Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
Get access
Subject: Middle East And Islamic Studies
General Editor: Johanna Pink, Universität Freiburg.
Associate Editors: Saqib Hussain, Loyola Marymount University, Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, Université de Strasbourg, Suleyman Dost, University of Toronto, Nimet Seker, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
| Help us improve our service |
The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online is an encyclopaedic dictionary of qur’ānic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history and exegesis extended with essays on the most important themes and subjects within qur’ānic studies. The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online is the first comprehensive, multivolume reference work on the Qur’ān to appear in a Western language.
Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online includes direct access to 62 Early Printed Western Qur’āns Online and the Electronic Qurʾān Concordance, a unique online finding aid for textual research.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
Sabbath
(615 words)
Saturday, technically, Friday evening to Saturday evening. While related etymologically to the Aramaic and Hebrew words for the Sabbath (in which tradition it connotes the day of “rest”), the Arabic term
(sabt) was provided with an appropriate Islamic sense by the Qurʾān and later Muslim interpretation. The Qurʾān uses the word
sabt six times (plus once as a verb,
yasbitu, “to keep the Sabbath,” in q 7:163) and clearly draws a relationship between the Jews, the Sabbath and not working on that day of the week, in keeping with the Jewish tradition (see jews and judaism ). The day was imposed…
Source:
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
Sabians
(1,103 words)
A religious community mentioned three times in the Qurʾān. The Sabians
(ṣābiʾūn) should not be confused with the Sabaeans, the inhabitants of Sabaʾ, the biblical Sheba, a famous ancient nation in south Arabia (see sheba; bilqīs; pre-islamic arabia and the qurʾān;south arabia, ¶ religion in pre-islamic). The identity of the Sabians has puzzled both medieval and modern scholarship. q 2:62 states: “As for those who have believed and those who have professed Judaism and the Naṣārā and the Sabians: those who believed in God and the last day and did good, they shall have …
Source:
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
Sacred
(9 words)
see profane and sacred; forbidden; sacred precincts Bibliography
Source:
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
Sacred Precincts
(2,397 words)
Areas considered holy, often associated with places of worship or religious rituals. Sacred precincts are treated in the Qurʾān on two levels: Israelite and Arabian (see children of israel; pre-islamic arabia and the qurʾān; south arabia, religion in pre-islamic). On the Israelite level, a sacred precinct is mentioned, to begin with, in the story of Moses' (q.v.) vocation. In q 20:12, Moses stands before the burning bush and God tells him that the
wādī, “valley,” i.e. precinct, he is standing in is of “multiple sacredness”
(al-wādī l-muqaddas ṭuwan); therefore he must take off his…
Source:
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
Sacrifice
(841 words)
The act of making an offering to a deity or the offering itself. In Arabic, these are commonly rendered by the roots,
ḍ-ḥ-y, q-r-b and
dh-b-ḥ. The first root, which in ¶ the second form can mean to sacrifice an animal during the period of daylight called
al-duḥā, is not attested in the Qurʾān, though
ʿīd al-adḥā, “feast of the sacrifice,” has become the primary name for the one great sacrificial ritual in Islam, occurring during the daylight hours of the tenth of the month of
dhū l-ḥijja (see months; day, times of; noon) as a part of the major pilgrimage (q.v.;
ḥajj). In contemporary usage, some …
Source:
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
(-ṣād- - ṣ-f-r)
(531 words)
-ṣād-
ṣ-b-b
aṣabb Months
ṣ-b-gh
ṣibgh Tree(s)
ṣibgha Baptism Covenant Textual Criticism of the Qurʾān ṣibghat allāh
ṣ-b-r
iṣṭabara Trust and Patience
ṣabara Ethics and the Qurʾān Grammar and the Qurʾān Hospitality and Courtesy Moses Muḥammad Trust and Patience Virtues and Vices, Commanding and Forbidding
ṣabbār Moses Trust and Patience
ṣabr Courage Ethics and the Qurʾān Faith Medicine and the Qurʾān Moses Myths and Legends in the Qurʾān Suffering Trust and Patience Virtue
ṣā…
Source:
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
(-ṣād- - ṣ-f-w - ṣ-l-y)
(376 words)
ṣ-f-w
aṣfiyāʾ Ṣūfism and the Qurʾān
ikhwān al-ṣafāʾ
iṣṭafā Election Muḥammad Prophets and Prophethood Samuel
muṣṭafā Election Language and Style of the Qurʾān Names of the Prophet Ṣafā and Marwa
ṣafwa Election
ṣafwān Earth
ṣafā Ṣafā and Marwa
ṣāfin/ṣāfī Taxation
ṣ-f-ḥ
ṣafaḥa Muḥammad
ṣafḥ Tolerance and Coercion
ṣ-gh-r
[wa-hum] ṣāghirūn Poll Tax
aṣghar Adam and Eve
ṣaghār Poll Tax
ṣaghīr Children
ṣaghīra, pl. ṣaghāʾir Sin, Major and Minor
ṣ-gh-w
aṣghā Hearing and Deaf…
Source:
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
(-ṣād- - ṣ-l-ḥ - ṣ-w-m-ʿ)
(565 words)
ṣ-l-ḥ
aṣlaḥ Responsibility Theology and the Qurʾān
aṣlaḥa Ethics and the Qurʾān Persian Literature and the Qurʾān Taxation
istiṣlāḥ Law and the Qurʾān Modesty
iṣlāḥ Creation Politics and the Qurʾān
maṣlaḥa, pl. maṣāliḥ Feminism and the Qurʾān Justice and Injustice Law and the Qurʾān Politics and the Qurʾān Wahhabism and the Qurʾān
ṣalaḥa Ethics and the Qurʾān Faith
ṣalāḥ Responsibility Ritual and the Qurʾān
ṣulḥ Conquest Persian Literature and the Qurʾān Retaliation Taxation Vengean…
Source:
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
(-ṣād- - ṣ-w-r - ṣ-ḥ-ḥ)
(509 words)
ṣ-w-r
muṣawwir God and his Attributes Iconoclasm
taṣwīr Ashes Literary Structures of the Qurʾān
ṣawwara Cosmology God and his Attributes Popular and Talismanic Uses of the Qurʾān
ṣāra Textual Criticism of the Qurʾān
ṣūr Apocalypse Eschatology Instruments Last Judgment Resurrection
ṣūra, pl. ṣuwar Art and Architecture and the Qurʾān God and his Attributes Magic Persian Literature and the Qurʾān fī aḥsana ṣuwarakum ʿalā ṣūratihi
ṣ-w-t
ṣawt, pl. aṣwāt Anatomy Speech
ṣ-w-ʿ
ṣuwāʿ Cups an…
Source:
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
Ṣafā and Marwa
(1,222 words)
Two low hills near the Kaʿba (q.v.) in Mecca (q.v.) between which the pilgrim engages in a brisk walk or trot called “the running”
(al-saʿy) during the pilgrimage (q.v.;
ḥajj and
ʿumra). This running is an obligatory station (
mansik, pl.
manāsik) among the various ritual activities during the ten days of the
ḥajj pilgrimage ritual at Mecca (see ritual and the qurʾān ). The root meaning of
ṣafā is to be clear or pure, from which comes the familiar name
muṣṭafā, meaning “elected” or “chosen” (see names of the prophet; election), but may also designate smooth stones. Lexicographers define
marwa …
Source:
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
Saint
(545 words)
Person marked by divine favor, holiness. The idea of special, chosen people, “saints,” is alien to the Qurʾān (for the closest qurʾānic attestation of this concept, see election ). The word
walī (pl.
awliyāʾ) used later for these people, though occurring very frequently, does not designate special people distinguished by striking qualities but the faithful as such, who are devout (
ṣāliḥūn, muttaqūn; see good and evil; piety). This makes them friends of God and he is their friend (see friends and friendship; clients and clientage). Satan (see devil ), who is the enemy
(ʿaduww) of God and…
Source:
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
Ṣāliḥ
(981 words)
A messenger (q.v.) sent to the people of Thamūd (q.v.), named nine times in the Qurʾān. His story is dealt with in a number of passages (q 7:73-9; 11:61-8; 26:141-59; 27:45-53; 54:23-31; 91:11-5), and in other verses mention is made of the people of Thamūd and their fate. The Qurʾān does not contain a complete narrative of the story of this messenger and the events that led his people to punishment and destruction, but it does mention (and occasionally repeats some details of) his mission among his people. Particular attention is given to the…
Source:
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān