Discover the meaning of the term Al-fiqh (فقه) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 5 min readIn language: understanding the speaker's intent from his words. In usage: the knowledge of practical religious rulings derived from their detailed evidences. It has also been said: it is hitting the mark and standing on the hidden meaning to which the ruling pertains; it is a science deduced by opinion and ijtihad, requiring reflection and contemplation; hence it is not permissible to call Allah, the Most High, a faqih, for nothing is hidden from Him.
In language: understanding the speaker's intent from his words.
With kasra: knowledge of a thing, and it prevailed for the science of religion on account of its nobility; it is the knowledge of religious rulings whose path is ijtihad. It may also be applied to the knowledge of practical religious rulings obtained from the detailed transmitted evidences; the first sense is realized in the comprehension of the muqallid (one who follows another's opinion), not the second, since knowledge of religious rulings, insofar as it is obtained by argumentation, is certain knowledge of the rulings from indications; and this knowledge is not possessed by the muqallid who knows the religious rulings even though they are in themselves derived from their evidences. If it is said: there are here two consensus, one that the muqallid is not a faqih, and the other that fiqh is among the sciences set down in writing; the first consensus negates that the muqallid is a faqih and the second affirms it. We answer: the fiqh intended by the first consensus is certainty of the rulings from indications, and by the second, the totality of practical religious questions; fiqh thus has two meanings, and the absence of one in the muqallid does not contradict the presence of the other in him. It is known from the commentary of al-Aqa'id an-Nasafiya by al-Muhaqqiq at-Taftazani, may Allah have mercy on him, that fiqh is what conveys the practical religious rulings from their detailed evidences. And the author of al-Khayalat al-Latifa said: if you say that fiqh is itself the knowledge of what conveys, etc., the outcome is that the well-known position is that fiqh is the knowledge of practical religious rulings from their detailed evidences. And Abu Hanifa, may Allah the Most High have mercy on him, said: fiqh is the soul's knowledge of what it possesses and what weighs upon it. And the commentator, may Allah have mercy on him, defined fiqh as what conveys knowledge of the rulings in general, which entails divergence from the well-known position and the identity of the means and the end, for fiqh is nothing but knowledge of the rulings; the meaning then becomes: fiqh is knowledge of the rulings that serves to know the rulings in general.
In language: comprehension; science; keen understanding. Some said: understanding subtle things. Others said: understanding the speaker's intent from his words. The first is the more likely and the one transmitted from the philologists. Some said: faqiha, with kasra, means: he understood; faqaha, with fatha: he preceded others in understanding; faqiha, with damm: fiqh became his disposition. Not all of this detail is transmitted from the philologists. Ar-Raghib said: fiqh is reaching knowledge of the unseen through knowledge of the visible; it is therefore more specific than knowledge. In usage: Imam Abu Hanifa defined it as the soul's knowledge of what it possesses and what weighs upon it, thereby covering creed, morals, worship and transactions. It was later defined as the knowledge of practical religious rulings (J. 3, Mu'jam al-Mustalahat).
The thing: faqiha and faqaha: to grasp it best; he is then a faqih. : comprehension and knowledge, as in the Quran: "The seven heavens, the earth and all that is therein glorify Him; there is nothing that does not celebrate His praise, but you do not understand their glorification. He is Ever-Forbearing, All-Forgiving" (al-Isra 44). So-and-so: faqaha: he entered into its understanding.
A faculty: deriving what the Lawgiver did not state explicitly from what He stated explicitly.
In language: understanding the speaker's intent from his words; mentioned by Ibn al-Kamal (at-Ta'rifat, p. 175). And ar-Raghib said (al-Mufradat, p. 384): reaching knowledge of the unseen through knowledge of the visible; it is therefore more specific than knowledge.