{
 "id": "concept/wasf-fiqh",
 "class": "concept",
 "slug": "wasf-fiqh",
 "label": {
  "ar": "وَصْف",
  "en": "Wasf (description and attribute)"
 },
 "summary": {
  "ar": "الوصف في اللغة النعت، ويقال وصف الطبيب الدواء إذا عيّنه باسمه ومقداره. وفي الاصطلاح عبارة عمّا دلّ على الذات باعتبار معنى مقصود، أو ما دل على ذات بصفة. وعند الأصوليين تقييد لفظ مشترك المعنى بلفظ آخر مختص غير شرط ولا غاية. {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.17264} يصح البيع بالوصف عند جمهور الفقهاء كما يصح بالرؤية لأنه يفيد العلم بالمعقود عليه؛ وعند الشافعية في الأظهر لا يصح بيع الغائب الذي لم يره المشتري ولو وُصف، للنهي عن بيع الغرر. {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.17264} وفي المسلم فيه يشترط أن يكون ديناً موصوفاً في الذمة بما ينضبط به، وصرح الشافعية بوجوب ذكر الأوصاف في صيغة العقد فلا يصح ذكرها بعده ولو في المجلس. {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.17264}{cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.17265} وعند الأصوليين إضافة الحكم إلى وصف مناسب تُفهم منه علّية الوصف للحكم، كإضافة القطع إلى السرقة، ويسمّى إيماءً. {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.17265} ومفهوم الصفة: تعليق الحكم على الذات بأحد أوصافها، فالشافعي ومالك والأكثرون يرون دلالته على نفي الحكم عما عداه، وأبو حنيفة وجماعة من المالكية والشافعية منهم الغزالي يرون أنه لا ينفيه. {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.17265}",
  "en": "Wasf in the lexicon is description, and to describe a thing is to name it; a doctor describes a medicine when he names it and gives its dose. Technically it is a term for what points to an essence by a meaningful attribute; for the usulis it restricts a word of shared meaning by another, specific word that is neither a condition nor an end. {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.17264} Most jurists hold that a sale by description is valid as a sale by sight, since description gives knowledge of the object; in the preferred Shafi'i view the sale of an absent object not seen by the buyer is not valid, even if described at length, because of the prohibition on uncertain sales. {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.17264} In a salam contract the goods must be described as a debt in the buyer's favour by attributes that fix them, and the Shafi'is require the attributes to be named in the contract itself, not after it. {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.17264}{cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.17265} In usul, attaching a ruling to a fitting attribute shows that attribute to be its cause, which is called an allusion. {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.17265} The concept of the attribute (mafhum al-sifa) means that a ruling tied to one attribute of a thing is read by Shafi'i, Malik and most as excluding the ruling from what lacks it; Abu Hanifa and a group of Malikis and Shafi'is, including al-Ghazali, deny that. {cite:fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3 p.17265}"
 },
 "stub": false,
 "wings": [
  "ideas"
 ],
 "regions": [
  "global"
 ],
 "periods": [
  "period/prophetic-era"
 ],
 "tags": [],
 "aliases": [],
 "themes": [
  "law-and-courts"
 ],
 "data": {
  "kind": "legal",
  "provenance": {
   "layer": "own-research",
   "source": "الموسوعة الفقهية الكويتية، نسخة نور بوك، مدخل «وَصْف»، ص 17264-17265 من المسح (صفحات المسح لا المطبوع)",
   "generated_by": "Claude Haiku 5.5",
   "model": "claude-haiku-5-5",
   "run": "mawsua-w10-41"
  },
  "sources": [
   "source/fiqh-mawsua-kuwaitiyya-noor-v3"
  ],
  "status": {
   "review": "draft",
   "completeness": 1,
   "generated_by": "Claude Haiku 5.5; complete headword, scan pp.17264-17265 (the next heading وَصِيّ begins on p.17266). Summarised by topic; the cross-references وصف الطلاق and وصل produce no entity."
  }
 },
 "prose": {
  "ar": {
   "sections": [],
   "frontmatter": {
    "id": "concept/wasf-fiqh",
    "lang": "ar",
    "source_lang": "ar",
    "status": "draft"
   },
   "updated": "2026-10-23"
  },
  "en": {
   "sections": [],
   "frontmatter": {
    "id": "concept/wasf-fiqh",
    "lang": "en",
    "source_lang": "ar",
    "status": "draft"
   },
   "updated": "2026-10-23"
  },
  "ur": {
   "sections": [],
   "frontmatter": {
    "id": "concept/wasf-fiqh",
    "lang": "ur",
    "source_lang": "ar",
    "status": "draft"
   },
   "updated": "2026-10-23"
  }
 },
 "degree": 0,
 "contemporaries": [],
 "updated": "2026-10-23",
 "connections": [],
 "related": [
  "concept/ahliyya",
  "concept/al-dimuqratiyya-wal-sharia",
  "concept/al-fatwa-ala-al-fadaiyyat",
  "concept/al-ilmaniyya-wal-islam",
  "concept/al-rajm",
  "concept/allusion-to-proposal-in-iddah",
  "concept/aman",
  "concept/amana"
 ],
 "license": {
  "prose": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
  "data": "CC0 1.0"
 }
}