Mustahabb

Mustahabb (Arabic: مُسْتَحَبّ, lit. 'beloved thing') or Mandub (Arabic: المندوب, lit. 'delegate') is an Islamic term referring to an action or thing that is recommended and favoured.

Mustahabb actions are those whose ruling (ahkam) in Islamic law falls between mubah (neutral; neither encouraged nor discouraged) and wajib (compulsory). One definition is "duties recommended, but not essential; fulfilment of which is rewarded, though they may be neglected without punishment". Synonyms of mustahabb include masnun and mandub. The opposite of mustahabb is makruh (discouraged).

Parallels have been drawn between the concept of mustahabb in Islamic law and the concept of supererogatory acts in the Western philosophical tradition.

Ahkam

In the principles of Islamic jurisprudence (Arabic: أصول الفقه, romanized: uṣūl al-fiqh), rulings governing actions fall into categories known as "the five rulings" (الأحكام الخمسة, al-aḥkām al-khamsa).

It is a sin or a crime to perform a forbidden action or not to perform a mandatory action. Avoiding reprehensible acts and performing recommended acts is held to be subject of reward in the afterlife, while allowed actions entail no judgement from God.

  1. Obligatory (واجب, wājib or فرض, farḍ);
  2. Recommended (مُسْتَحَبّ, mustaḥabb or المندوب, mandūb);
  3. Neutral, that is, not involving God's judgment (مباح, mubāḥ);
  4. Disliked or reprehensible (مكروه, makrūh);
  5. Forbidden (حَرَام, ḥarām or محظور, maḥzūr).

Islamic jurists disagree on whether the term halal covers the first two, three, or four of these categories.

Examples

There are possibly thousands of mustahabb acts, including:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Reuben Levy, The Social Structure of Islam, p. 202
  2. ↑ ZAROUG, ABDULLAHI HASSAN (1985). "THE CONCEPT OF PERMISSION, SUPEREROGATORY ACTS AND ASETICISM [sic] IN ISLAMIC JURISPRUDENCE". Islamic Studies. 24 (2): 167–180. ISSN 0578-8072. JSTOR 20847307.
  3. 1 2 Vikør, Knut S. (2014). "Sharīʿah". In Emad El-Din (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 2014-06-04. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  4. ↑ Gibb, H. A. R., ed. (1960). The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill. p. 257.
  5. ↑ Turner, Colin (2013-12-19). Islam: The Basics. Routledge. p. 133. ISBN 9781134296910. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  6. ↑ "ISLAM AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT". scholar.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 2026-01-26.