Al-ʿAjam (non-Arabs)

Summary

Al-'Ajam in Arab speech are the non-Arabs who do not speak clear Arabic — above all the Persians in the Prophet's time. The Qur'an pairs 'ajami' with 'arabi' (41:44), and the hadith says «were faith hung on the Pleiades, men of Persian stock would take it» — and the sermons make Arab and non-Arab equal ¹ ² ³.

Lineage and home

في النصوص: يذكر القرآن العجمة بمعنى غير العربية، ويذكر الحديث العجم في مقابل العرب في باب التسوية «لا فضل لعربي على أعجمي إلا بالتقوى» في خطب الوداع ² ³.

In Islam and history

في التاريخ: كان الفرس أهل الدولة الساسانية، وفي زمن النجاشي والروم قوم بينهم وبين العرب تبادل وحروب ثم فتح الإسلام بلادهم ⁴ ⁵.

For younger visitors

Al-'Ajam are the non-Arabs, above all the Persians; the hadith says no Arab is better than a non-Arab except by taqwa.

Sources

Jami' al-Bayan 'an Ta'wil Ay al-Qur'an, ed. Ahmad Muhammad Shakir and Mahmud Muhammad Shakir, vol. 1 (Maktabat Ibn Taymiyya, Cairo)

Sahih al-Bukhari

al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri

al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri , p.25

Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi

al-Sira al-Nabawiyya — Ibn Hisham

Tarikh al-Rusul wa-l-Muluk — al-Tabari

al-Kamil fi'l-Tarikh of Ibn al-Athir

Taj Mahal

The mausoleum built by Shah Jahan at Agra for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, begun in 1632 and completed in 1654 according to Brookes, standing at the river edge of its garden above the Yamuna. The Encyclopaedia of Islam calls it the grandest of the Mughal dynastic mausoleums, a brick structure faced in inlaid white marble, and reports the main tomb finished in 1638-1639 and the whole complex in 1643.

At a glance