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Hisba (market supervision and enjoining good)

الحسبة

An administrative and juristic institution of the Islamic state, rooted in enjoining good and forbidding wrong. The holder, the muhtasib, supervises markets, weights and measures, public morals and fraud in sales. The editors of Maʿalim al-Qurba note that the rightly guided caliphs held it themselves at first, then appointed deputies as the conquests grew 1 2.

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Overview

An administrative-juristic institution that arose in the Islamic state — its root the command of right and forbidding of wrong — held by the muhtasib: oversight of markets, weights and measures, guarding public morals and fighting fraud in sales. The edition-preface of Ma'alim al-Qurba notes the Rightly Guided caliphs held it themselves at first, then appointed muhtasibs as the conquests widened 1 2.

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Related to
The police (shurta) under Ali

People and things also explored

Ali's inquiry into a missing traveller and his wealth· Abu al-Hayyaj al-Asadi· Ma'qil ibn Qays al-Riyahi· The police (shurta) under Ali

Sources

  1. Maʿalim al-Qurba fi Ahkam al-Hisba, ed. Muhammad Mahmud Shaaban and Siddiq Ahmad Isa al-Mutiʿi (1976) , p.5
  2. Maʿalim al-Qurba fi Ahkam al-Hisba, ed. Muhammad Mahmud Shaaban and Siddiq Ahmad Isa al-Mutiʿi (1976) , p.6
  • Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Ali ibn Abi Talib, vol. 1 — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi
  • Principles of Islamic Economics — Rafiq Yunus al-Misri
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islam.museum contributors. “Hisba (market supervision and enjoining good)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/hisba/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-25.

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Related

Ali's inquiry into a missing traveller and his wealth

A young man complained that a company of travellers came back without his father and with his father's money. Ali had the police guard each suspect separately, questioned each on the journey, the lodgings, the cause of death and the burial, and found their accounts contradictory; one confessed, and they were made to pay.