Islam > Glossary > Shubhaa al-mlk
Discover the meaning of the term Shubhaa al-mlk (شُبْهَة الْملك) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readThat the one having intercourse believe the woman he possesses is his wife or slave girl. It is also applied to confusion in the object, as has passed; with this confusion the penalty is not waived: the possessor is therefore punished for possessing a stranger, finding her in his bed, even if he says: I thought her my wife; for the outward is the absence of confusion between his wife, whom he keeps and touches often, and another. As for him who possessed a stranger brought to him, and they said: she is your wife, he is not punished, because he relied on a valid indicator, namely reports, in the place of confusion, like the reports concerning the qibla and the water's purity. The possessor then owes the like dower, and she has the waiting period. In al-Khulasa: if the possessor is blind and called his wife, and another came to him, and he possessed her, he is punished, even if she said: I am such a one, that is, his wife.
Al-Jurjani said: that one believe the woman he possesses his wife or slave girl, as if he meant: that the disposing of a thing be accompanied by the belief of ownership or lawfulness. (Al-Ta'rifat, p. 110).
That is, in the object; it is called juristic confusion (shubha hukmiyya), as possessing one's son's slave girl, or the waiting woman of allusive forms; the buyer possessing the slave girl sold; one of the two partners possessing; possessing a stranger believing her his wife.
With the Hanafis: it is the confusion of believing the favorite (concubine) owned by him; like him who possesses a woman believing her his wife. Al-mutashabih: the alike.