Question Summary:
What is the criteria for someone to be identified as insane in Islam?

Question Detail:

What is the criteria for someone to be identified as insane in Islam?

Answer :

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh.
Insanity (junūn) is the opposite of sanity (‘aql). Sanity is a quality by which one is able to make logical deductions, intuitively perceive the end results of certain events and generally distinguish between good and bad. Insanity is a quality in which the effects of sanity are not visible, resulting in the person doing things in contradiction to what one would expect if he were sane, without there being any physical weakness or impediment in his limbs. Insanity may be due to a congenital deficiency in one’s intellect, or due to some other factor like the touch of shaytān or mental imbalance.[1]
There are no fixed criteria in the Sharī‘ah for assessing insanity. For this, it is necessary to present an individual case to Sharī‘ah experts and medical experts who will be able to assess whether the person’s condition amounts to insanity or not.
And Allah Ta‘ālā Knows Best
Zameelur Rahman
Student Darul Iftaa
UK
Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.
www.daruliftaa.net