Mubah

Mubāḥ (Arabic: مباح) is an Arabic word roughly meaning "permitted",^[1] which has technical uses in Islamic law.

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.,^[2][3] "indifferent"^[4] or "(merely) permitted".^[4][5] It refers to an action that is not mandatory, recommended, reprehensible or forbidden, and thus involves no judgement from God.^[2] Assigning acts to this legal category reflects a deliberate choice rather than an oversight on the part of jurists.^[3]

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.^[6]