Ḥiyal

Ḥiyal (حيل, singular ḥīlaحيلة "contortion, contrivance; device, subterfuge") is "legalistic trickery" in Islamic jurisprudence. The main purpose of ḥiyal is to avoid straightforward observance of Islamic law in difficult situations while still obeying the letter of the law.

Views on its admissibility in Islam have varied by schools of Islamic jurisprudence (Madhhab), by time period, and by type of ḥiyal. A substantial literature on such tricks has developed in the Hanafi school of jurisprudence in particular.