Oil and fat (the fiqh rules on oil)

الدهن (في الفقه)

Duhn is any oil or fat used for anointing; samn is fat from living animals and shahm is what melts from animal fat by fire. ¹ If a solid fat is made impure, the piece and what is around it are removed and the rest is used; the majority, and the sounder view of the school, hold that liquid oil made impure cannot be purified, while another view allows purifying it by washing. ² The sale of dead animal fat is agreed to be forbidden; the majority allow lighting with impure oil outside the mosque. ³ ⁴

Summary

Duhn is any oil or fat used for anointing. Samn is fat from a living animal, and shahm is what melts from animal fat by fire; duhn is wider than samn, and every shahm is a duhn. ¹

Purifying impure oil

If solid fat is made impure, the part the impurity touched and what is around it are removed, and the rest may be used. ² The majority (Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis), on the sounder view, which is also that of al-Qadi and Ibn Aqil among the Hanbalis and Muhammad among the Hanafis, hold that liquid oil made impure cannot be purified, citing the report about a mouse dying in ghee. A view among the Shafi'is, and Abu Yusuf and Abu al-Khattab, hold that oil can be purified by pouring water over it, stirring until the oil rises and taking it off, or piercing the bottom of the vessel so the water drains out. ² ³ The Hanafis require the washing to be repeated three times; later jurists differ on this. ²

Oil for the pilgrim in ihram

The jurists agree that the pilgrim may not anoint himself with scented oil. ² The Hanafis and Malikis forbid the pilgrim to use plain oil on his head, beard and body without a reason. The Shafi'is forbid scented oils on the head and beard but not on the rest of the body. On the accepted Hanbali view unscented oil is allowed everywhere. ³

Selling impure oil

The majority (on the accepted view of their schools) hold that impure oil cannot be sold, because eating it is forbidden, and they cite the report that forbidding a thing's eating forbids its price. ³ The Hanafis and Malikis (in the view opposed to their accepted one) and a Shafi'i view allow selling it, since the owner's title is not lost by the contact with impurity. A view of Ahmad allows it too. ³ ⁴ The fat of a dead animal may not be sold, nor used, by agreement. ⁴ A report attributed to Abu Musa permits selling impure oil to an unbeliever who knows it is impure, but not to a Muslim, and with a clear notice. ⁴

Lighting with impure oil

The majority allow using impure oil for lighting outside the mosque, on the report about the mouse in ghee that permits benefit from liquid that is impure, provided the benefit does not spread the impurity. ⁴ It is not permitted inside the mosque, lest it make it impure; al-Asnawi allowed it there because the smoke is small. ⁴

Sources

al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.8240

al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.8241

al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.8242

al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.8243

Ahliyya (legal capacity: to have rights and duties, and to act; its stages from the womb to full maturity, and what impairs it)

Ahliyya is lexically suitability, and it is of two kinds: capacity to have rights and duties, the capacity of liability; and capacity to act, that is to perform acts recognised by the law. Its bearer passes through the stages of the foetus, childhood, discernment, puberty and maturity. Liability is complete from birth and incomplete for the foetus; the capacity to act is partial at discernment and full with puberty and reason. It is affected by heavenly impediments such as madness, imbecility, sleep, fainting, illness, slavery, menstruation, childbirth and death, and by acquired ones such as ignorance, drunkenness, jest, folly, travel, error and coercion.