Discover the meaning of the term Bughat (بُغَاة) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readPlural of baghi, from al-baghy which is injustice; this plural of the active participle of the waw-defective verb is regular, as the ghazat and qoudat of ghazi and qadi, and the rawat of rawi.
Plural of baghi, as al-’asat plural of al-’asi; its explanation passed under baghi.
In the Law: those rising against the rightful imam without right, per al-Haskafi. In the Law: those showing themselves in the right and the imam in error, warring against him or resolving to war, having a band or force, per al-Houssayn as-San’ani. In fiqh terminology: those opposing the imam, leaving his obedience by refusing what is due of them, per an-Nawawi. By usage: those seeking the unlawful by tyranny and injustice. Among the Malikites: those leaving obedience, per Ibn ’Abidine. Among the Malikites again: those leaving the sultan’s obedience. Among the Shafi’ites: those rising against the greatest imam, holder of the prophetic caliphate in guarding religion and governing the world; and: Muslims opposing an imam, though unjust, by leaving his obedience in non-submission, or withholding a right weighing on them as zakat, with a false interpretation they deem good, and having power though without imam. Among the Hanbalites: the oppressors leaving the imam’s obedience, attacking him; and: people of truth leaving the imam’s grip, aiming to depose him for a receivable interpretation, with force enough that curbing them needs a host. Among the Ja’farites: he who rises against a just imam, fights him and refuses delivering the right to him. By some scholars: every band with power, prevailing, gathering and fighting the people of justice by interpretation, saying: right is with us, claiming rule; if they rise without interpretation they are highwaymen. Al-baghiyy: the depraved woman profiting by her vice; plural baghaya; in the noble Quran on Mary the virgin’s tongue: « how shall I have a son when no man has touched me and I am no depraved one? » (Maryam 20). It is an epithet proper to woman; of man one says not baghi, so al-Azhari; others say the word is alike for masculine and feminine. The slave-girl, though chaste.