Sometimes...

Sometimes, practical taklīf is also purely rational; among them, for instance, are the mandatoriness of discharging a trust, gratefulness to a benefactor, kindness to parents, and renunciation of injustice and lying. There are also times when practical taklīf is textual; for instance, many of the secondary laws concerning the ritual prayer, fasting ( ṣawm ), alms-tax ( zakāt ), and the like.

From another perspective, it can be said that all the religious laws are rational as well as textual because since these laws follow a series of real criteria, interests and noumenal corruption, they are called ‘rational’ because the intellect declares the need for this criteria, interests and corruption.

And since they are declared through the revelation, they are called ‘religious’ ( shar‘ī ).[^3] Another classification of taklīf is to identify it as obligatory ( wājib ), prohibited ( ḥarām ), recommendatory ( mustaḥabb ), abominable ( makrūh ), or permissible ( mubāḥ ).

In this regard, Ḥakīm Lāhījī has thus said: Taklīf which means ‘command’ is a Divine address which pertains to the actions of [God’s] servants which are described as good or bad through iqtiḍā’ (requirement) or takhayyur (giving options). Iqtiḍā’ means a demand which pertains to an action or non-performance of it while takhayyur means to settle down whether to do or not to do an act.

If the demand is thus related to an action, it is called good ( ḥasan ) because demanding for something bad is bad according to any reasonable person.

And if the demand is related to relinquishing an action, the said action is bad because to demand abandoning something good is bad, and to demand an action – if it is not permissible to abandon – is called wājib (obligatory), and if it is permissible to abandon, it is called mandūb , and if it is required to abandon, it is called ḥarām (prohibited).

If the action is permissible, it is called makrūh (abominable), and the action which pertains to takhayyur is called mubāḥ (permissible).”[^4] The Philosophy behind Obligation There is no doubt that taklīf (obliging) is good but it is an action of God, and His action is good. But as to what the form of goodness of taklīf is, this is something connected to the philosophy of taklīf and the motive behind it, and the justice-oriented ( ‘adliyyah ) theologians have stated some aspects of it.

One reason for the goodness of taklīf is that it provides the ground for a person’s receipt of great rewards in the Hereafter.