المعنى الاصطلاحي

What is taken out of the earth with effort and refinement, like gold.

الشرح المختصر

“Ma‘dan” (mineral) is everything that Allah, the Almighty, has created inside the earth, whether in the land or the sea, and whether it naturally exists therein or emerges in it at some later stage. This includes precious stones, liquids, and other elements that are not of the same kind of earth; they are not dust, sand, rocks, or the like. They are also not plants or fruits. The scholars divided them into three groups: 1. Solids that melt and change upon heating, like gold, silver, iron, lead, brass, etc. 2. Solids that do not change upon heating, such as gypsum, arsenic, and lime. 3. Fluids, such as water, bitumen, oil, and mercury. On the other hand, there are scholars who put minerals under two categories: 1. An external “ma‘dan”, which occurs without effort, like oil and sulfur. Efforts are only exerted for obtaining it. 2. An internal “ma‘dan”, which does not occur without effort, like gold, silver, iron, and copper.

التعريف اللغوي المختصر

“Ma‘dan”: the origin and beginning of something. It also means a place where something settles and remains, and it came to be commonly used to refer to gold, silver, and other elements. Derived from “‘adn”, which means stay, adherence. Other meanings: implication.

التعريف

Whatever is produced by the earth, which is neither earth nor plant, whether fluid like oil and tar, or solid like iron, copper, gold and silver.