نِيابة

نِيابة

Niyaba in the lexical sense is making another one's deputy in a matter; technically it is one person's standing in for another in an act. ¹ It differs from wilaya, qawama, wakala and wasiyya; niyaba is the wider notion. ^{1 2} There are two kinds: the contractual, which is agency, and the legal, which is guardianship over those unable to act for themselves through youth or the like. ^{3 4} Legal guardianship is over property or over the person. ⁴ In purely financial worship, such as zakat, expiations and vows, substitution is permitted by agreement; in purely bodily worship, such as prayer and fasting, it is not; in worship of body and wealth, such as the pilgrimage and the lesser pilgrimage, it is permitted under conditions: the principal must be permanently unable and must have funds, and for the Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis the deputy must have performed his own pilgrimage first. ^{5 6 7 8} Pilgrimage on behalf of the dead is treated separately for obligatory and voluntary acts; hiring for the pilgrimage on behalf of the dead is permitted by the Malikis, Shafi'is and in one Hanbali report, and forbidden by the Hanafis. ^{9 10} Substitution in sacrifice and in stoning is permitted; the jurists differ on substitution in offices. ^{11 12}