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, appeal, invocation (addressed to God) either on behalf of another or for oneself ( li...), or else against someone ( ʿalā ...); hence: prayer of invocation, calling either for blessing, or for imprecation and cursing, connected with the Semitic idea of the effective value of the spoken word. Cf. Ḳurʾān XVII, 11: “Man prays for evil as he prays for good”.— Duʿāʾ therefore will have the general sense of personal prayer addressed to God, and can often be translated as “prayer of request”. I.—The scope and practice of duʿāʾ . 1. In the Ḳurʾān, duʿāʾ always keeps its original meaning of invo…

(a.), the action of raising oneself, of rising, and of resurrection. The root ḳ-w-m is employed very frequently in the language of the Ḳurʾān. Ḳiyāma occurs there seventy times, always in the expression yawm al-ḳiyāma “the day of resurrection”. The resurrection of bodies follows the annihilation of all creatures ( al-fanāʾ al-muṭlaḳ ), and precedes the “judgment” ( dīn ), the “day of judgement” ( yawm al-dīn ).This will be the Last Hour ( al-sāʿa ). Al-sāʿa , yawm al-ḳiyāma and yawm al-dīn, taken as a whole constitute one of the “necessary beliefs” which determine the content…

, pl. afkār , thought, reflection. The Ḳurʾān employs the 2nd and 5th forms of the root fkr , to urge men “to reflect”. In the vocabulary of falsafa and ʿilm al-kalām , the maṣdar fikr denotes the intellectual faculty in the act of thought, reflecting upon an object of intellection. It is distinguished from idrāk , the intellectual faculty of grasping, of perception. The result of the operation of fikr is expressed by the noun of unity fikra . In taṣawwuf , fikr is used habitually in contrast to d̲h̲ikr [ q.v.], recollection. Fikr can thus be translated by reflectio…

, God the Unique one, the Creator and Lord of the Judgment, polarizes the thought of Islam; He is the sole reason for its existence. ¶ Allāh was known to the pre-Islamic Arabs; he was one of the Meccan deities, possibly the supreme deity and certainly a creator-god (cf. Ḳurʾān, xiii, 16; xxix, 61, 63; xxxi, 25; xxxix, 38; xliii, 87). He was already known, by antonomasia, as the God, al-Ilāh (the most likely etymology; another suggestion is the Aramaic Alāhā ).—For Allāh before Islam, as shown by archaeological sources and the Ḳurʾān, see ilāh . But the vague notion of supreme (not sole) di…

, “compulsion, coercion”, as opposed to ik̲h̲tiyār , “freedom of choice”. Although the term itself, in its maṣdar form, does not belong to the language of the Ḳurʾān, the verbal use of the VIIIth form is of relatively frequent occurrence there. The idea is that of an absolute necessity ( ḍarūra ), by means of physical (secondarily moral) compulsion. I.— Iḍṭirār takes on its technical sense in connexion with the theory of human actions. It thus belongs to the vocabulary of the “science of kalām ” (the “theology” or rather the “defensive apologia” of Islam). …

, “if God wills”, “If it pleases God”. The expression is usually called istit̲h̲nāʾ , “formula of exception” (or “de conditionnement”, tr. H. Laoust). It means that God alone is the master of all that happens, as well as of the thoughts, acts and plans of man. In Islamic countries in ordinary speech it is used to qualify anything in the future, even the near future. Massignon describes this formula ( Passion , 585) as one which “est restée le signe distinctif, la parabole type de la vie sociale, pour la Communauté islamique”. The expression in s̲h̲āʾ Allāh —or an equiva…

(a.), faith (in God), maṣdar of the 4th form of the root ʾ mn. The root has the connotations of “being secure, trusting in, turning to”; whence: “good faith, sincerity” ( amana ), then “fidelity, loyalty” ( amāna ), and thus the idea of “protection granted” ( amān ). The fourth form ( āmana ) has the double meaning of “to believe, to give one’s faith” and (with bi) “to protect, to place in safety”. The root ʾ mn is one of those most frequently found in the vocabulary of the Ḳurʾān, where īmān means sometimes the act and sometimes the content of faith, sometimes bot…

— "The most Beautiful Names", these being the divine Names. "To God belong the most Beautiful Names—pray to Him, using (these Names)", Ḳurʾān, vii, 179. Cf. xvii, 110; xx, 8; lix, 24 etc. Pious Muslims have always revered the mystery of the Name, which at one and the same time both designates and veils the Named (cf. ḥid̲j̲āb al-ism ). The Theological question. A chapter of "Muslim theology" ( ʿilm al-tawḥīd ) is devoted to the divine Names. Problem stated: can one name God, and what, with regard to God, do the Names attributed to Him mean? Preliminaries: What is the name ( ism …

, capacity, power to act, maṣdar of the tenth form of ṭāʿ , to obey. If the term itself is not ḳurʾānic, the verb istaṭāʿ is used frequently in the text. Like its maṣdar, it was to become a technical ¶ term of the uṣūl al-dīn and the ʿilm al-kalām . The translation “capacity” is generally used (for example Tritton, Muslim Theology , London 1947, 68 and n. 2). Wensinckprefers “faculty”, others “power” ( pouvoir ). In this last sense, the ʿilm al-kalām readily considers ḳudra and istiṭāʿa to be identical (see remarks of ʿAbd al-D̲j̲abbār, S̲h̲arḥ al-uṣūl al-k̲h̲amsa , ed. …

, a term denoting, in the Ḳurʾān or ḥadīt̲h̲s , the smallest possible appreciable quantity. The Ḳurʾān uses it five times, in the expression mit̲h̲ḳāl al-d̲h̲arra , “the weight of a d̲h̲arra” ,—to extol the Omniscience of God (X, 61; XXXIV, 3), or His absolute Omnipotence (XXXIV, 20), or His supreme Justice in retribution: IV, 40 and the celebrated text XCIX, 7-8 “He who shall have done the weight of one d̲h̲arra of good shall see it; he who shall have done the weight of one d̲h̲arra of evil shall see it”. Commentators on the Ḳurʾān and interpreters of ḥadīt̲h̲s have explained d̲h̲arra by two im…

, “Garden”, is the term which, used antonomastically, usually describes, in the Ḳurʾān and in Muslim literature, the regions of the Beyond prepared for the elect, the “Companions of the right”. E.g.: “These will be the Dwellers in the Garden where they will remain immortal as a reward for their deeds on earth” (Ḳurʾān, XLVI, 14). Other Ḳurʾānic terms will be considered later either as synonyms or as particular aspects of the “Garden”: ʿAdn and D̲j̲annāt ʿAdn . (Eden, e.g., LXI, 12), Firdaws (“Paradise”, sg. farādis , cf. παράδεισος XXIII, 11), the Dwelling of Salvation or of Peace ( dār al-Sa…

, pl. afʿāl , actuation, act, and sometimes the result of an act, that is to say effectuation, effect. From its current usage in Arabic, this word very quickly became a technical term ( iṣṭilāḥ ), not only in grammar but also in falsafa and in ʿilm al-kalām . If ʿamal [ q.v.] designates the realms of ‘doing’ and ‘acting’ (whence ‘work’, human acts, and moral action), and thus has at least in its last meaning an ethical connotation, fiʿl refers above all to noetic and ontological values: the fact of actuating, of passing (or causing to pass) to the per…

(Ḳurʾānic term), “pious goodness” (R. Blachère’s translation; see Ḳurʾān, ii, 189). In the analysis of the spiritual states ( aḥwāl ) and the attitude of the soul towards God, it must at the same time be compared with and distinguished from taḳwā [ q.v.]. (L. Gardet)

The IVth form adds to the double idea of the root—purity and salvation—that of “dedicating, devoting or consecrating oneself” to something. Ik̲h̲lāṣ is pre-eminently an interior virtue of the faithful Muslim, which implies both the unadulterated purity (and thus sincerity) of religious actions, pure (exclusive) worship given to God and pure (absolute) devotion to God and the Community of Believers. The perfection of one’s adherence, and witness, to faith is gauged by ik̲h̲lāṣ and iḥsān (uprightness in good). The Ḳurʾān often uses the participle muk̲h̲liṣ , …

, Gehenna (Hebrew gēhinnōm , valley of the Gehenna); the Arabic word evokes etymologically the idea of “depth” (cf. infernus ). Used very often in the Ḳurʾān as a synonym of nār (“fire”), d̲j̲ahannam must accordingly be rendered by the general idea of Hell. The same is true in traditions. Exegetists and many treatises on kalām (or taṣawwuf ) were, subsequently, to give it a particularized connotation. The description of the Muslim Hell, the problems relating to it and consequently the references to verses in the Ḳurʾān mentioning d̲j̲ahannam, are considered in the article nār: here only …

(pl. ad̲j̲zāʾ), part, particle, term used in the technical language of kalām and of falsafa ¶ to describe the (philosophical) atom in the sense of the ultimate (substantial) part, that cannot be divided further, al-d̲j̲uzʾ allad̲h̲ī lā yatad̲j̲azzāʾ (cf. al-D̲j̲urd̲j̲ānī, Taʿrīfāt , ed. Flügel, Leipzig 1845, 78); al-d̲j̲uzʾ al-wāḥid is sometimes used. Synonym: “elementary and indivisible matter”: d̲j̲awhar fard ; al-d̲j̲awhar al-wāḥid allad̲h̲ī lā yanḳasim .—For other definitions of vocabulary see d̲h̲arra . Atomistic conceptions of the world (philosophical atomism) …

, the act of adhering firmly to something, hence a firmly established act of faith. In its technical sense, the term denotes firm adherence to the Word of God. It may be translated in European languages by the words “croyance”, “belief”, “Glauben”, with the proviso that this “belief” is not a simple “opinion” or “thinking” ( pensée ), but is the result of a deep conviction. As the root tʿ-ḳ-d indicates, the idea of a “knot”, a bond established by contract, persists. The VIIIth verbal form combines with this a greater measure of firmness and coherence. Iʿtiḳād recurs m…

, (a.), technical term in ʿilm al-kalām (scholastic theology). Its use is common (see the commentators on al-Taftazānī, al-Bad̲j̲ūrī etc.), as expressing a certain concept, and to denote a genus of theological dissertations, which go back at least to the 6th/12th century with Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn al-Rāzī, and are clearly stated in the 8th/14th century by al-Īd̲j̲ī, al-Taftazānī and al-Ḏj̲urd̲j̲ānī. The term refers to the earlier expression al-ʿulūm al-ʿaḳliyya , derived from falsafa , signifying the rational (and natural) knowledge which the reason ( ʿaḳl) can acquire by itself. All…

, “decisive proof”, “clear demonstration”. The term is Ḳurʾānic and signifies a “brilliant manifestation”, a “shilling light” come from God (iv, 174), a “manifest proof” (xii, 24), which may take the form of that supreme argument of authority which is the miracle (xxviii, 32). In correlation, burhān is also the decisive proof which the infidels are called upon—in vain—to furnish as justification of their false beliefs (ii, 111; xxi, 24; xxiii, 117; xxvii, 64; xxviii, 75). The first connotation of burhān is not properly right discursive reasoning; it is rather the manifest e…

, Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb , one of the most celebrated of the Muʿtazila [ q.v.]. Born at Ḏj̲ubbā in K̲h̲ūzistān, he attended the school at Baṣra of Abū Yaʿḳūb Yūsuf al-S̲h̲aḥḥām who at that time occupied the chair of Abu ’l-Hud̲h̲ayl al-ʿAllāf. He succeeded al-S̲h̲aḥḥām. and it can be said that he was able to add a final brilliance to the tradition of the masters, while at times he refreshed it and opened the way to new solutions. He died in 303/915-6. He thus holds a place in the line of the Baṣra Muʿtazila who, especially over the question of human actions, differ …