What it means
واجب (vâjeb) comes from the Arabic root w-j-b, meaning “to be necessary” or “to fall due.” In Islamic jurisprudence it is the highest category of legal ruling: an act that every legally responsible Muslim must perform. Failing to carry out a واجب obligation is a sin (گناه, gonâh), while fulfilling it earns spiritual reward (ثواب, savâb). Classic examples include the five daily prayers, fasting in Ramadan, zakat, and Hajj for those who are able. The word is also used in everyday Persian to mean “necessary” or “required” in non-religious contexts, making it one of the most common Arabic loanwords in the language.
How to use it
- نماز واجبه، نمیتونی ولش کنی. (Namâz vâjebe, nemituni velash koni.) “Prayer is obligatory, you cannot abandon it.”
- روزه واجبه ولی مستحبم داریم. (Ruze vâjebe vali mostahabam dârim.) “Fasting is obligatory, but we also have recommended fasting.”
- این واجبه که قبل از غروب انجام بدی. (In vâjebe ke qabl az ghorub anjâm bedi.) “It is obligatory to do this before sunset.”
- حجاب از نظر اسلامی واجبه. (Hejâb az nazar-e eslâmi vâjebe.) “Hijab is obligatory according to Islamic law.”
Cultural note
Islamic jurists divide واجب obligations into two types: واجب عینی (vâjeb-e ayni), which every individual must personally perform, such as daily prayer and fasting, and واجب کفایی (vâjeb-e kefâ’i), a collective duty fulfilled when enough members of the community carry it out, such as the funeral prayer. In Iranian law and everyday speech, واجب often appears outside religious contexts to mean simply “mandatory” or “required,” for example in school regulations or official notices, a sign of how deeply Arabic jurisprudential vocabulary has woven itself into everyday Persian.