This document discusses five Islamic legal maxims: 1. Acts are judged by the intention behind them. Intention determines whether an act is lawful or unlawful. 2. Certainty is not overruled by doubt. One cannot be deemed liable until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. 3. Hardship begets facility. When adherence to the original law would cause undue hardship, concessions are made to alleviate the hardship. 4. Harm must be eliminated. Lesser harms are preferred over greater harms. Public interest prevails over private interests. 5. Custom is a basis for judgement. When there is no clear Islamic ruling, local customs can be followed as long as they do not contradict Islamic

1. 5 LEGAL MAXIM

2. ALL THE
MATTERS ARE
DETERMINED
BY INTENTION
(AL-UMUR BI
MAQASIDIHA)
1. Words and acts only serve as
manifestation of the
intention
2. Thus, in determining the
intention of a person in doing
an act, the usage of a
customer or the context of
the circumstances is very
important.
3. Acts are judged by the
intention behind them

3. “AL-UMURUBI-MAQASIDIHA” ACTS ARE JUDGED
BY THE INTENTION BEHIND THEM
1. This maxim is about ‘claim and
practice’, where Muslims are required
to demonstrate consistency in faith
and practice, and in words and deeds.
2. It embodies the relationship between
intention and deed; claims and acts.
3. It is about how legality and illegality is
determined through intention and deed.
4. For example : A man makes an earning for
(a) the satisfaction of his selfish urges;
(b) personal consumption and
demonstration effects; or (c) complying
with the divine command to earn for the
sake of survival and spending on noble
causes.The act of earning may be the same,
but the intention behind the act itself
determines its standing.

4. CERTAINTY MAY
NOT BE DISPROVED
BY DOUBT (AL
YAQIN LA YAZUL
BIL AS-SHAK)
1. The presumption cannot be set aside by doubt, but by certainty
Certainty is not overruled by doubt

5. “AL-YAQINULA YAZULUBISH-SHAKK”CERTAINTY IS NOT OVERRULED BY DOUBT
IN OTHERWORDS : “INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY”
• Although mainly used in relation to principally criminal matters, in general this maxim
really means that one cannot be deemed liable until proven
EXAMPLE:
1. A person bought a product and then claimed that is defective and hence decided to return
it to the seller. Experienced sellers argued about what the buyer found in his purchased
product, some of them said that it is a defect and some did not think so. In this case, the
buyer don’t have a right to return the purchased product.This is because the original and
certain state of the purchased product is that being free from defects and therefore, the
found defect is not considered because of the doubts about it.
2. If a contract was confirmed to be concluded between two parties but later its cancellation
was doubted, then the contract’s validity is considered to continue.

6. HARDSHIP
BEGETS
FACILITY (AL-
MASYAQQAH
TAJIBUL AL-
TAYSIR)
1. Certainty proves that Allah
s.w.t wishes to remove
hardship from mankind.
2. Necessity makes the unlawful
lawful. (al-dharurah tubiih al
mahzurat)

7. “AL-MASHAQQATUTUJLABAT-TAYSIR ----HARDSHIP BEGETS FACILITY---
EXAMPLE related maxim
1. ‫إذا‬‫إتسع‬ ‫األمر‬ ‫ضاق‬ (WHERE A MATTER IS NARROW IT BECOMES WIDE)
Where the actual materials are narrow or limit, which the limitation will bring burden to people, it has
allowed making it wider so that it will give ease to the particular people. It
is applicable once darurah occurred, if the original hukm is implemented, the difficulties will arise.
Example:
A woman lost contact with herWali (not knowing his actual condition, whether he is still alive or dead)
and there is noWali Hakim at her place. So it’s permitted to appoint a man to be her Wali Hakim.
A woman who is still in her period of menses or her husband has just passed away, during the waiting
period time; she is permitted to go out of her home in order to enable her to work.
A debtor who was declared bankruptcy is allowed to postpone the repayment of his loan to his
creditor until he is able to do it later or it’s better for the creditor to consider the debt as a bad debt.

8. CONT…
2. NECESSITY MAKESTHE UNLAWFUL LAWFUL (ALDHARURAHTUBIIH AL-MAHZURAT)
EXAMPLE:
1. A doctor is permitted to see awrah of patient in the case of urgency.
2.The permissibility to eat unlawful food e.i pork when you lost in the middle of jungle.

9. HARM MUST
BE REMOVED
(AL DARAR
YUZAL)
1. Harm cannot be removed
by another similar
2. Conflict between preventing
evil and securing benefit
3. Conflict between a private
and public interest.
4. Preference for a lesser harm
Harm must be eliminated

10. “AD-DARARUYUZAL”HARM MUST BE ELIMINATED
“HARM CANNOT BE REMOVED BY
ANOTHER SIMILAR HARM”
EXAMPLE:
A rich person refuses to pay zakat, a poor man
who has a right in zakat distribution should not
rob from the former to take that right.
“CONFLICT BETWEEN PREVENTING EVIL AND
SECURING BENEFIT”
Preventing evil is preferred over securing a benefit
EXAMPLE:
A man who possesses a piece of land and river
flows his land. He wants to build a house on the
land, which will cause the river to flow in another
direction.This will cause hardship to the farmers
of neighbouring land.The preventing hardship
caused to the farmers prevail over the securing
benefit by owner of the land.

11. CONT…
CONFLICT BETWEEN A PRIVATE AND
PUBLIC INTERESt
The public interest will prevail.
EXAMPLE:
When a fire broke out in a housing area,
in order to prevent the fire from spreading
and harming other houses,
one of the houses must be pulled down.
Here, there is a conflict between the
interest of house owner and interest of the
public.The interest of public must be
given priority.
PREFERENCE FOR A LESSER HARM
EXAMPLE:
If a ship is in danger of capsizing, it would be
permissible to throw overboard all goods to save
human life(passenger)
The evil resulting from the loss of property is lesser
than evil resulting from the loss of human lives.
HOWEVER, forbidden to throw overboard one of
the passenger into the sea to save other
passenger, because the evil here is equal.

12. CUSTOM IS A
BASIS OF
JUDGEMENT
(AL-ADAH
MUHAKKAMA
H)
1. If there is no clear
hokum on the certain
issues, uruf or custom
will takes place
2. Must in accordance
with Islamic principle

13. “AL-’ADDATUMUHAKKAMATUN”CUSTOM IS THE BASIS OF JUDGEMENT
1.These customary rules may be allowable provided that they are no in conflict with the
Shariah, current and used predominantly by people.
2.These customary rules may be:
1. Allowable provided that they are no in conflict with the Shariah
2. Current and used predominantly by people
3. If there is no clear hukm on the certain issues, ‘urf for custom will takes place.
4. For example : In a certain town, it may be customary for the seller to include a local gift to the
buyer as a way of thanking the buyer for his/her custom ( not the same meaning as ‘custom’
above).