Draft:Age of Taklif
Age of Taklīf (Arabic: سنّ التكليف; sinn al-taklīf) refers to the stage of life at which a person becomes religiously accountable in Islam. From this point onward, an individual is required to perform religious duties—such as prayer and fasting—and, in relevant legal contexts, certain religious rulings, including the applicability of some hudud, may take effect.[1]
In Islamic jurisprudence, religious accountability is closely tied to the concept of puberty (bulugh) and is treated as one of the essential conditions for moral and legal responsibility.
According to the predominant view among Shi'a jurists, the age of taklif for boys is the completion of fifteen lunar years (roughly equivalent to about fourteen and a half years in the Gregorian calendar), while for girls it is the completion of nine lunar years (roughly equivalent to about eight and a half years in the Gregorian calendar).[2] This position is based on narrations transmitted from the Infallible Imams (a).[3]
Alternative Juristic Views
With regard to the age of taklif for girls, Shi'a jurists have proposed several alternative opinions.[4] These differences are generally attributed to variations and apparent tensions among the relevant narrations.[5]
Among the contemporary Shi'a jurists, figures such as Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayyad[6] and Yousef Saanei[7] held that the age of taklif for girls is thirteen years. Their principal evidence is a narration transmitted by 'Ammar al-Sabati from Imam al-Sadiq (a), in which the age of religious obligation for both boys and girls is stated as thirteen years.[8]
Some jurists have attempted to reconcile differing narrations by distinguishing between types of religious obligations.[9] For example, al-Fayd al-Kashani (d. 1680) maintained that the age of taklif for girls is thirteen years with respect to individual acts of worship such as prayer and fasting, nine years for the application of hudud, and ten years for matters such as manumission ('itq) and making a will.[10]
Relationship to Puberty
The concept of the age of taklif is closely connected to puberty (bulugh) and is discussed extensively in various chapters of Islamic jurisprudence as part of the conditions for obligation.[11] Many jurists consider reaching the age of taklif to be one of the legal indicators of puberty for the purpose of applying religious rulings.[12]
Notes
- ↑ Rajāʾī, Al-Masāʾil al-fiqhiyya, 1421 AH, p. 166; Kulaynī, Al-Kāfī, 1407 AH, vol. 7, pp. 197–198.
- ↑ Baḥrānī, Al-Ḥadāʾiq al-nāḍira, 1363 Sh, vol. 20, p. 348.
- ↑ Rajāʾī, Al-Masāʾil al-fiqhiyya, 1421 AH, p. 159.
- ↑ Fayḍ al-Kāshānī, Mafātīḥ al-sharāʾiʿ, vol. 1, p. 14.
- ↑ Burūjirdī, Jāmiʿ aḥādīth al-Shīʿa, 1415 AH, vol. 1, p. 353; vol. 20, pp. 181–182; Nūrmufīdī, Barrasī-yi fiqhī-yi bulūgh-i dukhtarān, 1395 Sh, p. 201.
- ↑ Taghyīr-i fatwā-yi yikī az marājiʿ-i taqlīd darbāra-yi sinn-i taklīf-i dukhtarān. News Agency-yi Hawzah. Posted: May 20, 2021. Accessed: March 17, 2025.
- ↑ Ṣāniʿī, Bulūgh-i dukhtarān, 1386 Sh, pp. 35–36.
- ↑ Rajāʾī, Al-Masāʾil al-fiqhiyya, 1421 AH, p. 168; Burūjirdī, Jāmiʿ aḥādīth al-Shīʿa, 1415 AH, vol. 1, p. 353.
- ↑ Nūrmufīdī, Barrasī-yi fiqhī-yi bulūgh-i dukhtarān, 1395 Sh, 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, 1376 Sh, p. 269.
- ↑ Ṭūsī, Al-Mabsūṭ, 1387 AH, vol. 2, p. 283; Najafī, Jawāhir al-kalām, 1362 Sh, 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 Behbūdī. Tehran, Al-Maktaba al-Murtaḍawiyya li-Iḥyāʾ al-Āthār al-Jaʿfariyya, 3rd ed., 1387 AH.