Discover the meaning of the term Al-ḥd (حد) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 7 min readA statement indicating the quiddity of a thing; with the people of Allah: the separation between you and your Master, such as your worship and your confinement within bounded time and place.
In language: prevention; in technical usage: a statement containing that by which there is commonness and that by which there is distinction.
In language: prevention. In the usage of the logicians: the essentially distinguishing limit, as the description (rasm) is the accidentally distinguishing one; the completeness of both lies in their containing the proximate genus, and their deficiency in its absence. Hence they said: definition by the proximate differentia is a hadd, and by the differentia a rasm; if with the proximate genus it is complete, otherwise incomplete. The detail of the complete hadd and other is in 'kunh al-shay'', Allah the Most High willing. The hadd in their saying is the thing in its own limit: so grasp and remember. The hadd has also come meaning the extremity and end, for the sages say the hadd of the line, that is, its end, is the point; the hadd of the surface, the line; and the hadd of the didactic body, the surface. And in the sense of rank too, as the author of 'al-Kashshaf' said in explaining the word of the Most High: 'had it been from other than Allah, they would have found much divergence in it,' meaning much of it would have been discordant, its order and eloquence differing, so that some would have attained the limit of inimitability and some fallen short of it, such that opposing it would be possible; that is all. What is understood is that the hadd means rank, for the genitive pronoun in his saying
Of the sword or the like: 'haddada-hu hiddatan': it became cutting. : Of the scent: it grew pungent and strong. : Of the land: he set a boundary between it and what adjoins it. : Of the offender: the legal punishment (hadd) was applied to him. : Upon another: he became angry and spoke harshly. : Of the wife for her husband, 'haddat': she denied herself adornment for his death; she is hadd without the ha, and one does not say 'hadda'; al-Asma'i denied this and restricted himself to the quadriliteral verb 'tahaddadat.'
Of the grave: 'haddada la-hu lahdan': a side niche (lahd) was made for it. : 'Lahada al-lahd': he dug the niche. : For the dead: a niche was dug for him. : 'Hada 'an din Allah': he turned away, deviated and departed. : In the sanctuary (haram): he profaned its inviolability and violated it. : He disputed and contended. Al-ilhad: inclination and deviation; : inclining away from religion; : violating the sanctity of the sanctuary. In the noble Quran: 'Indeed, those who disbelieve and bar from the way of Allah and the Sacred Mosque, which We made for people, the dweller therein and the visitor, and whoever intends therein deviation (ilhad) through injustice, We will make him taste a painful punishment' (al-Hajj, 25), that is, he intends therein a terrible matter among the major sins; and 'through injustice' means deliberately, intending wrong. Al-lahd: the lateral recess made in the side of the grave for the dead; (plural) alhad and lahud. In the Sunna: its description is that the grave be dug, then a recess dug in its qibla side in which the dead is placed, making that like a roofed house (Ibn Abidin). Al-multahad: the refuge; in the noble Quran: 'Say: indeed, none will protect me from Allah, and I will find no refuge besides Him' (al-Jinn, 22). Al-mulhid: the one inclining away from religion; in the Sharia's terminology: he who has deviated from the upright religion toward one of the directions of unbelief; neither confessing the prophethood of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) is required in him, nor the existence of Allah, the Most High, and by this he differs from the dahri; nor the concealment of unbelief, and by this he differs from the hypocrite; nor having preceded in Islam, and by this he differs from the apostate. The mulhid is thus the widest rank of unbelief: that is, more general than all (Ibn Kamal Pasha). In the saying of some imams: among the mulhids are the Batinis who claim the noble Quran has an outward and an inward, and that they know the inward; they thereby annulled the Sharia, for they interpreted the texts contrary to the Arabic tongue in which the Quran came down.
The boundary between two things preventing one's mixing with the other; the hadd of the house is that by which it is distinguished from another; one says: 'I delimited the house, marking it off from its neighbors by stating its ends.' The hadd of a thing is the attribute encompassing its meaning. The hadd is also prevention, the name of the punishment measured out by the Lawgiver, for being a preventer of its doer from repeating the like and of others from treading his course.
A statement indicating the quiddity of a thing, and also one of the limits; and the boundary between two things will come.
﴿وَإِذْ قُلْتُمْ يَـٰمُوسَىٰ لَن نَّصْبِرَ عَلَىٰ طَعَامٍۢ وَٰحِدٍۢ فَٱدْعُ لَنَا رَبَّكَ يُخْرِجْ لَنَا مِمَّا تُنۢبِتُ ٱلْأَرْضُ مِنۢ بَقْلِهَا وَقِثَّآئِهَا وَفُومِهَا وَعَدَسِهَا وَبَصَلِهَا ۖ قَالَ أَتَسْتَبْدِلُونَ ٱلَّذِى هُوَ أَدْنَىٰ بِٱلَّذِى هُوَ خَيْرٌ ۚ ٱهْبِطُوا۟ مِصْرًۭا فَإِنَّ لَكُم مَّا سَأَلْتُمْ ۗ وَضُرِبَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلذِّلَّةُ وَٱلْمَسْكَنَةُ وَبَآءُو بِغَضَبٍۢ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ يَكْفُرُونَ بِـَٔايَـٰتِ ٱللَّهِ وَيَقْتُلُونَ ٱلنَّبِيِّـۧنَ بِغَيْرِ ٱلْحَقِّ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ بِمَا عَصَوا۟ وَّكَانُوا۟ يَعْتَدُونَ﴾
« And [recall] when you said, "O Moses, we can never endure one [kind of] food. So call upon your Lord to bring forth for us from the earth its green herbs and its cucumbers and its garlic and its lentils and its onions." [Moses] said, "Would you exchange what is better for what is less? Go into [any] settlement and indeed, you will have what you have asked." And they were covered with humiliation and poverty and returned with anger from Allah [upon them]. That was because they [repeatedly] disbelieved in the signs of Allah and killed the prophets without right. That was because they disobeyed and were [habitually] transgressing. »
Surah البقرة : 61
﴿أَمْ كُنتُمْ شُهَدَآءَ إِذْ حَضَرَ يَعْقُوبَ ٱلْمَوْتُ إِذْ قَالَ لِبَنِيهِ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِنۢ بَعْدِى قَالُوا۟ نَعْبُدُ إِلَـٰهَكَ وَإِلَـٰهَ ءَابَآئِكَ إِبْرَٰهِـۧمَ وَإِسْمَـٰعِيلَ وَإِسْحَـٰقَ إِلَـٰهًۭا وَٰحِدًۭا وَنَحْنُ لَهُۥ مُسْلِمُونَ﴾
« Or were you witnesses when death approached Jacob, when he said to his sons, "What will you worship after me?" They said, "We will worship your God and the God of your fathers, Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac - one God. And we are Muslims [in submission] to Him." »
Surah البقرة : 133
﴿وَإِلَـٰهُكُمْ إِلَـٰهٌۭ وَٰحِدٌۭ ۖ لَّآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ﴾
« And your god is one God. There is no deity [worthy of worship] except Him, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. »
Surah البقرة : 163
﴿يُوصِيكُمُ ٱللَّهُ فِىٓ أَوْلَـٰدِكُمْ ۖ لِلذَّكَرِ مِثْلُ حَظِّ ٱلْأُنثَيَيْنِ ۚ فَإِن كُنَّ نِسَآءًۭ فَوْقَ ٱثْنَتَيْنِ فَلَهُنَّ ثُلُثَا مَا تَرَكَ ۖ وَإِن كَانَتْ وَٰحِدَةًۭ فَلَهَا ٱلنِّصْفُ ۚ وَلِأَبَوَيْهِ لِكُلِّ وَٰحِدٍۢ مِّنْهُمَا ٱلسُّدُسُ مِمَّا تَرَكَ إِن كَانَ لَهُۥ وَلَدٌۭ ۚ فَإِن لَّمْ يَكُن لَّهُۥ وَلَدٌۭ وَوَرِثَهُۥٓ أَبَوَاهُ فَلِأُمِّهِ ٱلثُّلُثُ ۚ فَإِن كَانَ لَهُۥٓ إِخْوَةٌۭ فَلِأُمِّهِ ٱلسُّدُسُ ۚ مِنۢ بَعْدِ وَصِيَّةٍۢ يُوصِى بِهَآ أَوْ دَيْنٍ ۗ ءَابَآؤُكُمْ وَأَبْنَآؤُكُمْ لَا تَدْرُونَ أَيُّهُمْ أَقْرَبُ لَكُمْ نَفْعًۭا ۚ فَرِيضَةًۭ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًۭا﴾
« Allah instructs you concerning your children: for the male, what is equal to the share of two females. But if there are [only] daughters, two or more, for them is two thirds of one's estate. And if there is only one, for her is half. And for one's parents, to each one of them is a sixth of his estate if he left children. But if he had no children and the parents [alone] inherit from him, then for his mother is one third. And if he had brothers [or sisters], for his mother is a sixth, after any bequest he [may have] made or debt. Your parents or your children - you know not which of them are nearest to you in benefit. [These shares are] an obligation [imposed] by Allah. Indeed, Allah is ever Knowing and Wise. »
Surah النساء : 11
﴿۞ وَلَكُمْ نِصْفُ مَا تَرَكَ أَزْوَٰجُكُمْ إِن لَّمْ يَكُن لَّهُنَّ وَلَدٌۭ ۚ فَإِن كَانَ لَهُنَّ وَلَدٌۭ فَلَكُمُ ٱلرُّبُعُ مِمَّا تَرَكْنَ ۚ مِنۢ بَعْدِ وَصِيَّةٍۢ يُوصِينَ بِهَآ أَوْ دَيْنٍۢ ۚ وَلَهُنَّ ٱلرُّبُعُ مِمَّا تَرَكْتُمْ إِن لَّمْ يَكُن لَّكُمْ وَلَدٌۭ ۚ فَإِن كَانَ لَكُمْ وَلَدٌۭ فَلَهُنَّ ٱلثُّمُنُ مِمَّا تَرَكْتُم ۚ مِّنۢ بَعْدِ وَصِيَّةٍۢ تُوصُونَ بِهَآ أَوْ دَيْنٍۢ ۗ وَإِن كَانَ رَجُلٌۭ يُورَثُ كَلَـٰلَةً أَوِ ٱمْرَأَةٌۭ وَلَهُۥٓ أَخٌ أَوْ أُخْتٌۭ فَلِكُلِّ وَٰحِدٍۢ مِّنْهُمَا ٱلسُّدُسُ ۚ فَإِن كَانُوٓا۟ أَكْثَرَ مِن ذَٰلِكَ فَهُمْ شُرَكَآءُ فِى ٱلثُّلُثِ ۚ مِنۢ بَعْدِ وَصِيَّةٍۢ يُوصَىٰ بِهَآ أَوْ دَيْنٍ غَيْرَ مُضَآرٍّۢ ۚ وَصِيَّةًۭ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَلِيمٌۭ﴾
« And for you is half of what your wives leave if they have no child. But if they have a child, for you is one fourth of what they leave, after any bequest they [may have] made or debt. And for the wives is one fourth if you leave no child. But if you leave a child, then for them is an eighth of what you leave, after any bequest you [may have] made or debt. And if a man or woman leaves neither ascendants nor descendants but has a brother or a sister, then for each one of them is a sixth. But if they are more than two, they share a third, after any bequest which was made or debt, as long as there is no detriment [caused]. [This is] an ordinance from Allah, and Allah is Knowing and Forbearing. »
Surah النساء : 12
﴿يَـٰٓأَهْلَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ لَا تَغْلُوا۟ فِى دِينِكُمْ وَلَا تَقُولُوا۟ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ إِلَّا ٱلْحَقَّ ۚ إِنَّمَا ٱلْمَسِيحُ عِيسَى ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَ رَسُولُ ٱللَّهِ وَكَلِمَتُهُۥٓ أَلْقَىٰهَآ إِلَىٰ مَرْيَمَ وَرُوحٌۭ مِّنْهُ ۖ فَـَٔامِنُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِۦ ۖ وَلَا تَقُولُوا۟ ثَلَـٰثَةٌ ۚ ٱنتَهُوا۟ خَيْرًۭا لَّكُمْ ۚ إِنَّمَا ٱللَّهُ إِلَـٰهٌۭ وَٰحِدٌۭ ۖ سُبْحَـٰنَهُۥٓ أَن يَكُونَ لَهُۥ وَلَدٌۭ ۘ لَّهُۥ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۗ وَكَفَىٰ بِٱللَّهِ وَكِيلًۭا﴾
« O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, "Three"; desist - it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs. »
Surah النساء : 171
This term appears in 29 verses of the Quran.