باطل
Bāṭil
The opposite of ḥaqq: the false in belief, and the evil or wrong in conduct.
What it means
Bāṭil is the opposite of ḥaqq. In knowledge it is what is false, and in action it is what is evil or wrong. Faruqi pairs the two as the two ends of truth and falsehood. In law the word also describes a contract or act that has no legal force. The Quran says that the truth has come and falsehood has vanished, for falsehood is bound to vanish (17:81). It also forbids consuming wealth among yourselves bi’l-bāṭil, by unlawful means (2:188). The word thus covers false belief and wrongful dealing alike.
Often misunderstood as
That it only describes false statements, when it also names wrong deeds and invalid acts.
What the sources say
In legal writing a bāṭil contract is void from the start. The Hanafi school distinguishes it from a fāsid, a defective but not void contract.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 25, listed as BĀṬIL. The definition is restated here.