Measures (miqadir)

Miqadir are measures: the means by which a thing is known as counted, measured by volume, weight or length. Their four kinds are volume (kayl), weight (wazn), length (dhar') and number ('adad). ¹

The sa' is agreed to be four mudds, though the Hanafis differ on the size of the mudd. Most jurists hold that the legal sa' is the smaller sa' of Medina; Abu Hanifa holds that it is the sa' of Iraq. ^{2 3}

The sa' fixes zakat al-fitr, the expiation for deliberately breaking the Ramadan fast, the expiation for zihar, the ransom for ihram, the expiation for breaking the fast for an excuse, the wife's maintenance, and the amount of water for ablution. ³

The 'araq is fifteen sa'. The faraq is three sa', or sixteen ratls in the Hanbali view; for zakat on honey Ibn Qudama gives ten faraqs and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan five. The qadah is part of a sa'. The qirba seldom exceeds one hundred Baghdadi ratls. The qist is half a sa'. The qafiz is twelve sa' according to al-Qalyubi. The qullah holds two hundred and fifty ratls in the Hanafi, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools and is named in defining abundant standing water. ^{3 4 5 6}

The Shafi'is and Hanbalis define abundant standing water as two qullas, citing the hadith that water of two qullas does not carry impurity; the Hanafis define it by what the observer judges abundant, or by whether impurity would not spread from one side to the other in belief, measured at ten cubits by ten. ^{6 7}

The kurr is sixty qafiz and carries no ruling. The kilaja is an Iraqi measure. The makhtum is the sa'. The mudd is a quarter of the sa' by agreement, but its ratl value differs: the majority hold it a ratl and a third in Iraqi measure, the Hanafis two ratls. The mudd governs ablution water, zakat al-fitr and, for some jurists, a wife's maintenance; the hadith of Anas that the Prophet ﷺ washed with a mudd is cited. ^{7 8 9}

For zakat al-fitr a sa' of any listed kind is due; the Hanafis require half a sa', two mudds, of wheat. The mudi is a measure of Syria and Egypt. The mikkuk is a sa' and a half for the Hanafis and Malikis, and two and a half for Abu 'Ubayd. The wasq is sixty sa', the load of a camel, and fixes the thresholds for crops and fruit. ^{9 10}

The jurists' majority set the zakat threshold for crops at five wasqs, while Abu Hanifa makes zakat due on any quantity. The wayba holds twenty-two or twenty-four mudds of the Prophet's measure, or three kilajas; one account makes it an Egyptian measure. ¹¹

The dirham, the dinar and the ratl are the main weights; others are multiples or parts of them. The istar is six and a half dirhams; the uqiyya is forty dirhams, and Umar cited the hadith of the wives' dower of twelve uqiyyas and a nash. A habba is one forty-eighth of a dirham, and when used alone means a middling barley grain. By the majority a mithqal is seventy-two grains and a dirham fifty and a fifth; the Hanafis put the mithqal at a hundred grains and the dirham at seventy. ^{11 12 13}

The Baghdadi ratl is the standard for the jurists. The majority put it at 128 and four-sevenths dirhams; the Hanafis give 130 in one report and 128 and four-sevenths in another; the Hanbalis and Shafi'is follow the latter. The Damascene ratl is six hundred dirhams but is used only through the Baghdadi one. The sa' is five and a third ratls for the majority and eight ratls for the Hanafis. ^{13 14}

The source gives the Baghdadi ratl as about 381.6 grams by modern weights, and notes that this is an approximation. ¹⁴

In the lexicon the tasuj is a loanword meaning a district or a quarter of a dang. Ibn al-Humam gives: the dang is four tasujs, the tasuj two habbas, the habba two barley grains, and the mithqal has stayed fixed since ancient times. ¹⁵

The qafla is the dirham of custom in Mecca, Medina and the Hijaz. Some jurists take it to be smaller than the legal dirham and others larger; Ibn 'Abidin reports it six grains short of the legal dirham. ^{15 16}

The qamha, a wheat grain, is used by the jurists for its weight, equal to that of a middling barley grain, and is a standard for larger weights such as the dirham and dinar; one quarter of a qirat by one account. ¹⁵

The qintar is a large weight whose lexical values vary (four thousand dinars, a hundred mans, ratls, mithqals or dirhams, or forty uqiyyas of gold). A hadith attributed to Ubayy ibn Ka'b gives it as 1,200 uqiyyas, which Ibn Kathir calls munkar and judges more likely a saying of Ubayy; Ibn 'Atiyya calls the figure the soundest. The jurists use the qintar to express abundance, as the Qur'an does in Surat al-Nisa'. ^{15 16}

The qirat is a small weight that varies by place. For the Hanafis it is one fourteenth of a dirham or one twentieth of a dinar, equal to five barley grains; the dinar is twenty qirats and the dirham fourteen. The Malikis set it lower; the Shafi'is take it as three barley grains, with the dirham at sixteen and four fifths qirats (or fourteen, by another view). The jurists attach no rulings directly to the qirat. ^{16 17}

The mithqal in the jurists' usage is the weight of a gold dinar: a dirham and three sevenths of a dirham, so seven mithqals make ten dirhams. Al-Shirbini holds that the mithqal has not changed in the age of ignorance or in Islam and equals seventy-two middling barley grains. ^{17 18}

For the Hanafis a man is two Baghdadi ratls. The Shafi'is distinguish a small man of two ratls and a large man of six hundred dirhams. The jurists use the man as a standard for other measures such as the wasq and the ratl, not for rulings directly. ¹⁷

The nash is twenty dirhams, half an uqiyya. A hadith reported through Abu Salama has 'A'isha explain that the Prophet's wives' dower was twelve uqiyyas and a nash, that is five hundred dirhams. ¹⁸

The nawa, in the lexicon, is twenty or ten, or in gold five dirhams or four dinars, by various accounts. The jurists differ over its value because they read differently the hadith of Anas about 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Awf who married on the weight of a nawa of gold. ^{18 19}

The finger is a measure of length equal to the width of six middling barley grains laid side by side; a barley grain is six mule hairs. By modern measure the source gives about 1.925 cm. The jurists attach no rulings to it but use it to measure the fist and the cubit. ^{18 19}

The fathom is the span between outstretched hands. The Hanafis take it as four cubits, the Malikis as two. Jurists do not attach rulings to it but use it for fractions of the cubit, the mile and the farsakh. ^{19 20}

The barid is four farsakhs, or in a weak Maliki view two. Lexically it is twelve miles. Most jurists link the legal journey that grants licences to distance, and hold it to be four barids. ¹⁹

The jarib is an area measure, generally held to be three thousand six hundred cubits square. The Hanafis take sixty by sixty cubits by the cubit of Kisra; the Malikis sixty by sixty by the Hashimi cubit; the Hanbalis ten qasabas by ten. The jarib fixes the kharaj on land: for the Hanafis a qafiz and a dirham per cultivable jarib; for the Malikis forty-eight dirhams on wheat land, twenty-four on barley and six on dates; for the Shafi'is a dirham for barley and four for wheat, following Uthman ibn Hunayf (may God be pleased with him); for the Hanbalis a dirham and a qafiz on sown land. ^{20 21}

A khatwa is one four-thousandth of a mile, the Shafi'i view, and three feet. The jurists rarely use it for rulings; one case: a man who leaves his farm beyond the houses by as little as fifty steps may perform tayammum and pray on his mount. ^{21 22}

The cubit runs from the elbow to the fingertips. The jurists count several cubits of different lengths: al-Mawardi lists seven (al-qadiya, al-yusufiya, al-sawda', the lesser Hashimi or Bilaliya, the greater Hashimi or Ziyadiya, the Umariya and the Mizaniya), each measured against the black cubit. The Hanafis prefer the cubit of the cotton cloth, seven fists, or six fists and a finger; the Malikis count thirty-six fingers, and some of them twenty-four; the Shafi'is twenty-four. Hanafis use the cubit for the abundant water of ten by ten cubits and for the distance a woman must keep from a man in congregational prayer. ^{22 23 24}

The span is half a cubit, twelve fingers. It is used in rulings on the height of a grave mound, the length of a woman's garment, and, in one Hanafi view, the depth of standing water. ^{24 25}

At its plain sense the sha'ra is the hair of a mule, one sixth of the width of a barley grain by agreement; it is part of the finger and cubit. Jurists do not attach rulings to it directly. ^{24 25}

The barley grain is a standard for lengths by its width and for weights by its mass; the middling grain with the ends cut is meant. Six mule hairs make its width. It is the standard for the dirham, mithqal and qirat, and jurists mention barley as a food in zakat on crops, zakat al-fitr and maintenance. ^{25 26}

The ushayr is a plot one qasaba by one qasaba, that is thirty-six cubits, and a tenth of the qafiz. Jurists mention it among fractions of the cubit, the qasaba, the jarib and the qafiz, without a ruling of its own. ²⁶

The ghalwa is the range of an arrow shot, variously three hundred to four hundred cubits, or a twenty-fifth of a farsakh. The soundest Hanafi view is three to four hundred cubits. A seeker of water for tayammum must search to the range of a ghalwa, and a settlement is left behind only if it lies more than a ghalwa from the town. ^{26 27 28}

The farsakh is three miles. The majority set the legal journey licensing the concessions at sixteen farsakhs, or forty-eight miles. The Hanafis count by stages rather than farsakhs, since the farsakh varies with the road. ^{27 28}

The fist is four fingers closed together, a part of the cubit and a multiple of the finger. Jurists rarely use it for rulings; in the expiation for breaking the rules of ihram, a handful of food is given for less than an hour's breach and half a sa' for a longer one. ^{27 28}

The qadam is the foot. Jurists use it as a unit of distance, a part of the cubit and the mile; Al-Maqdisi gives twelve thousand feet to the mile. Jurists treat the foot as a limb in retaliation, discretionary punishment, ablution, bathing and tayammum. ^{28 29}

The qasaba is ten cubits in the lexicon, and ten qasabas make an ashal; an ashal times a qasaba is a qafiz. Jurists give the qasaba as six and a third cubits (al-Umayra), six cubits (al-Mawardi), or six cubits of the Umari cubit (Ibn Muflih). The qasaba is a part of the jarib: the jarib is ten qasabas by ten. ^{28 29}

The marhala is the distance a traveller covers in one day. Jurists fix it by distance and time. The majority hold that a day's march of a moderate traveller, or a night's march with laden animals, is one stage, and the legal journey is two stages: sixteen farsakhs, four barids, or forty-eight miles. The Hanafis count three stages, and for them the rule is time, not distance. ^{29 30}

In the lexicon the mile is as far as the eye can see; the ancients take it as three thousand cubits and the moderns four thousand. The dispute concerns the cubit, not the mile. In the jurists' usage the Hanafis take four thousand cubits, the Malikis three thousand five hundred (or two thousand by Ibn Habib), the Shafi'is four thousand steps, and the Hanbalis six thousand Hashimi cubits, or twelve thousand feet. The mile sets the legal journey and the distance from water for tayammum: one mile for the Hanafis, two for the Malikis, half a farsakh for some Shafi'is. ^{30 31}