Individual obligation
Individual obligation (Arabic: الواجب العيني) is a type of religious obligations that all mukallaf people should perform. Individual obligations are opposite to collective duties which are discharged from other people, if some mukallafs perform them. Daily prayers, fasting, zakat, doing good to parents and strengthening ties with blood relatives are among individual obligations.
Jurisprudential Definition
Individual obligations are opposite to collective duties which are not assigned to certain people; meaning that according to the Islamic view, it is sufficient if anyone performs it.[1] Daily prayers, fasting, zakat, hajj,[2] doing good to parents and strengthening ties with blood relatives are among individual obligations.[3]
Difference with Collective Duties
Individual obligations are opposite to collective duties which are not assigned to certain people; meaning that according to the Islamic view, it is sufficient if anyone performs it. Thus, if they are performed by some mukallafs, they are not obligatory for others;[4] such as enjoining good and prohibiting the evil, jihad, replying a greeting,[5] shrouding, praying over and burial of a dead body and saving a person's life.[6]
According to scholars of the principles of jurisprudence, the reason why others will be discharged of collective duties, in case they are performed by some mukallafs, is that in collective duties, the fulfillment of the duty is desired and it is not important who fulfills it.[7]
Recognition of Individual and Collective Obligations
Scholars of the principles of jurisprudence say that in cases when there is no proof about whether one order of God is an individual or a collective duty, the person should consider it as his individual obligation;[8]because, intellect rules that when the person is not certain that he would become discharged of God’s order if performed by others, he should perform it.[9]
See Also
Notes
- ↑ Muzaffar, Uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 1, p. 140; Ḥusaynī, al-Dalīl al-fiqhī, p. 301; Wilāʾī, Farhang-i tashrihi-yi iṣṭilaḥāt-i uṣūl, p. 336.
- ↑ Ḥusaynī, al-Dalīl al-fiqhī, p. 301.
- ↑ ʿAjam, Mawsūʿa muṣṭalaḥāt uṣūl al-fiqh ʿind al-muslimīn, vol. 2, p. 1690.
- ↑ Muzaffar, Uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 1, p. 140; Ḥusaynī, al-Dalīl al-fiqhī, p. 3091; Wilāʾī, Farhang-i tashrihi-yi iṣṭilaḥāt-i uṣūl, p. 337.
- ↑ ʿAjam, Mawsūʿa muṣṭalaḥāt uṣūl al-fiqh ʿind al-muslimīn, vol. 2, p. 1690.
- ↑ Muzaffar, Uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 1, p. 140.
- ↑ Muzaffar, Uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 1, p. 140-141.
- ↑ Muzaffar, Uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 1, p. 124-125; Ākhund Khurāsānī, Kifāyat al-uṣūl, p. 252; Subḥānī, al-Wasīṭ fī uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 1, p. 100.
- ↑ Muzaffar, Uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 1, p. 124-125.
References
- Ākhund Khurāsānī, Muḥammad Kāẓim. Kifāyat al-uṣūl. 1st edition. Qom: Muʾassisat Āl al-Bayt, 1409 AH.
- ʿAjam, Rafīq, al-. Mawsūʿa muṣṭalaḥāt uṣūl al-fiqh ʿind al-muslimīn. Beirut: Maktabat Lubnān Nāshirūn, 1998.
- Ḥusaynī, Muḥammad. Al-Dalīl al-fiqhī ṭaṭbīqat fiqhiyya li muṣṭalaḥāt ʿilm al-uṣūl. 1st edition. Damascus: Markaz-i Ibn Idrīs Ḥillī li-l-Dirāsāt al-fiqhiyya, 2007.
- Muzaffar, Muḥammad Riḍā al-. Uṣūl al-fiqh. 5th edition. Qom: Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1430 AH.
- Subḥānī, Jaʿfar. Al-Wasīṭ fī uṣūl al-fiqh. 4th edition. Qom: Muʾassisat al-Imām al-Ṣādiq, 1388 Sh.
- Wilāʾī, Īsā. Farhang-i tashrihi-yi iṣṭilaḥāt-i uṣūl. 6th edition. Tehran: Nashr-i Niy, 1387 Sh.