Islam > Glossary > Shubha fi al-mahall
Discover the meaning of the term Shubha fi al-mahall (شُّبْهَة فِي الْمحل) in Islamic vocabulary.
Contents :
Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readA doubt arising from an argument excluding in itself the prohibition in the locus, that is, the thing upon which the act is committed: the argument excludes the prohibition without regard to what bars its operation. This doubt is called a juridical doubt, and also a doubt of ownership: when the doubt is in the locus, ownership is established in some fashion, and the name of fornication no longer remains, so the penalty falls off; even should the fornicator say: I knew the prohibition of intercourse in this locus, as with his son’s slave-girl, or his son’s son’s slave-girl, were he ignorant; or intercourse with a woman repudiated by an allusive formula: the Prophet’s word « you and your wealth, for your father » requires ownership, for the lam therein is a lam of transfer; when he joined the son’s wealth to the father with the lam of transfer, without effective ownership being established, its doubt was established by applying the letter of the lam as far as possible. As for the doubt mentioned for the woman repudiated by allusion, it is from the Companions’ divergence over the binding interval applying by such formulas.
What occurs by an argument standing excluding the prohibition in itself, as intercourse with one’s son’s slave-girl, or a woman repudiated by allusion, per his word: « you and your wealth, for your father ».
What occurs by an argument standing excluding the prohibition in itself, as intercourse with one’s father’s slave-girl, or the shared woman.
(See ch-b-h-d.) Al-mahall: the term. The settling. Of the hedy: the place where its slaughter becomes due; in the noble Quran: « complete the pilgrimage and the visit for Allah; if you are prevented, what is possible of offering; shave not your heads till the offering reaches its place » (al-Baqara 196). In pilgrimage: the place of entering consecration; in the noble hadith: « O Allah, my place is where You detained me ». Among the Hanafis: what occurs by an argument excluding the prohibition in itself, as intercourse with one’s son’s slave-girl, or a woman repudiated by an allusive formula, per his word: « you and your wealth, for your father »; and some Companions’ word: allusions are retractable formulas, that is: we examined the argument and found in it a doubt of ruling of lawfulness, not of effective lawfulness, the argument of lawfulness being hindered by an impediment.