Implied meaning (mafhum)

المَفْهُوم

In the usage of the jurists of legal theory, the implied meaning (mafhum) is what a wording indicates without being in the place where it is spoken: a ruling for something not mentioned, or a state of it. The forbidding of saying uff to parents implies the forbidding of beating them. It divides into agreement (mafhum al-muwafaqa), which agrees with the spoken ruling and is accepted by consensus, called a stronger implication (fahwa al-khitab) when it applies more strongly and an equal implication (lahn al-khitab) when it applies equally; and contrariety (mafhum al-mukhalafa), which gives the opposite ruling to what is unspoken and is accepted by most jurists except the implication from a name alone. Most Hanafis reject contrariety in the speech of the Lawgiver. ^{1 2}