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(a., pl. sad̲j̲ād̲j̲id , sad̲j̲ād̲j̲īd , sawād̲j̲id ), the carpet on which the ṣalāt [ q.v.] is performed. The word is found neither in the Ḳurʾān nor in the canonical Ḥadīt̲h̲; the occasional use of a floor-covering of some kind was, however, known at quite an early period. 1. Early tradition. In the Ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.] we are often told how Muḥammad and his followers performed the ṣalāt on the floor of the mosque in Medina after a heavy shower of rain, so that their noses and heads came in contact with the mud (e.g. al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ad̲h̲ān , bāb s 135, 151; Muslim, Ṣiyām , trads…

, the most famous sanctuary of Islam, called the temple or house of God ( Bayt Allāh ). It is situated almost in the centre of the great mosque in Mecca. Muslims throughout the whole world direct their prayers to this sanctuary, where every year hundreds of thousands of pilgrims make the greater ( ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ ) or lesser ( ʿumra ) pilgrimage. Around it they gather and make their ritual circuits; around the Kaʿba the young Muslim community spent the early years of Islam. For the Muslim community the Kaʿba holds a place analogous to that of the temple in Jerusalem for ancient Jewry. I. The Kaʿba and …

(a.), circumcision. The term is used indifferently for males and females, but female excision is particularly called k̲h̲ifāḍ or k̲h̲afḍ [ q.v.]. In the dual, al-k̲h̲itānāni are “the two circumcised parts” (viz. that of the male and that of the female), and according to tradition “if the two circumcised parts have been in touch with one another, g̲h̲usl is necessary” (Buk̲h̲ārī. G̲h̲usl , bāb 28; Muslim, Ḥayḍ , trad. 88; Abū Dāwūd, Ṭahāra , bābs 81, 83). Some words connected with the root k̲h̲-t-n denote the father-in-law, the son-in-law, the daughter-in-law ( k̲h̲atan , k̲h̲atana …

, sacrifice, sacrificial victim. The word goes back to the Hebrew ḳorbān , perhaps through the intermediary of the Aramaic (cf. Mingana, Syriac influence on the style of the Ḳurʾān , in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library , xi (1927), 85; S. Fränkel, De vocabulis in ... corano peregrinis, 20). The language of the Ḳurʾān, as is well known, shows a preference for religious technical terms ending in -ān and some of them are not always used with their original significations. This is true of ḳurbān , which occurs three times in the Ḳurʾān. In sūras III, 179 and …

(a.), the recommendation or permission to perform the ritual ablution with sand instead of water in certain cases, is based on two passages in the Ḳurʾān, IV, 43/46 and V, 7/9. The latter passage runs as follows: “And if you are in a state of impurity ( d̲j̲unub an ) purify ( fa-ṭṭahharū ) yourselves. But if you are ill, or on a journey or if you come from the privy or you have touched women and you find no water, take fine clean sand ( saʿīd an ṭayyib an ) and rub your faces and hands with it.” Sūra IV, 43/46, is nearly identical except that the phrase “with it…

, the archangel Michael [see also malāʾika ], whose name occurs once in the Ḳurʾān, viz. in II, 92: “Whosoever is an enemy to God, or his angels, or his apostles, or to Gabriel or to Michael, verily God 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, to all of which he gave the true answer. Finally, they asked him, who transmit…

(a., from the root w-s-m “to mark, imprint”), market, festival. In this sense the term is used in ḥadīt̲h̲ , especially in connection with the markets of early Arabia, such as those which were held in ʿUkāẓ, Mad̲j̲anna, D̲h̲u ’l-Mad̲j̲āz, ʿArafa, etc. (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ , bāb 150; Tafsīr , sūra II, bāb 34). At these markets, the worst elements of Arabia gathered ( al-mawsim yad̲j̲maʿ raʿāʿ al-nās , al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ḥudūd , bāb 31). Advantage was also taken of these assemblies to make public proclamations and inquiries, e.g. in order to regulate the affairs of d…

(a.), a term of the Ḳurʾān, primarily denoting revelation in the form of communication without speech. Cognates in other Semitic languages include Palmyrene Aramaic twḥytʾ ( tawḥītā ) “decree [of the government]” and Mehri hewḥū “to come to someone’s help”. In the Ḳurʾān, waḥy is presented as an exceptional modality of God’s speaking to His creatures. This waḥy forms a concept of inspiration and communication without linguistic formulation, conveying the will of God, as in VII, 117: “And We suggested/put the idea into the head ( awḥaynā ) to Moses: ‘Cast thy …

(a.), monasticism. The term is derived from rāhib [ q.v.] “anchovite, monk”; it occurs in the Ḳurʾān once only, in a complicated passage (sūra LVII, 27) that has given rise to divergent interpretations: “And we put in the hearts of those who followed Jesus, compassion and mercy, and the monastic state ( rahbāniyya ); they instituted the same (we did not prescribe it to them) only out of a desire to please God. Yet they observed not the same as it ought truly to have been observed. And we gave unto such of them as believed, their reward; but many of them have been doers of evil.” According to some of …

(a.), the active participle of the IVth form of the root s-l-m, designates the person who professes Islam [ q.v.], islāmī being exclusively used today for what is relative to Islam and having, as a corresponding term, the forms in western languages islamic , islamique , islamisch , etc. However, in the 4th/10th century the theologian al-As̲h̲ʿarī [ q.v.] called his heresiographical work Maḳālāt al-Islāmiyyīn in order not to prejudice the question which of the various sects could or could not be called muslim . Whilst forms like mohammedan , mahométan , maomettano ,…

(a., pl. ruhbān , rahābīn , rahābina ), a monk. The figure of the monk is known to pre-Islamic poetry and to the Ḳurʾān and Tradition. The pre-Islamic poets refer to the monk in his cell, the light of which the traveller by night sees in the distance and which gives him the idea of shelter. In the Ḳurʾān, the monk and the ḳissīs , sometimes also the aḥbār , are the religious leaders of the Christians. In one place it is said that rabbis and monks live at the expense of other men (sūra IX, 34) and that the Christians have taken as their masters instead of God their aḥbār and their monks as well as al-Mas…

, name of a voluntary fast-day which is observed on the 10th Muharram. I. When Muḥammad came to Madīna he adopted from the Jews amongst other days the ʿĀs̲h̲ūrāʾ. The name is obviously the Hebrew ʿāsōr with the Aramaic determinative ending; in Lev. xvi, 29 it is used of the great Day of Atonement. Muḥammad retained the Jewish custom in the rite, that is, the fast was observed on this day from sunset to sunset, and not as in other fasts only during the day. When in the year 2 Muḥammad’s relations with the Jew…

(a.), active participle of Form VI of w-t-r, “that which comes successively”. It is used as a technical term in two senses: (a) In the methodologies of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v., and for the term see Vol. III, 25b] and of law, the term is the counterpart of k̲h̲abar al-wāḥid [ q.v.] and denotes a Prophetic tradition (or, in general, any report) with multiple chains of transmission [see isnād ]. Concerning the requisite number of concurrent chains that would make a report mutawātir , there is no unanimity; it is supposed to be a sufficient number to preclude the po…

abū ḥamza , one of the most prolific traditionists. After the hid̲j̲ra his mother gave him to the prophet as servant; according to his own statement he was then ten years of age. He was present at Badr, but took no part in the battle, and is therefore not counted among the combatants. He remained in Muḥammad’s service up to the time of the Prophet’s death; later he took part in the wars of conquest. He also played small parts in the civil wars. In the year 65/684 he officiated as imām of the ṣalāt at Baṣra oh behalf of the rival caliph ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr. When …

(al-ʿĀṣī) al-sahmī , a contemporary of Muḥammad of Ḳurays̲h̲ite birth. The part which he played in Islāmic history begins with his conversion in the year 8/629-630. At that time he must already have been of middle age, for at his death which took place circa 42/663 he was over ninety years old. He passed for one of the most wily politicians of his time, and we must endorse this verdict. The more clear-sighted inhabitants of Mekka already foresaw shortly after the unsuccessful…

, properly ʿabd al-raḥmān b. ʿabd allāh , Arab poet, who lived in Kūfa in the second half of the 1th/7th century. In his early career a traditionist and Ḳurʾān reader he was married to a sister of the theologian al-S̲h̲aʿbī, who in turn had married a sister of al-Aʿs̲h̲ā. Later he concentrated on poetry, acting on occasion as the spokesman of the Yamanite faction. He was active in the wars that marked the governorship of al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲ and his health appears to have suffered d…

, maṣdar of the verb aḥrama , is an “act of declaring (or making) sacred or forbidden”. The opposite is iḥlāl “act of declaring permitted”. The word iḥrām had become a technical term for the state of temporary consecration of someone who is performing the ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ or the ʿumra ; a person in This state is referred to as muḥrim . The entering into This holy state (also called iḥlāl) is accomplished, for men and women, by the statement of intention, accompanied by certain rites and in addition, for men, by the donning of the ritual garment. When making the intenti…

, “the people of the ditch” or “of the well”, are twice mentioned in the Ḳurʾān (xxv, 38; L, 12), along with ʿĀd, T̲h̲amūd and other unbelievers. The commentators know nothing for certain about them, and so give widely divergent explanations and all manner of fantastic accounts. Some take al-Rass to be a geographical name (cf. Yāḳūt, s.v.); some hold that these people, a remnant of T̲h̲amūd, cast (rassa) their prophet Ḥanẓala into a well ( rass ) and were consequently exterminated. It is also related that the mountain of the bird ʿAnḳāʾ [ q.v.] was situated in their region. Al-Ṭabarī men…

, the ten, to whom Paradise was promised. The term does not occur in canonical ḥadīth , to which however the conception goes back. The traditions in question usually have the form: “Ten will be in Paradise”, whereupon the names are enumerated. There are differences in the lists. Those who appear in the various forms extant are: Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUt̲h̲mān, ʿAlī, Ṭalḥa, Zubayr, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAwf, Saʿd b. Abī Waḳḳāṣ, Saʿīd b. Zayd. In some traditions Muḥammad himself is put before these nine (Abū Dāwūd, Sunna , bāb 8; Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, i, 187, 188 bis ). In others Muḥa…

b. ʿAmr b. Nufayl ... b. ʿAdī b. Kaʿb b. Luʾayy, a Companion of the Prophet from the tribe of Ḳurays̲h̲ [ q.v.] and one of Muḥammad’s earliest converts. His mother was Fāṭima bint Baʿd̲j̲a b. Umayya of the clan of K̲h̲uzāʿa. His kunya was Abu ’l-Aʿwar or Abū T̲h̲awr. He was one of ʿUmar b. al-K̲h̲aṭṭāb’s ¶ cousins and at the same time his brother-in-law through his wife, who was ʿUmar’s sister, as well as through ʿUmar’s wife who was his sister. He assumed Islam before Muḥammad entered the house of Zayd b. al-Arḳam and ʿUmar’s conversion is said to ha…