Hisbah

Sources give different definitions and uses for Hisbah. The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic defines ḥisba (Arabic: حسبة) as an "arithmetical problem, sum"; from the root verb ḥasaba, "to compute, reckon, calculate, ...".[22] According to Sami Zubaida's book Law and Power in the Islamic World, Hisbah means "accountability".[1] According to Attahiru, Al-Aidaros, and Yusof hisbah is "the application of principles" of enjoining what is good and forbidding what is bad.[23] And Human Rights Watch states "the Arabic term hisbah means an act which is performed for the common good".[12]

Traditionally, in classical Islamic administrations, there was an office of al-hisbah, an inspector of "markets and morals", the holder of which was called a muhtasib. He was appointed by the caliph to oversee the order in market places, in businesses, in medical occupations, etc.[8] Falling roughly between the offices of judge (qadi) and court magistrate, he "had no jurisdiction to hear cases—only to settle disputes and breaches of the law where the facts were admitted or there was a confession of guilt."[24]

The office was found throughout Islamic history in many states, though how it functioned seems to have varied. Muhtasibs in the later time of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in India (1658 to 1707 C.E.) were known for enforcing puritanical regulations, such as destroying non-Muslim "idols, temples, and shrines" in the majority non-Muslim country, eliminating the Muslim confession of faith "from all coins" so that it would not be "defiled by unbelievers" using the coins.[25] Muhtasibs during the Buyid dynasty of the Abbasid Caliphate (after 950 C.E.), on the other hand, bought their office for 20,000 dirhams per month, and while not known for any particular interest or expertise in sharia, were very much subject to the temptation of soliciting bribes to pay back the huge sum they paid for the office.[26]

Hisbah was also a term for the manuals written to instruct and guide muḥtasib, containing practical advice on management of the marketplace, as well as other things a muhtasib needed to know — for example, manufacturing and construction standards.[27]

Another related usage of Hisbah is as a "personal" duty of Muslims,[9] and "general term for 'forbidding wrong'"[9] "committed by fellow believers, as and when one encountered them."[28] in obedience to Quranic verses (3:110[29] and 9:71),[30] mentioned above, but having no specific connection to marketplaces, weights and measures, etc.[7] It has a later origin, and the difference in the terms and use of Muhtasib has caused some confusion.[9] According to Michael Cook, this use is "mainly an invention" of Al-Ghazali" (1058-1111 CE), who followed a precedent set by "a somewhat earlier scholar", Al-Mawardi (d.1058) and "adopted the word hisba" as it is currently used.[9]

Al-Ghazali was "perhaps the first major Islamic thinker to devote substantial amount of space" to the two duties of commanding and forbidding,[31] and his account of the duties in (Book 19 of his) The Revival of the Religious Sciences, "achieved a wide currency in the Islamic world."[32] He wrote:

Every Muslim has the duty of first setting himself to rights, and then, successively, his household, his neighbours, his quarter, his town, the surrounding countryside, the wilderness with its Bedouins, Kurds, or whatever, and so on to the uttermost ends of earth.[33]

A large "scholastic heritage" on the subject of who was to do the forbidding, what was to be forbidden, and whom was to be told there actions were forbidden, was developed by Al-Ghazali and other medieval scholars.[16]

Hisbah different from personal duty

A slightly different definition or definitions than Al-Ghazali's comes from ʿAbd al-Ghani al-Nābulusī (d.1731), who distinguished between forbidding wrong and ḥisbah. The first being a duty by the "ordinary believer" to call on the wrongdoer to stop, but carrying "no power or duty of enforcement", unless the offense was being committed while the believer could intervene. The second duty (ḥisbah or "censorship"), being the duty to enforce right conduct (ḥaml al-nās ʿalā ʾl-ṭāʿa) and reserved to authorities (according to ʿAbd al-Ghani).[34]

In the colonial and post-colonial eras Muslims were much more likely to be living in secular states, sometimes non-Muslim majority (Western) states, but especially in states where concepts of universal human rights, personal freedom and that there is no crime without a victim, compete with traditional Islamic values and belief in Sharia. Modern day scholars and pious Muslims complain that righting "wrongs committed by fellow believers as and when one encountered them" meets too much resistance is no longer practical.[28] Thus "the conception" of forbidding wrong has changed to become more systematic. In the modern era opposing wrong doing involves "the organised propagation of Islamic values," according to Cook,[28] which requires missionary work and organisation,[35] including often the establishment of "Islamic religious police". Two countries that specifically use the term hisbah in some area of law enforcement are Nigeria and Egypt.

Nigeria

In 21st century Muslim-majority states of Nigeria, "a hisbah", is "a group expected to promote Islamic virtue, whilst discouraging vice" (or Islamic religious police).[36] Depending on the state, the group may be legally sanctioned with "state-wide powers" and thousands of employees funded by the state government (Kano and Zamfara states), or exist "only on paper" (Borno state).[36]

Egypt

Following the Egyptian revolution of 2011, prosecutions in Egypt of "writers, activists, artists, and bloggers" for "sexual orientation, religious beliefs, political opinions, or moral standing" increased markedly, with the prosecutions "couched" in the concept of hisbah.[37][38]

Economic affairs

At least some contemporary sources have stated the "institution" of hisbah "is aimed at controlling the unethical behaviors in economic affairs of the Muslim's society".[23]

If the "modern conception" of forbidding wrong is "the organized propagation of Islamic values",[28] than in the late 20th century and/or early twenty first, one important way is by enforcing these values using the state's power of policing.

Islamic religious police have arrisen in some Muslim majority states and regions (Saudi Arabia, Aceh province of Indonesia, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Iran).

Between 1996-2001 the Taliban in Afghanistan [39] had a Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (at different times called a Committee or a Department for the propagation ...).[40]

A religious policeman beating a woman for removing her burqa headpiece in public, Kabul, 2001 (image obtained by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan)

In Saudi Arabia, the state authority responsible for hisbah is the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, or hay'a.[41] Established in 1976, (or 1940)[42] the committee was known for banning the sale of Pokémon, Barbie dolls, and forcibly prevented school girls from escaping a burning school in 2002 by beating rescuing firemen and locking the school's doors (15 girls died).[43] The once feared Committee lost most of its power by 2016[44] when it was reduced to submitting reports about infractions to civil authorities.[44]

The Islamic Republic of Iran has had different institutions[45] enforcing proper covering (hijab) for women, preventing the mingling of unrelated men and women without a male guardian (mahram), and other infractions[46] since shortly after the Iranian Revolution.

Hisbah doctrine has been invoked by Islamic prosecutors in cases of apostasy and acts of blasphemy. In Egypt, the Human Rights group Freedom House complains, "hundreds of hisba cases have been registered against writers and activists, often using blasphemy or apostasy as a pretext".[47] In one high-profile case, Nasr Abu Zayd, a Muslim scholar "critical of old and modern Islamic thought" was prosecuted under the statute when his academic work was held to be evidence of apostasy.[48][49]