Umar Ibrahim Abdullah Gebril

Shart, Rukn and Sabab

1. Condition (Shart)

Shart is an attribute or condition which must be present for an act to be

valid, but it is not a part of the act. For example, the ablution (wudu') is a
necessary condition of salah, but the presence of wudu does not necessitate
salah.

A condition normally complements the cause and gives it its full effect.
Killing is, for example, the cause of retaliation; however, this is on condition
that it is deliberate and hostile. The contract of marriage legalises/causes
sexual enjoyment between the spouses; however, this is on condition that
two witnesses testify to the marriage. The legal consequences of a contract
are not fully realised without the fulfillment of its necessary conditions.

A condition may be laid down by the Lawgiver, or by the mukallaf.

Whenever the former enacts a condition, it is referred to as shart shar'i, or
'legal condition', but if it is a condition which is stipulated by the mukallaf, it
is referred to shart ja'li, or 'improvised condition'. An example of the former
is witnesses in a marriage contract, and of the latter, the case when spouses
stipulate in their marriage contract the condition that they will reside in a
particular locality.

2. Rukn (a Pillar)

Rukn is an attribute or pillar which constitutes a part of an act and the

existence of this act depends on the presence of its pillars. Similarly, the
appsence of a pillar results in the absence of the act. For example, qiraah
(reciting the Quran) is a pillar of the Prayer and without this pillar the
Prayer is invalid.
 Rukn and Shart are similar with regard to the result of the act. If either is
missing the act is invalid.

However, Shart also differs with rukn (pillar, essential requirement) in

that the latter partakes in the essence of a thing. This would mean that the
law or hukm, could not exist in the absence of its rukn. When the whole or
even a part of the rukn is absent, the hukm collapses completely, with the
result that the latter becomes null and void (batil). A shart, on the other
hand, does not partake in the essence of a hukm, although it is a
complementary part of it. Bowing and prostration (ruku' and sajdah), for
example, are each an essential requirement (rukn) of salah and partake in the
very essence of salah, but ablution is a condition of salah as it is an attribute
whose absence disrupts the salah but which does not partake in its essence.

3. Cause (Sabab)

A sabab is defined as an attribute which is evident and constant [wasf zahir

wa-mundabat] and which the Lawgiver has identified as the indicator of a
hukm in such a way that its presence necessitates the presence of the hukm
and its absence means that the hukm is also absent. A sabab may be an act
which is within the power of the mukallaf, such as murder and theft in their
status as the causes of retaliation (qisas) and a hadd penalty respectively.
Alternatively, the sabab may be beyond the control of the mukallaf such as
minority being the cause of guardianship over the person and property of a
minor.

When the sabab is present, whether it is within or beyond the control of

the mukallaf, its effect (i.e. the musabbab) is automatically present even if
the mukallaf had not intended it to be. For example, when a man divorces his
wife by a revocable talaq, he is entitled to resume marital relations with her
even it he openly denies himself that right. Similarly, when a man enters into
a contract of marriage, he is obligated to provide dower and maintenance for
his wife even if he explicitly stipulates the opposite in their contract. For
once the Lawgiver identifies something as a cause, the effect of that cause
comes about by virtue of the Lawgiver's decree regardless of whether the
mukallaf intended it to be so or not.