Disjunctive obligation
Disjunctive obligation or al-wājib al-takhyīrī (Arabic: الواجِب التَخْییری) is a type of obligation in which the accountable person (mukallaf) can choose from among a number of actions to do, such as the expiation for fasting. It is contrasted to the non-disjunctive obligation (al-wajib al-ta'yini). Obligations in Islam are mainly non-disjunctive. Disjunctive obligations are usually concerned with rulings related to expiations and punishments.
Technical Definition
In sources of usul al-fiqh, an obligation is of two types with respect to its object:[1]
- If the object of the obligation is specific and irreplaceable, such as the prayer, it counts as "al-wajib al-ta'yini" (non-disjunctive obligation).
- And if the object of the obligation is one of a number of things among which the accountable person can choose, it counts as "al-wajib al-takhyiri" (disjunctive obligation), such as the expiation of the fast for which one can choose between the emancipation of a slave, two months of fasting, or feeding 60 people in need.[2]
Some Disjunctive Obligations
Obligations are mainly non-disjunctive. Here are some disjunctive obligations:
- The expiation for fast (emancipation of a slave or two months of fasting or feeding 60 people in need)[3]
- Expiation for plucking one's hair while in ihram or injuring one's face after facing a catastrophe for women.[4]
- Expiation for breaking one's oath (feeding 10 people in need or clothing 10 people who are in need of clothes or emancipating a slave)[5]
- Expiation for ila' (feeding 10 poor people or clothing them, or emancipating a slave, or fasting for three consecutive days).[6]
- Having an option for saying full or broken prayers in four places (Mecca or Masjid al-Haram, Medina or Masjid al-Nabi, al-Ha'ir al-Husayni, the Mosque of Kufa).[7]
- Having an option in reciting Sura al-Fatiha or al-Tasbihat al-Arba'a in rak'as 3 or 4 of prayers.
- During the Occultation of the Twelfth Imam (a), many Imami faqihs (jurists) maintain that one has the option to say either the Friday Prayer or the Noon Prayer at noon on Fridays.[8]
See Also
Notes
- ↑ Fakhr al-Rāzī, al-Maḥṣūl, vol. 2, p. 159.
- ↑ Shaykh Bahāʾī, Zubdat al-uṣūl, vol. 1, p. 51.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Rīyāḍ al-masāʾil, vol. 12, p. 420.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Rīyāḍ al-masāʾil, vol. 12, p. 436.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Rīyāḍ al-masāʾil, vol. 12, p. 427.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Rīyāḍ al-masāʾil, vol. 12, p. 475.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Rīyāḍ al-masāʾil, vol. 12, p. 374.
- ↑ Khomeinī, Tawḍīḥ al-masāʾil (muḥashā), vol. 1, p. 405.
References
- ʿAlawī Qazwīnī, Sayyid ʿAlī. Taʿyīnī wa takhyīrī. In Dānishnāma-yi Jahān-i Islām. vol. 3. Tehran: Bunyād-i Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-Islāmī, 1393 Sh.
- Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī. Tawḍīh al-masāʾil marājiʿ. Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1392 Sh.
- Fakhr al-Rāzī, Muḥammad b. al-ʿUmar al-. Al-Maḥṣūl fī ʿilm uṣūl al-fiqh. Beirut: 1418 AH/1997.
- Khomeinī, Sayyid Rūḥ Allāh. Tawḍīḥ al-masāʾil (muḥashā). Edited by Banī Hāshimī Khomeinī, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥasayn. 8th edition. Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1424 AH.
- Markaz-i Iṭilāʿt wa Madārik-i Islāmī. Farhangnāma-yi usūl-i fiqh. Qom: Pazhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm wa Farhang Islāmī, 1390 sh.
- Najafī, Muḥammad al-Ḥasan al-. Jawāhir al-kalām fī sharḥ sharāʾiʿ al-Islām. Beirut: 1981.
- Shaykh Bahāʾī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Zubdat al-uṣūl. Edited by Muḥammad Bāqir Sidhī Iṣfahānī. Iṣfahān: Lithography, 1306 Sh.
- Ṭabāṭabāʾī, ʿAlī. Rīyāḍ al-masāʾil fī taḥqīq al-aḥkām bi-l-dalāʾil'. Qom: Muʾassisat al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1421 AH.