Syriac was an Aramaic dialect spoken by Christians in and around Arabia during the time of the Qurʾān’s appearance. It originated in northern Mesopotamia and Syria but became the lingua franca of the late antique Near East (ca. second-seventh centuries C.E.), and the “golden age” of Syriac literature flourished from the fourth to the seventh centuries (Brock, A brief outline, 9-21). Syriac was the official language of the West Syrian (Jacobite) and East Syrian (Nestorian) churches, while the closely related dialect of Christian Palestinian Aramaic was used by the Cha…

This phrase is a common translation of the Arabic word jāhiliyya, which is used by Muslims to refer to the historical period in west-central Arabia covering the centuries immediately prior to the mission of Muḥammad, a period characterised by ignorance of the divine truth. To the original audience of the Qurʾān, however, it almost certainly referred primarily to the moral condition of the individuals who, and the society that, opposed the mission of the Prophet (see opposition to Muḥammad), and only secondarily, if at all, to a defined historical epoch. It is also possible that the word was a type of collective plural of jāhil (“ignorant person)”, as has been asserted by Rosenthal (Knowledge triumphant, 33-4). As to the nature of this moral condition, Goldziher and Izutsu have argued that the primary meaning of the root, j-h-l, whence jāhiliyya is derived, is not “ignorance” but “barbarism,” and refers particularly to the tendency to employ extreme behaviour. According to this view, its original antonym was not ʿilm (knowledge) but ḥilm (moral rea…

The reciters of the Qurʾān are those entrusted with the oral recitation of Qurʾānic passages, or o…

Sīra is a branch of Arabic literature that is devoted to the earliest salvation history of Islam and focuses on God’s actions towards and through his prophet Muḥammad, i.e. the revelation of the Qurʾān and the foundation of an Islamic community. The term sīra…

Macdonald, D.  Idolatry and Idolaters Macoraba  Geography Madelung, W.  Createdness of the Qurʾān  Emigration  Inimitability Madhabite  Yemen Madhḥij …

Rules for the division of wealth (q.v.) among the heirs of a deceased Muslim man or woman. Traditional Islamic perspective Traditional Islamic sources indicate that the intergenerational transmission of property by means of a last will and testament (waṣiyya) was a common procedure prior to the rise of Islam and during the Meccan period (see pre-islamic arabia and the qurʾān ). The emigration (q.v.; hijra ) to Medina (q.v.) in 1/622 necessitated certain changes in the existing inheritance rules. By migra…

The subject matter of this article is elusive, since the word “ethics” itself is used in various ways in English. If we take the definition of a standard reference work, we learn that “ethics” is “(1) a general pattern or way of life, (2) a set of rules of conduct or moral code, and (3) inquiry about life and ¶ rules of conduct…” ( Encyclopedia of philosophy, iii, 81-2). This article's focus, then, will be qurʾānic ethics in senses (1) and (2) above; we might also use the word “morality,” i.e. “beliefs about human nature, beliefs about ideals — what is good fo…

Dacca  Printing of the Qurʾān al-Ḍaḥḥāk (King Bīwarasb) see Bīwarasb al-Ḍaḥḥāk b. Muzāḥim (d. 105/723)  Exegesis of the Qurʾān: Classical and Medieval  Jesus  Language and Style of the Qurʾān  Paradise  Satanic Verses Dahlan, A.  Teaching and Preaching the Qurʾān Dajjāl see Antichrist Dakake, M.M.  Ṣiffīn, Battle of Dakhla Oasis  Readings of the Qurʾān Dale, G.  Translations of the Qurʾān Dallal, A.  Calendar  Day and Night  Science and the Qurʾān Damascenes  Ritual and the Qurʾān Damascus  Antichrist  Arabic Script  Art and Architecture and the Qurʾān  Cain and Abel  Captives  Cav…

Those who emigrated from Mecca (q.v.) to Medina (q.v.) with the prophet Muḥammad (Emigrants, muhājirūn), and the residents of Medina who received and helped them (Helpers, anṣār). In a broader sense, those who forsake home and land, giving up evil deeds and renouncing personal desires for the sake of God are called emigrants by the Qurʾān ( muhājir,q 4:100; 29:26). In some classical sources the Medinans who came to Mecca and met Muḥammad at ʿAqaba were also characterized as emigrants because Medina was considered to be the abode of polytheism (see polytheism and atheism ) and from there …

Literally “work with one's hands,” it often carries the implication of strenuous physical exertion. Manual labor is not a topic explicitly addressed in the Qurʾān though the term “forced laborer” (sukhrī) is mentioned once and the Qurʾān describes some of the ancient prophets (see prophets and prophethood ) as having been able to achieve prominence by using forced and voluntary labor in great building projects (see art and architecture and the qurʾān; archaeology and the qurʾān). The Qurʾān states that it is God who “raises some to levels above others so that some of th…

Qadarī(s)  Ambiguous  Freedom and Predestination  Grace  Jews and Judaism  Left Hand and Right Hand  Moses  Philosophy and the Qurʾān  Witnessing and Testifying al-Qāḍī, W. see Kadi, W. al-Qāḍī, ʿA.  Printing of the Qurʾān al-Qāḍī, N.  Printing of the Qurʾān al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār see ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. Aḥmad al-Asadābādi al-Qāḍī al-Hamadhānī (d. 414-15/1025) Qāḍī Aḥmad  Manuscripts of the Qurʾān al-Qādir (r. 381-422/991-1031)  Creeds   Qādirī Creed [al-iʿtiqād al-qādirī]   Creeds  Ṣūfism and the Qurʾān al-Qādisiyya  Iraq  Sīra and the Qurʾān [al-Qāḍī] al-Nuʿmān (d. 363/974)  Ritual and the Qurʾān  Shīʿism and the Qurʾān …

Pococke, Edward (d. 1691)  Post-Enlightenment Academic Study of the Qurʾān  Pre-1800 Preoccupations of Qurʾānic Studies  Translations of the Qurʾān Poimandres  Idrīs Poonawala, I.K.  Ritual and the Qurʾān [Pope] Eugene IV  Pre-1800 Preoccupations of Qurʾānic Studies [Pope] Pius II  Pre-1800 Preoccupations of Qurʾānic Studies [Pope] Pius IX  Bahāʾīs Porter, V.  Epigraphy Pos(t)nikov, P.V.  Translations of the Qurʾān Possessor of the Two Horns [Dhū l-Qarnayn]  Authority  Chastisement and Punishment  Gog and Magog  History and the Qurʾān  Muḥammad  Narratives  News  Persian…

…

al-Rabadha  Archaeology and the Qurʾān Rabbat, N.  City Rabin, Ch.  Dialects  Grammar and the Qurʾān  Language and Style of the Qurʾān  Post-Enlightenment Academic Study of the Qurʾān Rabīʿ I  Emigration Rachel  Belief and Unbelief  Benjamin Rada  Material Culture and the Qurʾān Radscheit, M.  Provocation  Responsibility  Springs and Fountains  Table  Witnessing and Testifying  Word of God Radtke, B.  Saint  Wisdom al-Rāghī al-Tūnisī (d. 715/1315)  Translations of the Qurʾān al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Abū l-Qāsim al-Ḥusayn (d. 502/1108)  Brother and Brotherhood  Conquest  For…

Judaism  Abraham  Abrogation  Agriculture and Vegetation  Angel  Anthropomorphism  Apocalypse  Apologetics  Art and Architecture and the Qurʾān  Baptism  Belief and Unbelief  Calf of Gold  Carrion  Children  Christians and Christianity  Chronology and the Qurʾān  Community and Society in the Qurʾān  Creation  Expeditions and Battles  Faith  Fasting …

Arabic term for “way of acting.” The ancient Arab concept sunna (pl. sunan) occurs ¶ eighteen times in the Qurʾān. Generally — that is to say outside the strict context of the Qurʾān — it is defined as a way of acting, whether approved or disapproved, and is normally associated with the people of earlier generations, whose example has to be followed or shunned by later generations. The concept occupies a crucial place in Islam. In the development of Islamic theology, it eventually came to be associated with orthodoxy, the bastion against heterodox innovation ( bidʿa; see innovation; theolog…

Struggle, or striving, but often understood both within the Muslim tradition and beyond it as warfare against infidels (see fighting; war; belief and unbelief). The term jihād derives from the root j-h-d, denoting effort, exhaustion, exertion, strain. Derivatives of this root occur in forty-one qurʾānic verses. Five of these contain the phrase jahd aymānihim, meaning “[to swear] the strongest oath,” which is irrelevant to the present discussion (see oaths ), and not all the remaining verses refer to warfare. ¶ Since the concept of jihād is related to warfare, discussions of the…

Caetani, L.  Expeditions and Battles  Sīra and the Qurʾān Cahen, C.  Contemporary Critical Practices and the Qurʾān …

Abū l-Hārith al-Layth b. Khālid al-Baghdādī (d. 240/854)  Readings of the Qurʾān  Reciters of the Qurʾān Abū l-Hārith ʿīsā b. Wirdān al-Madanī see Ibn Wardān al-Madanī, Abū l-Ḥārith (d. 160/777) Abū l-Jārūd (d. after 140/757-8)  Exegesis of the Qurʾān: Classical and Medieval Abū l-Kalām āzād see āzād, [Mawlānā] Abū l-Kalam Abū l-Khayr (of Seville)  Agriculture and Vegetation Abū l-Khayr Ṭashkubrīzādah (d. 968/1561)  Traditional Disciplines of Qurʾānic Studies Abū l-Layth Naṣr b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Samarqandī (d. 373-5/983-5)  Apocalypse  Exegesis of the Qurʾān: Classica…

Belief in another's integrity, justice or reliability, and forbearance in the face of adversity. According to the Qurʾān, trust and patience are two distinguishing virtues (see virtues and vices, commanding and forbidding ) of the “faithful” person (i.e. muʾmin; see belief and unbelief ). There are two qurʾānic concepts typically translated by the English word “trust.” The first, tawakkul (ʿalā), is a maṣdar (abstract noun expressing action) derived from the fifth form of the Arabic root w-k-l, meaning “to give oneself over to” (istaslama ilayhi), “to rely/depend on” (iʿtamada ʿala…

…

Introduction Anyone who writes on textual criticism should begin with definitions. So let it be ¶ said from the outset that textual criticism has nothing to do with the criticism of music, art or literature. In simplest terms, textual criticism is the correction of errors in texts. Classical scholars are, however, a bit more sophisticated. A. E. Housman (Application, 67) defines textual criticism as the “science of discovering error in texts and the art of removing it.” But he goes on to say that it is not an exact science, so perhaps we might be justified in calling textual criticism “the art of discovering error in texts and the art of removing it.” Regardless of how we define it, it is unfortunately true that qurʾānic studies have not profited much from it. Most Muslim scholars have been unwilling to “discover and remove error” in th…

Ha-Amen  Hāmān al-Ḥabash, Muḥammad  Politics and the Qurʾān al-Ḥabash(a) see Abyssinia Ḥabīb (carpenter in Antioch)  Narratives  Parable Ḥabīb b. Khidma Abū Rāʾiṭa  Trinity Ḥabīb al-Raḥmān al-Aʿẓamī  Ḥadīth and the Qurʾān Ḥabrūn see Hebron Ḥacī Özbek  Mosque Hackspan, Theodor (d. 1659)  Pre-1800 Preoccupations of Qurʾānic Studies Hadad (Aramaic god)  South Arabia, Religions in Pre-Islamic Ḥadaqān  South Arabia, Religions in Pre-Islamic Ḥadath  South Arabia, Religions in Pre-Islamic Haddad, Y.Y.  Angel  Nature as Signs  Rel…

Those individuals who receive divine revelation and their collective vocation. In Arabic (as in Hebrew), the word for “prophet” is nabī, plural nabiyyūn and anbiyāʾ. These forms occur seventy-five ¶ times, apart from the term nubuwwa, “prophethood,” which occurs five times. Much more prevalent, however, is the term rasūl (pl. rusul) which denotes a “messenger” (q.v.) or “apostle” (of God). Messengers are mentioned more than 300 times. A messenger is also referred to as mursal, which, together with its plural form (mursalūn), occurs more than thirty times. The form risāla (pl. risālāt)…

Those entrusted with the oral recitation of qurʾānic passages, or the entire text. The term “reciter” (Ar. sing. qāriʾ and muqriʾ) in its basic, general signification refers to one who reads or recites. With reference to reciters of the Qurʾān, the plural qurrāʾ is much more common than muqriʾūn. In a broad sense, the term qurrāʾ is used in various sources to refer both to professional reciters, namely those who accepted payment for their recitation and were often employed by the state, and to pious, non-professional ones who did not seek to make a …

  q-d-s    muqaddas    Names of the Prophet    Profane and Sacred    Sacred Precincts    qudsī    Garden    Names of the Prophet    Ḥadīth and the Qurʾān    qudus    Holy Spirit    Profane and Sacred   q-d-w    iqtidāʾ    Fear   q-d-ḥ    qidḥ, pl. aqdāḥ    Gambling    Soothsayer   q-dh-f    maqdhūf    Flogging    qadhafa    Fear    qadhf    Flogging    Gossip    Law and the Qurʾān    Witnessing and Testifying   q-dh-r    qadhir    Contamination   q-f-l    qufl, pl. aqfāl    Instruments   q-f-r    qaf[f]ūr    Camphor    qāfūr    Camphor   q-f-w    qaffā    Prophets and Prophethood    qāfiya    Rhymed Prose    Sūra(s)   q-h-r    qahhār    God and his Attributes    Oppression    Politics and the Qurʾān    Power and Impotence    qahr    Oppression    Power and Impotence    qāhir, pl. qāhirūn    Oppression    taqhar    Oppression…

Sūrat Maryam  Sūrat Maryam   Chronology and the Qurʾān   Creation   Gender   Jesus   Left Hand and Right Hand   Mary   Material Culture and the Qurʾān   Mysterious Letters   Names of the Qurʾān   Narratives   Pre-1800 Preoccupations of Qurʾānic Studies   Women and the Qurʾān   Zechariah  1   Manuscripts of the Qurʾān  1-7   Popular and Talismanic Uses of the Qurʾān  1-22   Christians and Christianity  2   Rhetoric and the Qurʾān   Zechariah  2-7   Pa…

This phrase is a common translation of the Arabic word jāhiliyya used by Muslims to refer to the historical period in west-central Arabia covering the centuries immediately prior to the mission of Muḥammad, a period characterized by ignorance of the divine truth. To the original audience of the Qurʾān, however, it almost certainly referred primarily to the moral condition of those individuals and their society which led them to oppose the mission of the Prophet (see opposition to muḥammad ) and only secondarily, if …

The act by which humans procreate, and the sum total of those attributes that cause an individual to be physically attractive to another. While the Qurʾān does criticize lust for women as an example of man's infatuation with worldly pleasures (cf. q 3:14), it does not categorically condemn sex as a cause of evil and attachment to the world. The Qurʾān does recognize sex as ¶ an important feature of the natural world and subjects it to legislation in a number of passages (see law and the qurʾān ). It accepts sex as a natural and regular part of human existence, specifically authoriz…

A qurʾānic prophet (see prophets and prophethood ) blessed with the virtues of piety (q.v.) and patience (see trust and patience ). There is no doubt that his uniqueness is the result of his ascent to a high station by the hand of God (q 19:56-7; 21:85). Muslim tradition claims that he ascended to heaven while still alive and there he was awarded eternal life and a permanent home in the fourth heaven, although some traditions place him in the sixth heaven (see heaven and sky ). Indeed, the prophet Muḥammad meets him in heaven during his nocturnal journey ( isrāʾ, see ascension ). Other traditions, however, ¶ maintain that Idrīs was put to death in heaven. Muslim commentators and modern scholars are united in …

An enigmatic figure, whose name appears in the Qurʾān in two places: “And [remember] Ismāʿīl (see ishmael ) and Idrīs (q.v.) and Dhū l-Kifl, all of them were patient” (q 21:85); “And call to mind Ismāʿīl and Alyasaʿ and Dhū l-Kifl and all of the best” (q 38:48). In some exegetical works, it is held that Dhū l-Kifl was a prophet since he is mentioned alongside other prophets (see prophets and prophethood ). Most exegetes, however, deny his prophethood, confining themselves to repeating the qurʾānic statement that he belonged to ¶ those who were patient and the best. A person named Dhū l-Kifl is u…

A state of heightened cleanliness, symbolic or actual, associated with persons, activities and objects in the context of ritual worship (q.v.; see also cleanliness and ablution; contamination). The Qurʾān imposes a specific, two-tiered requirement of ritual cleansing before prayer (q.v.) and this is its most direct and detailed — and perhaps its only — regulation of ritual purity in the narrow sense. More general notions of purity and impurity extend, however, to a fairly wide array of persons, objects and activities in …

Antioch  Monasticism and Monks  Narratives  Philosophy and the Qurʾān  Rass  Syria Antiochus  Expeditions and Battles  People of the Ditch Antiochus IV  Antichrist Antiquity, Late  Material Culture and the Qurʾān Antoun, Richard  Teaching and Preaching the Qurʾān Anṣārī of Herat see Anṣārī al-Harawī, ʿAbdallāh (d. 481/1089) Apartheid  Teaching and Preaching the Qurʾān Aphraates (Aphrahat)  Creation Aphrodito  Aqṣā Mosque Apollo  Springs and Fountains Apollonius  Agriculture and Vegetation Apostle  Apostle  Illiteracy  Informants Aqaba [ʿAqaba]  Arabic Script  Archaeology and the Qurʾān  Breaking Trusts and Contracts  Chronology and the Qurʾān  Consultation  Emigrants and Helpers  Emigration   Gulf of   Archaeology and the Qurʾān   Poll Tax  Midian  Obedience  Opposition to M…

  s-n-m    tasnīm    Springs and Fountains    Water   s-n-n    masnūn    Adam and Eve    ṣalṣāl min ḥamaʾ masnūn    sanna    Cain and Abel    Politics and the Qurʾān    sinn    Teeth    sunna, pl. sunan    Abrogation    Apostasy    Bar…

Sherkat, Sh.  Women and the Qurʾān al-Shiblī, Abū Bakr (d. 334/946)  Ṣūfism and the Qurʾān Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā b. Ḥabash al-Suhrawardī see al-Suhrawardī, Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā b. Ḥabash (d. 578/1191) Shihāb al-Dīn al-Būnī see al-Būnī, Shihāb al-Dīn (d. 622/1225) Shihāb al-Dīn al-ālūsī see al-ālūsī, Maḥmūd Shihāb al-Dīn (d. 1854) Shillong (East Pakistan)  Printing of the Qurʾān al-Shinqīṭī, Shurayḥ al-Khuzāʿī (d. 1913)  Vengeance al-Shīrāzī (d. 1050/1641)  Philosophy and the Qurʾān Shiqq  Soothsayer Shukrī Muṣṭafā  Cave Shukrī ʿAyyād  Exegesis of the Qurʾān: Early Modern a…

Extraction of a part of communal wealth for its social redistribution and for its use in maintaining governing authority (q.v.), its various institutions, and public works. The Qurʾān offers no trace of the fiscal system first developed under ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (r. 2-12/634-44), in substance a reformulation of Byzantine and Sasanian models (see Jeffery, For. vocab. and relevant ei 2 articles — e.g. Cahen, Djizya; Zysow, ¶ Zakāt; Cahen, Kharādj — for discussion of the foreign origins of taxation terminology in the Qurʾān; see also foreign vocabulary ). That fiscal system was a pro…

Bektashiyya (Ṣūfī order)  African Americans  Magic  Popular and Talismanic Uses of the Qurʾān Belial  Antichrist Bell, R.  Afternoon  Apocalypse  Baptism  Book  Cain and Abel  Chronology and the Qurʾān  Clay  Contemporary Critical Practices and the Qurʾān  Death and the Dead  Form and Structure of the Qurʾān  Fātiḥa  Impeccability  Language and Style of the Qurʾān  Muḥammad  Mysterious Letters  Narratives  Night of Power  Pit  Post-Enlightenment Academic Study of the Qurʾān  Religious Pluralism and the Qurʾān  Revision and Alteration  Textual Criticism of the Qurʾān  Theolo…

Arabian(s)  Messenger  South Arabia, Religions in Pre-Islamic  The Collection of the Qurʾān Arabic (language)  African Literature  Agriculture and Vegetation  Ambiguous  Arabic Language  Arabic Script  Arabs  Ark  Art and Architecture and the Qurʾān  Authority  Christians and Christianity  Chronology and the Qurʾān   Classical (CA)   Arabic Language   Grammar and the Qurʾān   Language and Style of the Qurʾān   Money   Moon   Post-Enlightenment Academic Study of the Qurʾān   Pre-1800 Preoccupations of Qurʾānic Studies   Readings of the Qurʾān   Slaves and Slavery   Tabl…

Abbott, Studies II N. Abbott, Studies in Arabic literary papyri. II. Qurʾānic commentary and tradition, Chicago, 1967 ʿAbd al-Bāqī Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī, al-Muʿjam al-mufahras li-alfāẓ al-Qurʾān al-karīm, Cairo, 1945 ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Mutashābih ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. Aḥmad al-Asadābādī al-Qāḍī al-Hamadhānī, Mutashābih al-QurʾānʿAdnān M. Zarzūr, 2 vols., Cairo, 1969 ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Tanzīh ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. Aḥmad al-Asadābādī al-Qāḍī al-Hamadhānī, Tanzīh al-Qurʾān ʿan al-maṭāʿin, Beirut, 1966 ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, ʿAṣrī ʿĀʾisha ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, al-Qurʾān wa-l-tafsīr al-ʿaṣ…

Gabriel [Jibrīl]  Abraham  Air and Wind  Angel  Apocalypse  Ascension  Belief and Unbelief  Bilqīs  Book  Calf of Gold  Cave  Chronology and the Qurʾān  Cleanliness and Ablution  Dog  Ethics and the Qurʾān  Everyday Life, Qurʾān In  Faith  Foreign Vocabulary  Foretelling in the Qurʾān  Gabriel  Heavenly Book  Holy Spirit  Informants  Intercessio…

Elias, J.  Face of God  Job  John the Baptist  Lamp  Light  Throne of God  Ṣūfism and the Qurʾān Eliash  Revision and Alteration Elijah Muhammad (d. 1975)  African Americans Elijah [Ilyās]  Alexander  Baal  Dhū l-Kifl  Elijah  Elisha  Foretelling in the Qurʾān  Gog and Magog  Good Deeds  Grammar and the Qurʾān  Idrīs  Invitation  Khaḍir/Khiḍr  Messenger  Narratives  Peace  Prophets and Prophethood  Sīra and the Qurʾān  Zechariah Elisha [al-Yasaʿ]  Dhū l-Kifl  Elijah  Elisha  Ezekiel  Ishmael  Job  Narratives  Textual Criticism of the Qurʾān Elizabeth  Aaron  Creation Elmalıl…

From the earliest period of Islam down to the present day, attentive readers have ¶ observed that there are words in the Qurʾān which appear to be of non-Arabic origin. Such observations, motivated by varying factors, have been the source of controversy, discussions and extensive study in traditional Muslim and Euro-American scholarship. Why foreign words? When the Qurʾān proclaimed itself to be written in “clear Arabic,” the seeds of discussion, disagreement and analysis concerning the presence of “foreign words” within the text were sown. Not only…

Stories of individuals and communities of the past, of varying length, many of which appear in numerous renditions throughout the qurʾānic text, but are found predominantly in the Meccan sūras of the Qurʾān (see chronology and the qurʾān ). Although the Qurʾān does relate the tales of prophets (see prophets and prophethood ) and other notable persons, tales that presumably were already familiar to the first auditors of the Qurʾān (see orality and writing in arabia; south arabia, religion in pre-islamic), the stories that are characterized as “narratives” contain certain req…

Introduction The topic of religion in everyday life has become a subject of increasing interest for historians and social scientists alike. The role of scripture, however, in everyday life has hardly been studied. “Everyday life” is ¶ not, it should be said, as obviously or immediately discernible as one might suppose, but entails a variety of complex activities of individuals as well as of communities within a specific cultural domain. The definition of ‘everyday life’ adopted here is “the routine non-ritual activities of ordinar…

-jīm-   j-b-b    jubb    Water   j-b-h    jibāh    Anatomy   j-b-l    jabal, pl. jibāl    Kaʿba    Pilgrimage    jabal makka   j-b-r    ijbār    Tolerance and Coercion    jabarūt    Ṣūfism and the Qurʾān    jabbār, pl. jabābira    Arrogance    God and his Attributes    History and the Qurʾān    Idrīs    Insolence and Obstinacy    Names of the Prophet    Politics and the Qurʾān    Pride    jabbārīn    War    jabr    Politics and the Qurʾān    jabriyya    Ambiguous    Philosophy and the Qurʾān   j-b-s    jibsun    Jibt   j-b-t    jibt    Foreign Vocabulary    Idolatry and Idolaters    …

Term mentioned twice in the Qurʾān in connection with the expression aṣḥāb al-rass, “the people of al-Rass”: “We have prepared for the evildoers a painful chastisement. And ʿĀd (q.v.), Thamūd (q.v.) and the people of al-Rass, and between that, ¶ many generations” (q 25:37-8); “The people of Noah (q.v.) and the people of al-Rass, and Thamūd and Pharaoh (q.v.), and ʿĀd and the brothers of Lot (q.v.) cried lies before them…” (q 50:12). Although there are no other elements that help clarify who the people of al-Rass were, the fact that they are mentioned alongside othe…

The way things have been done, or are understood as having been done, in the past. In many societies the appeal to tradition and custom as the basis for current practice serves to legitimize the present. For a religion emerging in opposition to some of the beliefs and practices of its society, however, appeal to tradition or custom by its opponents is an obstacle to be overcome. At the same time, adherents of the new order may well attempt to justify it by reference to the past. In Islam the positive value of tradition is most obviously manifest in the concept of sunna (q.v.), the accepted pract…

Torrey, C.  Agriculture and Vegetation  Idrīs  Pit  Politics and the Qurʾān  Post-Enlightenment Academic Study of the Qurʾān  Prophets and Prophethood  Psalms  Raqīm  Religious Pluralism and the Qurʾān  Rhetoric and the Qurʾān  Trade and Commerce Tottoli, R.  Bowing and Prostration  Elijah  Elisha  Ezekiel  Korah  Men of the Cave  People of the Ditch  Raqīm  Rass  Shuʿayb  Sleep  ʿImrān  ʿĀd  Ṣāliḥ Tower of Babel see Babel TPA see Islam Traditionalists [muḥaddithūn]  Createdness of the Qurʾān Transjordan  Christians and Christianity  Syria Transoxania  Creeds  Deferral  Exe…

Hebrew   Language [ʿibrī/ʿibrānī]   Anointing   Chronology and the Qurʾān   Elijah   Foreign Vocabulary   Forgery   Gospel   Grammar and the Qurʾān   Idrīs   Illiteracy   Jacob   Jesus   Jinn   Language and Style of the Qurʾān   Laughter   Magians   Path or Way   People of the Book   Pilgrimage   Pre-1800 Preoccupations of Qurʾānic Studies   Sacrifice   Signs   Spatial Relations   Speech   Torah   World   Yemen   People   Blasphemy   Consecration of Animals   Day, Times of   Luqmān   Trust and Patience   Rabbinical   Foreign Vocabulary   Psalms Hebron [Ḥabrūn]  Abra…

A term generally used to denote the qirāʾāt, the different ways of reciting the Qurʾān. Variant readings are an important aspect of Qurʾān recitation (see recitation of the qurʾān; reciters of the qurʾān), ¶ but qirāʾāt refer to more than that. Other elements — such as differences concerning length of syllables, when to assimilate consonants to following ones, and where to pause or insert verse endings — form an integral part of the different qirāʾāt systems. Reports about different ways of reciting or reading the Qurʾān were transmitted from the beginning of Islam. Tra…