Adillah - (plural. of dalil) proofs, evidences, indications.
Ahadith - (plural. of hadith) narratives and reports of the deeds and sayings of the Prophet
Ahkam - (plural. of hukm) laws, values and ordinances
Ahliyyah - legal capacity
Ahliyyah al-ada - active legal capacity which can incur rights as well as obligations
Ahliyyah al-wujub - receptove legal capacity which is good for receiving but cannot incur obligations
Al-hukm al-taklifi - defining law, law which defines rights and obligations
Al-hukm al-wad'i - declaratory law, that is, law which regulates the proper implementation of al-hukm al-taklifi, such as by expounding the conditions, exceptions and qualifications thereof.
Dalalah al-nass - inferred or implied meaning of a given text
Dalil - proof, indication, evidence
Faqih - a person who is an expert on Islamic jurisprudence (law), fiqh.
Far' - literally a branch or a sub-division, and in the context of qiyas a new case.
Fard - something which is obligatory on a Muslim. It is sometimes used in reference to the obligatory part of salat.
Fard 'ayn - personal obligation - such as the fard salat (compulsory daily prayers)
Fard kafa'i - collective obligation - such as salat al-Janazah. If a group of the community fulfils this fard, then it is enough, and the duty is fulfilled.
Fatwa - Considered opinion given by a qualified scholar, a mufti (jurisconsult), or a mujtahid (one who is competent enough to conduct ijtihad) concerning a legal/religious issue; a religious edict
Fiqh - Islamic law as developed by Muslim jurists. The term is often used synonymously with Shari'ah; the main difference being that Shari'ah bears a closer link with divine revelation, whereas fiqh mainly consists of the works of religious scholars and jurists.
Fuqaha - plural form of faqih
Hadd - (plural hudud) literally. limit, prescribed penalty.
Halal - something that is lawful and permitted in Islam
Haram - something which is unlawful or prohibited in Islam.
Hudud - the limits ordained by Allah. This includes the punishment for crimes
Hukm - (plural ahkam) as in hukm shar'i: law, value, or ruling of Shari'ah.
Ibahah - Permissibility, being the verbal noun of mubah (permissible), which represents a value point in the Islamic scale of five values, coming next after wajib and mandub.
Ijma' - consensus of opinion
Ijtihad - literally. 'exertion', and technically the effort a jurist makes in order to deduce the law, which is not self-evident, from its sources
Ikhtilaf - juristic disagreement
'Illah - effective cause, or ratio legis, of a particular ruling
istidlal - Reasoning in general (istidlal) by methods other than the recognised sources
istishab - Accompanying circumstances to be taken into consideration
Istihsan - to deem something good, juristic preference
Istislah - consideration of public interest
Mahr - a 'dowry' given by the man to the woman he is about to marry. It is part of the Muslim marriage contract. It can never be demanded back under any circumstances
Majazi - metaphorical, figurative
Makruh - abominable, reprehensible
Mandub - Recommended, praiseworthy; a course of conduct which earns moral reward if followed; however a person who does not follow such a course of conduct is not open to punishment. It is also synonymous with mustahabb.
Mansukh - abrogated, repealed
Mubah - permissible.
Muhkam - perspicuous, a word or a text conveying a firm and unequivocal meaning
Mujmal - ambivalent, ambiguous, referring to a category of unclear words
Mukallaf - a competent person who is in full possession of his faculties
Mukhtasar - abridgement, summary, esp. of juristic manuals composed for mnemonic and teaching purposes.
Munasib - appropriate, in harmony with the basic purpose of the law
Mutashabih - intricate, unintelligible, referring to a word or a text whose meaning is totally unclear
Mutashabihat - (singular. mutashabih) Ambiguous, obscure, difficult to understand - the abbreviated letters which occur at the beginning of some chapters of the Quran are typical examples; the ambiguous passages in the Qur'an
Nahy - prohibition
Nass - a clear injunction, an explicit textual ruling
Nikah - Islamic Legal marriage contract.
Nusus. - (plural. of nass) clear textual rulings
Qadah - plural form of qadi
Qadi - Judge
qawl al-Sahabi - The opinion of a Companion of the Prophet. Also known as madhhab al-Sahabi
Qisas - retaliation in kind (eye for an eye). In Islam though, retaliation should be forgone as an act of charity sura 5, ayah 48
Qiyas - Analogical reasoning aimed at extending a given ruling of the Quran and Sunnah to a new case, on grounds of an effective cause common to both the new and th eoriginal case
Ra'y - Considered personal opinion, often used in contradistinction to nass (see above)
Rukhsah - concession or concessionary law, that is, law which is modified due to the presence of mitigating factors
Sadaq - same meaning as mahr
Sahih - valid, authentic
Sanad - basis, proof, authority
Shar'i - Juridical, legal
Shari'ah - Islamic law as contained in the divine guidance of the Qur'an and Sunnah. 'Islamic law' is the nearest English translation of Shari'ah, yet the latter is not confined specifically to legal subject matter and extends to the much wider areas of moral and religious guidance
shar’ man qablana - Pre-Islamic divine laws
Shart - (plural. shurut) condition
Siyasah Shari'ah - Shari'ah-oriented policy; often refers to discretionary decisions taken by the Head of State or qadi in pursuit of public good, in response to emergency situations, or in cases where a strict application of the established law would lead to undesirable results
Sunnah - the examples of the Prophet's life, what he said, did, implemented, how he implemented, etc
Tahlil - an intervening marriage contracted for the sole purpose of legalising remarriage between a divorced couple
Tahrim - prohibition, or rendering something into haram
Tahsiniyyat - Embellishments, or things which are merely desirable, as opposed to daruriyyat which are deemed to be essential
Taklif - liability, obligation
Talaq - divorce initiated by the husband
Ta'lil - ratiocination, search for the effective cause of a ruling
Tarjih - Preference (of one legal opinion over others).
Tashri - legislation
Ta'wil - allegorical interpretation
Ta'zir - deterrence, discretionary penalty determined by the qadi.
Ulama - the learned, knowledgeble people in Islam. Plural form of alim
'urf - Custom.
Usul al-fiqh - Sources or roots of Islamic law and jurisprudence; refers mainly to the Quran and Sunnah as the principal sources of the Shari'ah, but also to a number of other sources and methods which are used in order to facilitatee the proper exercise of ijtihad.
Usul al-Qanun - modern jurisprudence.
Wajib - obligatory, often synonymous with fard
Wajib ayni - personal obligation.
Wajib kafa'i - collective obligation of the entire community
Waqf - charitable endowment
Wilayah - (walayah) authority, guardianship (of minors and mentally ill).
Wujub - obligation, rendering something obligatory