed sources. Al-Sayis's view is that it discloses God's ruling rather than legislating, and binds only the mujtahid and those who follow him.

• Sufficiency of an act (ijza')

  Ijza' in the lexicon means sufficiency and being enough. In law it is an act's being enough to meet what is required, even without anything added to it. It differs from permissibility (jawaz), which means that nothing forbids the act, and from lawfulness (hill), which means purity from every blemish: an act may be sufficient while disliked. In the Hanbali view an act suffices when it has all its conditions, pillars and obligations, so ablution is sufficient with its obligatory parts without its sunnas and recommended acts. For purification, water of any of the seven kinds suffices, and by the majority view it suffices even when the water belongs to another.

• Ikhala (suggestiveness of a cause in analogy)

  Ikhala: a description is suggestive when its fitness to the ruling is so plain that its causal role is fixed at once; it is the ground of benefit in analogy and of open interest. The appropriate is wider than the suggestive; an accidental description is not suggestive; the killing of a Muslim used as a shield is an example; the explaining of a ruling by a suggestive description is disputed..

• Ikhbar (report, and its names in law)

  Ikhbar is the act of reporting; it has names according to its subject: claim, acknowledgement, testimony, judgement, narration, backbiting, tale-bearing, disclosure and betrayal; the report of a just person is accepted, while a dissolute person's report is not accepted in religious matters; its detailed rules are read where they arise, in purity, pre-emption, slaughter, marriage and the lawful and forbidden..

• Ikhtilaf (disagreement among jurists and its kinds)

  Ikhtilaf (disagreement): true disagreement is contrariety; differences of expression and variety go back to agreement. Disagreement in religion has four kinds according to whether the principle is proved by decisive evidence; disagreement in ijtihad matters occurs and the dissenter is excused; it occurred in the time of the Companions; al-Shatibi reduced it to agreement in seeking the Lawgiver's purpose, and some scholars held it a mercy to the community.. On the causes of disagreement: some come from desire (blameworthy) and some from permitted ijtihad, with causes in the evidence (ambiguity, generality, abrogation, variant reports) and in the usuli rules; on denunciation and taking account: the disputed is not denounced except in cases, and leaving disagreement is recommended under conditions.. In acting on disagreement: the layman does not choose at will but takes the preponderant view; the judge rules by the view preponderant to him; a judgement ends the dispute for its case and ijtihad is not annulled by its like; the imam's act ends the dispute for the past; prayer behind a dissenter is lawful; and conflicting evidence is reconciled, preferred, or the later taken as abrogating..

• Ikhtilaf al-dar (difference of abodes in law)

  Ikhtilaf al-dar (difference of abodes): the difference of the two states of the two persons; between Muslims it has no effect, since the abode of Islam is one; among unbelievers the Hanafis count a difference of abode in ruling as a bar to inheritance, the Shafi'is are close to them, and the Malikis and Hanbalis do not bar inheritance while the religions agree; it affects the following of a child's religion and separation of spouses in Hanafi law.. It also bears on separation of spouses, maintenance, bequests to a warrior, retaliation, blood-money and the hadd for slander, by the Hanafi, Shafi'i and Hanbali views..

• Ikhtilas (taking by snatching, not subject to amputation)

  Ikhtilas is taking a thing in the owner's presence openly and running off with it; by agreement there is no amputation for it, since the thing can be recovered by calling for help from people and the authority; its rules are treated under theft and usurpation..

• The effective cause (illa) in legal reasoning

  In the lexicon, illa means an illness, and also a cause; as a term of the jurists of legal theory it is an apparent and regular attribute that the Lawgiver attached to a ruling and set as a sign of it. It is distinct from the wisdom (hikma) of a ruling, which is the purpose it serves. An illa differs from a sabab in that the ruling follows the illa without the illa itself having an effect in the ruling, and from a condition, whose suitability lies in something else, and from a preventer. The illa is a pillar of analogical reasoning, and analogy fails if the reason cannot find the illa of the original ruling. Its conditions are that it be an apparent, regular and extendable attribute that is not one of those the Lawgiver disregarded; where the real cause is hidden, the Lawgiver sets an apparent sign to stand for it. It is established by explicit text, by an indication or allusion, by consensus, and by deduction, including the purification of the ground of ruling, and the method of examining and dividing attributes.

• Iqtida' (implication, demand and claim of a right)

  In the language, iqtida' means demanding a right and taking it in full. The usul scholars use it for implication (dalala). Implication is an unspoken element that a speech needs in order to be correct or true. For example, the words 'free your slave on my behalf for a thousand' cannot be valid unless the speaker is first taken to have asked for the sale of the slave, so the sale is implied. For the truth of the speaker, the hadith that lifts error and forgetting from the community requires the implied removal of the ruling for the act. In the jurists' usage, performing an obligation is called qada'; the word can cover both performing the obligation itself and delivering a like thing, and an executor who knows of a debt on the deceased and pays it does not sin. The common term in the jurists' usage for taking a right is istifa', while iqtida' means demanding that a right be fulfilled, as in the hadith of the generous seller and buyer. In usul, the demand of an act or of its omission is either obligatory or prohibited when definite, and recommended or disliked when not, while choice is its counterpart.

• Iqtisar (a ruling taking effect only at the moment it arises)

  In the jurists' usage, iqtisar means that a ruling takes effect when its cause arises, and not before or after, as with an immediate divorce. Ibn 'Abidin defines it as the ruling taking effect now. The Hanafi scholar al-Haskafi lists four ways a ruling takes effect: inqilab (a non-cause becoming a cause), iqtisar, istinad (taking effect now and tracing back to an earlier time), and tabyin (showing that the ruling had held earlier). Istinad has retroactive effect, while iqtisar does not. Some modern writers propose the terms fasakh and infisakh for dissolution by istinad, and inha' and intiha' for dissolution by iqtisar. The Shafi'is distinguish between a dissolution that removes a contract from its origin and one that removes it from its time, the latter including dissolution for a defect or bankruptcy. Iqtisar covers immediate contracts such as sale, salam, hire and qirad, and immediate dissolutions such as divorce and manumission. Those with retroactive effect fall under istinad.

• Fortune-telling by the 'arraf' (irafa)

  Irafa has two senses. The first is the trade of the 'arraf', who claims to know hidden matters by means of premises and signs, such as who stole an object or where a lost animal is. The second is the verbal noun of managing a people's affairs and governing them. In the juristic sense, irafa is forbidden: whoever goes to a soothsayer (kahin) or an 'arraf' and believes what he says has disbelieved, and whoever only asks without believing him has his prayer withheld for forty nights. The 'arraf' reports on past hidden matters, the kahin on past and future ones; kihana, sorcery and astrology are related terms.

• Proof in litigation (ithbat)

  Ithbat in the lexicon is the verb athbata, to treat a thing as lasting, settled or sound. In the jurists' usage it is the establishment before the judge, in his session, of a lawful proof of a right or a fact. Its aim is that the claimant obtains his right or is protected from interference. The burden of proof lies on the claimant by agreement of the four schools, on the saying: the proof is for the claimant, and the oath is for the one who denies. Confession is the strongest proof because a sane person is unlikely to confess falsely; the Hanafis and Malikis rank it above testimony. Judging on one witness with an oath is disputed: Malik, al-Shafi'i and Ahmad allow it in property and what leads to property, while the Hanafis and most Iraqi jurists refuse it. The denying party's oath ends the dispute at once according to the Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis, but the Malikis treat it as ending the dispute outright. The judge may rule on his own knowledge, which the Hanafis permit only within the time and place of his judgeship for the rights of people; he may also rule on decisive circumstantial evidence, on a letter from one judge to another, on writing and seal once their authenticity is secure, on the opinion of trackers (qafa) about lineage according to the three imams, on lots and physiognomy, on the opinion of experts, on continuity of an earlier state, on the oath of homicide (qasama), and on custom.

• Sin (ithm)

  In the lexicon, ithm means sin, or doing what is not lawful for one. For the Sunnis it is the deserving of punishment; for the Mu'tazila it is the necessity of punishment. The difference turns on whether forgiveness is possible. Sin attaches to abandoning an individual obligation, such as prayer, and to abandoning a collective obligation when all leave it, such as the funeral prayer. Doing what is forbidden is sinful; doing what is disliked as a matter of preference carries no sin, and doing or leaving what is permitted carries none. The Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis hold that a fixed penalty does not remove the sin in the hereafter; al-Shafi'i holds that it purifies a Muslim but not a non-Muslim.

• Destruction or damage of property (itlaf)

  Itlaf comes from talaf, to perish, and atlafahu, to destroy. For jurists it is removing a thing from its usual useful purpose. The default ruling is prohibition when the act is not permitted by the law. It can also be obligatory or permitted. Its usual consequence is liability when a protected, owned property of another is destroyed without the permission of the law or the owner, and sin and liability do not necessarily coincide. Destruction may be direct or by causation, and both create liability.

• Completion (itmam)

  Itmam in the lexicon means completion. Jurists gave it no technical definition beyond the lexical one. It has one specific use, which concerns number rather than manner: completing a prayer instead of shortening it on a journey. Completing an obligatory act once begun is obligatory by the agreement of the jurists; completing a voluntary act is disputed.

• Ittiba' (following; returning to a proven ruling)

  In the language, ittiba' means walking behind another; it also carries the senses of following someone in prayer, obeying a command, acting on another's word, and demanding a due. As a technical term it is returning to a saying that rests on a proof. The jurists separate it from taqlid: taqlid is acting on another's word without proof, while ittiba' is returning to a saying that rests on proof. Its ruling depends on what is followed: following the sharia and the Prophet in matters of religion is obligatory, a layperson must follow the mujtahids according to the careful usulis, obedience to those in authority is obligatory outside sin, following a funeral is recommended, and following desire is forbidden. The word also means demanding a debt, so a creditor may pursue his debtor or the surety.

• Unity of the ruling (ittihad al-hukm)

  Literally ittihad is two things becoming one, and the ruling (hukm) is God's address concerning the acts of responsible persons, by demand, by choice or by stipulation. The usulis treat unity of the ruling in two places: when a word appears unrestricted in one text and restricted in another, and when one ruling has several causes. The majority allow one ruling to have two or more causes, and they hold that this occurs: touching, contact and urination each prevent prayer. Ibn Furak and al-Razi allowed it only for causes stated in the text and not for derived ones; the author of Jam' al-Jawami' held that it is rationally impossible.

• Unity of the session (ittihad al-majlis)

  The unity of the session is the single sitting in which a word or act occurs. It is wider than the seat: it can hold while standing, and it can hold when place and posture change. It affects contracts, exchange of ribawi goods, salam, marriage and khul', the renewal of ablution, vomiting, prostration of recitation, repeated divorce, oaths, zihar and expiation in ihram. All schools agree that turning away from an offer ends the session.

• Unity of the cause (ittihad al-sabab)

  In the terms of jurists and usulis, the sabab is an apparent and regular attribute to which the Lawgiver attached a ruling, such that its presence entails the ruling and its absence entails none. Unity of the cause means that several causes are alike, belong to one class, or are in fact one. Usulis discuss it in the question of the unrestricted and the restricted text when the cause is one but the rulings differ. Most jurists allow one cause to produce two rulings if the rulings do not contradict each other.

• Leaning (ittika')

  Ittika' in the lexicon means leaning on something; it also means inclining to one side while sitting. Jurists use the word only in these two senses. Leaning during prayer is permitted for those with a valid excuse; for others it is disliked in an obligatory prayer and permitted in a voluntary one. Leaning on a grave is treated like sitting on it: the majority hold it disliked, while the Malikis permit it.

• Connection (ittisal)

  Ittisal in the lexicon means non-separation, the opposite of separation. Jurists use it of physical things, such as the rows in congregational prayer or increments attached to a sold object, and of meanings, such as an offer joined to its acceptance. Increments that are permanently attached follow the principal ruling and cannot be pledged separately. A detached word does not attach its meaning to the principal act, so connection is required in exceptions, conditions, conditional clauses and in the intention behind allusive divorce.

• Consideration (iwad) in contracts, marriage, injury and damage

  In the lexicon, iwad is a substitute, what is given in return for a thing; it is also used of the reward in the hereafter. The jurists require that the consideration be paid in exchange contracts: the hirer and the lessor, the husband's dower, the one who destroys a thing must return its like or its value, and the killer owes the blood-money. Some things cannot be a consideration, such as blood, carrion and wine, and making a woman's intimacy the dower in a shighar exchange. Considerations are either financial or not, and in exchange contracts they must be known and fixed to end disputes; the law fixes some, such as the blood-money, the ransom and the expiations. A consideration lapses when the object perishes, by release of a debt, by pardon, or by conversion to Islam in the case of the poll-tax.

• Khass (specific; opposite of general)

  Khass (specific) is lexically the opposite of general; technically a term coined for one thing or a limited number, whether a single person such as Zayd or a kind such as man or horse. A general term embraces all that it can apply to under one coinage without limit. A specific word fixes its ruling unless a proof calls for another meaning; when specific and general conflict, the Shafiis let the specific narrow the general, while the Hanafis hold the later one abrogates to the extent of its indication and suspend judgement when the order is unknown. A hired worker for a term serves all the agreed time, except for the times of purification and the five prayers, the Friday and festival prayers, and need not be allowed to attend the congregation except on conditions. A private road is a closed passage between a limited number of houses, and no one may alter it without the leave of its owners. Private property is held by a particular person; public property, such as the treasury and waqf for all Muslims, is contrasted with it, and the thief of private property is cut by the usual conditions.

• The phrase "la yanbaghi" in Imam Ahmad's words

  The expression "la yanbaghi" ("it is not proper") in Imam Ahmad's words: is it understood as prohibition or as dislike? His companions differed over it, an example of disagreement over the school's wording.

• The madhhab

  The madhhab in juristic usage is the method of ijtihad and legal inference traced to an imam and his school; the jurists speak of the 'four madhhabs' — Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali.

• The mazalim (courts of grievances)

  Mazalim — the caliphal grievance institution above the ordinary qadi's remit: al-Mahdi's iron-windowed complaints house and al-Muhtadi's four-doored Dome of Redress.

• The clear and the ambiguous verses (muhkam and mutashabih)

  Sha'rawi holds that the muhkam is what leaves no room for disagreement and is the basis of action, and that the mutashabih is what is hard to grasp and is the basis of faith. The believer refers the ambiguous to the clear. He reports the disagreement over where to pause after the name of God or after those firm in knowledge, without ruling between them.

• Mut'a (temporary marriage)

  Mut'a — fixed-term marriage for a fee; Ahmad Amin surveys the hadiths (licensed in travel and need, then forbidden, with Umar's emphatic prohibition and the four imams' ijma') against the Shi'i retention via al-Baqir and al-Sadiq.

• Nafadh (taking effect)

  Nafadh, in the lexicon, is passing and taking effect; as a term it is the effect of a valid disposition taking hold at once. Every effective disposition is valid, but not every valid one is effective, and ratification applies to a suspended contract but not to an effective or void one. Dispositions that do not take effect include those of an unauthorised agent, a discerning minor and a spendthrift, and a sale by a mortgagor, landlord or partner without the consent of the party whose right is involved. A suspended contract is valid in the Hanafi and Maliki schools, in an old Shafi'i view and in one Hanbali report, and takes effect on ratification; it is void in the prevailing Shafi'i and Hanbali views.

• Share (nasib) in the rules of property and inheritance

  Nasib, in the lexicon, is a share or portion of anything; a share is also the part of something divided. In inheritance every nasib is a fixed share but not every fixed share is a nasib. The law fixes the shares of heirs: a half, a quarter, an eighth, two-thirds, a third and a sixth, detailed under inheritance. In partnership a partner may dispose of his share by sale, hire or lending, on differing views. A partner's hand is a trust, so he is liable only for transgression or negligence, a view held by the majority of jurists. The fee for division is distributed by shares in the majority view. In dividing real property, the share follows the layout of the property. When the divider assigns each partner his share the division is complete, and each one owns and may dispose of his share. In pre-emption the pre-emptor acquires the share in ways the jurists dispute, and they dispute the treatment of buildings or plantings made by the buyer. When one of two co-owners frees his share of a joint slave, a wealthy owner frees the whole and owes the other partner the value of the other share, according to the Malikis, Shafi'is and the usual Hanbali view; a poor owner frees only his share, and Abu Hanifa differs.

• Freedom of belief and compulsion in religion

  Sha'rawi holds that God did not compel anyone into belief, since force governs bodies, not hearts. A person who has entered Islam is bound to observe its duties. He reads the early weakness of Muslims as intended, and the jizya as evidence that those who kept their religion remained.

• Qiyafa (legal rulings)

  In the jurists' usage, qiyafa is the reading of likeness, either of footprints or of a person's bodily features, to establish kinship or trace an act. The Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow relying on it to settle a disputed lineage when no stronger proof exists, while the Hanafis reject it because the law confines lineage to the marriage bed (firash). Those who accept it require a qa'if with experience, probity, Islam, and, for the Shafi'is, male and free status. It is also used in property and crime cases as evidence or a clue.

• Qiyas

  Qiyas in usul usage is extending a root case's ruling to a branch case for a shared cause; al-Shafi'i counts it in the Risala among the proofs alongside the Book, the Sunna and ijma'.

• The descent of the Qur'an: sending down and gradual descent

  Sha'rawi holds that the Qur'an had two descents: a sending down, all at once, to the lowest heaven on the Night of Power, and a gradual descent to the Prophet over twenty-three years as events required. He holds that the Torah and the Gospel came down once, and that the gradual descent was to steady the Prophet and to teach the community.

• The reports from Imam Ahmad

  The statements transmitted from Imam Ahmad on a single question, and how his companions reconciled them and preferred one over another; they are the school's foundation in jurisprudence.

• Sharia

  Sharia.

• Obedience to those in authority and not rebelling (in the Tahawi creed)

  al-Tahawi's position: no rebelling against the imams and rulers even if they are unjust, obeying them is part of obeying God so long as they do not command disobedience, and the pilgrimage and jihad continue with them.

• Taqlid

  Taqlid in usul usage is accepting another's saying without proof; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia gives it a dedicated entry.

• Excuse (udhr)

  Linguistically, udhr is the reason a person offers in his defence; it means lifting blame, and the technical sense does not depart from it. Related are rukhsa, a rule enacted for an excuse while the forbidding cause remains, and afw, the pardoning of a fault and dropping of blame. Excuses are general or specific. Some stay with a person, such as irregular bleeding and the involuntary flow of urine, and their effect on purity and prayer is set out in the rules on repeated ablution for each prayer and on its nullification at the end of the time. Others are passing, such as rain, cold and fear. Others permit concessions: travel, illness, coercion, ignorance, forgetting, madness, necessity, need and minority. In contracts, the excuses concern inability to pay maintenance, the delay in returning a defective sale, and the delay in claiming pre-emption; a binding contract is dissolved when an excuse arises that makes its performance possible only with harm. A person without the means is excused from fighting in jihad, and hardship is lifted from those whom the law excuses.

• Aggression (udwan)

  Linguistically, udwan means going beyond a limit; in the jurists' usage it mostly refers to an unjust attack on a person's life or property, which calls for retaliation (qisas) or compensation (daman). Related words are zulm and ithm: the lexicographers and commentators treat udwan as narrower than sin and as close in meaning to injustice. Its ruling depends on its object: a deliberate attack on life or limbs is forbidden and entails retaliation; theft or armed robbery against property entails the fixed penalty (hadd); the seizure of another's right by aggression, such as usurpation or plunder, entails compensation; and aggression against honour, through unlawful intercourse or slander, entails the hadd, while lesser offences entail discretionary punishment (tazir).

• Warranty (uhda) in sale and in pre-emption, and the defect

  In sale, 'uhda is the seller's guarantee of the price or of the title when the object is claimed by a third party. In pre-emption it is the return of ownership to the pre-emptor or buyer; in the option for a defect it is the guarantee when a defect appears. In pre-emption the Shafi'is and Malikis place the warranty on the seller if the pre-emptor took the property from him; the Hanafis place it on the buyer when the property was sold by someone other than the seller. For defects, the year and the three-day warranties differ: a defect arising in the buyer's hands and one present at the seller's both give a right of return.

• Rent, fee or wage (ujra)

  Ujra, lexically and in law, is the counterpart of a benefit: what a worker receives for his labour, and what the owner of a thing receives for its use. A rent may be anything that may serve as a price, whether goods, another benefit, or money, paid at once or deferred. A contract with an unknown rent, or with a rent that is part of the work done, such as hiring a man to skin a sheep for its hide, is not valid. Wine and pork may serve as rent only for non-Muslims. The details belong under the lease; taking a fee for acts of worship is treated under the call to prayer, pilgrimage and jihad.

• The 'Umariyya cases of inheritance (the mother's third)

  'Umariyya is the name of two cases in the law of inheritance, a husband with both parents or a wife with both parents, named after 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, who was the first to decide them. The mother takes a third where the deceased has no child or grandchild and the parents alone inherit, and a sixth where there is a child or two or more siblings. 'Umar and the majority held that in the 'umariyya the mother takes a third of what remains after the spouse's share; so with a husband the estate is counted as six shares, the husband taking three, the mother one and the father two, and with a wife twelve shares. Ibn 'Abbas, Abu Bakr al-Asamm and Zayd ibn Thabit differed in their reasoning.

• Generality (umum) in the sources of law and what it covers

  In the lexicon, 'umum is the act of covering and including, from 'amma, to cover. Some usulis define it as the inclusion of individuals at once; al-Mazari defines a general statement as one that includes two things or more. The general term (amm) is a word that applies to individuals of agreed limits in full, the particular (khusus) is its opposite, and the shared term (mushtarak) has two or more meanings used alternately. The majority of usulis hold that a general text establishes its ruling over everything it covers unless a proof says otherwise; the rules of exception and its disputes are treated in the legal-theory appendix.

• General affliction ('umum al-balwa) and the rulings built on it

  General affliction is a situation or event that touches many people and cannot easily be avoided; some jurists call it general necessity. On it the jurists built concessions, such as overlooking small impurities such as the blood of sores and the droppings of birds, the purity of a leather sock or shoe cleaned by rubbing, the contract for manufacture (istis'a) and the hire of a water channel. In legal theory, the usulis disagreed on a single report in matters of general affliction; most accept it when the chain is sound, while the Hanafis refuse a report that contradicts what general affliction would make widely known. They also differ on the statement of a companion in such matters.

• The generality of the implied (umum al-muqtada) in the usage of texts

  'Umum al-muqtada is the implied meaning that the truth or soundness of a speech requires, though it is not stated in the words; it must be supplied for the speech to be sound, and the text is applied only after it is supplied. The Hanafis hold that an implied meaning has no generality, since generality belongs to words and the implied is not a word; the Shafi'is hold that it has generality and particularity. On this the usulis built the rule of the report that God has removed error, forgetting and compulsion: the ruling removed is general, in the hereafter and in the sharia's legal ruling, so the compelled, the mistaken and the forgetful bear no legal liability; some Hanafis hold that the removal applies only in the hereafter. It differs from 'umum al-majaz, which concerns the scope of the word, while 'umum al-muqtada concerns the supplied ruling.

• Punishment (uquba): fixed, retaliatory and discretionary

  In the lexicon, uquba is a penalty, a noun from 'iqab; as a term it is the penalty fixed for a wrong, or what falls on a person as a deserved consequence of an offence. Penalties are classed by kind, as retaliation, fixed punishment (hadd) and discretionary punishment (ta'zir); by whether the right belongs to God, to people, or to both; and by whether they are complete, incomplete or carry an element of worship. Other penalties include the ghurra for a foetus and the arsh for an injury, and the killer's loss of inheritance and bequest, on the prophetic instruction that the killer has no share in the inheritance. The fixed punishments are determined by the law: illicit intercourse, false accusation, drinking, theft and brigandage, and by disagreement, apostasy and rebellion. Discretionary punishment is not fixed by the law and serves to deter and reform; flogging, imprisonment and reproof are allowed, while maiming, slapping the face, burning and shaving the beard are not. Some jurists allow penalties of different kinds to be combined for one offence, and penalties of the same kind and cause overlap.

• Zina

  Zina in juristic usage is among the fixed hudud penalties; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia's 'hadd al-zina' entry details its rulings.

Group

• The Hanafi school (madhhab)

  Widest of the schools in the use of ra'y — the largest circle in Ahmad Amin's diagram; champions of istihsan, which the Shafi'is rejected.

• The Hanbali school (madhhab)

  One of the four Sunni schools of law, named after Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal; it gives precedence to the revealed text, transmitted reports and the fatwas of the Companions, and was preserved and written down by his students after him, foremost among them al-Khallal and al-Kharaqi.

• The Maliki school (madhhab)

  Malik ibn Anas's school — third of the madhhabs in resort to ra'y, working the tool of istislah, the safeguarding of religion, life, reason, progeny and wealth.

• The Shafi'i school (madhhab)

  al-Shafi'i's school — second widest in ra'y after the Hanafis, famous for rejecting istihsan: 'whoever exercises istihsan has legislated'.

• The Zahiri school (madhhab)

  Dawud ibn Ali al-Isbahani's school — literalist, rejecting qiyas outright: God legislated, not reason; smallest of the circles of ra'y, strongest in Persia and al-Andalus.

Work

• al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya (digital copy)

  A fiqh encyclopedia arranged by topic, starting with the worship chapters (purity, prayer, funerals, zakat, fasting, pilgrimage). The digital copy's title page credits the Dorar.net compilation under Alawi al-Saqqaf in three volumes, which does not match the Kuwaiti encyclopedia by name or size.

• al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya (Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia)

  A modern fiqh encyclopedia issued by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs in Kuwait. Its headwords are fiqh terms arranged alphabetically; under each question it sets out the juristic positions with their evidence, and it covers the legal heritage up to the 13th century AH. It excludes codifications, personal preference and sectarian debate.

• al-Mughni

  Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi's commentary on the Mukhtasar of al-Kharaqi, the most famous of its commentaries; he writes out each question from the base text, then lays out the imams' positions and their evidence and gives his preference. It ran to nine volumes in the author's own hand, and most copies today are in thirteen volumes.

• Maʿalim al-Qurba fi Ahkam al-Hisba (Duties of the Market Inspector)

  A treatise on hisba by Ibn al-Ukhuwwa, written to help the market inspector in his duties: supervising markets, weights and measures, protecting public morals, and fighting fraud and forbidden contracts. The editors describe the standing of the science of hisba in early Islam and the qualities required of its holder.

• al-Madkhal ila Madhhab al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal

  Ibn Badran's book in an introduction and eight chapters introducing the Hanbali school: the Imam's creed, the reason the school was chosen, its principles, the path of his companions, its legal theory, its terminology, its famous books, and the divisions of jurisprudence among the Hanbalis.

• Mukhtasar al-Kharaqi

  The most famous base text of the Hanbali school among its early and middle generations, a concise work on jurisprudence composed by al-Kharaqi; Abu Ishaq al-Barmaki counted its questions at two thousand three hundred.

• Muwatta of Imam Malik

  The Muwatta of Imam Malik ibn Anas (d. 179 AH): one of the earliest hadith and jurisprudence works arranged by chapter, compiled in Medina. Its most widely read transmission is the recension of Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi.

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