What the Law was silent about
المسكوت عنه
The maskut 'anhu is whatever the Law's texts neither forbid nor oblige; Abu Tha'laba al-Khushani's hadith divides the charge four ways: obligations ordained and not to be neglected, bounds set and not to be transgressed, things forbidden and not to be violated, and things passed over in silence 'as a mercy to you, not out of forgetfulness', not to be searched into — the silence being mercy and pardon, evidence neither of prohibition nor of obligation; Abu al-Darda''s route in al-Bazzar and al-Hakim runs 'what He was silent about is pardon, so accept God's pardon, for God was never one to forget anything', followed by 'your Lord was never forgetful' (Maryam 64), and Salman's halted version in al-Tirmidhi has 'what He was silent about is among what He pardoned' — pardon, not prohibition, being the default of what God left unspoken.
At a glance
- Era
- The Prophetic Era
- Region
- Global / Diaspora
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
The long-form text for this entry has not been written yet. The facts and connections below come from the museum's data.
Connections
People and things also explored
The lawful, the unlawful and the doubtful· Arba'un 30 — obligations, limits, and what He was silent about· Tayyib (purity and lawfulness)· Sale of the prohibited· Intoxicants (muskirat)· Wara' (scrupulosity)· Arba'un 6 — the lawful is clear and the unlawful is clear· Arba'un 22 — if I pray the prescribed prayers
Sources
- Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam — Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “What the Law was silent about”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/maskut-anhu/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-13.