The Forms Associated To At-takleef (legal Responsibility)
Through an examination of the Shar’iyah texts guiding to the Ahkaam, the scholars of Usool found that the Hukm Ash-Shar’iy At-Takleefiy is the Khitaab Ash-Shaar’i (address of the Legislator) related to the Af’aal (actions) of the ‘Ibaad (servants/people) in the form of Iqtidaa’ or Takhyeer i.e. in the form of a request (At-Talab) or the form of providing a choice. This address consists of five types of Ahkaam and they are:
Al-Fard (Al-Waajib), Al-Mandoob, Al-Mubaah, Al-Haraam and Al-Makrooh.
Each of these types has linguistic and Shar’iy forms that indicate them and it is possible to divide these forms into three types or categories:
The forms that are indicative of the Mubaah (permissible action of choice).
The forms that are indicative of the Amr (command).
The forms which are indicative of the Nahi (forbiddance).
The forms (Siyagh) that are indicative of the Mubaah:
The Mubaah is that which the Shaari’ has provided the choice between doing the action or leaving it. Forms indicative of this include the following:
1 – The Ibaahah (permissibility) can be understood from the command form like in His Qawl (swt):
Eat and drink from the Rizq (sustenance) of Allah (Al-Baqarah 60)
2 – The Ibaahah (permissibility) can be found within the form: i.e. forms of the word Halaal). This is like the Qawl of Allah Ta’Aalaa:
This day [all] good foods have been made lawful, and the food of those who were given the Scripture is lawful for you and your food is lawful for them (Al-Maa’idah 5)
3 – From among the forms (Siyagh) of the Ibaahah (permissibility) is the text negating the sin from the one undertaking the action, or Al-Haraj (difficulty/problem) or Al-Junaah (blame). This is like the Qawl of Allah Ta’Aalaa:
Then there is no sin (or blame) on either of them if she gives back (the Mahr or a part of it) for her Al-Khul' (divorce). (Al-Baqarah 229).
4 – That the text comes indicating equalness between undertaking the action and leaving it. An example of this is what was extracted by At-Tabaraani in Al-Awsat that a Janaazah (funeral procession) passed by Ibn ‘Abbaas and Al-Hasan Bin ‘Ali and then one of them stood up and the other remained sitting. The one standing said to the one sitting: “Did the Messenger of Allah (saw) not stand up”. So he replied: “Indeed and he sat”. And so it is understood from the Hadeeth that the standing and the sitting when the Janaazah passes by are (both) Mubaah.