Revisiting the Concept of "Khufyah" in the Crime of Theft in Islamic Jurisprudence and Iranian Law

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant professor, Department of Quranic Sciences and Jurisprudence, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.Shiraz, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of Jurisprudence and Fundamentals of Law, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran.

3 Associate Professor, Department of Quranic Sciences and Jurisprudence, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

10.22034/mfu.2025.143025.1524

Abstract

Theft is one of the most common crimes across societies, and various legal systems have historically prescribed different punishments for it. Among the conditions frequently mentioned in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and legal texts as a component of theft's nature or a prerequisite for specific types of punishment is "Khafīyyah" (meaning secrecy or concealment). However, there is no consensus on its precise meaning or how it is realized. Islamic jurists from different schools of thought and Iranian legal scholars have interpreted the concept of khafīyyah differently, and the Iranian legal framework does not explicitly address this issue. The primary focus of this research is to explore the concept of khafīyyah in the crime of theft. To achieve this, eight prominent perspectives are critically studied, including: being hidden from all people; being hidden from the owner or their substitute; concealment as perceived by the thief; fraudulent conduct and the thief's act of concealment. Based on the findings, the interpretation that defines khafīyyah as "the thief's act of concealment" emerges as the most defensible. Although this interpretation is not explicitly articulated in classical Islamic jurisprudence from either Imᾱmī and Sunni traditions, evidence suggests that some jurists from both traditions have implicitly considered it. The data for this research were collected through library methods, drawing from Shi'a and Sunni jurisprudential sources as well as legal texts. The analysis was conducted using a descriptive-analytical approach.

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Comparative Studies on the Schools of Jurisprudence and its Principles
Volume 7, Issue 2 - Serial Number 13
Publisher
September 2024
Pages 266-248

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