al-Hisba - Jamiat al-Madina
- Author died
- -
- Editions
- Jāmiʻat al-Madīnah al-ʻĀlamīyah
al-Hisba (al-Ḥisba) is an academic textbook prepared and published by Al-Madinah International University as part of its postgraduate curricula, covering the legal theory, administrative history, and practical jurisprudence of public moral and market oversight in Islam.
Overview and Structure
The book is structured as a university curriculum text comprising sixteen thematic lessons designed for master's degree students under course code GDWH5133. It systematically investigates the religious obligation of enjoining good and forbidding wrong (al-amr bi-l-maʿrūf wa-l-nahy ʿan al-munkar) and its institutionalization into the governance office of hisba.
The textbook addresses both foundational concepts and applied jurisprudence, organized into sequential lecture topics:
- Conceptual and Legal Foundations: The opening lessons analyze the linguistic and juristic definitions of hisba, its legal ruling as a communal obligation (farḍ kifāya), its scriptural evidence from the Quran and Sunnah, and its underlying legislative wisdom.
- Historical Development: The work traces the historical origin of the office to the prophetic era in Medina, following its institutional development through the Rashidun caliphs into a formalized regulatory apparatus.
- The Overseer (al-Muḥtasib): The text defines the qualifications of the appointed officer and details the nine juristic distinctions between an officially commissioned overseer (al-muḥtasib al-manṣūb) and an ordinary volunteer (al-mutaṭawwiʿ).
- Scope and Subject Matter (al-Muḥtasab Fīh): The curriculum delineates the matters subject to oversight, categorizing them into infractions concerning the rights of God (ḥuqūq Allāh), human rights (ḥuqūq al-ādamiyyīn), and combined rights across ritual, public, and market domains.
- Institutional Role of the Mosque: It explores the educational, spiritual, and social functions of the mosque in sustaining public morality and civic consciousness.
- Comparative Administrative Jurisprudence: Lesson 14 examines the intersection of hisba with the regular judiciary (al-qaḍāʾ) and the court of grievances (al-maẓālim), defining the limits of the overseer's authority—such as inspecting fraudulent weights and measures, deceptive trade practices, and unjustified debt delays—without encroaching upon formal litigation.
- Contemporary Applications: The concluding lessons discuss modern adaptations of the institution, including governmental oversight models, and analyze the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Saudi Arabia as a contemporary case study.
Method and Sources
The book combines traditional Islamic jurisprudence with comparative institutional analysis. It draws upon classical authorities on governance and legal theory, citing lexicographical definitions from Lisan al-Arab, rulings and classifications from al-Mawardi's al-Rutba fi Talab al-Hisba and al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyya, legal distinctions from Abu Ya'la al-Farra, definitions of wrongdoing from Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, and hadith commentary from Abu al-Abbas al-Qurtubi.
Alongside classical works, the textbook incorporates modern scholarship, frequently referencing Abd al-Karim Zaydan's Usul al-Dawa to synthesize juristic definitions and illustrate the societal objectives of public accountability. It also engages critically with contemporary writers such as Subhi al-Salih and Shakir Mustafa, arguing against conceptualizations that reduce hisba merely to a sub-branch of the police or ordinary courts rather than an independent administrative institution.
Answer updated