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Is it permissible to lift the prohibition on something that was forbidden at a certain time due to the cessation of the known reason for its prohibition, while there is a possibility of other unknown reasons for its prohibition?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The 'illah (legal cause) is the precise attribute to which a legal ruling is linked, whereas hikmah (wisdom) refers to the benefits or advantages resulting from linking a ruling to its cause. Wisdom is not considered a 'illah and cannot be relied upon for analogical deduction (qiyas). For example, the prohibition of making statues has as its 'illah the fact that they are three-dimensional figures of living beings, not because it blocks the means to worship them, as that is a hikmah. As for the prohibition of being called by the kunya (patronymic honorific) of the Prophet, peace be upon him, some scholars have held that the 'illah for this prohibition was specific to his lifetime, so that no confusion would arise for someone called by it, leading them to think that he was the Prophet, peace be upon him. The 'illah is identified through the "paths of 'illah" (masalik al-'illah) in the principles of jurisprudence. It is not permissible to deny the rationalization of rulings due to some misguided individuals misusing it, as only the Zahiris deny the rationalization of legal rulings.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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