Inhabitation, Privacy and its Jurisprudential Rules An Applied Reading in the Islamic West

Abstract

This article examines two closely related fundamental issues: Residential privacy and its jurisprudential rules, through a practical, applied study based on the case law (nawazil) collections of Islamic jurisprudence in the Maghreb (the Islamic West). 

Regarding the first issue, residential privacy, considered an essential urban value in residential and urban planning in the Islamic West, the article investigates its concept, types — visual, auditory and olfactory — levels and terminological significance as understood by Maliki jurists. 

Regarding the second issue, the jurisprudential rules that govern residential privacy, the study highlights their importance in the legal framework aimed at protecting and safeguarding privacy against any encroachment or breach. Jurists in the Islamic West relied on these rules to derive and apply practical Sharia rulings that address matters such as neighbours’ relations, housing disputes, and urban harm. This is reflected in nawāzil texts such as the rulings of Ibn Sahl, the criterion of al-Wancharisi, the nawāzil of Ibn al-Hajj, the fatwas of al-Barzali, and others.