Abstract
Permissibility (al-ibahah) is one of the five degrees of approval in Islamic law; it provides option to Muslims to perform or not to perform a certain act as per their desire. If any activity is performed under this order, no punishment or reward is liable to him/her. In other words it nullifies the status of delinquency. The present paper first defines the lexical and technical meanings of permissibility as defined by renowned Islamic scholars such as al-Shatibi, al-Amidi and al-Ghazali. Secondly it provides details about the conventional law that how it removes responsibility of delinquency of an act and makes it permissible. It also discusses different types and causes of permissibility, differentiating it from insanity in which case a person commits an offense under defective understanding such as childhood, mental illness or in sleeping. These conditions remove responsibility and prosecution by both the laws. Different rules regarding mistake and ignorance in the case of al-ibahah permissibility has also been discussed in detail along with discussion on limitations of al-ibahah.
Keyword(s)
al-ibahah in Islam, offence, Islamic Law, Mistake, Ignorance, Punishment and Reward