ʿAzīma and rukhṣa - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
[Article]
Katz, Marion H.
Leiden
Brill
(699 words)
ʿAzīm a and rukhṣa are legal terms referring, respectively, to the application of a commandment in Islamic law in its original force, and to its replacement with a less onerous alternative in cases of need or duress. Literally, rukhṣa means "facilitation" or "alleviation." As a technical term in the discipline of uṣūl al-fiqh , it refers to a special dispensation from performing an obligatory act or from submitting to a prohibition, as a result of a mitigating circumstance (ʿudhr) . All other cases, in which the divine command remains in full