Hukam

Hukam is a term of Arabic-Persian origin used in Urdu and Punjabi and sometimes in Hindi. It broadly means an order, decree, command, or ruling issued by an authority. The word appears in religious, legal, and everyday contexts and has specialized senses in different traditions.

In Islamic usage, hukm denotes a judgment or decree. It can refer to a religious ruling ('hukm shar'i') issued by a qualified jurist or to God's decisive decree ('hukm Allah'). The term also appears in discussions of political authority, law, and administration where a ruler's edict or a court's ruling is described as a hukm.

In Sikhism, hukam is the concept of divine will or the cosmic order by which creation operates. It is a central idea that events unfold according to God's plan. The term is also used in the practice of the Hukamnama, the daily verse from the Guru Granth Sahib regarded as the Guru's guidance for the day.

In everyday usage, hukm remains a general term for orders—from government edicts to corporate directives—and is widely used in legal, administrative, and political discourse. The related noun hukumat means government.