Discover the meaning of the term Al-halal (حلال) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readAnything whose use entails no punishment.
What the Law permits to be done, derived from al-hall, which is the loosening (opening).
Anything whose use entails no punishment.
Halal: what Allah has made lawful and permitted to be done or consumed; it is the opposite of haram.
When to say it? When speaking of a permitted matter
That for which neither side prevails over the other.
That from which the ruling of prohibition is removed, thereby encompassing the disliked (makruh) and what is not; mentioned by al-Hurali. Another said (like al-Jurjani in at-Ta'rifat, p. 98): that which entails no punishment. The root of al-hall is the loosening of the knot, as in: "and untie the knot from my tongue" (Taha 27); and halalat nazalat: she was released on descending, from the release of burdens at descent; then usage was transferred to descent, hence "halla hallulan nazala" and "ahallahu ghayruhu"; and "halla ad-dayn": its term ended and its payment became due. And al-mahalla is the place of descent. From the loosening of the knot their expression "halla ash-shay' hallan" was borrowed. And the hala'il are the women (lawful in marriage).
In the Law: what the Book and the Sunna made lawful, that is, what Allah permitted; it was named thus for the loosening of the knot from it; its opposite is haram.