Hukm
*Hukm* is the Sharia's address concerning the acts of accountable people, placing each act on a fixed scale.
What it means for me: This is why a question to a mufti is often phrased as 'what is the hukm of this?'. The obligation ruling ranks an act as obligatory, recommended, permitted, disliked, or forbidden. The situational ruling names why an act counts: a cause, a condition, or a preventer. It also marks the act itself valid or invalid.
Example: A reader asks about the hukm of a specific food additive. The answer names one grade on the five-part scale and explains why.
Do not confuse with: Fatwa, a mufti's opinion on a case, and a court's judgment. A fatwa applies a hukm without binding anyone to follow it. A judge's decision, called *qada*, does bind the parties in a dispute. Plain personal opinion, unlike either, claims no grounding in Sharia's sources at all.
If scholars differ: Usul scholars differ on how many grades the obligation ruling holds. Most count five, from obligatory to forbidden. The Hanafi school separates Fard from Wajib by the strength of their evidence, producing six grades instead. The mufti applies whichever scale fits the school in question.
See the term in context
What is the legal ruling (hukm shar’i) on the perpetrators and the victim in a case of rape and molestation of a student by five other students? And was what happened to the victim from the divine decree (qadar Allah)? And why did Allah not intervene to protect him? And what is the wisdom behind what happened?
The implementation of hudud (punishments) after they are established is contingent upon the legitimate ruler (wali al-amr). The prescribed punishment for the act of Lot's people (homosexuality) is death, but there is no…
Is the phrase "My soul, I no longer want you at all" considered a metaphorical divorce (kinayah), and what is its legal ruling (hukm shar'i) in this case?
This phrase is not explicit in divorce, but rather an allusion (kinayah) by which divorce does not occur without intention. Doubt about the intention of divorce is not considered, because the original state is the…
What is the ruling on doubting a legal ruling (hukm shar‘i) during prayer, and is it considered to invalidate it? And what is the ruling on women passing or praying in front of me in the prayer area, and does that invalidate the prayer?
The cure for obsessive thoughts (waswas) is to ignore them and pay them no mind. Hesitation in forming the intention (niyyah) does not invalidate the prayer, according to the more preponderant opinion. Crying, if it is…
Questions that use it
I would like to know the types of prayer make-up (Istidrak), and its ruling (Hukm)?
Is a father sinful for severing ties with his paternal uncles and aunts due to their refusal to divide the inheritance of land in Palestine (with the male receiving the same share as the female), which is known as "Al-Miriyah," "Al-Othmaniyah," or "Al-Hukm Al-Intiqali"?
What is the legal ruling (hukm shar'i) on Tawarruq as practiced in Islamic banks, which some scholars have permitted, while others consider it forbidden based on the banks' method of implementing it, and what is the way to repent and expiate sins for someone who was compelled to take a Tawarruq loan to pay off their debts and improve their financial circumstances?