Wilayat Al-Hisba; A Means to Achieve Justice and Maintain High Ethical Standards in Societies

One of Allah’s attributes is Adl or The Just, as a result Islam is a religion of justice, and consequently, a Muslim must be just. .Justice and maintenance of high ethical standards have always been among the major concern of Islamic States and societies. The concept of justice is central to the Islamic faith, in all dealings and spheres of life, this necessitated ways, means and probably institutions to oversee its implementation. This study adopted a descriptive analytical synthetic approach which was mainly interpretative in the form of textual commentary. The study mainly focuses on hisbah due to its nature of administering and covering a number of areas of public life to do justice to society. The study as a result will trace the origin of hisbah, its scope, show whether it did differ more especially in its mode of operation right from the prophetic period to the time when it ceased to function, without of course forgetting the person who carries out this job, his appointment, scope of operation and qualification. The study concludes by analyzing the necessity of hisba to the present day Muslim community’s current situation DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s2p20