The word · Law & life
اِسْتِصْحاب
Istishab
Presumption of continuity: what was established stays in force until there is proof it changed.
Also written · Istishaab · Istis-hab · Istishab al-hal · Istashab · presumption of continuity · presumption · status quo · certainty is not removed by doubt · innocent until proven guilty
The meaning
What Istishab means in Islam
It is why you are still in wudu when you merely doubt whether you broke it, why a missing person is presumed alive until evidence says otherwise, and why an accused person is treated as innocent until guilt is proved. It works hand in hand with the maxim that certainty is not lifted by doubt. Shafi'is and Hanbalis use it broadly, while Hanafis accept it to defend an existing state but not to establish a new right.
Evidence · Scholars differ · The scholars read this one differently
Read beside it
Words that sit beside it
- Qawa'id FiqhiyyahLegal maxims: short principles that gather the pattern behind thousands of separate rulings.القَواعِدُ الفِقْهِيَّة
- Usul al-FiqhThe science of how rulings are derived: which sources count, and how they are read.أُصولُ الفِقْه
- WuduThe washing done before prayer: face, arms to the elbows, wiping the head, and feet to the ankles.وُضوء
- HanbaliThe school of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the most text bound of the four, strongest in Arabia.المَذْهَبُ الحَنْبَلِيّ
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