Search

, the archangel Michael [cf. malāʾika], whose name occurs once in the Ḳurʾān, viz. in sūra ii. 92: “Whosoever is an enemy to Allāh, or his angels, or his apostles, or to Gabriel or to Michael, verily Allāh is an enemy to the unbelievers”. In explanation of this verse two stories are told. According to the first, the Jews, wishing to test the veracity of the mission of Muḥammad, asked him several questions, on all of which he gave the true answer. Finally they asked him who transmitted the revelations…

(a.), part. pass. IV from ṭ-l-ḳ, “to loose the bond ( ḳaid) of an animal, so as to let it free” (e.g. Muslim, Ḏj̲ihād, trad. 46; Abū Dāwūd, Ḏj̲ihād, bāb 100). The term is also applied ¶ to the loosening of the bowstring (Buk̲h̲ārī, Ḏj̲ihād, b. 170), of the garments, the hair etc. Thence the common meaning absolute, as opposed to restricted ( muḳaiyad), and further the accusative muṭlaḳan “absolutely”. The use of the term is so widely diffused, that a few examples only can be given. In grammar the term mafʿūl muṭlaḳ denotes the absolute object (cognate accusative), i. e. the objectivate…

b. al-Ḍaḥḥāk b. Zaid b. Lawd̲h̲ān b. ʿAmr b. ʿAbd Manāf (or ʿAwf) b. G̲h̲anm b. Mālik b. al-Nad̲j̲d̲j̲īr al-Anṣārī al-Ḵh̲azrad̲j̲ī, one of the Companions of Muḥammad, best known through his part in the editing of the Ḳurʾān. His father was killed in the battle of Buʿāt̲h̲ [q. v.], five years before the hid̲j̲ra, when Zaid was six years old. His ¶ mother was al-Nawār, daughter of Mālik b. Muʿāwiya b. ʿAdī, also of a Madīnd̲j̲ad̲j̲ family. It is said that the boy knew already a number of Sūras when Muḥammad settled in al-Madīna. At any rate he became his secretary, who rec…

, the mosque built on the site of the Temple in Jerusalem. The name means “the remotest sanctuary” and is first found in the Ḳurʾān, Sūra xvii. 1: “Praise ʿilm who made his servant journey in the night from the holy place to the remotest sanctuary, which we have surrounded with blessings to show him of our signs”. As was explained in the article isrāʾ [q. v.], the older exegesis refers this verse to the journey to heaven [cf. miʿrād̲j̲] and sees in the name al-Masd̲j̲id al-Aḳṣā a reference to some heavenly place (cf. Sidrat al-Muntahā, Sūra liii. 14). This explanation had however in time to g…

(in European literature one also finds ʿAzrāʾīl), the name of the angel of death, one of the four archangels (next to Ḏj̲ibrīl, Mīk̲h̲āʾīl, Isrāfīl). The name is perhaps a corruption of which is given by Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, ii. 333, as the name of the prince of Hell. Like Isrāfīl, whose office of trumpet-blower at the last judgment is sometimes given to him, he is of cosmic magnitude; if the water of all the seas and rivers were poured on his head, not a drop would reach the earth. He has a seat ( sarīr) of light in the fourth or seventh heaven, on which one of his feet re…

(a., plural sad̲j̲id̲j̲id, sad̲j̲ād̲j̲īd, sawād̲j̲id), the carpet on which the ṣalāt is performed. The word is found neither in the Ḳorʾān nor in the canonical Ḥadīt̲h̲; the article itself, however, was known at quite an early period, as may be seen from the traditions about to be mentioned. In the Ḥadīt̲h̲ we are often told how Muḥammad and his followers performed the ṣalāt on the floor of the mosque in Medīna after a heavy shower of rain with the result that their noses and heads came in contact with the mud (e. g. al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ad̲h̲ān, bāb 135, 151; Muslim, Ṣiyām, trad. 214—216, 218 etc.)…

(Plur. Farāʿina), Pharaoh. The word is explained by the commentaries on Sūra ii. 46 of the Ḳorʾān as a laḳab or ʿalam of the Amalakite kings, like Kisrā and Ḳaiṣar of the Kings of the Persians and Romans. The verb tafarʿana means “to be arrogant and tyrannous”, hence the Ḳorʾānic Firʿawn is called al-Ḏj̲abbār “the tyrant” by al-Yaʿḳūbī (ed. Houtsma), i. 31. A number of Firʿawns are mentioned in Arabic literature; their number is very differently given. In the Ḳorʾān, however, Firʿawn is always the kfng with whom Mūsā and Hārūn had to deal; the word is here clearly understood as a proper name. The …

, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAmr Abū ʿAmr, a jurist born in Baʿalbekk 88 (757). Later he lived in Damascus and Bairūt. Nothing else is known abut his life, his good character and asceticism are emphasized; he died in his bath in the year 157 (774) and was buried in the Ḳibla of the mosque in Bairūt. — Al-Awzāʿī during his life-time was a star of the first magnitude. He is said to have been the Imām of Syria and even the Mag̲h̲rib and Spain are said to have followed his Mad̲h̲hab. His influence soon declined in favour of that of Abū Ḥanīfa and of Mālik. Hardly any data about hi…

, properly ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAbd Allāh, Arab poet, who lived in Kūfa in the second half of the i. (vii.) cent. He was married to a sister of the theologian al-S̲h̲aʿbī, and he, again, had married a sister of al-Aʿs̲h̲ā. The role which he played under ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-As̲h̲ʿat̲h̲ is best known. He took part in his campaign against the Turks and was taken captive but escaped with the aid of a Turkish woman whose passions were enflamed for him. When Ibn al-As̲h̲ʿat̲h̲ turned against al-Ḥad̲j̲d…

, the name of a month, which is found as early as in inscriptions from Palmyra (see S. A. Cook, A Glossary of the Aramaic Inscriptions, s. v.) and corresponds to Marḥes̲h̲wān. It later appears among the Syriac names of the months (see Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syrd., s.v.) as K. ḳed̲ēm or ḳad̲māyā and K. ḥrāy or ḥrāyā. Here the two K. are the ninth and tenth months respectively. Al-Bīrūnī, Kitāb al-Āt̲h̲ār al-bāḳiya, ed. Sachau, p. 60, transcribes the Syriac forms exactly as K. ḳadīm and K. ḥrāy. In Arabic terminology they are called K. al-awwal and K. al-āk̲h̲ir, In the Ḥadīt̲h̲ the former app…

, nisba [cf. nasaf] of several eminent persons of whom the following may be mentioned: I. Abu ’l-Muʿīn Maimūn b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad ... b. Makḥūl ... al-Ḥanafī al-Makḥūlī (d. 508 = 1114), one of the mutakallimūn [q. v.] whose scholastic position is between that of the early period as represented by ʿAbd al-Ḳāhir al-Bag̲h̲dādī [q. v.], who is still endeavouring to find a convenient arrangement and an adequate formulation of the contents of kalām, and the younger mutakallims who have at hand the necessary formulas for ready use. Of his works the following are known to me: 1. Tamhīd li-Ḳawāʿid…

(a.), sermon, address by the k̲h̲aṭīb [ q.v.]. The k̲h̲uṭba has a fixed place in Islamic ritual, viz. in the Friday-service, in the celebration of the two festivals, in services held at particular occasions such as an eclipse or excessive drought. On the Friday it precedes the ṣalāt , in all the other services the ṣalāt comes first. A short description of the rules for the k̲h̲uṭba according to al-S̲h̲īrāzī ( Tanbīh , ed. Juynboll, 40), one of the early S̲h̲āfiʿī doctors [ q.v.], may be given here. (a.) One of the conditions for the validity of the Friday service is that it must be…

(a.), usually rendered "patience, endurance". The significance of this conception can hardly be conveyed in a West European language by a single word, as may be seen from the following. According to the Arabic lexicographers, the root ṣ-b-r , of which ṣabr is the nomen actionis, means to restrain or bind; thence ḳatalahu ṣabr an “to bind and then slay someone”. The slayer and the slain in this case are called ṣābir and maṣbūr respectively. The expression is applied, for example, to martyrs and prisoners of war put to death; in the Ḥadīt̲h̲ often to animals that— c…

(a.). 1. The name of a fountain in Paradise, occurring in the Ḳurʾān, LXXXIII, 27, where it is said that its water will be drunk by the muḳarrabūn “those who are admitted to the divine presence” and that it will be mixed with the drink of the mass of the inhabitants of Paradise. The commentaries are uncertain whether tasnīm is a proper name— which, according to the Lisān al-ʿArab , is inconsistent with its being a diptote—or a derivative from the root s-n-m, a root conveying the meaning of “being high” (cf. sanām “camel’s hump”). In the latte…

(a.), passive participle of form IV verb ṭ-l-ḳ , “to loose the bond ( ḳayd ) of an animal, so as to let it free” (e.g. Muslim, D̲j̲ihād , trad. 46; Abū Dāwūd, D̲j̲ihād, bāb 100). The term is also applied to the loosening of the bowstring (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, D̲j̲ihād, bāb 170), of the garments, the hair, etc. Thence the common meaning absolute, as opposed to restricted ( muḳayyad ), and further the accusative muṭlaḳ an “absolutely”. The use of the term is so widely diffused that a few examples only can be given. In grammar, the term mafʿūl muṭlaḳ denotes the absolute object (…

(a.), nomen loci from w-ḳ-f “to stand” hence “place of standing”. Of the technical meanings of the term, three may be mentioned here: (a) The place where the wuḳūf [ q.v.] is held during the pilgrimage, viz. ʿArafāt [ q.v.] and Muzdalifa [ q.v.] or D̲j̲amʿ. In well-known traditions, Muḥammad declares that all ʿ Arafāt and all Muzdalifa is mawḳif (Muslim, Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ , trad. 149; Abū Dāwūd, Manāsik , bāb 56, 64, etc.; cf. Wensinck, Handbook of early Muhammadan tradition, s.v. ʿArafa). Snouck Hurgronje ( Het mekkaansche feest , 150 = Verspreide Geschriften , i, 99) ha…

(a.), covering, protection, shelter, especially at the ṣalāt , where sutra means the object which the worshipper places in front of himself or lays in the direction of the ḳibla , whereby he shuts himself off in an imaginary area within which he is not disturbed by human or demoniacal influences. “The fictitious fencing off of an open place of prayer, the sutra, seems to have had among other objectives that of warding off demons” (Wellhausen, Reste 2, 158). In one tradition, the man who deliberately penetrates into this imaginary area is actually called a s̲h̲ayṭān (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ṣalāt , bāb …

In the treatment of ceremonial law in ḥadīt̲h̲ and fiḳh this term is applied to the odd number of rakʿa’s which are performed at night. For details see below. ¶ I. a. Witr ( watr is also admitted) does not occur in this sense in the Ḳurʾān, but frequently in ḥadīt̲h̲, which in this case also discloses to us a piece of the history of the institution, which is probably a continuation of the history of the fixation of the daily ṣalāt’s, as the traditions on witr presuppose the five daily ṣalāt’s. Some traditions even go so far as to call witr an additional ṣalāt of an obligatory nature (see also belo…

(a.), part. pass. II of ṣ-l-w, place where the ṣalāt is performed on certain occasions. When Muḥammad had fixed his abode in Madīna, he performed the ordinary ṣalāt’s in his dār, which was also his masd̲j̲id (not in the sense of temple). The extraordinary ṣalāt’s, however, were performed on a place situated southwest of the city in the territory of the Banū Salima, outside the wall, northeast of the bridge on the wādī, where at present the street from the suburb al-ʿAnbarīya reaches the market-place Barr al-Munāk̲h̲a (cf. Burton, Personal Narrative, plan opp. i. 256; picture of the m…

, the son of the patriarch Ibrāhīm, is mentioned several times in the Ḳurʾān. In Sūra ii. 130 (= iii. 78) and iv. 161 it is said of him that he received revelations. In xix. 55 he is called a messenger and prophet, who summoned his people to ṣalāt and zakāt. These references fit in very well with Muḥammad’s account of the religion of Ibrāhīm. In Sūra ii. 127, he is called one of the fathers of Jacob, along with Ibrāhīm and Isḥāḳ; and in ii. 119, he, along with Ibrāhīm, is commanded to purify the Holy House at Mecca. Tradition knows nothing of Ismāʿīl as a messenger nor of his revelations nor h…