Mubah

Mubāḥ (Arabic: مباح) is an Arabic word roughly meaning "permitted", which has technical uses in Islamic law. "Mubah" is an Islamic jurisprudential term that refers to an action for which a person has no specific obligation. Consequently, performing or abstaining from it is considered equally permissible, and neither action results in reward or punishment from the perspective of God in Islam.

In uṣūl al-fiqh (Arabic: أصول الفقه, lit.'principles of Islamic jurisprudence'), mubāḥ is one of the five degrees of approval (ahkam):

  1. farḍ/wājib (واجب / فرض) - compulsory, obligatory
  2. mustaḥabb/mandūb (مستحب) - recommended
  3. mubāḥ (مباح) - neutral, not involving God's judgment
  4. makrūh (مكروه) - disliked, reprehensible
  5. ḥarām/maḥzūr (محظور / حرام) - forbidden

Mubah is commonly translated as "neutral" or "permitted" in English., "indifferent" or "(merely) permitted". It refers to an action that is not mandatory, recommended, reprehensible or forbidden, and thus involves no judgement from God. Assigning acts to this legal category reflects a deliberate choice rather than an oversight on the part of jurists.

In Islamic property law, the term mubāḥ refers to things which have no owner. It is similar to the concept res nullius used in Roman law and common law.