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…

The uniquely human faculty of (primarily) verbal expression. In the Qurʾān, the concept of language is expressed by the word lisān (lit. tongue). The other common term for language, lugha, which is well-attested in classical and modern standard Arabic (see arabic language ), does not appear in the Qurʾān; one encounters only the related words laghw and lāghiya, which express exclusively the connotation of “vain utterance.” There are twenty-five occurrences of the word lisān in the Qurʾān, fifteen in the singular and ten in the plural ( alsina; the other plural, alsun, is not attested …

That which is legally authorized, and that which is not. Among its various legislative pronouncements, the Qurʾān declares certain objects and actions lawful or unlawful. The words ḥalāl, “lawful, allowed, permitted,” and ḥarām, “unlawful, forbidden, prohibited,” and cognate terms from the triliteral roots ḥ-l-l and ḥ-r-m, respectively, most often designate these two categories and are of relatively frequent occurrence. Qurʾānic declarations of lawfulness or unlawfulness are limited to a relatively few areas of the law as later elaborated …

A direction one faces in order to pray (see prayer ). q 2:142-50 is concerned with the Muslims' qibla and appears to say the following: There is about to be a change of qibla. Foolish people will make an issue of the change and they should be answered with an affirmation of God's absolute sovereignty (q.v.; see also power and impotence ). God has made the believers neither Jews nor Christians (see belief and unbelief; jews and judaism; christians and christianity) but an example to all, just as the messenger (q.v.) is an example to the believers. The former qibla was instituted only as a test…

 see idrīs Bibliography

Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī (d. 974/1567)  Sin, Major and Minor Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1449)  Foreign Vocabulary  Occasions of Revelation  Satanic Verses  Sin, Major and Minor  Traditional Disciplines of Qurʾānic Studies Ibn Ḥanbal, Aḥmad (d. 241/855)  Anthropomorphism  Companions of the Prophet  Court  Createdness of the Qurʾān  Creeds  Exegesis of the Qurʾān: Classical and Medieval  Hell and Hellfire  Honey  Inimitability  Intercession  Manual Labor  Muʿtazila  Names of the Prophet  Noah  Philosophy and the Qurʾān  Preserved Tablet  Raqīm  Recitation of the Qurʾān  Scr…

Qurʾānic language and text Modern students of Arabic linguistics have been studying several fundamental questions about qurʾānic language and text ever since the earliest formulations of these investigations some hundred years ago (see language of the qurʾān; literary structures of the qurʾān). The qurʾānic text constitutes one of the three early language corpora that reflect language varieties of Arabic speakers in pre-Islamic Arabia (see arabic language ). The other two corpora are poetry (usually inclusive of almost all the pre-ʿAbbāsid Islamic inventory; see poetr…

The semantic field of “language” includes several triliteral Arabic roots: l-s-n (Dāmaghānī, Wujūh, ii, 200-1; see H. Jenssen, Arabic language, 132; see also language, concept of), k-l-m (Yaḥyā b. Sallām, Taṣārīf, 303-5; Dāmaghānī, Wujūh, ii, 186-7), q-w-l, l-ḥ-n (Khan, Die exegetischen Teile, 276, on q 47:30: “the burden of their talk,” laḥn al-qawl; Fück, ʿArabīya, 133; Fr. trans. 202; Ullmann, Wa-h̲airu, 21-2). It should be noted that lugha in the sense of manner of speaking (Fr. parler, Ger. Redeweise) is totally absent from the Qurʾān — although the root l-gh-w is attested, but…

Ancestor of the people of Israel (Isrāʾīl), whose name appears most frequently in the Qurʾān within the title “Children of Israel” (q.v.; Banū Isrāʾīl). Only in two places does it occur separately (q 3:93; 19:58). The commentators identify Israel with Jacob (q.v.; Yaʿqūb), the son of Isaac (q.v.; Isḥāq). q 3:93, which deals with Jewish dietary restrictions (see jews and judaism ), makes allusion to a specific event in Israel's life. It ¶ is stated here that all food was lawful (see lawful and unlawful ) to the Children of Israel save what Israel forbade for himself before the Torah (q.v.) was…

Thailand  Teaching and Preaching the Qurʾān al-Thaʿlabī, Abū Isḥāq Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm (d. 427/1035)  Alexander  Commandments  Exegesis of the Qurʾān: Classical and Medieval  Hārūt and Mārūt  Hūd  Insolence and Obstinacy  Khaḍir/Khiḍr  Literature and the Qurʾān  Persian Literature and the Qurʾān  Prophets and Prophethood  Raqīm  Religion  Satanic Verses  Traditional Disciplines of Qurʾānic Studies  Tubbaʿ  Ṣūfism and the Qurʾān Thamudeni  Archaeology and the Qurʾān Thamānīn  Ararat Thamūd  Animal Life  Archaeology and the Qurʾān  Arrogance  Brother and Brothe…

Following a brief discussion of ritual in modern academic discourse which proposes a functional typology of rituals both within and involving the Qurʾān, and taking into account the context in which certain rituals occur and are performed, this article will then explore the treatment of qurʾānic rituals in works of Islamic jurisprudence (see law and the qurʾān ). Those rituals which employ verses of the Qurʾān — written or spoken, individually or collectively — in various ceremonial, talismanic and therapeutic contexts will also be examined. This arti…