Islam > Glossary > Al-astthnaʾ
Discover the meaning of the term Al-astthnaʾ (استثناء) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 4 min readThe exclusion of a thing from a thing: were it not for the exclusion, its inclusion would be obligatory; this covers the connected exception, literally and legally, and the detached exception, legally only.
With the grammarians: the exclusion of a thing from what others have entered, because it contains sufficiency and refraining from inclusion; in the oath, the swearer's saying: "if Allah the Exalted wills", because it contains referring his statement to Allah the Exalted's will (quotation breaks off in the source).
Derived from athna in the sense of turning aside and barring: one says "he turned his mount's head (thana 'anan farasihi)" when he barred it and turned it from continuing in the direction it aimed at; al-istithna' (exception) was so named because the excepted noun is turned away from the ruling of what is excepted from. With the grammarians: the exclusion of a thing from a ruling into which another has entered, by illa and her sisters, whether the excluded thing be included in the speech's opening or not. If it is included, like Zayd in "the people came to me except Zayd", the exception is connected; if it is not included, because the excepted is not of the opening's kind, like the donkey in "the people came to me except a donkey", or it is of its kind but what is intended by the opening is that into which the excepted cannot enter, as when "the people" is intended of those into which Zayd does not enter, and one says "the people came to me except Zayd": in both cases the exception is detached; and the word illa, in the detached case, serves as conjunction in the sense of "but".
The barring of some of what the speech's opening embraces from entering its ruling, by illa or one of her sisters; hence the exception is the measure of generality. Or it is speech clad in specified, bounded formulas indicating that what is mentioned after the exception's tool is not intended by the first speech; in this sense it opposes the idrab (recantation), for the idrab is an affirming of the first upon a view, and a substituting for it.
The exclusion of part of the sentence by illa, other than the attribute and the like.
The exclusion of part of what the word embraces.
The exclusion of part of what the word embraces; its tools are illa and her sisters. Abu Ishaq al-Zajjaj said: exception came only for the few from the many; were one to say: "a hundred except ninety-nine", he would not be speaking Arabic, and it would be shunning eloquence. The suspending (ta'liq), among which is the suspension upon the will: as when one says: "I shall surely do such a thing, if Allah the Exalted wills"; in the noble hadith: "Whoever swore upon a thing, then said: if Allah wills, has excepted". It is also applied to restriction by condition, in language and usage, as al-Sirafi established.