The word · Law & life
فَرْضُ عَيْن
Fard 'Ayn
An individual obligation: every responsible Muslim must perform it personally.
Also written · Fard ayn · Fardh ain · Farz-i ayn · Fardu ain · Fard al-ayn · Fardain · individual obligation · personal obligation · personal duty
The meaning
What Fard 'Ayn means in Islam
Prayer, fasting Ramadan, zakat when you own the nisab, and hajj once if you are able. Nobody can discharge these on your behalf, and another person doing them does not lift them from you. Learning enough to practise your own religion is also fard 'ayn, which is why the basics of purification, prayer and honest earning are everybody's business and not only the scholars'.
Evidence · Editorial · Our own summary, drawn from the sources named
Read beside it
Words that sit beside it
- Fard KifayahA communal obligation: if enough people carry it out, it is lifted from everyone else.فَرْضُ كِفاية
- FardObligatory: required by decisive evidence, and sinful to abandon without an excuse.فَرْض
- MukallafA person legally responsible: sane, and past the age of puberty.مُكَلَّف
- SalahThe formal Muslim prayer, performed five times a day at set times, facing Makkah.الصَّلاة
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- DiyahBlood money: compensation paid to a victim's family for a killing or an injury.دِيَة
- IjarahHire or lease: paying for the use of something, or for another person's labour.إِجارة
- MahramA relative you may never marry, and before whom the rules of covering are relaxed.مَحْرَم
- Mut'ahTemporary marriage for a fixed term, permitted in Twelver Shia law and prohibited in Sunni law.زَواجُ المُتْعة
- RukhsahA concession: permission to do the easier thing when a recognised excuse applies.رُخْصة