The word · Law & life
اِسْتِحْسان
Istihsan
Juristic preference: setting aside a strict analogy for a stronger reason of fairness or need.
Also written · Istihsaan · Istehsan · Istihsen · Istihsann · Ihsan al-qiyas · juristic preference · equity · legal preference · departing from analogy
The meaning
What Istihsan means in Islam
It is chiefly a Hanafi and Maliki tool, used where the obvious qiyas would cause real hardship or would collide with a text, a consensus or plain necessity. The Hanafi allowance of manufacturing contracts, where the goods do not yet exist, is a standard example. Al-Shafi'i attacked istihsan in famous words, saying whoever practises it has made law himself, though his objection was to arbitrary preference rather than to reasoned exception.
Evidence · Scholars differ · The scholars read this one differently
Read beside it
Words that sit beside it
- QiyasAnalogy: extending a known ruling to a new case that shares the same underlying reason.قِياس
- HanafiThe school of Abu Hanifah, the most widely followed, known for careful reasoning and analogy.المَذْهَبُ الحَنَفِيّ
- Shafi'iThe school of al-Shafi'i, known for tight textual method and a systematic theory of sources.المَذْهَبُ الشّافِعِيّ
- MaslahahPublic benefit, weighed as a legal consideration where no specific text settles the matter.مَصْلَحة
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