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(a.), image, form, shape, e.g. ṣūrat al-arḍ , “the image of the earth”, ṣūrat ḥimār , “the form of an ass” (Muslim, Ṣalāt , trad. 115), or face, countenance (see below). Taṣāwīr are rather pictures; see for these, taṣwīr . Ṣūra and taṣwīra are therefore in the same relation to one another as the Hebrew demūt and ṣelem . 1. In theological and legal doctrine. The Biblical idea according to which man was created in God’s ṣelem (Gen. i. 27) has most probably passed into Ḥadīt̲h̲. It occurs in three passages in classical Ḥadīt̲h̲; the exegesis is uncertain and in general unwilling to adopt i…

b. Ḥabīb, Abu ’l-Sāʾib , of the Ḳurays̲h̲ clan of D̲j̲umaḥ, one of the earliest Companions of Muḥammad, the thirteenth man to adopt Islam and brother-in-law of the second caliph ʿUmar b. al-K̲h̲aṭṭāb. He took part in the hid̲j̲ra to Abyssinia, returned, like some other refugees, on the false news of a reconciliation between Muḥammad and his pagan enemies, and became for some time the client of al-Walīd b. al-Mug̲h̲īra. Soon he renounced this privilege, because he preferred to bear his share in the insults offered to his co-religionists ¶ in Mecca. On a quarrel between ʿUt̲h̲mān and …

(pl. Farāʿina ), Pharaoh. The Arabic form of the name may derive from the Syriac or the Ethiopie. Commentators on the Ḳurʾān (II, 46-49) explain the word as the permanent title ( laḳab ) of the Amalekite kings [see ʿamālīk ], on the analogy of Kisrā, title of the sovereigns of Persia, and Ḳayṣar of the emperors of Byzantium. As the designation of the typical haughty and insolent tyrant, the name Firʿawn gave rise to a verb tafarʿana “to behave like a hardened tyrant”.—If one disregards certain verses of Umayya which are probabl…

(a.), a term with various meanings, of which that of text of a ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v.] is to be noted. Matn already appears with the sense of “text” in pre-Islamic poetry, and has been used thus in Arabic literature up to the present day. It denotes especially the text of a book as distinguished from its oral explanation or its written or printed commentary. In connection with traditions, matn denotes the content or text itself, in distinction from the chain of traditionists who have handed it down ( isnād [ q.v.]). The choice of this term to designate the body of a ḥadīt̲h̲ led Goldziher to put forwar…

(a., pl. rusul ), messenger, apostle. 1. In the religious sense. According to the Ḳurʾān, there is a close relation between the apostle and his people ( umma [ q.v.]). To each umma God sends only one apostle (sūra X, 48, XVI, 38 cf. XXIII, 46, XL, 5). These statements are parallel to those which mention the witness whom God will take from each umma at the Day of Judgment (IV, 45, XXVIII, 75 and cf. the descriptions of the rasūl who will cross the bridge to the other world at the head of his umma: al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ad̲h̲ān , bāb 129; Riḳāḳ , bāb 52). Muḥammad is sent to a people to whom Allāh has not ye…

(a.), pl. of ḥawrāʾ and its masc. aḥwar , adjective from the root ḥ.w.r ., with the general idea of ‘whiteness’ (the root ḥ.y.r ., signifying ‘perplexity’ or ‘astonishment’, which has occasionally been suggested, is to be rejected); ḥawrāʾ is applied more particularly to the very large eye of the gazelle or the oryx, the clear whiteness of which arises from the contrast with the blackness of the pupil and the iris; by extension, ḥawrāʾ signifies a woman whose big black eyes are in contrast to their ‘whites’ and to the whiteness of the skin. The plural ḥūr is a substant…

(a., mifʿāl form from w-ḳ-t , plural mawāḳīt ) appointed or exact time. In this sense the term occurs several times in the Ḳurʾān (II, 185; VII, 138, 139, 154; XXVI, 37; XLIV, 40; LVI, 50; LXXVIII, 17). 1. Legal aspects. In ḥadīt̲h̲ and fiḳh, the term is applied to the times of prayer and to the places where those who enter the ḥaram are bound to put on the iḥrām . For the latter meaning of the term, see iḥrām. Although some general indications for the times at which some ṣalāt s are to be performed occur in the Ḳurʾān (cf. II, 239; XI, 116; XVII, 80; XXIV, 29), i…

, i.e. lord of the Muslims, a title which the Almoravids first assumed, in contra-distinction to Amīr al-Muʾminīn [ q.v.]. The latter title was born by the independent dynasties; the Almoravids, however, recognized the supremacy of the ʿAbbāsids and did not wish to arrogate to themselves this title of the Caliphs. So they established a kind of sub-caliphate with a title of their own. Afterwards the African and Spanish princes bore either the one or the other of these titles, according as they sought after the independent caliphate or recognized any supremacy. (A.J. Wensinck) Bibliography…

(a.), nomen actionis from the root k̲h̲-d̲h̲-l , “to leave in the lurch”, a technical term in Islamic theology, applied exclusively to Allāh when He withdraws His grace or help from man. The disputes regarding it first appear in connection with the quarrel over ḳadar [ q.v.]. A starting point is found in Sūra III, 154/160: “but if He abandon you to yourselves ( yak̲h̲d̲h̲ul-kum ), who will help you after Him? Let the faithful therefore trust in God”. On this al-Rāzī observes: “The Companions deduce from this verse that belief is exclusiv…

(a.), yielding Fr. simoun and Eng. simoom, a hot wind of the desert accompanied by whirlwinds of dust and sand, and set in motion by moving depressions which form within the trade winds or calm zones of the high, subtropical depressions. This wind is especially characteristic of the Sahara, in Egypt, in Arabia and in Mesopotamia. The word occurs in three passages of the Ḳurʾān, where it is, however, not especially applied to the wind. In sūra XV, 27, it is said that the Ḏj̲ānn were created from the fire of Samūm. In LII, 27, the punishment of the Samūm is …

(a.), in Egyptian colloquial pronunciation sibḥa ; in Persian and Muslim Indian usage, more often tasbīḥ , Ottoman Turkish tesbīḥ , modern tespih , rosary. It is used at present by nearly all classes of Muslims, except the Wahhābīs who disapprove of it as a bidʿa and who count the repetition of the sacred names on their hands. There is evidence for its having been used at first in Ṣūfī circles and among the lower classes (Goldziher, Rosaire , 296); opposition against it made itself heard as late as the 9th/15th century, when al-Suyūṭī composed an apology for it (Goldziher, Vorlesungen über den …

(a., pl. rawātib ), a word meaning what is fixed and hence applied to certain non-obligatory ṣalāts or certain litanies. The term is not found in the Ḳurʾan nor as a technical term in Ḥadīt̲h̲ . On the first meaning, see nāfila . As to the second, it is applied to the d̲h̲ikr [ q.v.] which one recites alone, as well as to those which are recited in groups. We owe to Snouck Hurgronje a detailed description of the rawātib practised in Acheh [ q.v.]. (A.J. Wensinck) Bibliography C. Snouck Hurgronje, De Atjèhers, Batavia-Leiden 1893-4, ii, 220. English tr. O’Sullivan, The Achehnese. Leiden 1906, ii…

b. ʿAdī al-Anṣārī , one of the first martyrs of Islām. The main features of his story common to all versions are as follows: After the battle of Uḥud [ q.v.] (on the chronology of which, see below) a small body of ten of the Prophet’s followers was discovered and surrounded between Mecca and ʿUsfān by 100 (or 200) Liḥyānīs who belonged to the Hud̲h̲ayl. The leader of the hard-pressed little band, ʿĀṣim b. T̲h̲ābit al-Anṣārī (according to others, the leader was al-Mart̲h̲ad), proudly refused to yield. He and six others were k…

(pls. k̲h̲aṭāyā and k̲h̲aṭīʾāt ), moral lapse, sin, a synonym of d̲h̲anb (pl. d̲h̲unūb ). The root k̲h̲ ṭʾ means “to fail, stumble” (in Hebrew, Prov. xix, 2), “make a mistake” (e.g., one says ak̲h̲ṭaʾa of an archer whose arrow misses the target); [see k̲h̲aṭaʾ ]. The form k̲h̲aṭiʾa appears five times in the Ḳurʾān, and the root k̲h̲ ṭ ʾ is frequently found there. It combines within itself the three meanings of “error” ( k̲h̲aṭāʾ , e.g., XVII, 33), “culpable lapse” ( k̲h̲iṭʾ e.g., XVII, 31; cf. k̲h̲āṭiʾa , XCVI, 16), and “sin” ( k̲h̲aṭīʾa , II, 81, IV, 112, VII, 161; X…

(in English normally “Mecca”, in French “La Mecque”), the most sacred city of Islam, where the Prophet Muḥammad was born and lived for about 50 years, and where the Kaʿba [ q.v.] is situated. 1. The pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods Geographical description. Mecca is located in the Ḥid̲j̲āz about 72 km. inland from the Red Sea port of Jedda (D̲j̲udda [ q.v.]), in lat. 21° 27′ N. and long. 39° 49′ E. It is now the capital of the province ( manātiḳ idāriyya ) of Makka in Suʿūdī Arabia, and has a normal population of between 200,000 and 300,000, which …

(a.), intercession, mediation. He who makes the intercession is called s̲h̲āfiʿ and s̲h̲afīʿ . The word is also used in other than theological language, e.g. in laying a petition before a king ( LʿA s.v.), in interceding for a debtor (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Istiḳrāḍ , 18). Very little is known of intercession in judicial procedure. In the Ḥadīt̲h̲ it is said: “He who by his intercession puts out of operation one of the ḥudūd Allāh is putting himself in opposition to God” (Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad , ii, 70, 82; cf. al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Anbiyāʾ 54/11; Ḥudūd , 12). 1. In official Islam. The word is usually found in …

(a.), active participle of Form IV of the root ʿ-d̲j̲-z , lit. “that by means of which [the Prophet] confounds, overwhelms, his opponents”, has become the technical term for miracle. It does not occur in the Ḳurʾān, which denies miracles in connection with Muḥammad, whereas it emphasises his “signs”, āyāt , later taken to mean the verses of the Ḳurʾān [see ḳurʾān. 1]. Even in later literature, Muḥammad’s chief miracle is the Ḳurʾān (cf. Abū Nuʿaym, Dalāʾil al-nubuwwa , 74). Muʿd̲j̲iza and aya have become synonyms; they denote the miracles performed by Al…

( sinān ) b. sumayy al tamīmī al-minḳarī , an eminent Tamīmite famous for his poetic and oratorical talent, and also for his physical beauty which earned him the surname of al-Mukaḥḥal (“anointed with collyrium”). ¶ Born a few years before the hid̲j̲ra , he made his way to Medina in 9/630 with a delegation from his tribe; in 11/632, he was a follower of the prophetess Sad̲j̲āḥi [ q.v.], but he was converted to Islam and took part in the wars of conquest; he conveyed the news of the capture of Ras̲h̲ahr to ʿUmar in verse; he is said to have died in 57/676. His poe…

, from Arabic k̲h̲adama “to serve (a master)”, means properly “servant, domestic”, but it has acquired the euphemistic sense, first in Arabic and then in the other Islamic languages, of “eunuch”; hence the word is often ambiguous. In this article, only servants of free status are covered; for slaves, see ʿabd and for eunuchs k̲h̲aṣī . At the side of the slaves, there have always been free servants (coll. k̲h̲adam , pl. k̲h̲uddām ). Anas b. Mālik [ q.v.] entered Muḥammad’s service as a youth (al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ḏj̲ihād , bāb 74 etc.) and he records it to his master’…

(a., pl. nud̲h̲ur , Ḳurʾān, LIII, 57), from form IV of n-d̲h̲-r , with the meaning of warner; sometimes also as a verbal noun, e.g. LXVII, 17. The plural nud̲h̲ur is also found in the sense of an infinitive, e.g. LXXVII, 6. The term occurs frequently in the Sacred Book, where it is even said to be synonymous with rasūl ; its opposite is bas̲h̲īr , mubas̲h̲s̲h̲ir . Nad̲h̲īr as well as bas̲h̲īr are applied to the prophets, the former when they are represented as warners, the latter as announcers of good tidings (cf. XVII, 106; XXV, 58; XXXIII, 44; XLVIII, 8; mubas̲h̲s̲h̲iran wa-nad̲h̲īran …