Age of Taklif
Age of Taklīf refers to a specific period in which a person becomes religiously obligated to perform religious duties and becomes subject to the divine legal penalties.[1]
According to the widely accepted view among Shi'a jurists, the age of taklif for boys is upon completing fifteen lunar years equivalent to approximately fourteen years, six months, and twelve days in the Gregorian calendar; for girls, it is upon completing nine lunar years, equivalent to approximately eight years, eight months, and twenty days in the Gregorian calendar.[2] This view is based on narrations transmitted from the Infallible Imams (a).[3]
Jurists have expressed different views concerning the age of taklif for girls,[4] largely due to differences among the relevant narrations.[5] Muhammad Ishaq Fayyad[6] and Yusuf Sani'i,[7] among the Shi'a jurists of the fourteenth/twentieth century, held that the age of taklif for girls is thirteen. Their principal evidence is a narration transmitted by 'Ammar al-Sabati from Imam al-Sadiq (a).[8] In this narration, the age of taklif is stated as thirteen for both boys and girls.[9]
Some other jurists have distinguished between different religious duties in an attempt to reconcile the various narrations.[10] For example, al-Fayd al-Kashani considered the age of taklif for girls to be thirteen for individual matters such as prayer and fasting, nine for the implementation of hudud, and ten for matters such as manumission and testamentary disposition.[11]
The issue of the age of taklif is closely connected with puberty and is discussed as one of the conditions of religious obligation in various chapters of Islamic jurisprudence.[12] Jurists regard reaching the age of taklif as one of the criteria of puberty.[13]
Notes
- ↑ Rajāʾī, al-Masāʾil al-fiqhiyya, p. 166; Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, vol. 7, pp. 197–198.
- ↑ Baḥrānī, al-Ḥadāʾiq al-nāḍira, vol. 20, p. 348.
- ↑ Rajāʾī, al-Masāʾil al-fiqhiyya, p. 159.
- ↑ See: Fayḍ al-Kāshānī, Mafātīḥ al-sharāʾiʿ, vol. 1, p. 14.
- ↑ See: Burūjirdī, Jāmiʿ aḥādīth al-Shīʿa, vol. 1, p. 353; vol. 20, pp. 181–182; Nūrmufīdī, Barrasī-yi fiqhī-yi bulūgh-i dukhtarān, p. 201.
- ↑ Taghyīr-i fatwā-yi yikī az marājiʿ-i taqlīd darbāra-yi sinn-i taklīf-i dukhtarān.
- ↑ Ṣāniʿī, Bulūgh-i dukhtarān, pp. 35–36.
- ↑ Rajāʾī, al-Masāʾil al-fiqhiyya, p. 168.
- ↑ Burūjirdī, Jāmiʿ aḥādīth al-Shīʿa, vol. 1, p. 353.
- ↑ Nūrmufīdī, Barrasī-yi fiqhī-yi bulūgh-i dukhtarān, pp. 252–253.
- ↑ Fayḍ al-Kāshānī, Mafātīḥ al-sharāʾiʿ, vol. 1, p. 14.
- ↑ Jannātī, Naẓariyya-yi taḥawwul-i sharīʿat bā taḥawwul-i zamān, in Bulūgh-i dukhtarān, p. 269.
- ↑ Ṭūsī, al-Mabsūṭ, vol. 2, p. 283; Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, vol. 26, p. 42.
References
- Baḥrānī, Yūsuf b. Aḥmad al-. Al-Ḥadāʾiq al-nāḍira fī aḥkām al-ʿitra al-ṭāhira. Qom: Muʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1363 Sh.
- Burūjirdī, Sayyid Ḥusayn. Jāmiʿ aḥādīth al-Shīʿa. Qom: Nashr-i Mihr, 1415 AH.
- Fayḍ al-Kāshānī, Muḥammad b. Shāh Murtaḍā. Mafātīḥ al-sharāʾiʿ. Edited by Sayyid Mahdī Rajāʾī. Qom: Kitābkhāna-yi ʿUmūmī-yi Āyatullāh Marʿashī Najafī, 1401 AH.
- Jannātī, Muḥammad Ibrāhīm. Naẓariyya-yi taḥawwul-i sharīʿat bā taḥawwul-i zamān. In Bulūgh-i dukhtarān, edited by Mahdī Mihrīzī. Qom: Markaz-i Muṭālaʿāt wa Taḥqīqāt-i Islāmī, 1977.
- Kulaynī, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-. Al-Kāfī. Edited by ʿAlī Akbar Ghaffārī & Muḥammad Ākhūndī. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, 1407 AH.
- Najafī, Muḥammad Ḥasan. Jawāhir al-kalām fī sharḥ sharāʾiʿ al-Islām. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1362 Sh.
- Nūrmufīdī, Sayyid Mujtabā. Barrasī-yi fiqhī-yi bulūgh-i dukhtarān. Qom: Markaz-i Fiqhī-yi Aʾimma-yi Aṭhār (a), 2016.
- Rajāʾī, Sayyid Muḥammad. Al-Masāʾil al-fiqhiyya. Qom: Intishārāt-i ʿIlmiyya, 1st ed., 1421 AH.
- Ṣāniʿī, Yūsuf. Bulūgh-i dukhtarān. Qom: Maysam-i Tammār, 2007.
- Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. Ḥasan al-. Al-Mabsūṭ fī fiqh al-Imāmiyya. Edited by Muḥammad Bāqir Bihbūdī. Tehran: Al-Maktaba al-Murtaḍawiyya li-Iḥyāʾ al-Āthār al-Jaʿfariyya, 3rd ed., 1387 AH.