Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad

Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad: Dirasah wa-Naqd (The Jurisprudence of Physical Denunciation: A Study and Critique) is a legal treatise authored by the Saudi scholar Dhiab ibn Sa'd Al Hamdan al-Ghamdi, examining the principles, scope, and jurisprudential conditions governing physical intervention in commanding right and forbidding wrong (al-Amr bil-Ma'ruf wa-al-Nahy 'an al-Munkar) Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad.

Origin and Scope

The treatise was extracted and abridged from al-Ghamdi's larger work, Ahkam al-Mujahirin bil-Kaba'ir (Legal Rulings Concerning Those Who Publicly Commit Major Sins), and concluded in Ta'if Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad+1. It addresses the practical and legal questions surrounding physical denunciation (al-inkar bil-yad), aiming to clarify ambiguities among contemporary students of knowledge regarding whether physical intervention against evil is an exclusive prerogative of the political authority or a duty incumbent on individual Muslims under specific legal parameters Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad+1.

Core Arguments and Legal Analysis

Al-Ghamdi notes that scholars agree on three foundational conditions for the obligation of commanding right and forbidding wrong: being Muslim, legal capacity (taklif), and ability (istita'ah); whereas they differ on two conditions: moral probity ('adalah) and obtaining permission from the ruler (idhn al-wali) Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad.

Refutation of Restricting Physical Denunciation to Rulers

The author examines and refutes the argument that physical denunciation is strictly confined to the sovereign or state-designated hisbah inspectors on grounds of preventing chaos, avoiding encroachment on state authority (ifti'at), or requiring state enforcement power Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad. He critiques these rationales, arguing that:

• General textual evidence from the Quran and the Sunnah—such as the hadith of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri recorded in Sahih Muslim: من رأى منكم منكرا فليغيره بيده، فإن لم يستطع فبلسانه، فإن لم يستطع فبقلبه وذلك أضعف الإيمان ("Whoever among you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; if he cannot, then with his tongue; if he cannot, then with his heart, and that is the weakest of faith")—addresses the Muslim community generally without restricting physical change to rulers Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad+1.
• Classical authorities, including Abu Bakr al-Jassas, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Ibn Abd al-Barr, al-Nawawi, Ibn Hazm, and Muhammad al-Shawkani, explicitly affirmed that ordinary subjects have the right to physically alter or remove overt instruments of corruption (such as breaking musical instruments, destroying unlawful idols, or spilling alcohol) without requiring a ruler's mandate Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad+3.
• A clear distinction exists between eliminating a wrongdoing (taghyir al-munkar or daf'), which is open to all qualified Muslims, and administering prescribed legal penalties (iqamat al-hudud), which is primarily reserved for rulers Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad+1.

Jurisprudential Guidelines

Al-Ghamdi outlines four essential guidelines (dawabit) governing physical denunciation:

1. Adherence to gradual stages: Beginning with verbal clarification and gentle admonition before resorting to physical removal, unless immediate physical force is indispensable to avert imminent grievous harm, such as murder or assault Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad.
2. Weighing benefits and harms: Ensuring that denunciation does not generate an equal or greater evil, citing Ibn al-Qayyim's four classifications of denunciation and Ibn Taymiyyah's decision not to prohibit wine consumption among Mongol soldiers when it prevented greater atrocities Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad.
3. Limiting lay intervention to clear matters: Restricting the hisbah of non-scholars to unambiguous obligations and prohibitions agreed upon across the religion, leaving subtle or ijtihad-based disputes exclusively to scholars Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad.
4. Preventing transitive harm: Forbidding denunciation if it predictably causes direct and severe harm to third parties, such as one's family, neighbors, or the wider Muslim public Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad.

Concealment Versus Public Denunciation

The work concludes by distinguishing between private sins, which are legally recommended to be concealed (satr) for generally righteous persons who commit an isolated lapse (dhuwu al-hay'at), and open transgressions by unrepentant public sinners (al-mujahirun), whose public violations must be denounced openly according to the nature of the offense Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad+2. In his closing note, the author indicates that further related inquiries would be compiled in a separate subsequent work titled Fiqh al-Munkar bayn al-Salaf wa-al-Khalaf Fiqh al-Inkar bil-Yad.