The word · Law & life
مَصْلَحة
Maslahah
Public benefit, weighed as a legal consideration where no specific text settles the matter.
Also written · Maslaha · Masalih · Maslahat · Maslahah mursalah · Masalih mursalah · Istislah · Maslaha mursala · public interest · public benefit · common good
The meaning
What Maslahah means in Islam
Its full name is al-maslahah al-mursalah, the untethered benefit, meaning one that revelation neither commands nor forbids by name. Registering marriages, compiling the Qur'an into one volume and building prisons were all defended this way. The schools differ over how far it may reach: Malikis and Hanbalis use it most freely, Shafi'is more narrowly, and all of them insist it can never overturn a clear text.
Evidence · Scholars differ · The scholars read this one differently
Read beside it
Words that sit beside it
- Maqasid al-Shari'ahThe higher aims of Islamic law: what its rulings exist in order to protect.مَقاصِدُ الشَّريعة
- IstihsanJuristic preference: setting aside a strict analogy for a stronger reason of fairness or need.اِسْتِحْسان
- DarurahNecessity: the state in which something forbidden becomes permitted in order to preserve life.ضَرورة
- MalikiThe school of Malik ibn Anas of Madinah, weighted towards the practice of that city.المَذْهَبُ المالِكِيّ
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