Ibraz al-Hukm min Hadith Raf al-Qalam
- Author died
- 756 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah
Ibraz al-Hukm min Hadith Raf al-Qalam (Highlighting the Legal Ruling from the Hadith of Lifting the Pen) is a concise legal and hadith treatise by the Shafi'i jurist and scholar Taqi al-Din al-Subki (d. 756 AH / 1355 CE), dedicated to analyzing the famous prophetic tradition on the lifting of legal accountability .
Overview and Composition
The treatise is structured around the exposition of the hadith: رُفِع القلم عن ثلاثة: عن الصبيّ حتّى يبلغَ، وعن النائم حتّى يستيقظ وعن المجنون حتّى يفيقَ ("The pen has been lifted from three: from the child until reaching puberty, from the sleeping person until waking, and from the insane person until recovering sanity") . According to Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, al-Subki derived and detailed thirty-eight scholarly points and benefits (fawa'id) relating to the hadith in this work .
Chronologically, al-Subki authored the book prior to parts of his legal commentary Sharh al-Minhaj; his son Taj al-Din al-Subki noted that in Ibraz al-Hukm, Taqi al-Din viewed the growth of pubic hair as an indicator of puberty for a Muslim just as it is for a non-Muslim, though he later qualified this stance in Sharh al-Minhaj .
Contents and Key Discussions
Al-Subki begins the work by examining the textual transmissions of the narration. He pointed out that all standard hadith compilations—including the Sunan of Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, and al-Nasa'i, as well as al-Daraqutni—transmit the wording as عن ثلاثة ('an thalathah, with the ta marbuta), whereas the variant عن ثلاث ('an thalath) without the letter appears in some jurisprudence manuals without textual basis .
He also explored the hermeneutical, linguistic, and substantive legal dimensions of the text:
- Metaphor and Legal Capacity: Al-Subki analyzed whether the phrase "lifting of the pen" is literal (haqiqah) or metaphorical (majaz), explaining that according to the well-known view, it is a metonymy (kinayah) for the absence of religious obligation (taklif). Because obligation entails recording, and recording requires a pen, negating the pen serves as an eloquent metonymy for negating the obligation itself .
- Grammar and Time Limits: He addressed a grammatical subtlety regarding the use of the past tense verb (rafa'a, "lifted") alongside future terminal limits (ghayat) introduced by hatta ("until"), resolving how a past action connects to future temporal boundaries .
- Excluded and Related States: Al-Subki addressed why certain conditions were not explicitly mentioned alongside the three categories in the text; for instance, unconsciousness (al-ighma') was omitted because it falls under the ruling of sleep, while senility (al-kharaf) appears in some narrations because mental decline caused by old age is distinct from medical insanity (al-junun) .
Modern Publication
The work has been edited by Kilani Muhammad Khalifah and published in a single volume by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah in Beirut (1412 AH / 1992 CE) .
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