Disliked acts (karaha)

Karaha is, in the lexicon, dislike. In the terminology it is a demand to abstain from an act that is not firm ¹.

Karaha divides into dislike of prohibition (tahrim), which is close to forbidden, and which Muhammad ibn al-Hasan calls a probable prohibition; and dislike of reprehension (tanzih), where leaving the act is better ². If the proof is a probable prohibition, dislike of prohibition is the ruling unless something turns it to recommendation; if the proof is not a prohibition but a non-firm request to leave, it is dislike of reprehension ².

Al-Zarkashi says the word has four senses: the forbidden, as in the Qur'an's "all that was its evil is disliked by your Lord" in Surat al-Isra'; what is forbidden by a reprehensive prohibition; leaving the better; and a thing whose prohibition is doubtful, such as the meat of a predator or a little nabidh. Al-Shafi'i used the word in the sense of prohibition on some matters, and the earlier scholars avoided the word "forbidden" for things that were not clear ^{2 3}.

Al-Zarkashi says the usul scholars neglected leaving the better, which the jurists treat as a middle ground between dislike and permission ³. The Imam al-Haramayn separates the two: where a prohibition is stated, the act is disliked; where none is stated, it is leaving the better. Al-Zarkashi holds that leaving the better is a grade of dislike, since otherwise the rulings would number six, which is not the known division ^{3 4}. Ibn Abidin says that voluntary worship is better performed than left without cause, and that leaving it is not called disliked in the sense of reprehension ⁴.