Worship and the pillars
Family: Belief and worship · 465 entries
Entries on this theme
Person
Bilal ibn Rabah
c. 580 CEAn Abyssinian-born slave in Mecca, among the earliest converts; freed by Abu Bakr and remembered as the first muezzin of Islam — the voice that called the community to prayer.Shihab al-Din al-Turki al-Tarabulsi
Imam of Tripoli's mosque — a man of piety who 'recited the whole Qur'an every day and night in two rak'as'; d. 920.Ibn Thabit al-Zamzami
A Zamzam water-bearer of the Haram, born to scholars — he gathered al-Suyuti's works until he owned them, and 'drew much learning from his scholar uncles'; d. 921.Ibrahim ibn Abi al-Wafa
Son of 'Ala' al-Din Ibn Abi al-Wafa — his own father's entry calls him 'my son the mujtahid, devout ascetic preacher'; a mufti who led people in prayer through three hundred and fifty khatmas of the Qur'an, teacher and companion of Sufis; d. 925.Khubayb ibn Adi
A devout Companion from the Aws who fought at Badr and was captured at al-Raji'; sold to the Meccans who condemned him to crucifixion at al-Tan'im; before his execution he prayed two rak'ahs, establishing the tradition for Muslim prisoners before death, and recited poetry affirming his steadfast faith.Ubada ibn al-Samit
A senior Companion and chieftain of Banu Awf of the Khazraj; he witnessed both Pledges of Aqaba, narrated the text of the First Pledge in Sahih al-Bukhari, served as a naqib, and later participated in all major battles and the conquest of the Levant.
Event
The three years of the secret call
c. 610 CEThe first stage of the call to Islam — individual and secret for three years — in which the first band believed: Khadija, Ali, Zayd and Abu Bakr on the first day, then those whom Abu Bakr called, then a company Ibn Hisham numbers at over forty from every clan of Quraysh; during it prayer was first prescribed.The Isra and Mi'raj
c. 621 CEThe miraculous nocturnal journey of Prophet Muhammad from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, and his ascent through the seven heavens, where the five daily prayers were ordained. ونص رحلة المعراج كاملاً عند البخاري في حديث مالك بن صعصعة.The prescription of the Ramadan fast
c. 624 CE · 2 AHThe fast of the month of Ramadan was prescribed for the Muslims of Medina in the second year after the Hijra.The change of the qibla
c. February 624 CE · Sha'ban 2 AHThe direction of prayer was changed from Jerusalem to the Kaaba in Mecca, about a year and a half after the Hijra. Al-Samhudi gathers the reports: toward Bayt al-Maqdis sixteen months on al-Bara's account in Muslim (seventeen for Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib), the turn falling in mid-Rajab of year two on the soundest view — at zuhr in the Banu Salama mosque where two rak'as had been prayed, or at fajr in Quba in the Sahihayn's version carried by a runner — while Ibn Hajar makes 'asr the first prayer faced to the Kaaba.The Pledge of the Tree (Bay'at al-Ridwan)
c. March 628 CE · Dhu al-Qa'da 6 AHIn Dhu al-Qa'da 6 AH at al-Hudaybiyya, following rumors that Uthman ibn Affan had been murdered in Mecca, the Prophet summoned the 1,400 Companions to pledge under an acacia tree not to flee and to fight unto death; God revealed His pleasure with the pledge in Surat al-Fath.The Expedition of Dhat al-Riqa'
c. July 628 CE · Rabi' I 7 AHIn the 7th year AH after Khaybar (debated timing), the Prophet led an expedition into Najd against gathering clans of Ghatafan; named from the rags the Muslims wrapped around their injured feet; here Salat al-Khawf (prayer of fear) was performed and the incident of Abbad ibn Bishr praying while struck by arrows occurred.The Fulfilled Umrah (Umrat al-Qada)
c. March 629 CE · Dhu al-Qa'da 7 AHIn Dhu al-Qa'da 7 AH (March 629 CE), fulfilling the treaty of Hudaybiyya, the Prophet and 2,000 Muslims entered Mecca unarmed to perform Umrah while Quraysh watched from the hills; the Prophet married Maymuna bint al-Harith and the demonstration of Muslim devotion profoundly shifted Meccan sentiment, leading to the conversions of Khalid ibn al-Walid, Amr ibn al-As, and Uthman ibn Talha.Ali's expedition to Fals to destroy the idol of Tayy
between 630 and 631 CE · 8 AHThe Prophet's Umrah from al-Ji'rana
February 630 CE · Dhu al-Qa'da 8 AHAfter completing the distribution of spoils, the Prophet entered the state of ihram from al-Ji'rana by night, entered Mecca to perform the rites of Umrah, confirmed Attab ibn Asid as governor of Mecca, and departed back to Medina in Dhu al-Qa'dah 8 AH.Dimam ibn Tha'laba comes as the envoy of Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr
c. 631 CE · 9 AHBanu Sa'd ibn Bakr sent Dimam ibn Tha'laba to the Prophet; he knelt his camel at the mosque door, walked in and asked which of them was Ibn Abd al-Muttalib, then adjured him by God on each duty in turn: did God send you? did He order us to worship Him alone and cast off the idols? the five prayers? zakat, fasting, hajj? and the Prophet answered each time, O God, yes. He testified, promised to add nothing and omit nothing, and the Prophet said: if the man with the two plaits is truthful he will enter Paradise; he went home and his people embraced Islam in a day. Ibn Ishaq's isnad reaches Ibn Abbas.The Prophet's funeral prayer in absentia for the Negus
c. 631 CE · 9 AHIn 9 AH news reached Medina of the death of Ashama, the Negus of Abyssinia, who had sheltered the Muslim emigrants; the Prophet announced his death the day he died and led the funeral prayer for him in absentia.Abu Bakr leads the prayers during the final illness
c. 26 May 632 CE · 8 Rabi' I 11 AHWhen the illness grew too heavy for the Prophet to come out, he sent word that Abu Bakr should lead the people; Abu Bakr led seventeen prayers, the Prophet once joined him sitting at his left, and Sunni tradition reads the appointment as a sign of Abu Bakr's standing.
Work
Concept
The ruling on one who abandons prayer
Al-Sallabi quotes Ali: whoever does not pray is an unbeliever. He then reports from al-Nawawi the dispute over one who neglects prayer while believing it obligatory: the majority (Malik, al-Shafi'i) hold him a sinner to be asked to repent, others hold him an unbeliever, a view ascribed to Ali; Abu Hanifa and the Kufans hold him not an unbeliever but to be disciplined.Ada' (performance of an obligation within its time)
Ada' means, in the lexicon, delivery; it is used both for timed acts and for others. For the majority it is performing, within its time and before the time ends, an act that is obligatory or recommended; for the Hanafis it is handing over the very thing commanded. It is distinguished from qada' (making good after the time): by the time for the majority, by the thing performed for the Hanafis. Timed acts are narrow or wide, and must be performed in their time. For a wide time the majority hold the obligation attaches to the whole of it, and early performance is preferred. A unit of prayer within its time secures the prayer for the majority; the Hanafis exempt the dawn prayer. For unrestricted obligations such as zakat and expiations, the duty to perform is fixed at the end of life, when the person thinks he can still perform it. Recommended acts are performed for reward; once begun, they must be completed according to the Hanafis and Malikis. Performance requires the ability to perform, and one who cannot perform in the prescribed way does so in the way he can, standing, sitting or lying on his side; an aged person who cannot fast owes no fast. Proxy is allowed for financial acts and not for bodily acts during life; the jurists differ on proxy after death in fasting, pilgrimage and vows. Delay past the time of obligation without excuse is a sin: a debt or pilgrimage due but not performed remains in the liability, and the schools differ on payment from the estate without a bequest. Regular sunnas are made up according to some and not others; the Hanafis and Malikis make up only the dawn sunna. One who refuses an obligation out of denial is treated as an unbeliever who is asked to repent; one who refuses out of laziness is disciplined in bodily worship and compelled in zakat, but not fought over the pilgrimage. Performance in the lawful form discharges the duty by agreement, and whether it brings reward is disputed.Adhan (the call to prayer: its ruling, wording, conditions, recommended features and the muezzin)
In law, the adhan is announcing the time of an obligatory prayer in set, transmitted words. The jurists differ on its ruling, between a communal obligation and a strongly recommended practice, and on its wording, tarjia, tathwib, the conditions of order, continuity and raised voice, and the qualities of the muezzin: Islam, manhood, sanity and discernment.Bone (adhm): purity, use and retaliation
In the lexicon, adhm is the bone that has flesh on it, plural 'idham and 'izam. Most jurists hold that a human bone is pure, whether living or dead, of a Muslim or not; that a fish bone stays pure after death; and that the bone of a lawfully slaughtered edible animal is pure and may be used. The bone of carrion, or of a non-edible animal, is impure according to the Malikis, Shafi'is, Hanbalis and Ishaq, and cannot be purified; the Hanafis hold it pure, and 'Umar disliked oiling in ivory. On cleansing after excretion with a bone, the Shafi'is and Hanbalis forbid it; the Hanafis dislike it as forbidden but accept that it suffices; the Malikis forbid a carrion bone and allow a pure bone with disapproval. Most jurists allow retaliation for a bone only at a joint, since equality cannot be achieved elsewhere.The adornment of desires and the goods of this world
On the verse that the love of desires is made attractive to people, Sha'rawi holds that the inclination which sustains life is permitted, that excess is blameworthy, and that adornment is something added to substance. Desires are keys that differ from person to person. The world is bounded by a person's life span, and lowering the gaze from what is forbidden fills the eye with what is lawful in the Hereafter.The people of the bench (ahl al-suffa)
In his reading of the verse on the poor confined for God's cause, Sha'rawi says the people of the bench were poor and unable to travel for trade. The Ansar used to hang dates in the mosque for them. He reads the marks of their condition as their mark and their not asking persistently.The earth made a place of prayer and purity
Sha'rawi holds that God made the whole earth a place of prayer and purity for the community of Muhammad, so that prayer is valid in every place. He treats the wrecking of mosques as a very great wrong that brings shame in this world and punishment in the next, and says that the discovery of hidden laws in creation calls for prostration in thanks.Spending in the way of God (infaq)
The balance (al-mizan)
Sha'rawi holds that the cosmos runs by an exact balance in which humans have no hand, and that humans are bound to keep the balance in matters where they have choice, so as not to transgress. Corruption comes where human hands act without God's method.Abrogation (naskh) in the Qur'an
Naskh is the removal of an existing ruling and the putting of another in its place after a term God had fixed in His knowledge. Sha'rawi develops the idea in his commentary on al-Baqara, distinguishes it from bada' (a change of mind in God), and holds that it touches obligations alone and never creed or reports of the past.Provision as Lordship's gift and the imamate as the gift of divinity
Sha'rawi separates two gifts: provision is a gift of Lordship that believer and disbeliever both receive, because God called all creatures into life and secured their sustenance, while the imamate and the values of the way are a gift of divinity that only the believer receives. He reads Abraham's prayer for the land's safety and provision as a request that the blessing last, and holds that the enjoyment of this world is small however varied.Prayer in early Islam before the Night Journey
What al-Raheeq al-Makhtum reports on the first prescription of prayer: two rakats morning and evening according to Muqatil ibn Sulayman citing Ghafir 55, Ibn Hajar's statement that the Prophet and his Companions certainly prayed before the Night Journey though whether anything was obligatory before the five prayers is disputed, Jibril's teaching of ablution at the first revelation, and the Muslims praying hidden in the ravines.Ta'abbud (obedience to a command as worship)
Ta'abbud, in Sha'rawi's account, is to carry out a legal command because God commanded it, not because of an apparent worldly reason. He takes the change of qibla and the number of daily prayers as showing that the sanctity of the Ka'ba and of Jerusalem lies in God's command and not in the places themselves.Dry ablution (tayammum)
Al-Sha'rawi reads 'then find no water and perform tayammum with clean earth' as a command from God by which prayer is made lawful when water is absent, not merely a clean substitute. He holds that the wisdom lies in obeying the command, reports the disagreement between one strike and two without preferring either, and cites the report of the five things given to the Prophet, without reproducing its full wording.The religious bequest: submission until death
Sha'rawi holds that a bequest is spoken at the end of life, when the one who bequeaths speaks truthfully, and that the bequest of Abraham and Jacob to their sons was the religion God had chosen, so that the believer must not leave submission before death comes, since its time is not known.Openness as against secrecy in acts of worship, charity and public notice (alaniya)
In the lexicon, alaniya comes from proclaiming and showing a thing, and is the opposite of secrecy. Public voice (jahr) is narrower than openness, and secrecy is what is hidden in the heart. Acts of worship divide by openness: some are prescribed to be public, such as the call to prayer, the sermon, jihad and enjoining good; some are better kept private, such as reciting silently in the silent prayer; and some may be either, such as charity. An obligatory alms-giving is better shown when there is no fear of showing off, so that others may follow it, while a voluntary gift is better hidden where display is feared. The faults of narrators, witnesses and those entrusted with charities and endowments must be made public when they affect their fitness, and the scholars hold this is not forbidden backbiting. The judge is recommended to proclaim the restraint of a bankrupt and to call witnesses to it, and one Shafi'i view makes it obligatory.Blindness (ama): capacity, worship, testimony and contract
In the lexicon, ama is the loss of sight, and it is also used for loss of insight. The jurists agree that blindness does not remove legal capacity, and obligations fall away only where an excuse or harm requires it. Most jurists hold that the Friday prayer is obligatory on the blind man who can guide himself or has a guide; Abu Hanifa holds it not obligatory. On the call to prayer and leading the prayer the schools differ: the Shafi'is and Hanbalis dislike the blind man calling the prayer unless a sighted person tells him the time, the Malikis allow it; the Hanafis and Hanbalis dislike his leading the prayer unless he is the most learned,. The testimony of a blind man is not accepted for what is seen, but is accepted for what is touched, smelt, tasted or heard in some views. The sale of a blind man by description is valid for the Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis, while the Shafi'is forbid contracts that require sight. A blind man may validly swear lian for an adultery he is sure of by touch or hearing.The turban (amama): its forms, wiping over it, and its rules in prayer and ihram
In the lexicon, 'amama is a cloth wound round the head, and its plural is 'amai'im; it is related to the tail, the headband, the bandage, the veil and the cap. Its styles include wrapping the head with the end let fall on the back, and i'tijar, wrapping without tucking the end under the chin, and the end let fall from both sides of the head. The turbans of the Prophet are described as black, with the end let fall between the shoulders, and he is reported to have worn a Qatari cloth. Protected non-Muslims were distinguished by colours and by wearing the turban without tucking it under the chin. Prostration on the fold of the turban is disliked by most jurists unless there is an excuse, and the Shafi'is require the forehead to be bare. Wiping over the turban in ablution is refused by the Hanafis, allowed by the Malikis where removal would harm, and allowed by the Shafi'is and Hanbalis. A shirt and a turban in a shroud are recommended by Abu Hanifa and Malik and not by al-Shafi'i and Ahmad. A turban is forbidden to one in the state of ihram, and a restraint may be imposed by removing the turban as a discretionary penalty.Trust (amanah)
Sha'rawi holds that trust in dealings rests on the believer's conscience, but a person may be trustworthy when entrusted and yet be unable to guarantee his circumstances when repayment is due. That is why God ordained documentation. He reads the trust offered to heaven and earth as the power of choice that humans took on.Deliberate act (amd), as against error, and its rulings
In the lexicon, amd is the purpose and intention of a thing, and its opposite is error (khata'), an act done without purpose. Deliberate acts carry rulings: a deliberate omission of a pillar of prayer, or speech, or eating in it, voids the prayer; a deliberate eating, drinking or intercourse breaks the fast by agreement. Deliberate homicide is forbidden by agreement; the majority accept the repentance of the killer, while some early scholars deny it. A deliberate utterance of unbelief counts as apostasy; a divorce pronounced deliberately takes effect, while a slip of the tongue or a word said by one who has lost his reason does not. Lying about the Prophet deliberately is among the gravest sins, and the false oath (yamin ghamus) is a major sin; breaking an oath deliberately may be obligatory, recommended, permitted, disliked or forbidden according to the matter sworn about.Amin (the word 'amen' at the end of prayer)
Amin, 'safe', 'secure', is used in prayer and supplication as a confirmation, 'so be it', and is said in the prayer after the opening sura, loudly or quietly by the imam according to different reports, and repeated by the congregation. It is called God's seal on the believers.Command, prohibition and capacity
The duty of complying with prohibitions by avoidance, and with commands according to one's capacity; in Abu Hurayra's hadith 'what I forbid you, avoid, and what I command you, do of it what you can' — its occasion, per Ibn Rajab, being the questioner who asked when hajj was imposed 'every year?' until he said it three times and was told 'had I said yes it would have been obligatory and you could not have managed'; Ibn Rajab derives from it the prohibition of asking about what is not needed, of asking out of obstinacy, frivolity or mockery, of asking about what God has hidden from His servants, and of questions on the lawful and unlawful that might draw stricter rulings, noting that licence to ask was for bedouins and delegations, not the residents of Medina; and in Abu Sa'id al-Khudri's hadith — the thirty-fourth — the three grades of changing evil by hand, then tongue, then heart, according to capacity, that being the weakest of faith, corroborated by Ibn Masud's report that whoever struggles against the successors who say what they do not do with hand, tongue or heart is a believer, and beyond the heart there is not a mustard-seed of faith (pp. 218–222, 698–699).Al-Aqiq: the valley as a place of ihram and the carnelian stone in law (aqiq)
In the lexicon, al-aqiq is a valley cut by a torrent and a red stone used for the settings of rings; several places in Arabia bear the name. As the valley it matters for ihram: the Shafi'is prefer that people of the east begin ihram from it, while the Malikis and Hanbalis hold that the station for the people of Iraq is Dhat 'Irq. As the stone, the majority do not allow tayammum with it, while the Hanafis allow it because it belongs to the kind of earth; the majority hold that it carries no zakat unless it is held for trade, while the Hanbalis require zakat on it; it is not subject to riba; the schools differ on advance sale of it; and most jurists allow men to wear it as an adornment.The sacrifice for a newborn (aqiqa): its ruling, age, animals and manner
In the lexicon, aqiqa is the hair a child is born with, and it names the animal sacrificed for a newborn; as a term it is what is slaughtered for a newborn in thanks to God. It differs from the festival sacrifice in its time and place: it is slaughtered when the child is born, at any time of the year, whereas the sacrifice is made on the days of sacrifice. The Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold it a confirmed sunna and the Malikis recommended; the Hanafis allow it as a voluntary act in thanks. The Shafi'is ask it from a father who can afford it, and the majority hold it for a girl as well as a boy. The Hanafis and Malikis fix the time at the seventh day, while the Shafi'is and Hanbalis count from the child's complete birth; the Shafi'is and Hanbalis require livestock, two sheep for a boy and one for a girl, while the Hanafis and Malikis give one for each. It is recommended to cook it without breaking its bones, eat from it, give it as gifts and charity, and to pronounce the reported formula at slaughter.Aqlaf (an uncircumcised man)
Aqlaf is a man who has not been circumcised; its opposite is the mukhtatan (circumcised). Removing the foreskin is called khitan in men and khafd in women. The jurists agree that removing the foreskin is one of the practices of the fitra; the Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold it obligatory, while the Hanafis and Malikis hold it a sunna. An uncircumcised man has particular rulings: some jurists reject his testimony if he left it uncut without excuse, the majority allow his slaughter, and whoever removes the foreskin without the owner's leave owes nothing. The Shafi'is and Hanbalis require washing under the foreskin, and they hold a man who does not wash it invalid as a prayer leader; the Hanafis allow him to lead with a dislike, and the Malikis allow it but dislike appointing him as regular imam.Wounding an animal that cannot be taken (aqr) and its effect on lawfulness and liability
In the lexicon, aqr is wounding; a horse or camel is hamstrung with a sword by cutting its legs. The jurists use it in two senses: a wound in any part of the body of a wild animal that cannot be caught, and the cutting of an animal's legs. Wounding has an effect on whether the flesh of an animal may be eaten: a hunted animal that is caught by a wound is lawful when the conditions of the hunt are met, and an animal of domestic kind that runs wild and cannot be caught is lawful by wounding, according to the majority; the Malikis disagree on the wild animals of domestic kind. The Hanafis apply the same rule to an animal that attacks a man and cannot be restrained. On the spoils of war that cannot be carried away, the Shafi'is and Hanbalis forbid their wounding except to eat them, while some allow it in case of need. On the liability for a vicious dog that wounds a person or tears clothes, the Shafi'is and a view of Abu Yusuf hold the owner liable; Abu Hanifa does not, and Muhammad distinguishes whether the owner drove or urged it on; the Malikis divide liability for killing by intent and by the owner's knowledge.Sweat and its ruling on purity (araq)
In the lexicon, araq is the water that flows from the roots of the hair through the skin. Jurists use it in two senses: what exudes from the body, and a spirit distilled from wine. Human sweat is pure for all jurists, whether from a Muslim or a non-Muslim, a sober or intoxicated person, or someone in a state of menstruation or major impurity. For animal sweat the Hanafis divide it into pure, impure, disliked and doubtful: pure is that of edible animals and the horse; impure that of the dog, the pig and predatory beasts; disliked that of the cat, a free hen, predatory birds and house vermin; doubtful that of the donkey and the mule. The Malikis hold that the sweat of every living animal is pure, whether it lives on land or sea and even if it is a dog or a pig. The Shafi'is and Hanbalis make the sweat follow the animal: pure if the animal is pure; the Shafi'is treat all animals as pure except the dog and the pig, and the Hanbalis list the impure animals by name. The spirit distilled from wine has the ruling of wine: it is impure, and whoever drinks it is liable to the prescribed punishment, which on the preferred view applies even to a single drop.Honey: its medicinal use and zakat (asal)
In the lexicon, asal is the saliva of the bee, which God made a healing for people; the Arabs use the word for anything found sweet. Using honey as medicine is permitted, and most scholars read the Qur'anic verse as saying that honey contains healing. The Hanafis and Hanbalis hold that a tenth is due on honey, relying on prophetic and early reports, and the Hanafis require that the bees be on tithe land; the Malikis and Shafi'is hold that honey carries no zakat. The Hanbalis and al-Zuhri set its threshold at ten faraq; Abu Hanifa requires a tenth on any amount; Abu Yusuf takes value as the measure.The last ten nights of Ramadan
In the usage of the jurists, the last ten nights of Ramadan begin on the night of the twenty-first and end when the month ends, whether it has thirty days or twenty-nine. The jurists agree that effort in acts of worship is recommended in them: night prayer, more charity, more recitation of the Qur'an and good works, following the Prophet's practice. Retreat (i'tikaf) is especially recommended in them, and one who intends it should enter the mosque before sunset on the twenty-first night. The majority hold that the Night of Power remains and has not been lifted, that it falls in Ramadan's last ten nights, and that the odd nights of these ten are the most likely.The first ten days of Dhu al-Hijja
The first ten days of Dhu al-Hijja are the period from the first of the month to its tenth day. The jurists hold that its days and nights are noble and that deeds done in them are multiplied; striving in worship and doing good are recommended, and the most scholars of Qur'anic commentary take the oath in the Surat al-Fajr to refer to these days. Fasting the first nine days is recommended; fasting on the tenth, the day of sacrifice, is not permitted by agreement. Fasting on the day of Arafat is recommended for those who are not pilgrims, and the majority hold that it expiates minor sins but not major ones.Asking for a king to fight (the notables of Banu Isra'il)
Sha'rawi tells how the notables of Banu Isra'il asked their prophet for a king to fight in God's cause. He holds that the prophet guides and does not command in the field, and that the request was in their own interest, which they then dragged out.The most beautiful names of God (asma' Allah al-husna)
The most beautiful names of God: 'God has ninety-nine names — a hundred less one — whoever enumerates them enters Paradise', reported by Bukhari and Muslim; Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya devoted a section to them in Jala' al-Afham.Awqat al-Salat (the prescribed times of the five prayers, the recommended and disliked times, and the rules of combining and of missed prayers)
Awqat is the time fixed for an act; the times of prayer are those the law has set for performing a prayer on time, and the time is the cause of the obligation, so a prayer before its time is not valid, and one performed after it is a makeup. The five prayers have fixed times by the Qur'an and the Sunna, and the Gabriel report sets them out; all agree that there are five. The schools differ on the limits of dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset and night: the true dawn, the shadow of a thing equal or double its length, the red and white twilights, and the witr. Praying at the first of the dawn is lighter for men in the majority view, cooler noon prayer is recommended in summer, the sunset prayer is hastened, and the night prayer is delayed to a third or half of the night. Prayer is disliked at three times, at sunrise, at midday and at sunset, by the Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis. The combining of two prayers on a journey or in rain is allowed by the majority, while the Hanafis allow it only at Arafat and Muzdalifa. Where the times cannot be found, as in the polar regions, the schools differ on setting estimated times.Awra (intimate parts)
Awra in fiqh is the part of the body that must be covered; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia treats it across the chapters of dress, prayer and looking, including uncovering the awra and the limits of required covering.The days of Tashriq
The days of Mina — second of the slaughter through the thirteenth of Dhu al-Hijja — whose name is disputed: meat sun-dried at Mina, the dispersal home, the open prayer-grounds called mashariq, or the 'tashriq' beast-slaughter.Resolve and its legal effect (azm)
In the lexicon, azm is the resolve of the heart to act, and it also means patience and perseverance. As a technical term it is an inclination to a thing with a settled intention to do it. Hamm is the first stage of azm, and azm is the end point of hamm. The jurists agree that a person is not punished for evil thoughts that he neither acts on nor speaks, and that one who resolves on an evil and does not do it incurs no penalty, while a resolve on a good act is recorded as a good deed before it is done. They differ on whether a firm resolve to commit a sin is itself punished: some say not, many scholars say yes. A firm resolve never to return to the sin is a condition of repentance. Related questions on resolving to perform a wide-time obligation or to abstain from what is forbidden are treated in the legal theory appendix.Barley (shi'ir): zakat, zakat al-fitr, sale of standing crops and its place among the ribawi goods
Barley is a known grain, less valued than wheat as food. Several rulings attach to it: zakat on crops, zakat al-fitr, sale and usury. Its zakat is due once it reaches the threshold by consensus, a measure of it suffices for zakat al-fitr by consensus, and it is one of the ribawi goods, which may be exchanged for one another only in equal measure and hand to hand when of the same kind. The jurists differ on whether barley is joined to spelt or wheat to complete the threshold.Bid'a (innovation in religion)
As the extract presents Ibn Qayyim's view, an innovation is what is introduced into religion without God's or His Messenger's authority; innovations at graves revive an old polytheism; the innovator believes he honours the prophets and the righteous while contradicting their way; and the Companions and Successors did none of them.Childhood (sighar: its stages, the rights and duties of the minor, guardianship, the minor in worship and contracts, marriage, testimony and penalties)
In language sighar is smallness of size or age; as a term it is a state that attaches to a person from birth until puberty. It has two stages, before discernment and discernment, and discernment has no fixed age. Capacity to have rights and duties belongs to the child and the adult alike; capacity to act depends on discernment. The rights of a newborn include a call to prayer in the right ear and the iqama in the left, tahnik, naming, the 'aqiqa (recommended by most), and circumcision (obligatory for the Shafi'is and Hanbalis, a sunna for the Hanafis and Malikis). Damages, support, tithe, zakat and other dues attach to the minor's estate, and the guardian pays from it. Guardianship covers the person and property; the guardian may only act for the minor's good, and the rich may not eat from an orphan's property. A child is ordered to pray at seven and beaten for it at ten, and is not bound to pray, fast or make the pilgrimage; his oaths and vows do not bind. His property is not handed over until he is of sound judgment, and the schools differ on restriction, licence to trade, bequests, marriage, divorce, waiting periods, testimony, and retaliation.God's debt (dayn Allah): obligations owed to God that remain in the liability
God's debt is a right of God that stays in the liability of the obligated person, with no human claimant: vows, expiations, the zakat of fast-breaking, pilgrimage, fasting, and a prayer whose time has passed, all of which must be made up. A right of God becomes a debt in the liability when its time passes before performance, when the due property is destroyed, or when the person was unable to perform it when it fell due. Financial debts to God may be paid by a proxy by agreement; bodily worship may not be done for the living, and the schools differ on proxies for the dead. The schools also differ on whether it binds the estate of the dead, whether it blocks zakat, and whether it lapses through hardship, apostasy or death.Shahwa (desire: its effect on touch and ablution, on fasting and pilgrimage, on looking, on marriage by touch and on the breaking of the marriage bond)
Shahwa is the longing of the self for pleasant things. Al-Mawardi held that the self should be given a measured share of what is lawful. It has effects in law. The Hanafis break ablution by touch only with gross contact; the Malikis and Hanbalis limit breach by touch to touch with desire; the Shafi'is make any contact of skin a breach. Emission by sustained looking breaks the fast in the view of the Malikis and Hanbalis but not in that of the Hanafis and Shafi'is. Looking with desire at a woman is forbidden, whether she is a stranger or one's kin, except one's wife. The Hanafis hold that touch or look with desire makes a marriage forbidden as in the case of unlawful intercourse.Slaughter (dhaba'ih): the lawful killing of animals for food in fiqh
In the terms of the jurists, slaughter is the cutting of the throat or the lower neck; dhaka is the wider term, the means that makes the flesh of a land animal lawful to eat, by choice or by necessity. Slaughter is either chosen (cutting the throat or, for the camel, the lower neck) or forced (wounding an animal that cannot be caught); fish and locusts need no slaughter, and a fetus follows its mother's slaughter. For a valid slaughter the animal must be alive, the death must come from the cut, it must not be a game animal of the sanctuary, the slaughterer must be sane and a Muslim or a People of the Book, and the blade must cut. The majority require the invocation of God's name when it is remembered and possible, and the schools differ on the forgetful and the ignorant.Gold (dhahab) in the rulings
Gold is a known metal. Men are forbidden to wear gold ornaments or a gold ring, except from necessity, such as a gold nose or tooth; women may wear gold; eating and drinking from gold vessels is forbidden; zakat is due on it; and gold may be exchanged for gold only hand to hand and weight for weight. The majority set the threshold for the amputation of a thief at a quarter of a dinar of gold.The male organ (dhakar) in the rulings
Dhakar is the known male organ, and the opposite of female. The jurists differ on whether touching it with the palm breaks ablution: the Malikis, Shafi'is and one Hanbali view say it does; the Hanafis and another Hanbali view say it does not. Retaliation is due for cutting a sound male organ according to the majority, and a full diya is due for it when retaliation does not apply; the schools differ over the organs of the impotent and the eunuch.Chin (dhaqn) in the rulings of ablution and of diya
The dhaqn in the lexicon is the joint of the two lower jaw-bones on which the lower teeth grow, and it is used for the whole face. The chin is part of the face and must be washed in ablution: where the beard is thin the skin beneath must be washed, and where it is thick the outer hair must be washed but not the skin beneath. For the two jaw-bones the Shafi'is and Hanbalis set a full diya if both are removed and half for one.Dharq (bird droppings and their purity in fiqh)
Dharq is a bird's droppings. The majority hold it pure for birds whose flesh is eaten, while the Shafi'is hold it impure; the droppings of birds whose flesh is not eaten are impure by the majority and, in the sounder Hanafi view, too. Most jurists excuse a small amount of impurity from it because it is hard to avoid; the Hanafis excuse less than a quarter of a garment for the lighter kind.Dhat Irq (the pilgrim's station for the people of Iraq)
Dhat Irq is the pilgrim's station (miqat) for the people of Iraq and for others who pass it, two stages from Mecca. All agree that a pilgrim or umra-goer passing it must enter the state of ihram there, and that the four other stations are fixed by the text. Whether Dhat Irq is fixed by the text or by Umar's judgement is disputed: the Hanafis, the majority of the Shafi'is and Hanbalis and Ata' hold it is fixed by the text, while Malik in the Mudawwana and al-Shafi'i in al-Umm hold it is fixed by judgement.Dhawd (a small herd of three to ten camels, and its zakat)
A dhawd is a small herd of camels from three to ten. In the zakat of camels the least nisab is five camels: nothing is due on fewer, and on five one sheep is due, and on ten two sheep. The jurists differ over giving a male in place of a sheep and over giving its value.Taste (dhawq) in the rulings: fasting, injury to it, and oaths
Dhawq is perceiving the taste of a thing through the moisture spread on the nerve over the tongue; it is one of the five senses. Tasting food does not break the fast unless it reaches the body inside, though it is better avoided. For injury that takes away taste a full diya is due by agreement; the schools differ on retaliation for it. In oaths, one who swears not to taste and then eats or drinks breaks the oath, while one who swears not to eat or drink and then tastes does not, because all eating is tasting but not every tasting is eating.Dhikr (the remembrance of God in the rulings of fiqh)
In the rulings dhikr is the servant's remembrance of his Lord by statement, recitation, supplication or praise. It is recommended at all times, except in certain places and conditions such as relieving oneself, intercourse and the Friday sermon. It is by tongue and heart together; by the majority, the tongue's dhikr counts only when the speaker says it and hears himself. The Qur'an is the best dhikr for one who acts on it, and then the four words: glory be to God, praise be to God, there is no god but God, and God is greatest. The forms include the tahlil, tasbih, tahmid, takbir, hawqala, istirja', basmala and blessing on the Prophet; forms that imply shirk or deficiency are forbidden. Chanting in unison is disputed: some allow it when it does not disturb and is not thought obligatory, while al-Shatibi calls the unison of a fixed form an innovation.Dhira' (forearm, cubit, and their rulings in fiqh)
In lexicon dhira' is the arm from the elbow to the fingers, and also the measuring cubit; the jurists use both senses. Washing the arms up to the elbow is required in ablution by the majority, and resting the forearms on the ground in prostration is disliked. Cutting the arm at the joint carries retaliation if deliberate and half a diya if accidental; breaking it short of the joint carries a discretionary sum according to most jurists.Dhu al-Hulayfa (the pilgrim's station, miqat, of the people of Medina)
Dhu al-Hulayfa was a water of the Banu Jushan and then the name of the place; it is the miqat of the people of Medina, six miles from Medina and two hundred miles from Mecca less two miles. The Prophet, going out to Mecca, prayed at the mosque of the tree, and returning, he prayed at Dhu al-Hulayfa in the valley and spent the night there. It is one of the stations for entering the state of ihram for hajj and umra, and it carries the rules of the stations.Dhu'aba (the plaited lock of hair, and the loose end of a turban)
Dhu'aba in the lexicon is a plait of hair when it is left loose, and the loose end of a turban; jurists use it in both senses, and in law it is the turban's end let fall over the neck and below. Keeping the hair is better than shaving it, and making it into a plait is allowed; the majority hold that a woman need not unplait her locks at washing once the water reaches the roots, while the Hanbalis differ on unplaiting after menstruation, the sounder view being that it is recommended. Letting the turban's end fall is a sunna; the Hanafis, Hanbalis and most Shafi'is prefer it between the shoulders, and excessive length is the forbidden trailing of garments.Diversity of talents and social interdependence
Sha'rawi holds that God distributed talents among creatures and did not gather them in one person, so that the world completes itself and each part needs the others. Difference of rank is needed for complementarity, people are best when they differ, and rivalry over one shared talent corrupts society.God's ownership of all that is in the heavens and earth
Sha'rawi holds that human ownership of things is an accident that ends with death or with changing circumstances, and that all things belong to God. Whoever reaches wealth or standing should beware, since blessing changes. Accountability is for what is recorded, not only for what God knows.Shakk (doubt in law: its kinds, the rule that certainty is not removed by doubt, and its effect on worship, contracts, penalties and evidence)
Shakk is hesitation between two possibilities, whether they are equal or one prevails. The rule of the jurists is that certainty is not removed by doubt, that doubt about a shortfall is treated as a shortfall, and that doubt about an addition is treated as an addition. Doubt has different effects according to its origin: a slaughtered animal whose slaughter is in doubt is forbidden; the worshipper builds on certainty in prayer, circumambulation and fasting; divorce is not effective on mere doubt about whether it was pronounced; penalties are averted by doubt; and concessions do not rest on doubt. The schools differ on some cases, such as doubt about a breach of ablution after certainty of purity, the number of rak'as, and the number of divorces.Sarih (the explicit word in law: its meaning, its sources, the difference from the allusive word, and its rules across the chapters of law)
In language sarih is what is free of the attachments of others; as a term it is an utterance whose meaning is open through frequent use, whether literal or figurative. The allusive word (kinaya) is its opposite: the explicit word is understood without intention, the allusion needs it, and an indirect hint (ta'ridh) conveys a meaning without stating it. Its source is either the law or common use. Its rules include: the explicit word carries a sense of worship and is not left to private intention; it does not need intention while the allusion does; and once a word takes effect in its own field it does not become an allusion elsewhere. Explicit and allusive wording occurs in the chapters on sale, endowment, gift, betrothal, marriage, release, divorce, zihar, slander and vows.The five pillars of Islam
The five acts on which Islam is built according to the sound hadith: the testimony that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is God's messenger, establishing prayer, paying zakat, pilgrimage and fasting Ramadan.Free choice and compulsion
Sha'rawi holds that God compels the orders of creation as He wills, while the human is free in belief and obedience. Love cannot be compelled, so God left choice to humans to know who comes to Him by love and who by force.Veneration of graves
The veneration of graves: praying at them, supplicating and seeking help from their occupants, circling them, building on them and lighting lamps. As the extract of Ighathat al-Lahfan presents Ibn Qayyim's view, this was the origin of idol worship, leads to shirk, and is forbidden by hadith that is widely transmitted.Guidance and provision: guidance by showing and guidance by help
Sha'rawi distinguishes guidance by showing, the clarity that a prophet or any caller provides, from guidance by help and success, which God gives to whoever believes in Him. He holds that providing for the needy does not depend on their guidance, since provision is the gift of Lordship.Ritual impurity (hadath)
Impurity (hadath) is a legal quality that settles on the limbs, removes ritual purity and bars valid prayer and similar acts; it lies in the washed limbs for the minor kind and in the whole body for the major kind. The term also names the causes that require ablution or bathing: the Hanafis define it as the emission of impurity from a human being, whether customary or not, and the Malikis as the customary emission from the customary passage. Customary emission from the two passages breaks ablution by agreement; worms, pebbles, blood and the like are disputed: the Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis count them, while the Malikis do not count an unusual discharge. Sleep breaks ablution for the majority depending on posture: the Hanafis count lying or reclining, the Malikis heavy sleep, the Shafi'is distinguish whether the seat is firmly on the ground, and the Hanbalis separate the reclining from the sitting. Touching the private parts, touching with desire and the kiss on the mouth are among the disputed causes; the Hanafis do not count touching a woman. Laughter in prayer breaks the prayer for the Hanafis but is not a cause for the majority; eating camel meat breaks ablution for the Hanbalis and one Shafi'i view; washing a corpse does not require ablution for the majority. The minor impurity forbids prayer by consensus, the circumambulation for the majority, and touching the Qur'an; whatever is forbidden by the minor impurity is forbidden by the major impurity a fortiori. The major impurity additionally forbids reciting the Qur'an with intent to recite, seclusion in the mosque, staying in the mosque, and fasting for a menstruating or post-partum woman. Ritual washing lifts the major impurity, and ablution or washing lifts the minor; tayammum is a substitute which, for the majority, does not lift impurity but allows prayer in necessity, while for the Hanafis it is a general substitute that lifts impurity until water is found.Hadi (the whitish fluid before childbirth: its ruling on ablution and purity)
Hadi, in the technical sense, is a term of the Malikis: a whitish fluid that comes from a pregnant woman near childbirth; some define it as a fluid coming at the birth or at a miscarriage. It differs from madhi, wadi, semen, menses and postpartum bleeding in its outflow from the womb, and menses requires bathing while hadi does not. The Malikis have two views on whether hadi breaks ablution: the accepted one says it does, the other says it is nothing, since it is not habitual. The Malikis hold hadi impure, and the Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis agree on the impurity of what comes from a pregnant woman before the birth.Hady (animal offered to the Sacred Precinct)
The hady, in lexical and legal usage, is the animal (camel, cow or goat) brought to the Sacred Precinct and slaughtered as a devotion during the days of sacrifice; it is distinct from the udhiyya and the aqiqa in time and place. It falls into voluntary hady (recommended for one performing the rite, or one who sends an animal without going), obligatory hady for thanks (imposed on the tamattu' and qiran pilgrim), hady for compensation, and hady of vow. The rider may ride it when needed without harm, though the Malikis dislike riding without necessity; an obligatory hady may not be sold, leased or used, and a donor may not eat from it except in the cases the jurists list. The best animal is the camel, then the cow, then the sheep.Barrier (hail)
A hail is a barrier. In fiqh the word is used for a screen between the worshipper and one who passes in front, such as a staff or a heap of earth, which is called a sutra. The entry also covers the effect of a barrier on ablution, bathing and touching the Qur'an, and whether a river or a road between the imam and the follower prevents following him in prayer.Hair, wool and fur (their purity, the rules for the dead, washing, adornment and sale)
Hair, wool and fur are parts that grow on people and animals, and the rules of purity and impurity apply to them. A person's hair is pure, living or dead, and may not be sold or used, because the human being is honoured. The hair of a permitted animal, shorn while it lives, is pure by consensus. Among the rules for the living: the hair must be washed in the major ritual bath, and most jurists require a woman to unbraid her plaits only if the water cannot reach the roots otherwise; joining hair with impure or human hair is forbidden. Tying the hair up in prayer is disliked, and combing it is recommended.Rulings on the hajj
Hajj, in the sacred sense, is the purposeful journey to the Sacred House and to Arafat in the months of hajj to perform set acts. It is an individual obligation on every adult who is able, once in a lifetime, established by the Qur'an, the Sunna and consensus. On whether it must be performed at once or may be delayed, Abu Hanifa (in the sounder of his two reports), Abu Yusuf, Malik (in the preferred view) and Ahmad hold that it is immediate, while al-Shafi'i and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan hold that it may be delayed. The texts praise the merit of the hajj at length, including the report that a hajj accepted has no reward but paradise. Five conditions of obligation are agreed: Islam, reason, puberty, freedom and capacity. The hajj of a madman is not valid; a child's hajj counts as a voluntary one. General capacity has four elements: provision and a mount, bodily health, safety of the road, and the possibility of travel. The majority require provision and a mount, while the Malikis accept the ability to walk with provision for a person in good health. The majority also require that the provision and mount be owned beyond the basic needs, such as maintenance of dependants, housing and household goods.Halak (destruction of property and its legal effect)
Halak in the legal sense is the loss of a thing's intended benefit, whether or not it survives, and it is also used of death. If a sold article perishes before delivery it is at the seller's risk; if it perishes with the buyer and a defect is later found, the buyer recovers the arsh (compensation for the defect), except that the Malikis hold that if the destruction was caused by a defect the seller concealed, the buyer recovers the whole price. If the property perishes before a year is complete, or before the owner can pay, the zakat falls away; if it perishes after the owner could pay, the zakat stands as a debt. If a sheep or camel is designated as a sacrifice and dies before the day of sacrifice, the owner owes nothing; if it perishes through his negligence he is liable. The Shafi'is and Hanbalis treat the pledgee's possession as a trust, so he is not liable for loss without fault; the Hanafis treat it as a liability.The lawful, the unlawful and the doubtful
The division of rulings and things into plainly lawful, plainly unlawful, and doubtful matters between them that many people cannot assign to either side though the firmly grounded in knowledge are not in doubt; Ibn Rajab gives as plainly lawful the good foods — crops, fruits, cattle — and marriage and concubinage when acquired by a valid contract; as plainly unlawful carrion, blood, pork, wine, marriage within the prohibited degrees, silk for men and unlawful gains such as usury, gambling, theft and usurpation; and as doubtful what is disputed as to its lawfulness — animals such as horses, mules, donkeys and the dabb lizard, intoxicating-when-abundant drinks, and disputed transactions such as 'ina and tawarruq — this being Ahmad's and Ishaq's and other imams' explanation of the doubtful; whoever avoids the doubtful clears his religion and honour, and whoever falls into it is like a shepherd at the edge of God's sanctuary.Halq (shaving and cutting hair)
Halq lexically is removing hair, and also names the throat; istihdad is shaving the pubic area and naf't is plucking hair at its roots. For Hanafis the sunna for a man's head is parting or shaving; for the Malikis shaving the head is a permitted innovation outside the state of ihram; for the Shafiis there is no harm in it for cleanliness; Ahmad has two reports on its dislike. Shaving part of the head (qaza') is disliked; a woman may not shave her head except out of necessity among the Hanafis and Malikis. Most jurists recommend shaving a newborn's head on the seventh day and giving the weight of the hair in silver in alms; the Hanbalis do not shave a girl's hair. For the Hanafis shaving the moustache is a sunna; for the Malikis it is trimmed not shaved; for the Shafiis shaving it is disliked; for the Hanbalis trimming or clipping its edge is sunna; shaving the beard is forbidden. A person in ihram may not shave his own head or another's until both have finished the rite. Shaving or cutting the hair to leave ihram is a rite for the Hanafis, Malikis, the more authoritative Shafii view and the Hanbali school, and a mere release from a prohibition for some Shafiis and Ahmad in one report. Shaving the whole head suffices by agreement; the Hanafis accept a quarter of the head with dislike; the Shafiis accept three hairs; the Malikis and Hanbalis reject shaving part of the head. A woman cuts rather than shaves for leaving ihram. Shaving the pubic hair is recommended for men as part of the natural practice, and shaving the armpit is permitted for one who finds plucking hard. Most jurists recommend shaving a convert's head; the Hanafis and Hanbalis forbid shaving a dead person's head, the Malikis dislike it, and the Shafiis in the sounder view do not shave it. The word also names the throat, to which rules on fasting and suckling attach. The entry closes at the next headword, halla (حلّ), on p.7270.Hamd (praise of God and thanks)
Hamd is lexically the opposite of blame and means thanks, contentment and full praise in speech for a voluntary excellence; it is narrower than praise and wider than thanks. The fullest form is 'praise belongs to God, Lord of the worlds', which opens the Quran; the expression 'praise that matches His bounties and multiplies them' is also cited. Praise is due to God alone, a person may not praise himself, and praising another for what he does not have is forbidden. Opening important affairs with praise of God is recommended, in speeches, writings and openings of prayer. Praise during bowing, prostrating and rising from bowing is disputed among the schools; the follower says 'our Lord, to You be praise', while the lone prayer joins the two in the Shafii view. Praise after prayer is recommended; in the Friday, festival, rain-prayer and eclipse sermons the schools differ on whether it is required. Praise is recommended at a sudden blessing or the removal of a harm, quietly before one afflicted, after sneezing, at morning and evening, at the loss of a child, at seeing what one loves or dislikes, on entering the market, before the mirror and on mounting a beast. The entry closes at the next headword, hamdala, which is a cross-reference to hamd, and then ḥaml (حمل).Haqin (one who holds back urine)
A haqin is a person holding back urine, a haqib one holding back faeces and a hazeq one holding back wind. Most jurists consider prayer while in this state disliked; the Hanafis treat it as forbidden and say the prayer must be broken unless the time is about to pass. A judge or mufti in this state is disliked to rule or give an opinion, and a judgment given correctly still stands, while the Hanbali preferred view forbids it.Hatma' (a sacrificial animal with its front teeth gone: its fitness)
Hatma', in the lexical sense, is an animal whose front teeth have fallen out from the root. The jurists differ on whether it is fit for sacrifice: the Hanafis in the sounder view allow it if it grazes and feeds; the Malikis hold that losing one tooth does not harm; the Shafi'is mostly forbid it; the Hanbalis forbid one whose front teeth are gone, and allow it if some remain.Hawl (the lunar year in zakat)
Hawl lexically is a year, and also has the senses of strength, change and staying; the year was so named from the turning of the sun. A year is a condition for zakat on grazing livestock, gold and silver and trade goods, on the saying 'no zakat on property until a year passes over it', because such property is kept for increase. Crops, fruits and minerals need no year; a mineral of the kind of money is due every year. The year begins when the nisab is owned; gains of the same kind as the principal join it when they grow from it, while an independent gain has its own year for the Shafiis and Hanbalis; the Hanafis join it, the Malikis for livestock only. The majority require the nisab throughout the year, the Hanafis at its beginning and end, and the year ends when the whole nisab perishes. Exchanging the nisab for the same kind does not break the year for the Malikis and Hanbalis, but does for the Hanafis and Shafiis in livestock; exchanging for another kind breaks it by agreement, and an exchange made to evade zakat does not remove the duty. The article also notes the age limit for suckling as a bar to marriage: the Shafiis, Hanbalis and the two disciples require the child to be under two years, the Malikis allow two months over, and Abu Hanifa allows two years and a half.Hay'a (the recommended forms of prayer, and the dignified offenders)
Hay'a in the lexical sense is the outward state a thing is in, sensed or understood. In prayer the Shafi'is divide its acts into pillars (arkan), sunan that sahw prostration repairs, and hay'at that it does not repair and to which the worshipper does not return; they liken the prayer to a person, the pillar to the head, the condition to life, the sunan to the limbs and the hay'at to the hair. By the Shafi'i count there are more than fifteen hay'at, including raising the hands at the opening takbir, at bowing and at rising from it, placing the right palm on the left, seeking refuge before recitation, saying amin, the glorification in bowing and prostration, and the postures of sitting. The Hanbalis list hay'at as matters of manner: the fingers, the placing of the right hand over the left below the navel, the gaze at the place of prostration, and measured recitation. In discipline, most jurists lighten the punishment for the dignified, the people of religion and piety, relying on the saying 'pardon the lapses of the dignified except in the hadd punishments'. The jurists differ: some admonish but do not discipline a first lapse; Ibn Abd al-Salam holds the dignified are not punished at all, and al-Adhra'i disputes him.Hayd (menstruation)
Hayd (menstruation) is lexically a flowing; in the law it is blood that a healthy womb expels at fixed times, and the definitions differ by school; hayd and nifas are different in meaning. The article distinguishes hayd from tuhr (purity), qur' (a period which is both), istihada (blood outside its times) and nifas (blood after birth). A woman must learn the rules of menstruation because they govern worship and dealings, the monthly courses do not remove legal capacity, and the Hanafi condition is the emergence of the blood from the inner to the outer part. Among the conditions of menstruation the majority require blood issuing from the womb not from childbirth, a preceding purity of fifteen days, a flow not less than the least period, and an age of menstruation; the Hanafis and Hanbalis add that she is not pregnant. Yellowness and turbidity during the days of menses count as menses for the majority, and do not after purity for the Hanafis and Hanbalis; the Hanafis list six colours of the blood. The least age for menstruation is nine lunar years for the majority, the Hanbalis put the greatest age at fifty, the Hanafis and Shafiis set none, and the Malikis judge by custom. For a pregnant woman who bleeds, the Malikis set the longest menses at twenty or thirty days by month, the least at a day and a night in the Shafii and Hanbali view, the longest at fifteen days, and the common course at six or seven days. A woman is a first-timer (no prior course), a woman of habit (known course and purity), or confused (has forgotten her habit). A first-timer whose blood comes at a time it can (and within the least and greatest lengths) has menstruation, and yellowish or turbid discharge counts as menses for the majority. If the blood stops before the greatest length she is pure; the Hanbalis bathe at the least length and pray and fast in the rest as a precaution; if the flow continues past the greatest length, the Hanafis count ten days as menses and twenty as purity each month. A woman of habit has one rule for the blood: the blood must come at the time of her habit. It is confirmed by three cycles on the Hanbali and Shafii views and by repetition on the Hanafi view; the Hanafis differ on whether one change becomes a new habit. When a habitual woman's blood matches her habit, its days are menses and the rest purity; when it stops before the habit she is pure but the schools differ on intercourse and prayer. When blood returns after a break, the Shafiis count the break as menses under conditions, the Hanbalis count a clear purity as purity, and the Hanafis cancel the purity if the blood returns within the greatest length. When a habitual woman's blood exceeds her habit, the Hanafis return her to her habit unless the habit has changed and set the purity at six months less an hour (a view of the Hanafi scholars), the Malikis add three days of caution to her habit. Habit changes on the Hanafi view by time and count once blood exceeds ten days; the Malikis, Shafiis and Hanbalis let habit move earlier or later, grow or shrink; the Hanbalis count nothing outside the habit as menses until it recurs three times or twice. A habit is even when its days match, or uneven in order or out of order; with an uneven habit the woman follows the rotation if she knows it, otherwise sits for the least. On patching blood with purity there are two views: the patching view counts only the days of blood, the drawing view counts both as menses under conditions. There is no limit to the greatest purity; the least is fifteen days for the Hanafis, Malikis and Shafiis, and thirteen for the Hanbalis on a report from Ali. Scholars differ on whether the clear interval between two bleedings is menstruation: the Hanafis and Shafiis count it as menses, the Malikis and Hanbalis as purity. The menses of a pregnant woman: the Hanafis and Hanbalis treat it as illness, a point from the hadith forbidding intercourse with a pregnant woman until birth, while the Malikis and Shafiis treat it as menses when its conditions are met. Hanafi purity is sound if it lasts fifteen days or more between sound bleedings and unmixed, unsound if shorter or mixed, and complete if of fifteen days even if unsound. Menstruation is a mark of puberty that brings duty; a woman's bath to lift major impurity during menses is invalid for the majority; the bath after menses is due when the flow stops, with the place perfumed. Scholars agree that prayer falls from a menstruating woman and she does not make it up, while she makes up the fast; the ground is the hadith of Aisha; she may not perform it, and prostration of recitation and of thanks count as prayer. A woman who becomes pure at the start of the time of prayer owes it on some views, and the duty drops if the menses comes at a time that drops it; at the end of the time the schools differ on how much time counts: the Hanafis one opening takbir plus the time for the bath, the Malikis one rak'a, the Shafiis and Hanbalis one takbir. Fasting is forbidden to the menstruating woman; if she becomes pure before dawn she owes that day's fast, and the schools differ on how much time she needs: the Hanafis require time for the bath and the opening takbir, the Malikis accept a sign, the Shafiis and Hanbalis accept the end of the blood. In the pilgrimage, menses prevents nothing but the circumambulation: baths for the pilgrim are recommended, the arrival circuit is a sunna, the farewell circuit is obligatory on most views, and she may leave without it. Recitation of the Quran is forbidden on the majority view; the Hanafis forbid reciting full phrases but not single words; the Shafiis forbid even part of a verse; the Hanbalis forbid a verse and more; the Malikis allow it while the blood flows. The schools forbid a menstruating woman to enter the mosque (the Hanafis and Malikis absolutely; the Shafiis and Hanbalis forbid passing through it if she fears soiling it); the place of the festival prayer is disputed, while funeral prayer ground is allowed. All agree that intercourse in the private part is forbidden to a menstruating woman; the schools differ on enjoyment between navel and knee, which most forbid, and the Hanbalis allow everything below the private part. Expiation for intercourse during menses is half a dinar for the Hanbalis; the Hanafis and Shafiis recommend a dinar or half according to the time of the blood. Intercourse is lawful only when the blood has stopped and she has bathed (majority); the Hanafis distinguish stopping at the greatest length, at the least, or at the end of the habit. Divorcing a menstruating woman is forbidden and is a form of innovative divorce, by the report of Ibn Umar, and the majority hold that it takes effect. The article closes with general matters: the Hanbalis allow a woman to take a lawful drug to stop menses only with her husband's leave and no harm; a woman's claim of menses is accepted when possible; nifas differs from hayd in the waiting period, the attainment of puberty, the purging of the womb, and the limit of the period.Wisdom (hikma)
Sha'rawi defines wisdom as placing a thing in its beneficial place. He holds that what God commanded of spending and justice is wisdom, because it secures life in this world and happiness in the next, and that accepting a command before knowing its wisdom deepens certainty.Hilal (the crescent and the lunar month for the law)
Hilal in the lexical sense is the moon in a particular state; technically it is the first sighting of the lit part of the moon on the first night. The law made the crescents times for people: the deferred dealings and the rites (the pilgrimage, fasting, the breaking of the fast) and the matters with legal effects, such as the waiting period, the period of nursing and the period of the oath of abstention. Jurists hold that only the lawgiver fixes the times of worship, while the times of transactions are agreed by the parties; an unqualified month is taken as a lunar month. The size of the crescent is no guide to the start of the month; what counts is the night of sighting.Hudb (eyelashes: injury and washing in ablution)
Hudb is the hair growing on the eyelids; the hair above the eyes is called hajib. For injuring a single eyelash so that it is pulled out and does not regrow, the Hanafis and Hanbalis hold a full diya is due, while the Malikis and Shafi'is hold neither retaliation nor diya applies, only an assessed compensation (hukuma). On washing the eyelashes in ablution: if the hair is dense and does not show the skin, washing its outer surface suffices according to the Malikis and Hanbalis, with combing it recommended for the Hanbalis; the Hanafis require passing water over the hair without washing beneath it, while the Shafi'is require washing both outer and inner surfaces.Ibada (worship)
Ibada in the sharia is a comprehensive name for the acts of the heart and limbs that God loves and approves; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia treats the rulings of worship in its opening books, from the intention that vitiates worship to seeking others' help in it.Delaying the noon prayer to the cool (ibrad)
The Kuwaiti encyclopedia defines ibrad linguistically as entering the cool, or entering the late part of the day. For the jurists it is delaying the noon prayer until the time of cool, and the word is also used of leaving a slaughtered animal to cool before it is skinned. The Encyclopedia states that, in intense summer heat in hot countries, delaying the noon prayer is a permission that is recommended by agreement for one who attends the mosque in congregation, citing the hadith on the heat of Hell. If one of those conditions is missing, the recommendation is disputed and the Encyclopedia refers the detail to the entry on prayer times.Ihram (the state of consecration for hajj or umra)
Ihram in the lexicon means to proclaim the pilgrimage or the umra and to enter the state of sanctity; in jurists' usage it means, when unqualified, entering the hajj or the umra, and the word is also used for entering prayer, as in «the takbir of ihram». For the Hanafis it is entering into certain prohibitions, valid only with intention together with a mention of God or what stands in for it; for the Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis it is the intention to enter the prohibitions of hajj or umra. All agree that it is one of the obligations of the rite. They differ on whether it is a pillar or a condition: the Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis count it a pillar, while the Hanafis count it a condition in one respect and a pillar in another. Its validity requires Islam and intention; the Hanafis add the talbiya or what stands in for it. The talbiya is the words «here I am, O God, here I am», which the Prophet's practice on the farewell pilgrimage fixed; the Shafi'is and Hanbalis treat it as a sunna, while the Malikis treat it as an obligation whose omission or long delay after intention requires a sacrifice. For the Hanafis, anything that glorifies God stands in for the talbiya, as does garlanding and driving the sacrificial animal with the intention to go along. Ihram with an unspecified rite is valid by agreement; the Shafi'is and Hanbalis require the rite to be named before any act, while the Hanafis and Malikis judge by the first act performed (circling the House or standing at Arafat). Entering ihram by copying another's ihram is valid, and according to the majority it takes the form of the other person's ihram. A stipulation made at the start (that one may leave the state if prevented) is valid for the Shafi'is and Hanbalis and allows release when hindered, but it is not valid for the Hanafis and Malikis. The Hanafis have their own rule for the Meccan (one at or within the miqat zone): for him qiran is disliked; if he does it, it is lawful but he owes a make-up sacrifice, while for a man coming from afar who joins hajj to umra before circling for it, the joining is qiran by the majority view. The Malikis and Hanbalis allow joining hajj to an umra already begun, making the pilgrim a qarin; the Shafi'is forbid it once circling has begun. Adding an umra to a hajj already begun is not valid for the Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis, so no qiran results; the Hanafis and Malikis dislike it. Entering ihram for two hajjs or two umras together takes effect with one and the other is void, according to the majority; Abu Hanifa holds both take effect and one must be made up. The forms of ihram are ifrad, qiran and tamattu', and each school defines them differently. Its obligations come down to two: beginning at the miqat, and guarding the ihram against the prohibited acts. A miqat is, in the lexicon, a set time or place; in law, the set places and times for a specific rite. Ihram has a time miqat and a place miqat. For the hajj, the three imams and Ahmad fix the time as Shawwal, Dhu al-Qa'da and the first ten days of Dhu al-Hijja; for Malik it runs to the end of Dhu al-Hijja. The Hanafis and Hanbalis count the day of sacrifice as one of the months of hajj; the Shafi'is count only its night. The Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis allow ihram for the hajj before its months, with dislike; the Shafi'is hold it does not make a hajj. The time for umra is the whole year; it is recommended in Ramadan, and the Hanafis dislike it on the day of Arafa and four days after. The places for those coming from afar are agreed: Dhu al-Hulayfa for the people of Madina, al-Juhfa for Syria and those who come by it, and Qarn al-Manazil for the people of Najd. For those of Yemen the miqat is Yalamlam, and for Iraq and the rest of the East it is Dhat Irq. The miqats are fixed by the sunna (the hadiths of Ibn Abbas and Ibn Umar) and by consensus; whether Dhat Irq was fixed by text or by Umar's judgment that matched the text is disputed. Whoever passes a miqat wishing to perform either rite must enter ihram there; delaying it past the miqat is forbidden by agreement, and beginning at its far edge is best. The place counts, not the name of the village; entering ihram at the miqat or at its alignment is enough. For a traveller who passes two miqats, the Shafi'is and Hanbalis require ihram at the farther one, the Malikis allow the nearer, and the Hanafis allow either and dislike delay. Entering ihram before the place miqat is lawful by agreement; the Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis dislike it, while the Hanafis consider it better when the pilgrim is safe from breaking its rules. Whoever passes the miqat without ihram intending a rite is sinful, must return and enter ihram there, and owes a sacrifice if he does not return, unless he has an excuse. The resident of the miqat zone enters from his own place according to the Malikis, from his village or encampment according to the Shafi'is and Hanbalis, and the Hanafis take the whole sanctuary-free zone as his miqat. For the Meccans and the people of the sanctuary the hajj miqat is their own place, so they enter ihram in Mecca (or at the mosque, according to the Hanafis and Hanbalis); the Malikis distinguish those who begin with hajj from those who begin with qiran. The umra miqat for a man who is in Mecca is the lawful zone outside the sanctuary from any point; the majority prefer al-Ji'ranah and the Hanafis prefer al-Tan'im. Ihram forbids some things otherwise lawful, to remind the pilgrim of his rite and train him in simplicity; for men the core rule is that no stitched or fitted garment may cover the body, so shirts, turbans, trousers, hooded cloaks and socks are forbidden, as are garments touched by saffron or wars. A man may not wear a qaba (a long coat) or similar, except by the Hanafi distinction; a man who has no waist-wrap may wear trousers with a sacrifice owed according to some schools. A man who has no sandals cuts the socks below the ankles and wears them, according to the majority; Ahmad and others differ. The Malikis and Hanbalis forbid the wearing of a sword without need, while the Hanafis and Shafi'is allow it. Covering the head is forbidden to the man by agreement; the Hanafis and Hanbalis define covering by what is usually meant as a covering, the Malikis and Shafi'is by what counts as a covering. Shade from something fixed to a base, such as a tent or a roofed car, is lawful by agreement; shade from something not fixed is lawful for the Hanafis and Shafi'is. A man may not cover his face, and a woman in ihram may not wear the niqab; the exception is need or fear of temptation. Gloves are forbidden to men by agreement. For women in ihram the majority forbid covering the face and hands with gloves, while the Hanafis allow covering the hands. The prohibitions on the body concern anything that perfumes the body, removes its disorder or ends its untidiness: shaving the head, removing hair, cutting nails, oiling and scent. Shaving the head is forbidden to the pilgrim and to whoever shaves him, and so is trimming; for shaving a lawful person the Hanafis forbid it, while the Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow it. Oil without scent is forbidden by the majority because it adds comfort; the Shafi'is limit it to the head and beard, and the Hanbalis allow it on the whole body. Scent is forbidden by agreement with distinctions: the pilgrim may not use it on his waist-wrap, garments, bedding or sandals, nor drink or eat pure scent, and the ruling differs when scent is mixed into food. Smelling scent without touching it is disliked by the Hanafis, Malikis and Shafi'is with no penalty; the Hanbalis forbid it and require a sacrifice, as with musk and camphor. Hunting is forbidden to the pilgrim by the Qur'an (al-Ma'ida, ayas 95-96), the sunna (the hadith of Abu Qatada) and consensus; for the Hanafis game is the wild land animal that resists capture. The pilgrim may not kill game, harm it, assist in its hunting, order it killed, or take ownership of it by sale, gift or other means. He may not benefit from game, such as eating its meat or eggs. There is disagreement on eating game caught by a lawful person: Ali, Ibn Umar and Ibn Abbas forbid it; the majority allow it if it was not caught for him; the Hanafis allow it unless he ordered or pointed to it, citing the hadith «land game is lawful to you as long as you do not hunt it or have it hunted for you». Recommended acts of ihram: the bath, perfume before entry according to the majority, two rak'as before entering, and the talbiya said often and aloud, ending for the hajj pilgrim at the throwing of the Jamra al-Aqaba and for the umra pilgrim at touching the Stone.. Ihram obliges completion; apostasy voids it and intercourse spoils it, requiring make-up. The lesser release comes by two of three acts (throwing, sacrifice, shaving or cutting); the greater release by the Ifada circling with shaving for the Hanafis and Malikis, and by all three acts for the Shafi'is and Hanbalis; the umra has a single release by shaving or cutting.. Fasakh (a change of intention, disputed) lifts ihram, while rafd (abandonment) is void. Special rulings: a discerning child enters ihram by his own act for the Hanafis and Malikis; a guardian enters for a non-discerning child; the Hanafis alone allow entry for an unconscious person before ihram, and one who forgets the rite he entered must do both hajj and umra.. Chapter ten sets out the penalties: ransom, offering, alms and fasting, with the detailed penalties for comfort offences (clothing, perfume, shaving, nails and lice).. On game and intercourse: the pilgrim who kills game owes a penalty of like, food or fasting, with the schools differing on how the like is fixed; injury, milking, causing death, handling and eating game each have their own rules. Intercourse in ihram is a penalty offence: before standing it spoils the hajj, after standing and before the first release it spoils the hajj by the majority (the Hanafis dissent), after the first release it does not; the precursors and the qarin's position are set out in detail.. On almsgiving, fasting and make-up: alms follow the kinds of the alms of the end of Ramadan; fasting for one unable to find an offering is three days in hajj and seven on return; the make-up is owed at once by the majority and in the following year by the Hanafis, entered from the miqat of the spoiled rite..Ihsar (being prevented from completing the rite)
Ihsar is, in the lexicon, being barred from the rites by sickness or the like; the jurists give the word the same meaning, though they differ on what counts. The schools define it differently: the Hanafis as being barred from both standing and circling, the Malikis from one or both, the Shafi'is and Hanbalis from any pillar of hajj or umra. Its basis is the Hudaybiyya episode. The dispute is whether only an enemy counts or illness and similar causes too: the Hanafis and some others include all, while the majority limit it to an enemy, strife and unjust imprisonment. Its conditions: a prior ihram; no standing before the obstacle according to the Hanafis and Malikis; despair of removal before the hajj is lost; and, for the Malikis, the pilgrim's ignorance of the obstacle at entry. Types by pillar: ihsar from standing and circling together, from standing alone, and from the pillar circling; by cause: enemy, strife, imprisonment and bars of the ruler, creditor and husband. Among the causes: imprisonment for debt, a husband barring his wife (in voluntary hajj by agreement and in obligatory hajj by school), a father barring his son from voluntary hajj, the emergent waiting period, and illness, lameness, lost funds or mount and losing the road by school.. The barred pilgrim releases by intention and slaughter of an offering according to the majority, by intention alone according to the Malikis; a sent offering does not release until slaughtered; a sheep serves one and a camel or cow seven.. On the offering: a single pilgrim owes one; the qarin owes one (Shafi'is and Hanbalis) or two (Hanafis), slaughtered where barred or in the sanctuary by the Hanafis; the time is open for the majority and the days of sacrifice for the two companions; a substitute of food or fasting is allowed by the Shafi'is and Hanbalis; shaving is a condition for the Shafi'is and Hanbalis only. Stipulation at entry releases by the Shafi'is and Hanbalis only; the missed obligatory rite is made up, and the voluntary one is not, for most jurists... The make-up: a barred pilgrim makes up an obligatory rite he was barred from; voluntary rites differ. Barring after standing and the Ifada circling is not ihsar. When the bar lifts, the outcome depends on whether time remains to catch the hajj or the offering..Reviving the night (worship through the night)
Reviving the night means spending the night or most of it in worship, through prayer, remembrance and recitation; supplication and seeking forgiveness are best at dawn, and particular nights such as the last ten of Ramadan and the festival nights are recommended; the Shafi'is and Hanbalis dislike reviving the whole night except on those nights, and some schools dislike gatherings for particular nights such as the middle of Sha'ban..Reviving the sunna (renewing a neglected practice)
Reviving the sunna means restoring the practice of a rite of Islam after it has been neglected; it is sought by law as a collective duty, which is the basis, or as a personal duty, or as recommended, with detail under commanding right..Ikhfa (concealment in worship and law)
Ikhfa' (concealment) means covering and keeping secret; its ruling varies with the matter: concealing the intention is recommended by most, with dispute for hajj and umra; concealing voluntary alms is better and publishing obligatory alms is better; if the new moon is hidden the month is counted as thirty days; concealing faith and silent dhikr are disputed..Ikhraj (removal or expulsion, and the act of paying out)
Ikhraj means, in the lexicon, pushing out from within, and also removal or banishment, and the jurists use it in the same sense. The jurists distinguish it from takharruj, the agreement of heirs to exclude one of them from the inheritance for a known sum from the estate. Removal is judged by the kind of thing: a standing person leaves a house by his feet, according to some; stolen goods are removed from a store; zakat and expiations are paid out by transferring them to the poor, or, according to others, by setting them aside. The ruling varies: removal is obligatory in zakat, expiations, and expelling one who deserves a hadd from the mosque, and forbidden when a woman in her waiting period is expelled from her house without right, or goods are removed from a store with intent to steal.Ikhtilal (disruption or defect in acts, contracts and consent)
Ikhtilal means, in the lexicon, a defect or weakness in an opinion or a matter, and as a technical term the intrusion of weakness or deficiency into a thing or an affair. It covers disorder of reason, defect of worship or contract, defect of consent, and defect of a narrator's precision. It is wider than invalidity and corruption, since it includes missing complements that cause neither. In worship the defect lies in omitting a condition, pillar, obligation or recommended act, or in doing a forbidden or disliked act, and may be repaired by prostration of forgetfulness, ransom or make-up. In a contract a defect in a pillar prevents formation; a defect in an external attribute gives corruption according to the Hanafis; a defect in consent gives an option.Ikhtisas (exclusivities of the Prophet in rulings of conduct)
Ikhtisas (exclusivity): being singled out by something; it may be granted by the Lawgiver or by a person through authority or ownership. The study of the Prophet's exclusivities is lawful for the majority; they fall into rulings of conduct that do not pass to his community, otherworldly privileges, worldly virtues, miracles and bodily matters, and this entry is limited to the first kind. Some were obligatory for him (night prayer, witr, duha, siwak, sacrifice, consultation, standing against a superior enemy, changing wrong), some forbidden (taking alms, giving for more, poetry, keeping an unwanted wife, marrying a non-Muslim or a slave), and some permitted (prayer after 'Asr).. Permitted to him alone: praying over the absent dead, continuous fasting, fighting in Mecca, entering it without ihram, judging by his own knowledge and in his own case, accepting gifts, the safi and the fifth, and marriage to more than four women without a dower or guardian; among the honours: singling out whom he will with what he will, and being closer to the believers than themselves; the combination of his name and kunya is disputed, and the Malikis and Shafi'is hold it lawful after his death.. Further: none may anticipate him or raise his voice before him, whoever reviles him is killed, whoever he calls must answer, he leaves no inheritance, and his wives are mothers of the believers; among times and places, the Night of Power, Ramadan, the two festivals, the days of tashriq, Friday, the day of Arafat, the middle of Sha'ban, Ashura, the day of doubt, the white days and Sha'ban have recommended, disliked or forbidden rulings; the Ka'ba is singled out for its revival by hajj, its direction in prayer, and disputed prayer inside it; the sanctuary of Mecca is closed to unbelievers.. The sanctuary of Mecca: unbelievers may not enter after their year; prayer in it earns multiplied reward; hunting, fighting, bloodshed and cutting its trees are forbidden, and the hudud are applied to offences committed inside it; Medina is a sanctuary according to the majority but not the Hanafis; a dhimmi may not settle there; death in it is recommended.. On mosques and water: the Prophet's mosque is singled out for the superiority of prayer and lawful travel, Quba' for the reward of umra, and Zamzam for the manners of drinking; on authority and ownership: exclusivity must serve the interest of the one under care, authority is a trust, and an owner's disposition must cause no harm, so he may not bequeath more than a third nor favour some children without cause..Iktihal (applying kohl to the eye)
Iktihal is applying kohl to the eye. The Shafi'is and Hanbalis recommend an odd number of applications; the Hanafis allow it unless it is meant as pride in adornment. Its rulings touch on ihram, fasting, the waiting period and i'tikaf.Iltifat (turning the head or body)
Iltifat is turning to the right or the left, and the jurists use it in the same sense. It is recommended while turning to the right and left in the hayya 'ala formulae of the adhan, which most jurists follow; it is recommended in the prayer greeting; and turning the face in prayer is disliked by the four Imams.Iltimas (seeking, as in looking for the moon or water)
Iltimas is seeking, in the lexical sense, and in the technical sense a request between equals. It may be asked for, as seeking the crescent of Ramadan, which is obligatory for the Hanafis and recommended for most jurists; seeking water before tayammum; and seeking the Night of Power. It is forbidden when the thing sought is forbidden.Imam (prayer leader)
Imam (prayer leader).Imamat al-salat (leading the prayer, the lesser imamate)
Imamat al-salat is the attaching of one person's prayer to another's on conditions set by the Law; it is the lesser imamate, as opposed to the great imamate of the caliphate. Leading prayer is among the best deeds, and conditions include Islam, sanity, maleness and freedom from excuses; the jurists differ on puberty and on intention. The priority goes to the best reciter, the most learned, the most pious and the eldest, and a ruler present takes precedence.Building the earth and work as worship
Sha'rawi holds that Islam is not only rites. Every activity in life that serves the human vice-regency on earth and its building is part of it, and prayer, zakat, fasting and the pilgrimage are pillars on which this work rests. He answers those who confine religion to ritual worship.Inhina' (bending, in fiqh: prayer, honour and compulsion)
Inhina' is bending from straightness, and includes bowing in prayer, prostration and gesturing. Bending in honour of anyone but God is forbidden by agreement, and obligatory bending is the bow in prayer.Inner thoughts and whether they are accounted for
On al-Baqara 284, Sha'rawi takes up the verse that God will account for what is in people's selves. He lists five stages of inner movement: the fleeting thought, the passing idea, the self's talk, the resolve to seek means, and the firm intention. He holds that the account falls on intention and resolve, and that the verse about God not burdening a soul beyond its capacity is news, not an abrogation. He reports that Ibn Umar wept on hearing the verse.Insat (silent attentive listening, and its rulings in worship)
Insat is lexically and in usage silence for listening; some define it as silence alone. It differs from istima', which is the intent to hear in order to grasp what is heard; insat is silence with the intent to listen. Sama' does not require intent to the thing heard, whereas insat does. The majority hold silent attention obligatory on those present at the Friday sermon, and the Hanafis and Shafi'is hold the same for the Eid sermons, while the Malikis hold it recommended. Listening to the recitation of the Qur'an, both within prayer when the imam recites aloud and outside it, is sought by the law.Insihab (the extension of an act or intention over successive moments)
Insihab is lexically the reflexive of sahb, to drag; in usul and fiqh it is the conventional extension of an act over successive moments. Thus an intention formed at the start of the first pillar of ablution is taken to carry over all its pillars, though the mind wanders afterwards. It applies to a duty with a flexible time, where resolve at the beginning suffices until the time narrows. In a worship of several acts one intention at the outset is enough, with the Hanafi treatment of the pilgrimage as a noted exception.Inzal (emission of seminal fluid and its legal effects)
Inzal in the lexical sense is coming down from height; in fiqh it is the emission of a man's or a woman's fluid, by intercourse, by dream or otherwise. Its ruling depends on the setting: lawful within marriage or lawful possession, unlawful outside them, and unlawful during the day of Ramadan, for one in ihram, and in obligatory i'tikaf. It requires washing when it comes with gushing and desire, and the jurists differ on what establishes it in a woman.Iqa' (sitting on the heels or buttocks in prayer)
In Arabic usage iqa' is sitting with the buttocks on the ground and the shins raised; the jurists give two explanations. Most jurists dislike it in prayer; the Shafi'is hold the form between two prostrations to be a sunna; it is not disliked when eating.Iqama (the call to stand for prayer)
In the law, iqama is the call that tells those present and ready for prayer to stand, in set words. The word also means staying in one place, the opposite of travel. Its words follow the adhan with qad qamati al-salat added; the Hanafis repeat most phrases while the other three schools say most once. Most jurists hold it a confirmed sunna, and the Hanbalis hold it a communal obligation. It is said quickly and not before the prayer time. It is called for the five daily prayers, Friday, missed prayers and the solo worshipper, but not for other prayers.Iqtida' (following an imam in prayer)
In the language, iqtida' means to act as someone acts, taking him as a model. In the jurists' usage in prayer it is the follower's following of the imam in the actions of the prayer, or the binding of the follower's prayer to the imam's under conditions the Law set out. The related term al-i'timam (ائتمام) has the same sense in prayer and is wider than iqtida' in their usage, since it applies to prayer and to other things. Outside prayer, iqtida' has the sense of imitation, as the community follows the Prophet in his words and deeds. The majority require conditions of the imam: Islam, reason, and puberty, and freedom from visible excuses when healthy people follow him; a stronger person may not follow a weaker one. The follower must intend to follow, must not stand ahead of the imam in place (the majority), must share the same prayer (the majority, against the Shafi'is), must not be separated by a large barrier, must know the imam's movements, and the imam's prayer must be valid in the follower's view. Rulings differ on following someone in a different state: a person who performed ablution behind one who performed dry ablution, a washer behind one who wiped, a fard prayer behind a supererogatory one, an adult behind a child, a resident behind a traveller, a clothed person behind a naked one, a capable person behind one unable to perform a pillar, a person behind a sinner, and a follower of one school behind an imam of another; the details are given where each case arises in the article. The follower is classed as one who catches the whole prayer with the imam (mudrik), one who misses some of it (masbuq), or one who falls behind the imam's movements (lahiq). Following the imam in actions is required, and joining him in the opening takbir in the majority view invalidates the follower's prayer.Iraqa (shedding: the blood of sacrificial animals, lawful and unlawful bloodshed, and of impurities)
In law, iraqa is pouring out. Its best-known use is shedding the blood of animals as an act of worship in the offering, the sacrifice and the aqiqa, which nothing else can replace. Bloodshed is permitted to repel an aggressor, for retaliation and the prescribed penalties, and in fighting; it is forbidden without right. Impurities are to be destroyed, and pouring out semen outside the vagina is called coitus interruptus.The bandage or turban and wiping over it (isaba)
In the lexicon, isaba comes from 'asb, a tight binding; the word is used for a turban and for what binds a wound. The Hanbalis and Malikis allow wiping over the turban in ablution, on the report of al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba, with the Malikis limiting it where removal would harm or be hard; the Hanafis do not allow wiping over it and instead lift it and wipe the head. Prostration on the fold of the turban is disliked by the Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis unless there is an excuse. In cases of need, the jurists permit wiping over a dressing, plaster or splint in place of washing or dry ablution.Islam (the religion and the term)
The name of the religion the Prophet Muhammad taught; in Gabriel's hadith its meaning is to worship God without associating anything with Him, to establish prayer, pay the obligatory alms and fast Ramadan; it is also described as a structure built on five pillars.Seeking forgiveness (istighfar)
Sha'rawi holds that God legislated repentance and forgiveness because He knows that souls betray their owners. The believers' prayer 'forgive us' removes fear and draws the believer to duty with love. Repentance is a mercy that God opens for the one who has erred, and remorse for a sin is itself a good deed.Jahr (audible recitation and speech in worship)
Jahr (audible) and sirr (silent) in worship concern how loudly words are spoken, and the schools differ on the limits of each. The Kuwaiti encyclopedia sets out the places where voice is used in prayer: the imam's recitation in audible prayers, the imam's saying of the response to praise aloud, silent seeking of refuge, loud or quiet supplication and salutation, the making up of missed audible prayers, the basmala, the sermon, and the glorification of God on the road to the prayer ground at festivals.Janaba (major ritual impurity)
Janaba in fiqh is the major ritual impurity that requires a full bath (ghusl). Its literal sense is distance. It arises by two causes: the head of the penis entering the private part, and the discharge of semen with desire. The Kuwaiti encyclopedia records how the schools differ on the details, such as whether a child becomes janub, whether discharge without desire counts, whether tayammum lifts it, what a janub may not do (prayer, circumambulation, touching the Qur'an) and what he may do (remembrance, sleep after ablution), and its effect on fasting and pilgrimage.Jihaz (equipment of the fighter, the traveller or the bride)
Jihaz in the language is what a fighter or traveller needs, and what a bride takes to her husband. In fiqh, equipping the registered fighters is an obligation on the Muslims through the public treasury. The bride owns her own trousseau, and jurists generally hold that she is not obliged to furnish it from her dower.The Kaaba and prayer toward it (kaʿba)
The Kaaba in the lexicon is the square house; in the law it is the Sacred House, and the qibla is the direction toward which one prays. Facing the Kaaba is a condition of valid prayer. One who sees it must face its very mass; a person who cannot see it may rely on his judgement, as some jurists allow. The Hanafis and Shafi'is allow prayer inside it; the Malikis and Hanbalis forbid the obligatory prayer there and allow voluntary prayer. The Hanafis and Shafi'is allow the obligatory prayer on its roof, and the Hanbalis have a narration to that effect, while the Malikis and the better-known Hanbali view do not. Prayer on the adjoining roofs and on high ground nearby is valid by agreement.Ankle (ka'b)
In jurisprudence ka'b is the protruding bone where the shin meets the foot; the Hanafis also apply the word to the bone on top of the foot at the strap line. Washing the feet up to the ankles is required in ablution. A pilgrim in the sacred state who cannot find sandals may wear leather socks, cut below the ankles, according to most jurists. Most jurists cut a thief's hand at the joint of the ankle, while some early scholars cut from the middle of the foot.Palm of the hand (kaff)
Kaff is the palm of the hand with its fingers. Rules on it include washing the hands at the start of ablution, on rising from sleep and before and after eating; wiping the palms in tayammum; and washing the hands up to the elbows as a pillar of ablution. In retaliation the hand is cut at the wrist joint; the blood-money for a hand is half the blood-money of the whole limb, on the reports of Mu'adh and Amr ibn Hazm; a thief's hand is cut at the wrist, as is a highwayman's.Expiation (kaffara)
Kaffara means covering, from the root of concealing. In law it is an expiation owed for certain sins and violations; it has both a penal and a devotional character. One cause is breaking an oath: it is owed on breaking the oath, not on swearing it; the schools differ on the oath of deception and on the vain oath, on whether several oaths on one matter need several expiations, and on expiating before breaking the oath. Another cause is killing: all agree on the expiation for killing by mistake and near-intentional killing; the schools differ on intentional killing, on killing by causation and on a foetus. The article then covers breaking the fast of Ramadan and the rules on intercourse in it, the prohibitions of the hajj and ihram, the expiation for zihar, and the conditions and kinds of expiation.Soothsaying (kahana), fiqh rulings
Kahana, in lexicon, is judging the unseen for someone; the kahin reports future events and claims to know secrets and to look into the unseen. The Arabs also used the word for one who manages a man's affairs and for any practitioner of a fine science, so that an astrologer or a physician could be called a kahin.Herbage and pasture (kala')
Kala' means herbage, dry or green; in law it is grass that grows without human work. The jurists agree that grass growing on open land such as valleys, mountains and unowned ground is shared, and no one may forbid another to take it or to graze his animals there, on the hadith that Muslims share three things: water, fire and herbage. Grass on owned land belongs to its owner, who may bar entry, though no one may be stopped from taking grass he cannot find elsewhere; the Malikis allow grazing on unplanted ground and do not allow grass in unplanted land to be stopped unless a field nearby is at risk. The imam may reserve unowned land for the herds of the poor-tax and the sadaqa and for the weak, according to the Hanafis, Malikis, Hanbalis and the sounder Shafi'i view, and most jurists allow grazing in the sanctuary of Mecca.Speech in fiqh (kalam)
Kalam is, in its lexical sense, a series of sounds that carry a meaning; for grammarians it is what is built of a predicate and its subject, and the legal sense does not depart from the lexical one.Dog (kalb), fiqh rulings
The dog (kalb) is, in lexical sense, any fanged predator, and in law the animal that barks; sabʿ, predator, is wider than it, since every dog is a predator but not every predator is a dog.Leek (karrath)
Karrath is a known plant of foul smell, distinct from garlic, onion and radish. The jurists agree that eating a strong-smelling plant such as onion, garlic, leek or radish is an excuse to stay away from congregational prayer when the smell cannot be removed, on the hadith of Jabir. Eating it without intending to go to the mosque is disliked. Most jurists allow the husband to stop his wife eating such things. On salam in leeks the Malikis and Shafi'is allow it and the Hanafis refuse it. The jurists in general accept the sale of leek once it has ripened, on the hadith forbidding the sale of fruit before its ripeness.Uncovering (kashf)
Kashf in the lexicon is lifting a veil; in law it concerns uncovering the private parts ('awra). Covering the 'awra is a condition of valid prayer. An adult of sound mind may not uncover his 'awra before others; the stricter 'awra is more grave to uncover. Exceptions are between spouses and what need or necessity requires, such as treatment, circumcision and testimony, kept within the need. The jurists differ on uncovering in privacy: most forbid it without need, while some allow it for a small purpose. A man in the sacred state must uncover his head and a woman her face, according to some jurists.Khitan (circumcision)
Khitan (circumcision) lexically is the cutting of the foreskin of a male, or of the female's nub; it is also called khafd and i'dhar, and the word names the place of the cut. The jurists differ in several views on whether circumcision is obligatory or recommended. On the ruling there are three views: the Hanafis, Malikis and a Hanbali report hold circumcision a sunna for men and not obligatory, honoured for women; the Shafiis, Hanbalis and Sahnun make it obligatory for both; Ibn Qudama holds it obligatory for men and an honour for women. For a male, the foreskin is cut until the glans is bare; for a female, only what the name covers, without excess, as the hadith of Umm Atiyya teaches. Circumcision is best in childhood; the Shafiis prefer the seventh day, others between seven and ten years of age. On the dead the schools differ: some do not circumcise him, others do, and one view has three cases. A child born circumcised needs no operation, and any remaining foreskin must be removed. The circumciser is liable for death or excess cutting: the Hanafis owe half the blood-money if death follows and the full sum if the child lives, the Malikis exempt a skilled and careful one who makes no mistake, and the Shafiis and Hanbalis draw distinctions about excess, guardianship and skill. A feast is recommended for circumcision (called i'dhar), and the custom is to show a male's circumcision and to hide a female's.Khubth (impurity; its removal)
Khabath (impurity) lexically is whatever is disliked for baseness, sensible or not; technically it is the very substance of impurity. It is distinguished from rijs (filth) and dans (dirt). The jurists agree that removing impurity is commanded and differ on whether it is obligatory; the Hanafis, Shafiis and Hanbalis make its removal a condition of valid prayer except what is excused, while the Malikis have two views, sunna or obligation when one remembers and is able. Four substances are agreed to be impurity: carrion of a land animal with blood, pig flesh, flowing blood, and a man's urine and dung.Sufficiency (kifaya)
Kifaya in the lexicon is what brings independence from others. In fiqh it has three senses: the important acts the lawgiver wants done without regard to who does them, which are the collective obligations (fard al-kifaya); a person's fitness for public duties; and meeting one's essential needs of food, clothing and housing to the level of one's condition. Collective obligations include bearing and giving testimony, taking in an abandoned child, washing, shrouding, praying over and burying the dead, and appointing an imam. Sufficiency is owed first by the person himself, then by his kin, then from the zakat, the public treasury and taxes levied by the ruler.The Kursi (seat of God)
Sha'rawi glosses the kursi as sovereignty, power and dominion, drawing on usage in which sitting on a seat shows a matter is settled. He reports the hadith of Abu Dhar on the kursi and the throne, and reads the verse as showing the kursi's vastness in that it encompasses the heavens and earth.Wrist (kuʿ), fiqh rulings
Kuʿ, in lexicon, is the end of the forearm bone beside the thumb, plural akwaʿ; the end beside the little finger is called karsuʿ.The no-harm maxim
The maxim 'no harm and no reciprocating harm' is among the great foundations of jurisprudence, taken from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri's hadith — the thirty-second of the Forty — which al-Darawardi's route in al-Daraqutni, al-Hakim and al-Bayhaqi extends as 'whoever harms, God harms him, and whoever makes things difficult, God makes things difficult for him'; Malik transmitted it mursal in the Muwatta' with no divergence reported by Ibn Abd al-Barr, who found no sound full chain for it, Khalid ibn Sa'd al-Andalusi declaring it never established with one, while al-Hakim graded its reported chain sahih on Muslim's condition and al-Nawawi notes it has routes that strengthen one another; its meaning negates harm both initiatory and retaliatory — one may not harm oneself or another, nor answer harm with harm save through lawful retribution — and the maxim serves to lift hardship from legal impositions and to ward off corruption (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 667–668).Milk (laban), fiqh rulings
Laban, in lexicon, is a white liquid in female humans and animals, a collective noun in plural alban; lubaʾ is the first of it after birth; the sap of a tree is also called laban.Labba (the place of slaughter on the chest)
Labba, in lexicon, is the middle of the chest and the place where a necklace sits; the plural is labbat or libab. In law it is the place of slaughter on the chest, the hollow between the base of the neck and the chest.Utterance (lafz), fiqh rulings
Lafz, in lexicon, is to throw out something in one's mouth, and to utter a word is to speak it; in law it is what a person, or one in his place, utters, whether meaningless or meaningful. A sign conveys what an utterance conveys and sometimes stands for it, and silence is the opposite of speech when one is able to speak.Noise (lagh), fiqh rulings
Lagh, in lexicon, is confused and mixed noise, a din that cannot be understood; lagw is speech without meaning or effect. The difference is that lagh has a meaning intended, while lagw may not.Idle speech (laghw), fiqh rulings
Laghw, in lexicon, has many senses: a fall, what counts for nothing in speech or otherwise, what the heart does not bind itself to, as in saying no by God or yes by God; Aisha said idle speech is only in dispute, jest and banter in a talk the heart does not bind to; it also means sin, uproar, and utterance. In law it is speech that carries no weight for the ruling; idle is more general than void.Late joiner to prayer (lahiq), fiqh rulings
For the Hanafis, a lahiq is one who missed all or some of the rak'at after joining the prayer with an excuse, such as heedlessness, crowding or a breach, or without excuse, as when he got ahead of the imam in bowing or prostration; others define him as one who caught the beginning of the prayer and missed its end through sleep or a breach.Lahn (error or melody in recitation), fiqh rulings
Lahn, in lexicon, has several senses: a speech that one listener understands and another does not; an error in grammatical case, or a departure from what is right; shrewdness, as in the saying that one of you may be more eloquent in his argument; and sung or melodious sounds, plural alhan and luhun. Among grammarians it is an error in a word's inflection or in the form of a single word; among readers, a flaw in the sound that disturbs the meaning.Lahw (diversion and amusement), fiqh rulings
Lahw, in lexicon, is any falsehood that distracts from good and from what matters; al-Tartushi defines it as relaxing the soul with what wisdom does not call for, and al-Qurtubi notes that it is sometimes used as a euphemism for intercourse, since it diverts the heart. In fiqh the lexical sense largely holds: whatever a person enjoys and is diverted by, and which then passes. The basic ruling is that any diversion that brings no religious benefit in this world or the next is vain, except archery, training a horse and playing with one's wife, which are right because they serve useful ends.Play (la'ib), fiqh rulings
Playing, la'b, in lexicon is the opposite of seriousness: doing something without a right purpose; some define it as an act for pleasure that does not consider wisdom. Its link to lahw is that all lahw is play, but play is not always lahw, since play can be for discipline, such as chess.Lamam (minor sins and near-sins)
Lamam, in lexicon, is gathering, minor sins, and coming near a sin without doing it; in technical use it is what falls short of intercourse, such as a kiss, a glance, a look or lying together. Ibn Abbas and al-Sha'bi held it is everything short of fornication, and al-Qurtubi that it is the minor sins no one is free from except those God protects.Blaming and mocking (lamz), rulings
Lamz, in lexicon, is blame in secret, its root being a sign with the eye, head and lip together with a low speech; some say it is blame to the face and attacking people. Hamz is pressing and backbiting, ghamz is a sign with the eye or brow, and ghiba is mentioning a person with what he dislikes even if true. Lamz is wider than hamz and ghamz, and ghiba is wider than it, since lamz is one of its kinds.Cursing (la'n), fiqh rulings
La'n, in lexicon, is expulsion and removal from good, or from God, and from people it is abuse and invocation; the Arabs used to greet their kings with abaytu l-la'n, you have refused what would bring you a curse. Sabb is abuse by direct speech of what is disliked, and al-Izz ibn Abd al-Salam held that cursing is stronger in ugliness than general abuse.Laqab (byname), rulings
Laqab, in lexicon, is a name given to a person after his first name, a word praising or blaming him for something in him; it has two kinds, one of honour, like the titles of rulers, and one of mockery. The ism is what a thing is known by; the kunya begins with ab or umm and is usually for honour, whereas a laqab may praise or blame.Piecing the clean days (laqt, talfiq), fiqh rulings
Laqt, in lexicon, is taking a thing up from the ground and gathering it; any scattering of ears of grain or dates is laqt. In law it is taking the clean days between two bloods and judging them pure, or taking the days of blood and judging them menses; this view is called talfiq, piecing. Sahb is giving the interval the rule of menses, the opposite.Colour (lawn): water, cleansing, injury and usurped goods
Lawn, colour, in lexicon is an appearance such as blackness or redness; in fiqh it is a quality of a thing that must be stated in a sale on description, such as whiteness, redness or blackness. Several rulings depend on colour: water changed by an impurity becomes impure, while water changed by a pure substance is treated differently when the change can or cannot be avoided; the colour of an impurity on cloth must be removed if possible; a change of colour in an injury to a tooth, nail or face carries compensation; and dyeing another's goods or disobeying a colour instruction affects liability.Lawth (apparent sign of a killing, a condition of qasama)
Lawth, in lexicon, means strength and evil, or weakness; in technical use it is a matter that produces a strong presumption that the claimant is truthful, a semblance of proof on a killing that falls short of full evidence. The jurists make it a condition of qasama. Its basis is the case of Abdullah ibn Sahl at Khaybar, where his people accused the Jews, neither side swore, and the Prophet paid the blood-money from his own side. Each school has its own forms of lawth: the Shafi'is list five, the Malikis five examples, the Hanbalis open enmity and other signs, and the Hanafis the finding of a corpse in a quarter with signs of killing. Lawth falls away when the accused denies it, when some heirs contradict others, or when proof of absence on the day is given.Beard (lihya), fiqh rulings
Lihya, in lexicon, is the hair that grows on the cheeks and chin; the jurists take it as the hair on the cheeks, the sides, the lower face and the chin. The ʿidhar is the side that faces the ear, the ʿarid is the hair below the ear that meets the chin, the dhaqan is the joint of the jaw, the ʿanfaqa is what lies between the lower lip and the chin, and the sibal are the ends of the moustache.Shafa (the lip: washing it in purification, the blood money for the lips, and the drinking of water)
The shafa is the lining of the mouth. Several rulings attach to it. Washing the outer part of the lips is required in purification, while what is hidden when they close is part of the mouth and is recommended, though the Hanbalis and, for the full bath, the Hanafis require it. Deliberate injury to the lips carries retaliation; by mistake it carries full blood money for both lips, half for each, and in one Hanbali report a third for the upper lip and two thirds for the lower. In the sense of drinking, rules for water as shared use depend on its kind.The tongue (lisan), fiqh rulings
Lisan, in lexicon, is the fleshy, elongated, movable organ in the mouth, fit for tasting, swallowing and speaking; its plurals are alsina, lusin. A man's lisan is eloquent, and lisan can mean language in one of its senses. Lugha is what each people uses to express its aims, and the two overlap.Sodomy (liwat), fiqh rulings
Liwat, in lexicon, is the verbal noun of the root for acting as the people of Lot did; in technical use it is the insertion of a male's member into the anus of a male or a female. The jurists agree it is forbidden and one of the gravest abominations; the Qur'an condemns the people of Lot in surat al-A'raf and surat al-Shu'ara, and a hadith curses one who does their deed. The schools differ on its penalty: most apply the penalty of unlawful intercourse, Abu Hanifa applies discretionary punishment, and the Malikis stone both parties.Language (lughah), fiqh rulings
Lugha, in lexicon, is the tongue: sounds by which each people expresses its aims, a form from lagha, to speak. It overlaps with kalam in some senses; bayan is narrower, meaning manifestation and uncovering.Speech defect (lukna), fiqh rulings
Lukna, in lexicon, is hesitation and heaviness of the tongue; the man is alkan and the woman lakna, one who cannot speak clear Arabic. The jurists take the sense from their definition of the alkan, one who cannot produce some letters from their places, either not uttering them, changing them, adding to them or repeating them; the Malikis use the word most.Excused impurities (ma'fuwwat)
Ma'fuwwat is the plural of ma'fuwwa, the things whose impurity is excused, so that prayer is not invalidated by them and they need not be washed away. The principle is that a command whose performance is hard for people drops, and a prohibition whose avoidance is hard drops too. Hardship falls into three grades: the highest, where excuse is agreed; the lowest, where none is allowed; and an intermediate grade on which jurists differ. The Hanafis divide impurities into heavy and light: a heavy impurity is excused up to the size of a dirham, and a light one up to less than a quarter of the garment. The Malikis have four categories, the Shafi'is several, judged by quantity and by whether the impurity touches water or cloth. The Hanbalis begin from no excuse and make exceptions, among them small amounts of blood, pus and matter, and traces left after istijmar. Covering the awrah is a condition of prayer, and on zakat the jurists differ over the excused margin of grazing livestock, which is treated under awqas; Abu Hanifa holds that the surplus of money over the nisab is excused up to a fifth of a nisab, and that each further fifth is excused in the same way.Liquid (mai'): purification by liquids, their contamination and cleansing
Mai', in lexicon, is a liquid or a melting thing, and its technical sense does not depart from this. Among its rulings: purification by liquids. Most jurists hold that only absolute water lifts the minor ritual impurity and removes physical impurity; others allow any pure liquid that cleans. On contamination, the Malikis, Shafi'is and, in the stronger narration, the Hanbalis hold that any liquid other than absolute water becomes impure on touching an impurity; the Hanafis and one narration of Ahmad hold that a liquid is impure only by what makes water impure; Ibn Abidin says the stronger view is that all liquids are like water. Most jurists hold that a contaminated liquid cannot be cleansed, unlike oils and ghee which some say can be washed; mercury is excepted by some Shafi'is and Hanbalis. The Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis forbid using the fat of a carrion for anything, including lamps; the Shafi'is allow lighting with contaminated oil outside the mosque, with reluctance.Mabarik al-ibil (camels' resting places): prayer near them
Mabarik is the plural of mabrak, the place where camels kneel; some jurists treat mabarik and ma'atin (watering and resting places) alike. Marabid are the pens where sheep rest and marad (camel pens) are wider than mabarik. Most jurists dislike prayer in the resting places of camels, even when they are clean; Ahmad has two narrations, one that prayer there is invalid, and one like the majority, valid unless the place is impure. The Hanafis and Shafi'is give the reason as the camels' skittishness, which may break the prayer or distract from humility in it; the Malikis say the rule is devotional and not based on a reason; one Hanbali view is that it is because such places may be impure.Mabtun (one who dies of a stomach ailment): the rules and the martyr
Mabtun, in lexicon, is one ill in the belly; in technical use one who has a stomach disease, or dropsy, or who dies of a stomach ailment in general, or who has diarrhoea or colic. The mabtun is sick and excused, so the rules for the sick and the excused apply to him. The jurists count one who dies of his belly ailment as a martyr, on the hadith of Abu Hurayra listing five kinds of martyr: the one who dies of plague, the mabtun, the drowned, the one killed by a collapse, and the one who dies in God's way; they agree he is a martyr of the next world, and that he is washed for burial though counted a martyr.Joint (mafsil)
A joint (mafsil) is, in lexical sense, the meeting of two bones in the body; in the technical sense it is the place where one organ joins another by ligaments connecting two bones. Its rulings appear in ablution and washing, where it is recommended to wash the hands up to the wrist three times before dipping them into the vessel. In retaliation, a wound short of death is subject to retaliation only if the cut is made at a joint. For blood-money, each finger phalanx carries a thirteenth of the full diya, and the thumb two phalanges of a twentieth each. Most jurists hold that a thief's hand is cut at the wrist joint and his foot at the ankle joint.Place (makan) in the law
Makan is, in the lexicon, a place, the plural being amakina. Several rulings attach to place: whether prayer is valid in places disliked for prayer, such as a slaughterhouse, a cemetery, a bathhouse and a camel pen, where the schools differ between reprehension and invalidity; the placing of the hands in prayer; burial in a cemetery as best; the place where a sold item must be delivered; the limit on a borrowed mount to a stated place; and the merit of places, where most jurists hold Makka and Madina the best, with a dispute over which is greater.Mal (property) in fiqh: definitions, kinds, usufruct and debt as property
Mal, in lexicon, is anything a person owns. The Hanafis define it as what human nature inclines to and can be kept for need; the Malikis, as what can be owned and the owner may exclusively control; the Hanbalis, as what it is lawful to benefit from in every case, or lawful to keep without need. The jurists differ on whether usufructs are property: the Hanafis hold they are not in themselves property, except when they are the object of a contract of exchange such as hire; most Shafi'is, Malikis and Hanbalis hold they are property in themselves. On debt as property, the Hanafis treat it as property in a figurative sense; one Shafi'i view says it is property in fact, another that it is a right to claim which becomes property in the end. The jurists divide property in many ways: valued and unvalued (Hanafi), fungible and non-fungible, goods subject to another's right, movables and immovables, cash and goods, property lost or hoped for, growing and held, and apparent and hidden property for zakat. Its rulings include the prohibition on taking or consuming another's property, the rule that a minor's property is not handed over until he is proved of sound judgement, the duty to earn enough for oneself and dependants, and the duty to rid oneself of mixed unlawful property. The six kinds of ribawi goods are fixed by a hadith; other goods are not ribawi.Mamumah (a head wound reaching the membrane of the brain)
Mamumah, in lexicon, is a wound on the head that reaches the membrane which covers the brain; it is also called amma, and its plural is awam or mamumat. Shajja, the general term for head and face wounds, is wider, since the mamumah is one kind of the shajaj of the face and head. The jurists hold that the mamumah carries a third of the blood-money, on the report of Amr ibn Hazm that the Prophet said a third of the blood-money is due for the mamumah, a report several scholars have called sound. Details are under blood-money and head-wounds.Reminder and harm after giving (mann and adha)
Sha'rawi holds that reminding and harming after giving nullify charity and spoil its effect on the poor, that reminding may continue long after the gift, and that a kind word and forgiveness are better than charity followed by harm.The Station of Abraham: rulings on the two rak'as
The station is, in the lexicon, a place where one stands. Jurists and exegetes differ on which it is: the stone known today beside the Ka'ba where the circling pilgrims pray, or the stone on which Abraham rose while building the House. On rulings, the pilgrim who has completed the circumambulation prays two rak'as, ideally behind the Station. The schools differ on whether these are obligatory or a sunna, and on where they may be prayed.Objectives of the Shari'a (maqasid al-shari'a)
The objectives of the Shari'a are the purposes and wisdoms that the Lawgiver intends across all or most of the rulings, not confined to one kind of ruling. Al-Shatibi divides them into three: necessities (daruriyyat), needs (hajiyyat) and refinements (tahsiniyyat). Their detail is in the usul appendix.Marin (the soft tip of the nose): washing, blood-money and retaliation
Marin, in lexicon, is the tip of the nose or its soft part; the jurists use the same sense. The nose in general is wider; the wutra (the septum between the nostrils) is part of the nose. The jurists agree that the outer surface of the marin must be washed in ablution; they differ on the inside: the Hanafis hold reaching the water inside is sunna in ablution and obligatory in full ritual washing, the Malikis hold it sunna in both, the Shafi'is hold it obligatory only if the inside is soiled, and the Hanbalis require snuffing water in. For cutting off the marin by error, the full blood-money is due on the report of Amr ibn Hazm, and an intentional injury carries retaliation in the view of the four schools. The Malikis count the splitting of the marin's tip among the signs of puberty; the Shafi'is do not.Shahid (martyr: the rank of martyrs, the kinds of martyr, washing and prayer over the dead, the shroud and burial)
In the jurists' usage a martyr is a Muslim who dies in fighting the unbelievers or because of it, and some other people are counted with him in matters of the hereafter. His rank with God is high, as the Qur'an and the sunna show. The jurists divide martyrs into the martyr of this world and the next, who dies advancing in battle so that God's word is highest, and the martyr of the next world only, who dies of a bowel disease, plague, drowning or the like. The jurists differ on washing and praying over the martyr of the battlefield: the Shafi'is and Malikis forbid both, the Hanafis require washing, the Hanbalis forbid washing; he is buried in his clothes after the weapons are removed. Two or three may be buried in one grave.Mosque (masjid)
The Sheikh relates a hadith to the effect that when God wills punishment for the people of the earth, He looks to those who build and frequent the mosques and lifts the punishment from them (needs_source). He contrasts the condition of the believer in the mosque with that of the hypocrite in it.What the Law was silent about
The maskut 'anhu is whatever the Law's texts neither forbid nor oblige; Abu Tha'laba al-Khushani's hadith divides the charge four ways: obligations ordained and not to be neglected, bounds set and not to be transgressed, things forbidden and not to be violated, and things passed over in silence 'as a mercy to you, not out of forgetfulness', not to be searched into — the silence being mercy and pardon, evidence neither of prohibition nor of obligation; Abu al-Darda''s route in al-Bazzar and al-Hakim runs 'what He was silent about is pardon, so accept God's pardon, for God was never one to forget anything', followed by 'your Lord was never forgetful' (Maryam 64), and Salman's halted version in al-Tirmidhi has 'what He was silent about is among what He pardoned' — pardon, not prohibition, being the default of what God left unspoken.Mata' (household goods): their ownership between spouses, the cargo jettison, and the mosque
Mata', in lexicon, is the name for anything that gives benefit, covering the pilgrimage enjoyment, the divorce gift, and whatever a person uses for his needs; in technical use it is any goods of this world that are of benefit. A husband must supply his wife with household goods, utensils for eating, drinking, cooking and sleeping, as part of the maintenance due to her. When spouses or their heirs dispute such goods, possession is a presumption, and the owner swears when there is no stronger proof; what suits men goes to the husband and what suits women to the wife; what suits both goes to the man in the Hanafi and Maliki view, is shared in the Hanbali view, and the Shafi'is have both swear. If a man's wives dispute goods in one house, the women's goods are shared equally among them. Clearing a sold property of another's goods is a condition of taking possession. Throwing cargo overboard when a ship is in danger of sinking is allowed, and required to save a free passenger; whoever throws another's goods without leave is liable. The Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold that no hadd for theft is applied to one who steals mosque furnishings made for public use, since the right of use is a doubt.Matam (a gathering of mourners): mourning rulings
Matam, in lexicon, is a gathering of men and women in sorrow or joy, later restricted to women gathering for a death; the jurists define it as people gathering at a death. Condolence (ta'ziya) is narrower: an urging to patience and consolation of the bereaved. The Shafi'is, Hanbalis and many later Hanafis dislike the matam, meaning the family sitting to receive mourners, since it renews grief and imposes costs. The Malikis and some Hanafis allow sitting for condolence; the Malikis dislike women gathering to weep in private and forbid it aloud, and the Hanafis allow men to sit for three days after a death, though this is less preferred, and forbid women to sit.Permitted person (mazun): permission to trade and its limits
Mazun, the past participle of adhina, means one to whom permission is given; the jurists drop the complement and say the permitted slave. In technical use it is a person whose restriction is lifted and who is permitted to trade and deal, by his master if a slave or by his guardian if a minor. Most jurists allow permission to such a person when a reason exists; the preferred Shafi'i view is that a minor may not be permitted to trade, his guardian making the contract instead. Permission is limited by time, place and kind of transaction; the Hanafis widen a narrow permission, the Malikis make it subject to the guardian's approval, and the Hanbalis hold the permission to what the guardian set. A permitted minor's dealings are of three kinds: pure benefit, pure harm, and in between. Accepting an unconditional gift is valid by most jurists; a harmful dealing is not valid even with permission; an exchange made before permission is suspended on the guardian's approval for the Hanafis and Malikis, and after permission the schools differ. The Hanafis and Malikis validate a permitted fool's sales; the Shafi'is, in the preferred view, do not. If the permitting person dies, a father's guardianship ends and the permission lapses, and a guardian's trusteeship ends with his death.Sa' (the measure of dry goods in law: its size, the bath, zakat al-fitr and the related measures)
The sa' is a known dry measure equal to four mudds. Most jurists say it is five and a third Iraqi pounds, citing the Prophet's words to Ka'b ibn 'Ujra: give a farq between six poor, the farq being three sa's. Abu Hanifa says eight pounds. A bath with a sa' suffices if it covers the whole body, and the Shafi'is and Hanbalis call it a sunna. Zakat al-fitr is a sa' of wheat, barley, dates or raisins according to the majority, half a sa' of wheat according to the Hanafis and certain Companions, and a full sa' of dates, barley or raisins for the Hanafis as regards raisins.Mi'sam (the wrist)
In the Kuwaiti encyclopedia's account the wrist (mi'sam) is the joint between the forearm and the palm, the place where a bracelet sits; the technical sense is the same as the lexical one. Its rulings concern washing in ablution, the cut in theft and banditry, retaliation for a severed hand, and the blood-money for a hand cut at the wrist. The page citations are given in the Arabic summary.Minor sins (saghair: the meaning, the distinction from grave sins, examples, and the view that all sins are grave)
Minor sins are, in the various definitions, those not ended by a curse, anger or fire; those lying between the earthly and the other-worldly limit; those with neither a penalty in this world nor a threat in the next; or those forbidden with a lesser prohibition. A grave sin is what is purely unlawful and carries a pure penalty by a decisive text; the better view is that it is what carries a legal penalty or is threatened with the Fire, a curse or anger. Lamam is near approach to sin. Most early scholars and jurists hold that sins divide into grave and minor, and that minor sins are forgiven when grave ones are avoided; others say all sins are grave, and only some are called minor in comparison. A minor sin becomes grave through persistence, treating it lightly, or delight in it.Measures (miqadir)
Miqadir are measures: the means by which a thing is known as counted, measured by volume, weight or length. Their four kinds are volume (kayl), weight (wazn), length (dhar') and number ('adad). The basic units are the sa' and the mudd. Most jurists hold that the legal sa' is the sa' of Medina, four mudds, while Abu Hanifa holds it is the Iraqi sa'. The sa' fixes the zakat al-fitr, the expiation for deliberately breaking the Ramadan fast, the expiation for zihar, the ransom for ihram, the wife's maintenance and the water for ablution. Jurists also name the 'araq, the faraq, the qadah, the qirba, the qist, the qafiz and the qullah, each with its own quantity and rulings. The entry is complete from p.14857 to p.14887.Water for purification: its kinds and rulings (miyah)
The encyclopedia divides water by its quality into four kinds: pure water (mutlaq), used water (musta'mal), water warmed by the sun or by fire (musakhkhan, mushammas), and mixed water (mukhtalit). Pure water is, for the majority, both pure and purifying; the Hanafis read the word tahur as meaning clean. Its kinds include rain, sea, river, spring, snow, hail, well, zamzam and stagnant water, with differences over disliking and validity. Used water is defined differently by the Hanafis, Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis. Sun-warmed water is disliked by some. Mixed water is ruled differently when mixed with clean or unclean matter. The two-qullah line decides whether still water is little or much, and the rules cover the purification of unclean water and the mixing of pure and impure vessels.Shahr (the month: the lunar month in law, the months of pilgrimage, the iddah in months, and the hire by the month)
When the word is used without qualification in law, the month means the lunar month, as the verse of the Repentance (36) says: the number of months with God is twelve, four of them sacred. The months of the pilgrimage are, for most jurists, Shawwal, Dhu al-Qa'da and the first ten days of Dhu al-Hijja; for the Malikis, all of Dhu al-Hijja. A woman who no longer menstruates observes her waiting period in months. Where a thing is hired month by month, the Hanafis and Malikis validate the contract, the Shafi'is void it beyond the first month, and the jurists differ on how a month that does not begin on the first day is counted.Mubalagha (thoroughness in acts of worship and in words)
Mubalagha, in lexicon, is striving and not falling short, or extravagance. The jurists agree that thoroughness in rinsing the mouth and nose is sunna for one who is not fasting; for the fasting person it is disliked, on the hadith of Laqit ibn Sabra: be thorough in snuffing water unless you are fasting. Most jurists recommend washing more than the obligatory parts in ablution, on the report of Abu Hurayra and the glowing faces and limbs of the community; the Hanbalis mean by thoroughness rubbing the places where water does not settle, the Malikis hold rubbing obligatory. Most recommend rubbing the heels, and extravagance in washing is disliked. The Malikis and Shafi'is recommend raising the voice in the call to prayer without strain; the Hanafis call it sunna and the Hanbalis make it a pillar, raised as far as one can. On praise, al-Nawawi says the prohibition applies to exaggeration and to someone whom praise may corrupt; praise is not forbidden for a person of settled faith and sense.Single combat (mubaraza): permission, challenge, spoils, pledges
Mubaraza, in lexicon, is a form of barraza, to come forward; in technical use it is two champions from the two lines coming out to fight. In principle the jurists allow it. The Companions fought single combats in the Prophet's time and after him, and at Badr Ali, Hamza and Ubayda came out against Utba, Shayba and al-Walid; Ibn Qudama says that no one objected, so it counts as consensus. The Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis require the imam's or commander's permission; the Shafi'is say it is recommended when the enemy has asked for it; some say it is forbidden when the death of the champion would bring defeat; the Hanbalis say a brave man may accept with permission. The spoils of a slain champion go to the Muslim who killed him, according to the Hanbalis, and under the Hanafis when he was sent with permission; trickery is allowed in war, and the terms agreed between champions must be kept. If a Muslim is wounded or flees, the schools differ on whether others may come to his aid.Mubashara (bodily contact): menses, fasting, retreat, pilgrimage and liability
Mubashara, in lexicon, is touching the skin of another, and also sexual intercourse. There is no dispute that intercourse with a menstruating woman in the vulva is forbidden; for contact between the navel and the knee the majority forbid it, while the Hanbalis allow all but intercourse. A fasting man may touch his wife short of the private parts if he is safe from transgressing and does not break his fast unless he ejaculates; it is forbidden if it stirs desire. Intercourse is forbidden to a man in retreat in the mosque, by the verse on retreat, and a pilgrim in ihram is forbidden all kinds of contact with women. Harming another by direct contact is among the strongest causes of liability, and where a cause and a direct act meet, the direct act is preferred.Muezzin
Muezzin.Thigh contact (mufakhadha)
Mufakhadha, in the lexical sense, means a man sitting between a woman's thighs or above them as one does in intercourse; the technical sense does not differ. A husband may touch his wife's thighs outside ihram and outside menstruation or postpartum bleeding, with or without a barrier; with a woman who is not his wife it is forbidden. For the pilgrimage, the Shafi'is forbid it under conditions, with a fidya owed when it occurs before the first release, though the rite is not voided. For fasting, mufakhadha breaks the fast if ejaculation follows and not otherwise; most jurists impose no expiation, while the Malikis do. On affinity, the Shafi'is hold two views on whether sexual thigh contact establishes it. For the Shafi'is there is no hadd penalty for it, only discretionary punishment.Leaving the congregation mid-prayer (mufaraqa)
Mufaraqa means separation. In prayer it is the follower's leaving his imam, or a worshipper's leaving the congregation. Without an excuse it is forbidden according to the Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis and the older Shafi'i view, and some hold that it voids the prayer. Most jurists allow it with an excuse, such as an imam who recites too long. It becomes obligatory when the imam faces the wrong direction for prayer, or when the imam does something that voids his prayer such as impurity, loss of ritual purity or drunkenness, or when he rises to a fifth rak'a. The Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow leaving at the second rak'a of the Friday prayer.Excess (mughalat) in dowry, shroud and worship
Mughalat means exaggeration: going beyond the proper measure in a thing. The jurists keep the technical sense close to the lexical one, and its opposite is cheapness. In dowry there is no fixed upper limit; the Malikis disliked a dowry that exceeds the usual amount for such a woman, and most jurists recommend a light dowry. For the shroud, exaggeration is disliked because of the hadith forbidding it; the term means more than the customary shroud, while good shroud is judged by whiteness and cleanliness rather than price. In worship the believer is to be moderate and avoid excess in religion; the lasting small act is preferred.Mu'min (believer)
The mu'min in Sunni usage is one who believes what the Prophet brought and acknowledges all he said and informed — 'we name the people of our qibla Muslims and believers, so long as they hold what the Prophet brought and acknowledge all he said'; Ibn Taymiyya's Kitab al-Iman is devoted to defining it and the theologians' dispute over it.Mu'na (cost and maintenance): zakat, hire, usurped goods, waqf and loan
Mu'na, in lexicon, is burden; in fiqh it is the cost a person bears, such as maintenance and similar expense. Jurists often use mu'na for nafaqa (support), and al-Sharqawi holds that mu'na is wider than nafaqa. Its rulings cover: the costs of crops and fruit in zakat, where the schools differ; hire, where the cost of returning the hired thing is distinguished from the cost of keeping it during the term, the latter falling on the lessor by consensus while the schools differ on making food or fodder a condition on the hirer; the cost of returning usurped goods, which falls on the usurper, and the case where goods are carried to another town; the cost of waqf property, paid from its yield or as the founder stipulated, and from the treasury (bayt al-mal) when it has no yield according to the Shafi'is; and the cost of a loaned object, whether it falls on the borrower or the lender, and of its return.Preliminaries to intercourse (muqaddimat al-jima')
Preliminaries to intercourse are the kissing, touching and close contact that come before it. The jurists rule on them where they bear consequences: in the pilgrimage, in fasting, in revocable divorce, in zihar and in affinity. A husband is recommended to caress his wife before intercourse so that her desire rises with his. In usul the word muqaddima also means the precondition of an obligation, on which the usul appendix has the detail.Implied meaning (muqtada)
Muqtada is, in the lexicon, implication. In usul it is an utterance that cannot stand unless something is supplied in it, and the supplied item is also called the muqtada. It is what is understood in the speech out of necessity to make the speaker truthful, as in the verse of Surat Yusuf that names the town to be asked. The majority of usul scholars deny it generality; al-Shafi'i and most Hanbalis grant it. The details are in the usul appendix.Mutaraka (release from a defective contract, and its effects)
Mutaraka, in lexicon, is leaving and parting; the jurists did not define it clearly, and most used fasKh (annulment) in its place, while the Hanafis use it for some defective contracts in its lexical sense. Its form is a word such as 'I left it', 'I annulled it', 'I cancelled it'; in a defective marriage it may be expressed by the word of divorce without reducing the number of divorces; an act may take the place of the word, such as a buyer returning a defective purchase to the seller by gift or charity, which releases him from liability. In a defective marriage after consummation the release must be by word; either spouse may end it, the separation is required, and the waiting period is due after intercourse. Once it is complete the contract is undone and the parties are restored as far as possible; if restoration is impossible the price is returned, and the child's descent, the dower and the waiting period stand, as rights that cannot be waived.Recommended acts (nadb)
Nadb, in the lexicon, is a call to an act, as in the lamentation for the dead by recounting their virtues. In the usage of the theorists and jurists, the mandub is an act whose omission brings no blame, and it is a synonym of mustahabb, tatawwu', and nafl. Most theorists hold that the mandub is included in the command. Lamenting the dead by listing their virtues is forbidden, on the report of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari about the one who cries: O mountain! O lord! and the two angels who reproach him.Nadh (sprinkling water)
Nadh, in the lexicon, is wetting or sprinkling with water, and it is also the water drawn for crops and the camel used to draw it. Among jurists it means flooding a thing with water in such quantity that it need not drip. Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis recommend that the one performing ablution sprinkle the private parts and the inside of the trousers with water after istinja, to ward off whisperings. For a boy's urine before he has eaten food, some jurists accept sprinkling, others require washing. Land watered by nadh pays half a tenth in zakat.The vow (nadhr) and its rulings
A vow (nadhr), in the lexicon, is a vow to God; in law, it is a binding commitment that a free, responsible person takes upon himself, by speech, to do something not required of him by the law. The jurists agree that it is valid in general and that a vow of obedience must be fulfilled, citing the Qur'an, the Sunna and consensus, but they differ on whether vowing is recommended or disliked. Most jurists hold that a vow can be made without using the word 'vow' when the words show a commitment. Its kinds include the vow of anger (where some allow a choice between fulfilling it and paying an oath-expiation, and others require fulfilment), the vow of obedience (which covers worship proper and other good acts), the vow of disobedience (which cannot be fulfilled), the vow of permissible acts (whose validity is disputed), the vow of obligations of individual obligation (not valid for most), the vow of impossibility (not valid), and the unspecified vow (oath-expiation for most). The entry also covers the vow of giving all property, the vows of prayer and fasting without number, i'tikaf and its times and places, walking to the Haram, sacrifices outside Mecca, inability to perform the vow, and the death of a person before performing a vowed hajj, fast, i'tikaf, prayer or charity.Nafkh (blowing)
Nafkh, in the lexicon, is sending out air; one blows into a horn to make it sound. Most jurists dislike blowing into food and drink; Abu Yusuf allows it unless it makes a sound, and al-Mardawi sees no dislike when eating needs it. Blowing on purpose during prayer invalidates it in general, and the schools differ on the details. From the moment the spirit is breathed into it, the foetus counts as a person for inheritance and for the ghurra compensation, and abortion is forbidden. The blast of the trumpet is a matter of belief.Nafl (voluntary worship in fiqh)
Nafl, in the lexicon, is an addition. The Hanafis define it as what is neither obligatory nor required; the Shafi'is as everything beyond the obligations, also called sunna, recommended or voluntary. The obligation is better than the voluntary act by agreement, though voluntary works may complete what is lacking in obligations, and the jurists list cases where a recommended act outranks an obligatory one. Whoever starts a voluntary pilgrimage or lesser pilgrimage must complete it. For voluntary prayer and fasting the Hanafis and Malikis require completion, while the Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow one to break them. Voluntary prayers are generally offered in twos, the Hanafis allowing fours; the length of standing and the number of prostrations are compared. One separates a voluntary prayer from the obligatory by speech, standing or moving. Voluntary almsgiving is recommended at all times, and voluntary fasting and voluntary pilgrimage are among the best works.Slaughter by throat-stabbing (nahr)
Nahr, in the lexicon, is to stab a camel in its throat-hollow, where the windpipe shows above the chest. Most jurists hold that a camel is to be slaughtered by nahr and other animals by dhabh, on the example of the Prophet who slaughtered camels by nahr and two rams by dhabh. If one slaughters what is to be nahr or nahrs what is to be slaughtered, most jurists hold the animal lawful, while the Malikis allow it only in necessity. The days of nahr are three by the majority (the day and the two after), and four by the Shafi'is, citing the hadith that all days of tashriq are days of slaughter. The best practice is to stand the camel with its left foreleg tied; the Malikis have the slaughterer face the qibla, stand by the right side, hold the upper lip and stab the throat-hollow saying the name of God.Impurity (najasa) and its rulings
Najasa in the lexicon is what makes a thing soiled with filth. The Shafi'is define it as a repugnant thing that prevents the prayer from being valid where no exception applies; the Malikis as a quality in judgement that makes the prayer unlawful. Purity is its opposite, and istinja is the means of removing it from the two passages. Najasa is either real (ayniyya, visible and removable) or legal (hukmiyya, removed by purification). The living human is pure in the view of the jurists. On the dead human the Hanafi majority hold that death makes the body impure through flowing blood, while the Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold it pure. The pig is impure for the Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis; the dog likewise for the Shafi'is; the Malikis hold the living pig pure. Carrion is impure except the fish and locust by agreement of many, and the Malikis hold sea carrion pure. Many fluids and parts (urine, dung, blood, pus, vomit, semen, saliva, phlegm, milk, rennet, eggs, wool, hair, bone, horn, skin) are treated with detailed differences. Najasa is graded as heavy, light or middling, and many items are forgiven in practice. Purification is obligatory for the body, clothes and place of prayer; the child who has not eaten is sprinkled over his urine, the girl's urine washed. Shafi'is do not allow the sale of najis things; Hanafis permit some uses, Malikis allow many uses short of food for humans, Hanbalis forbid much of it. Najasa must be kept from mosques, copies of the Qur'an, roads and sources of water.The names of God within the Verse of the Throne
Sha'rawi reports a disagreement over how many of God's names the Verse of the Throne contains: sixteen, or seventeen if the hidden pronoun in the verbal noun is counted, or twenty-one if the derived forms are counted. He holds that the verse gathers many of the Beautiful Names, and rules on none of the counts.Naqi (steeped drink)
Naqi, in the lexicon, is a drink of raisins, dates or other fruit steeped in water without boiling. The Malikis and Shafi'is forbid it once it has fermented; the Hanafis dislike it as forbidden; the Hanbalis forbid it once it has fermented and boiled, even if it does not intoxicate.Naqia (feast for a returning traveller)
Naqia, in the lexicon, is food prepared for a traveller who returns; the word also covers food at a betrothal and an animal slaughtered for hospitality. The Hanafis and Hanbalis hold it lawful; the Malikis and Shafi'is hold it recommended. Accepting the invitation is a sunna or recommended by most Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis; some early scholars and some Hanafis and Shafi'is held it obligatory; the Malikis dislike attending all feasts except the wedding feast.Plucking hair or feathers (nataf)
Natf, in the lexicon, is to pluck hair, wool or feathers. It differs from shaving with a blade (halq), from shaving the pubic area (istihdad), and from removing hair with thread (hafh), though each removes hair. A pilgrim in the state of ihram may not pluck hair from any part of the body before he leaves it, and must pay a ransom (fidya) if he does; the ban is drawn by analogy from the verse on shaving the head. Plucking the feathers of game in the sacred enclosure makes one liable for their value, and the rules cover the owing of the game, its death and the liability for the plucker's own act. Scholars differ on plucking a woman's facial hair, with some counting it as the forbidden removal of hair (namas), and others disagreeing. Plucking the hair of the armpit is among the practices of natural disposition (fitra), from the hadith of Abu Hurayra.Drawing out the last urine (natr)
Natr, in the lexicon, is to pull a thing hard. In law it is drawing out the last of the urine from the penis at the time of istinja. It comes before istinja and is narrower than istibra. Jurists differ on whether it is obligatory: al-Qadi Husayn, al-Baghawi and al-Nawawi among the Shafi'is hold it obligatory, al-Qadi Husayn limiting it to a case where one thinks something will come out after istinja; the majority hold it recommended. Its manner is pressing the penis for the Hanafis and drawing it gently for others, to be gentle lest the vigour be weakened. The majority of the Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold that it is done three times, citing the hadith: when one of you urinates, let him draw out his penis three times.Nawm (sleep: its rulings, its effect on ablution, worship and legal acts)
Nawm in the lexical sense is calm and stillness; technically it is the relaxing of the brain's nerves through vapours rising from the stomach. It differs from nu'as, the first stage of sleep, from sina, a drowsiness that does not take away reason, and from fainting. Sleep is permitted in itself; it may be obligatory when a duty depends on it, recommended when one dozes in prayer or recitation, forbidden when one sleeps past the prayer time, and disliked in certain cases such as sleeping after the afternoon prayer or among the awake. Before sleep one is recommended to put out lamps, close the water-skin and the door, and on waking to recite the prescribed formulas and wash the hands three times. Sleep breaks the ablution in general, the majority relying on the saying 'the eyes are the binding of the buttocks'. The speech of a sleeper is void in legal acts: his consecration, vow, oath, divorce and admission do not take effect, with the exception of standing at Arafat. In injury, the sleeper's act is treated as an error, with the diya on his kin and expiation on him, and in destruction of property he is liable like the waking.Nifas (postnatal bleeding)
Nifas, in the lexicon, is a woman's childbirth. As a term, the Hanafis and Shafi'is define it as the blood that comes after birth; the Malikis as the blood that comes because of the birth; the Hanbalis as blood the womb sheds with the birth and two or three days before it, with a sign such as pain, and afterwards up to forty days. It is sound blood, like menstruation, and differs from istihada, which is blood of disease. Blood after the child is separated is nifas by agreement, and blood before birth is disputed. Most jurists set its longest period at forty days; the Shafi'is and the prevailing Malikis at sixty; most hold that it has no minimum. A woman in nifas is forbidden what a menstruating woman is forbidden: prayer and fasting, with the fasts made up but not the prayers.Nisab (wealth threshold)
Nisab in fiqh is the wealth threshold that obliges zakat; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia treats the requirement of completing the nisab, the nisab of rikaz, and the time at which its existence counts.Niyya (intention in deeds)
The purpose and will behind an act; Ibn Rajab notes that intention has two senses in scholars' usage: distinguishing acts of worship from one another and from habits — the sense dominant in the jurists' books — and distinguishing the aim intended by the act, whether for God alone or for other than Him — the sense dominant among the early generations and companion to sincerity; al-Shafi'i is reported to have called the hadith 'actions are but by intentions' a third of knowledge entering seventy chapters of jurisprudence, and al-Bukhari opened his Sahih with it.Niyya (intention: its place in worship, contracts and oaths, its conditions and time)
Niyya in the lexical sense is intention. For the Hanafis it is the purpose of obeying and drawing near to God in enjoining the act; for the Malikis the heart's purpose in what one does; for the Shafi'is intending a thing together with doing it; for the Hanbalis the heart's resolve to perform an act of worship seeking God. It differs from azm, which precedes the act. Acts commanded in their form, such as prayer, purification, fasting and the rites, need intention, since their purpose is to honour God by doing them; those whose purpose is met by performance alone, such as repaying debts, do not. Most jurists hold intention a condition of worship; most Shafi'is a pillar of it. Acts that could be confused with another of their kind, such as the obligatory prayers and fasting, need specification; it is not required in the pilgrimage, the purifications and zakat. The schools differ on whether intention in ablution, the major ablution and tayammum must be of obligation or merely of purification; the majority hold intention a condition of ablution, the Hanafis a sunna, and removing filth needs none according to the majority. The schools differ on specifying obligation, performance or making up in prayer, fasting, zakat, the pilgrimage and expiations; the Shafi'is require specification where acts could be confused. Intention is real or constructive: the real one is a condition at the start of worship, the constructive one suffices for its continuance. Intention cannot be delegated; the schools differ on combining intentions and on splitting intention over the parts of ablution and worship. In fasting, zakat and the pilgrimage the schools differ on the time and the sufficiency of intention. In contracts, intention matters for allusive wording: a clear divorce takes effect without intention, an allusive one only with it; likewise return, zihar, waqf, marriage, emancipation and retaliation; in oaths the Hanafis follow the intention of the swearer if wronged and of the one who demands the oath if he is the wrongdoer. In jihad, slaughter, hunting and the finding of lost property, intention affects the ruling; hunting is owned by taking even without intention, but the finder who intends to appropriate becomes liable.Nu'as (drowsiness)
Nu'as, in the lexicon, is the start of sleep or light sleep; the senses weaken but do not drop as in sleep, so the drowsy person still hears what is said near him. Most jurists hold that drowsiness does not break ablution, and recommend renewing it. The Hanafis distinguish light drowsiness, which does not break it, from heavy drowsiness, which does. Someone who dozes in the mosque on Friday is recommended by Ibn Qudama and al-Shafi'i to move from his place.Phlegm (nukhama) and its purity
Nukhama, in the lexicon, is what comes out of the chest or the nose, phlegm and matter, when one clears the throat. It is wider than mucus and wider than qalas as to where it comes out. Most jurists hold it pure if it comes down from the head, or comes from the chest or the far end of the throat; they differ on what rises from the stomach, which the Shafi'is and Abu Yusuf hold impure. The Malikis, the Hanbalis and the adopted Hanafi view hold it pure, citing the report that the Prophet took phlegm with the edge of his garment in prayer. Swallowing it does not break the ablution. Most jurists forbid throwing phlegm into the mosque; it must be buried if there is no mat, and wiped from the wall. Its swallowing during fasting is disputed and is treated under fasting.Descent and dismounting (nuzul)
Nuzul, in the lexicon, is descent from a height to a lower place. In law there are several rulings. On what the preacher does after finishing his sermon on Friday: the Hanafis have the caller give the call to prayer after he descends; the Malikis have him ask forgiveness and then descend to pray; the Shafi'is have him begin to descend as the caller finishes the second call; and the Hanbalis have him descend when the caller says that the prayer has begun. The descent of a delegation of unbelievers into a mosque is allowed by the Hanbalis for need. Most jurists do not require a rider to dismount for the prostration of recitation, but gesture instead; the Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow the preacher to descend for it, the Hanafis make it obligatory, and the Malikis do not prostrate. Deliberate emission of semen by desire invalidates the fast according to most jurists.Overlap of causes and rulings (tadakhul)
Tadakhul is one thing entering another without any addition in size or measure. In the jurists' usage, several causes may be met by one ruling, or several rulings by one act. The schools differ on where it operates, causes or rulings: the Hanafis place it in causes for acts of worship and in rulings for penalties. It is discussed in purification, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, expiation, waiting periods, injuries and blood-money, fixed penalties, the jizya and the arithmetic of inheritance.Shalal (paralysis: its rulings for touch, prayer, injury, retaliation and marriage)
Shalal is the corruption of a limb and the loss of its movement; the loss of feeling entirely is not required. Several rulings attach to it. The Malikis and Hanbalis limit breach of ablution by touch to touch with desire. A paralysed person prays with whatever pillars he can perform: if he cannot stand he prays seated, and if he cannot bow or prostrate he signals with his head. A sound hand is not cut for a paralysed hand; the paralysed hand carries a fair assessment of damages, and paralysis of the male organ gives the wife the right to annul the marriage.The scales of deeds and the people of the heights
Sha'rawi presents accounting by the scales as the Qur'an describes it. Those whose scales are heavy succeed and those whose scales are light lose. The people of the heights are those whose good and bad deeds are equal, and God's forgiveness comes before His wrath for them.Placing the hand on the hip (takhassur)
Takhassur is placing the hand on the side of the hip. In prayer most jurists regard it as disliked (makruh tanzihi), while the Hanafis hold it disliked as unlawful (makruh tahrimi), since it departs from the transmitted form of prayer. It is allowed in a real need, to the extent of the need. Outside prayer it is disliked as the manner of the proud. For the Friday sermon, leaning on a staff or bow is recommended by the Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis.The Prophet's knowledge of earlier news
Sha'rawi holds that the Prophet's knowledge of earlier messengers' news, though he could not read or write and sat with no teacher, is evidence that he received revelation. The verses that deny his presence at those events present the news as if witnessed.Public and secret charity
Sha'rawi holds that a wealthy person should give openly, to protect his honour from people's talk, while concealment suits one who is not visibly wealthy. God knows the intention in both cases. He cites reports on the relative merit of public and secret giving.Sadid (pus: whether it is impure, whether it breaks wudu', and its effect on prayer)
In language sadid is the thin liquid of a wound mixed with blood before it thickens; once thick it is called mudda, and qayh is pure pus with no blood. Most jurists hold that pus is impure like blood. On whether it breaks wudu', the Malikis and Shafi'is say no, since the impurities that break it are only those from the two passages; the Hanafis say yes when it flows from the top of the wound, while Zufar holds it breaks wudu' in any case, and the Hanbalis say it breaks wudu' only when it is much and offensive. Small amounts are excused in prayer by agreement, but the schools differ on the measure, whether a dirham or less, or what people commonly overlook.The good loan to God (qard hasan)
Sha'rawi holds that spending in God's cause is called a loan because the giver hands over wealth in hope of getting back more. A good loan comes from lawful money, and he reports the view that its reward can exceed that of charity, because the self stays attached to it.Vomit
Vomit is, in the terminology of the jurists, what comes out of food after it has settled in the stomach; it is distinguished from regurgitation (qalas). The schools differ on whether it is impure: the Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold it impure, while the Malikis hold impure only what has changed from the state of food. On breaking ablution the Hanafis say it breaks it when it fills the mouth, and the Malikis and Shafi'is say it does not.Pus (qayh)
In the lexicon qayh is pure matter that has no blood mixed in; sadid is thin wound fluid mixed with blood before the matter thickens. The jurists hold pus impure once it leaves the body. They differ on whether it breaks ablution: the Malikis and Shafi'is say no, the Hanafis say yes once it reaches a place that falls under purification, Zufar says yes whether or not it flows, and the Hanbalis say only a large amount breaks it. A prayer is not valid with a large amount of pus on the body or clothes, but a small amount is excused.Midday rest (qaylula)
In the lexicon qaylula is sleeping in the middle of the day; the jurists use it in the same sense, meaning a nap before noon or around midday. The nap is recommended, and the sources give as reasons that devils do not nap and that it helps with night prayer, as suhur helps with fasting. Midday is one of three times when people commonly uncover themselves, and the Qur'an sets these times for permission before entering; the Companions disagreed on whether that ruling still applies.Qibla
The qibla is the direction of the Kaaba which the worshipper faces in prayer; in Medina it was turned from Bayt al-Maqdis to the Kaaba by the verses of al-Baqara, and facing it is a condition of prayer in fiqh.Night vigil, qiyam al-layl (legal rulings)
In the jurists' usage, the night vigil is spending part of the night in prayer or other worship. All schools count it recommended, under different names. Tahajjud is the prayer after sleep and is narrower. The subject covers the best time of night, the number of rak'at, the two light rak'at that open the vigil, waking one's family, whether to lengthen standing or multiply bowing and prostration, performing it in congregation, and the nights singled out for it: the two Eids, Ramadan, the first ten of Dhu al-Hijja and the middle of Sha'ban.Standing (qiyam)
In jurisprudence qiyam is standing upright. Most of its rules belong to prayer: standing is a pillar of obligatory prayer for the able by agreement and falls for the incapable; the Hanafis and Hanbalis have rules on leaning and independent standing. Other topics include standing in the sermon, standing to greet an arrival or a funeral, and standing while eating, drinking or urinating.Rada'a (poor quality): the rules on giving poor goods in zakat, on exchanging good for poor, and on the description of goods in contracts
Rada'a in the lexicon is the opposite of goodness: baseness and defect. One may not give poor goods in place of good ones due for zakat, and the mean is to be taken. Most jurists hold that good and poor goods of the riba kinds are alike, so exchange of equal weight is allowed and excess is forbidden. Several schools require the quality or poorness to be stated in a salam contract, and the Malikis, Hanbalis and some Shafi'is require matching quality in a transfer of debt. The lender need not accept poorer goods in place of good ones in a loan.Radkh (a small gift from the spoils at the imam's discretion, to women, boys and others who help but do not fight)
Radkh in the lexicon is a small gift; in the jurists' usage it is a gift from the spoils whose amount the imam judges, given to those who are not bound to fight but do useful work in the war, such as women, boys and a dhimmi. Most jurists hold it a binding right for one who has done useful work, and a view of the Shafi'is makes it recommended. A mount other than a horse has no share, but its rider is given a radkh after the foot-soldier's share. The jurists differ on where it comes from: the Hanafis and Hanbalis, and one Shafi'i view, take it from the whole booty, and the preferred Shafi'i view takes it from four-fifths. Its amount is less than a full share according to the majority, and is left to the imam by the Malikis.Rafath (intercourse and obscene speech in worship): its penalty in fasting, in i'tikaf and in the state of consecration
Rafath in the lexicon is intercourse and what passes between a man and a woman, such as kissing, and it is also used for obscene speech. In worship it is forbidden: one who has intercourse deliberately in the day of Ramadan breaks his fast and owes a makeup and an expiation. The jurists differ on forgetful intercourse: the Hanafis and Shafi'is do not void the fast, the Malikis and Hanbalis do. Intercourse breaks i'tikaf, and the Shafi'is differ on the forgetful. Rafath in the state of ihram is forbidden by agreement, and intercourse in the private part voids the pilgrimage by the majority when deliberate, requiring a makeup and an expiation.Rafd (abandoning an act of worship or an intention in it): its effect on ablution, prayer, fasting, the state of ihram and the pilgrimage
Rafd in the lexicon is abandonment; in the jurists' usage it is treating what has been done of the act and its intention as if it had not been. It differs from annulment, from defect and from voiding. For the majority, abandoning the intention of ablution after it is complete has no effect, while abandoning the intention of prayer during it voids it; the Malikis, Hanbalis and one Shafi'i view hold that abandoning the intention of fasting voids the fast. The Hanafis hold that abandoning ihram does not void it, and if a Meccan who has begun the lesser pilgrimage adds the greater one, the Hanafis require him to abandon one of them with a sacrifice and a makeup.Raghaib (the special supererogatory prayers: the Maliki sense, the Fajr sunna, and the prayers of Rajab and mid-Sha'ban that the Hanafis and Shafi'is call innovation)
Raghaib is the plural of raghiba, a great gift or a good deed urged upon the believer; for the Malikis it is what the Law favours without its being done in congregation, and it may name the Fajr sunna. The Hanafis and Shafi'is hold that the special prayer on the first Friday of Rajab or on mid-Sha'ban, with a fixed manner or number, is a reprehensible innovation, and the traditions for it are judged fabricated. For the Malikis the raghiba is the Fajr sunna, which the Hanafis count among the strongest sunnas and the Shafi'is and Hanbalis among the regular sunnas.Rahan: the wager (its senses, the contest in horse-racing and archery, and what may be staked)
Rahan means a wager or stake. In the sense of risk, it is forbidden by consensus among Muslims and dhimmis, because it takes the form of gambling. The jurists differ on a wager between a Muslim and a belligerent non-Muslim: the majority forbid it, and Abu Hanifa permits it. It also means a race in horses or archery, which is permitted under conditions; a pledge held against a debt; and the prize stipulated in a race, which is lawful by consensus. The jurists differ on which animals may race: the Shafi'is include horses, camels, elephants, mules and donkeys (the more likely view), the Malikis only horses and camels, and the Hanafis horses, camels and runners on foot. Permission requires knowing the starting point and the goal, equal conditions, the ability of each to win, and identified mounts; a prize that both sides stake on each other is not valid unless there is a third party whose horse is equal to both.Rahbaniyya: monasticism, its rejection in Islam, and the preference for mixing with people
Rahbaniyya is derived from fear and awe; a rahib (monk) was in origin a worshipper who lived in a cell among Christians and withdrew from worldly affairs, and the technical sense does not differ from this. Related terms are isolation (uzla), which is a means to monasticism and contrary to the norm and which may be lawful when society is corrupt, and wandering (siyaha) in the land for worship. The law forbade monasticism in the sense practised by Christian monks: excess in worship, abandoning worldly life, withdrawing from women and people, self-torment through hardship. The jurists rely on a Qur'anic verse from al-Ma'ida (verse 77), on the hadith that jihad is the monasticism of Islam, and on the hadith that whoever turns from my sunna is not of me. All scholars agree that it is better for a Muslim to mix with people, attend congregations and lessons, visit the sick, attend funerals, enjoin good and bear their harm patiently; al-Nawawi notes that this was the practice of the Prophet, the prophets, and the rightly guided caliphs. Isolation is recommended when general corruption (fitna) prevails or when mixing would likely lead to what is forbidden; the traditions praise worship in times of turmoil and a man who keeps his faith by withdrawing to a mountain pass.Rahn: the pledge of property as security for a debt (its ruling, parties, pledged item, use, liability, sale and ending)
Rahn means fixity and permanence in the lexicon and detention in another sense; in law it is making a property a security for a debt, to be paid from it or its price if the debtor cannot pay. It differs from guarantee (daman), which joins one liability to another for the claim, while a pledge requires a specific property. The pledge is established by the Qur'an, the Sunna and consensus; it is permitted but not obligatory. The Prophet pledged his iron armour to a Jew for food bought on credit, and most jurists permit it at home as well as on a journey. The contract is formed by offer and acceptance: the Shafi'is require words, while the Malikis and Hanbalis accept any sign that shows consent by custom, such as a transaction by exchange of goods. Both parties must be competent to dispose of property, so a child, an insane person or one under restriction cannot contract, though the Hanafis allow a licensed child and the Malikis make a discerning child's pledge conditional on his guardian's consent. Any binding debt, or one that is about to become binding, may be secured: the Shafi'is require an established debt, exclude guaranteed property such as usurped goods, while the Hanbalis allow security for such guaranteed property, and the Malikis and Hanafis extend it to other kinds of obligation. Any property that can be sold and whose price can settle the debt may be pledged; the Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow every saleable thing, the Hanafis require a divided and separate property not occupied by the owner's goods and distinct from what grows on it, and borrowed property may be pledged with the lender's permission, with differing views on what must be stated. The pledge is binding only once the pledgee takes possession, according to the Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis, while the Malikis hold it binding on the contract. The pledge covers the natural increase of the thing; detached increase (offspring, fruit, milk, wool) is included for the Hanafis and Hanbalis in different forms, and excluded by the Shafi'is, while the Malikis include only offspring. The owner may not dispose of the pledged item in a way that removes ownership or harms the pledgee's right without his consent; a disposal with consent ends the pledge where it has no return, and a sale with consent moves the claim to the price. Possession belongs to the pledgee, or to a third party acting as his agent. On use, the Hanafis forbid it to both parties without the other's consent; the Malikis allow it to the pledgee under fixed conditions; the Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow the owner any use that does not reduce value, and allow the pledgee to ride or milk a pledged beast in return for its keep. The cost of keeping the pledge falls on the owner according to most jurists, while the Hanafis place the cost of custody on the pledgee. The pledge ends before it binds by the owner's withdrawal or a disposal that removes ownership, and after binding by destruction of the pledge, release from the debt, or a disposal with the pledgee's consent. When the debt falls due the owner must pay it; if he does not, the pledge is sold and the pledgee is paid first from the price; the Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow the judge to discipline a refusing debtor and then sell, while the Malikis limit the judge to the sale.Rajul (the adult male): the rules that set men apart from women
In the technical sense a rajul is a male of mankind who has passed childhood by puberty; for inheritance the word covers a male from birth. Men are distinguished by several rules: silk and gold are forbidden to them, a silver ring is allowed, their nakedness runs from navel to knees, the call to prayer, leading men in prayer and the Friday prayer are theirs, the blood-money of a free Muslim man is one hundred camels, and jihad is obligatory on them when it is a collective duty. Only men give testimony in retaliation and hudud. In inheritance and guardianship the man precedes where he is better placed to protect the interests, while the woman precedes in custody.Ramadan (the month of fasting): its name, the sighting of its crescent, its special features, and the virtues and acts of worship recommended in it
Ramadan is the name of the known month; it is said to have been named for the season of intense heat when the Arabs gave the months their names. The month is established by sighting the crescent; if that is impossible, Sha'ban is completed to thirty days. The jurists differ on the number of witnesses: the Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis accept one just witness, while the Malikis require two. The jurists agree that the end of Ramadan (the crescent of Shawwal) needs two witnesses. Ramadan is distinguished by the revelation of the Qur'an in it, by the obligation of its fast (agreed by the community), by the excellence of charity in it, by the night of power, and by the recommended taraweeh and i'tikaf in its last ten nights. Studying and reciting the Qur'an are especially recommended in it, giving alms and the lesser pilgrimage are more meritorious, and the jurists differ on whether earning a living or devoting oneself to worship is better in it.Ramal: the brisk walk in the first three circuits of the tawaf
Ramal is the brisk walk: hurrying in one's steps while swaying the shoulders. Its ruling is that it is a sunna of the tawaf, recommended in the first three circuits of every tawaf that is followed by sa'y, as the majority of jurists hold, and it is for men only, not women.The last breath (ramaq): repentance, retaliation and eating forbidden food to sustain life
Ramaq means the remnant of life: in the lexicon it is the last of the breath, and some say it is strength. The technical sense is the same as the lexical one. The jurists give it several rulings. First, repentance at the last breath: the majority hold that the repentance of someone at the point of death, who sees the angel of death, is not accepted, because hope has ended and repentance requires a firm resolve never to return, which is not possible once choice has gone; some say it is valid while hope remains. Second, retaliation for a killing at the last breath: if one person brings another to the state of a slaughtered animal (no sight, speech or voluntary movement) and a second person then strikes him, the first is the killer and the second is disciplined for violating the dead person's inviolability; if the second strikes before the victim reaches that state, the second is the killer and the first owes retaliation for the wound or its blood money. If the victim reached the last breath through illness rather than a crime, the killer owes retaliation, since such signs are not certain and the patient may recover. Third, sustaining life with forbidden food: the jurists agree that a person in necessity may eat carrion, swine and other forbidden things enough to keep him alive, citing verses from the Surahs of al-Baqara and al-Ma'ida without quoting them here. They differ on whether eating is obligatory for one who fears death, and on the amount: whether it is enough to keep him alive or he may eat to satiety, and whether the traveller and the resident are treated alike. Fourth, slaughtering an animal at its last breath: lawful slaughter requires stable life at the moment of slaughter, real or presumed from signs; if an animal fell ill from a cause that does not lead to death and was slaughtered in its last breath, its meat is lawful, but if it sickened from eating a harmful plant it is not.Ramy: throwing (the stoning of the jamarat, the rulings of archery and hunting by throwing, and throwing the accusation of adultery)
Ramy in the lexicon means throwing or casting. The jurists use it for the stoning of the jamarat, for shooting arrows in hunting and in war, and for throwing an accusation. There are three jamarat: the first (the lesser, also called the nearest) beside the Mosque of al-Khayf, then the middle one, then the Jamrat al-Aqaba (the greater), at the far end of Mina. Stoning them is a required act of the pilgrimage, established by the sunna and by consensus. Its validity requires the prior assumption of the pilgrim's ihram and the standing at Arafat; most jurists require the missile to be a stone, while the Hanafis allow any earth-like material such as clay, dust or lime but not metals, gold or silver. The valid stoning is seven pebbles for each jamra, thrown one at a time, which must land within the gathering of pebbles, and must be aimed; placing them down or tossing them by hand does not count. The jurists also differ on the order: the majority require the jamarat to be stoned in order during the days of tashriq, and in order on the day of sacrifice the stoning comes before the sacrifice, the shaving and the tawaf of ifada. The time begins on the day of sacrifice after the dawn (for the Hanafis and Malikis) or after midnight (for the Shafi'is and Hanbalis); on the days of tashriq it begins after midday, and the jurists differ about the end of each day and about making up a missed stoning with a sacrifice. Recommended acts include the chickpea-to-hazelnut sized pebbles, the takbir with each pebble, a pause for supplication between the first two jamarat, and throwing after sunrise; the disliked acts include throwing a large stone and throwing with pebbles from the mosque. Leaving out a pebble incurs a sacrifice according to the Malikis, and for missing a whole day a sheep is due; the sick or the incapable may appoint a deputy, and the child's guardian throws on his behalf. Hunting by throwing is lawful with a pointed implement that wounds the game; a blunt missile that kills by its weight makes the game carrion, and it is forbidden to set a living creature as a target. In war, learning archery is strongly recommended and abandoning it after learning is condemned; a contest in archery (munadhala) is permitted and can be obligatory when it is the only way to fight the unbelievers. Accusing a chaste person of adultery outside testimony brings the penalty for slander (eighty lashes); if testimony falls short of four witnesses the witnesses too are liable to that penalty according to most jurists.The head (ra's) in the rulings
In lexicon ra's is the top of anything, and by metaphor the chief of a people. Wiping the head in ablution is required by agreement; a man in the state of ihram for hajj or umra may not cover his head and owes a ransom if he does; for prayer a man is recommended to cover his head with a turban or the like, and a woman must cover hers. The majority hold that the head of a person under the hadd or discretionary punishment is not to be struck, while Abu Yusuf allows it.Regular (ratib): the regular sunnas, the regular muezzin and the regular imam of a mosque
Ratib means fixed and settled, and its technical sense keeps that meaning. Among its uses are the regular sunnas that follow the obligatory prayers; the jurists differ on their number: most say ten rak'as, and the Hanafis twelve, with the two before fajr the most emphasised for them. In a mosque the regular muezzin and the regular imam come first; no one may call the adhan before the regular muezzin unless he is absent and the time is at risk. The regular imam leads over the others present even if someone else is more learned, but the ruler, his deputy or the judge takes precedence when present. Most jurists (Hanafis, Malikis, Shafi'is) dislike repeating the congregation in a mosque with a regular imam unless it is off the path of people or the imam permits it; the Hanbalis allow it.Rawaj: the currency in circulation and its effect on an unspecified price in a sale
Rawaj means speed in something; in the lexicon, a thing that sells and is in demand, and coins that are much used in dealing. The technical sense does not differ. Circulation affects which currency is meant when a sale states a price without naming it. The price must be known, or the contract is void because the uncertainty leads to dispute. If a sum is named without its currency and the town has one currency in use, the sale is valid and that currency is meant; the same holds when several currencies circulate but one predominates, since the known custom is treated as stated. If several currencies are equal in value and in circulation, the buyer chooses which to pay and the seller must accept it. If they differ in value but are equal in circulation, the sale is void by consensus, since the uncertainty leads to dispute; the Hanafis hold that it is valid if the uncertainty is removed in the session by one party's statement and the other's consent.Rawth: animal dung, its purity or impurity, its effect on prayer, its use in cleansing, and its sale
Rawth is the dung of an animal with hooves in the lexicon; the jurists use it for the dung of any animal, such as camels and sheep. The dung of cows is khatha, of camels and sheep ba'r, of birds dhurq, and of humans 'adhra. The Malikis, Hanbalis and, in one view, the Shafi'is hold that the dung of an animal whose meat is eaten is pure, citing the hadith permitting prayer in sheepfolds; the dung of an animal not eaten is impure for them, and the Hanafis and, according to the school's preferred view, the Shafi'is hold all dung impure. Abu Hanifa holds dung to be gross impurity, because a text declares it impure, while Abu Yusuf and Muhammad hold it light impurity, since the scholars differ about it. Thus a garment with more than a dirham's worth of dung on it does not validate prayer for Abu Hanifa, while the two companions allow it unless it is excessive. The Malikis excuse what falls on shoes and sandals from beasts' dung in the roads, but not on clothes or the body; Ahmad excuses a little of the droppings of beasts of prey, mules and donkeys. On cleaning with dung, the Shafi'is, Hanbalis and most Malikis forbid it, and the Hanafis dislike it; if someone does so anyway, the Hanafis, Malikis and Ibn Taymiyya count it if it cleans, while the Shafi'is and most Hanbalis do not, relying on the hadiths of Abu Hurayra and of Ibn Mas'ud about the provision of the jinn. The sale of dung is treated under the entry on zibl.Rida' (the upper garment, worn over the izar): its wearing in ihram and in prayer, and turning it in the rain prayer
Rida' in the lexicon is the garment that covers the upper body over the izar, which covers the lower body. The jurists agree that a pilgrim in ihram should wear a white or washed izar and rida'. In prayer the majority prefer a shirt with a rida' over a single garment; the wrapping of the body in one cloth with the ends brought over the shoulder is disliked. Most jurists recommend turning the rida' over during the prayer for rain, while Abu Hanifa does not.Rifada (the provision for pilgrims, which Quraysh collected in the pre-Islamic period): its meaning, its related posts, and its standing in law
Rifada in the lexicon is a gift or a support; in the pre-Islamic period Quraysh collected money at the pilgrimage season to feed the pilgrims, the rifada and the water-service belonging to the Banu Hashim, and the keeping of the Ka'ba and the banner to the Banu 'Abd al-Dar. Quraysh took pride in these offices, and God rebuked those who made the watering of pilgrims equal to faith in God and the Last Day. Islam allowed the rifada as a kindness to pilgrims and as alms to the poor among them.Rifq (gentleness): its ruling, God's gentleness to His servants, gentleness to parents, neighbours, followers, servants and animals
Rifq in the lexicon is gentleness, softness in the act and firmness in the purpose; it is the opposite of harshness. In general it is recommended, but it is obligatory with parents and forbidden with fighting unbelievers. God has laid on His servants only what they can bear and has granted them concessions, and the believer is told to take from the supererogatory what he can keep up. Kindness to parents and neighbours is commanded; the imam should shorten the prayer for the weak; in crowded rites one should not push others; and in changing wrong one should be gentle with the ignorant. The Prophet urged kindness to servants, feeding them from one's own food, and forbade torturing animals and shooting at living creatures for a target; the owner must feed the animal and may not overload it.Rih: wind, flatulence, and related legal rulings in Islamic jurisprudence
Rih lexically signifies wind moving between heaven and earth, as well as scent and power, and its fiqh usage reflects these meanings. When wind blows, it is recommended to pray for its good and seek refuge from its harm while reviling it is disliked; the Shafi'is and Hanbalis recommend performing two prayer units during intense winds analogous to eclipse prayers, and scholars agree that passing wind from the anus invalidates ablution. The wind that exits the body is ritually pure in substance and does not pollute wet garments, nor is cleansing with water (istinja') prescribed for it, while removing the foul smell of impurities during purification is obligatory unless it proves exceptionally difficult, intentionally passing wind in mosques is disliked, and detecting the scent of wine on someone's breath does not establish a penal legal penalty according to the majority. Relieving oneself facing wind is disliked to avoid impurity splashback, and missing Friday and congregational prayers is excused during fierce, cold night winds due to hardship.Rijl (the foot): washing in ablution, the theft and hirabah penalties, the blood-money for a foot, and its place in the nakedness rules
Rijl means the foot. In the jurists' usage it names the foot with the two ankle bones in the verse of ablution, the part below the joint of the leg in cutting a thief's foot, and from the root of the thigh to the foot in another place. Most jurists hold that washing the feet up to the ankles is obligatory in ablution; some early scholars held wiping, and al-Hasan al-Basri and al-Tabari allowed a choice. For theft, the right hand is cut first and the left foot at the second theft; the rest is disputed, and the Malikis, Shafi'is and a Hanbali view cut the left hand and right foot. Cutting both feet carries full blood-money, one foot half of it, and each toe a tenth; the Hanafis and Shafi'is add a just assessment. For a free woman the foot is nakedness except the two feet, and for men the nakedness runs from navel to knees by the majority.Rimad (ashes): whether ashes of pure and impure things are pure, whether tayammum may be made with them, and whether they are property
Rimad (ashes) in the lexicon is the fine dust of burnt coal, what remains after burning. There is no dispute that the ash of a pure thing burned is pure; the Prophet used the ashes of a mat to staunch a wound. The jurists differ on the ash of an impure thing: Abu Hanifa, some Malikis and one Hanbali view hold it pure because fire changes the substance, while the Shafi'is and most Malikis hold it impure. Most jurists forbid tayammum with ashes because they are not of the earth, while the Hanafis allow it when made from stone. The ash of a pure thing is property that may be sold; the ash of an impure thing is not a valuable property for those who hold it impure.Rish: feathers, plumage, and their rulings of purity and use in Islamic jurisprudence
Rish lexically denotes the plumage of birds, and riyash denotes furnishings and fine clothing, while in fiqh terminology it refers to avian plumage corresponding to mammalian hair, wool, and fur. Jurists agree on drawing an analogy between feathers and hair; feathers attached to living edible birds are pure by consensus, whereas plucked or shed feathers are deemed pure by the majority, though the Malikis classify down as pure and quills as impure, and the Shafi'is regard detached body parts from living animals as impure. Feathers taken from edible carrion are judged pure by Hanafis and Hanbalis because life does not reside in them, impure by Shafi'is, and down alone is pure according to Malikis if sheared. Tanning skin does not purify attached feathers for the Shafi'is because feathers are unaffected by tanning agents, plucking game feathers in the state of ihram is prohibited and requires compensation, and dry cleansing (istinja') with clean, unhallowed feathers is permissible. Forward contracts (salam) in defined feathers by weight are valid, and plunging an ungutted bird into boiling water to pluck feathers renders internal flesh impure if boiling heat drives intestine impurities inward, whereas superficial softening of quills without internal cooking allows external washing.Provision by averting harm (rizq al-salb)
Sha'rawi distinguishes provision by gain (rizq al-ijab), which comes through earning and increase, from provision by averting harm (rizq al-salb), which means warding off costs and affliction. He holds that the second may bring more blessing than the first.Saff (the row in prayer: straightening the rows, the merit of the first row, the place of women and children, and fleeing the line in battle)
A saff is a row of worshippers in prayer. The majority recommend straightening rows, with shoulders and feet touching and no gaps; some hold it obligatory, and Ibn Hajar says the prayer of one who does not straighten the row is still valid. Completing the first row before the next, and filling gaps, are part of straightening. The first rows are best for men; women's best rows are the last if men are present, and the first if women pray alone. The imam stands in the middle of the row, men come first, then boys, then women. A fighter may not leave the line when the two lines meet, except to manoeuvre or join a body of Muslims, and rows at a funeral prayer are straightened and not fewer than three.Ru'af (nosebleed): whether it breaks ablution, how a bleeding worshipper continues or rebuilds his prayer, and its effect on fasting
Ru'af is bleeding from the nose; it bears on ablution, prayer and fasting. The Malikis, Shafi'is and most Companions hold that it does not break ablution; the Hanbalis hold that only a heavy flow breaks it; the Hanafis hold that any flow from its place breaks it. A worshipper who bleeds in prayer may, for the Hanafis and Malikis, wash the blood and go back to finish the prayer; the Malikis set conditions: the cloth must not be soiled beyond a dirham, the qibla must not be turned away without excuse, and he must not speak. An imam who bleeds appoints a successor. For the Hanafis and Malikis, blood that reaches the throat of a fasting person breaks the fast.Ra'y (grazing): the freedom of pasture, the Haram's grass, the herdsman's liability and wage, and taking the milk of another's flock
Ra'y (grazing) is free by default, as the Prophet said that the Muslims share three things: pasture, water and fire; he abolished the grazing preserves of the pre-Islamic period. The majority hold that a village may not exclude others from its pasture; the Malikis allow an inhabited town its own reserve. The jurists differ on grazing in the Haram: the Malikis, Shafi'is and Abu Yusuf allow it, while Abu Hanifa and Muhammad forbid it. A ruler may take no fee for grazing in a protected preserve, because only God and His Messenger may protect land. A hired herdsman is trusted and is liable only for negligence or misconduct. Most jurists forbid taking the milk of another's flock without leave, while the Hanbalis allow it after asking.Rukhsa (the concession: a ruling eased for a reason, set against the strict ruling 'azima)
Rukhsa in the lexicon is ease and permission after a prohibition; in usage it is what is made lighter for the person in doing something, for a cause that prevents him from the strict ruling while the forbidding cause remains. It is set against 'azima, and is close to permission and to lifting hardship. Its causes are necessity, need, travel, illness, forgetting and compulsion; its kinds are obligatory, recommended, permitted and against the better course for the Shafi'is, and real and figurative for the Hanafis. Some jurists hold that the strict ruling is better in some cases, such as compelled unbelief when refusing would mean death, and fasting on a journey. Analogy from a concession is allowed by the majority and refused by the Hanafis, except Abu Yusuf. Taking up concessions merely to escape duty is condemned; taking them for a lawful cause is permitted.Rukn (pillar): what an act cannot exist without, as against the condition and the obligation; the pillars of worship and of contracts; and the kissing of the corners of the Ka'ba
Rukn in the lexicon is the strongest side and the great matter; technically it is what a thing cannot exist without, the part of its essence, as against the condition, which is outside the essence, and against the obligation. A pilgrim who leaves a pillar of the pilgrimage does not complete his rite; one who leaves an obligation makes it good by a sacrifice, and the Hanafis and Hanbalis apply this to prayer. The pillars of ablution, tayammum, prayer, fasting, i'tikaf and pilgrimage differ between the schools. In contracts the majority hold that each has three pillars, the formula, the two parties and the object, while the Hanafis hold the formula alone; the lack of a pillar makes the contract void. The sunna is to touch or kiss the Black Stone and the Yemeni corner, and to point to them from afar when crowded.Rukub (riding): prayer on the mount, prayer of the warrior and the pilgrim on a mount, tawaf on a mount, liability for a beast's damage, and the supplications of the rider
Rukub (riding) in the lexicon is mounting a beast, and some say it is peculiar to camels. All agree that voluntary prayer on the mount is permitted on a journey; the majority allow it on a short journey too; the Malikis require a journey that shortens the prayer, that the movements be few, and that the journey last to the end of the prayer, and the Hanafis and Hanbalis require facing the qibla at the opening takbir where possible. A warrior may pray on a mount when fighting is joined; riding the hajj is better than walking; tawaf on a mount is valid with an excuse, and without one the Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis require a sacrifice; the rider is liable for damage done by his beast's hand according to the majority. The rider says the takbir, praise and the recorded supplications on mounting and on setting out.Rukuh (the bow in prayer): its ruling as a pillar, the calm in it, its posture, the raising of the hands, the glorifications, and the prohibition of bowing to a creature
Rukuh (bowing) in the lexicon is inclining; in prayer it is lowering the head with the back bent in a fixed posture until the palms reach the knees. It is a pillar by agreement, from the verse 'bow and prostrate' and the hadith of the one who prays badly. The majority hold the calm in it obligatory; the Hanafis hold it a duty of lesser force. The minimum is the bend until the palms reach the knees; the perfect form is the back and neck level. The majority have the hands raised at the bow and the takbir said as one goes down; the Hanafis raise the hands only at the opening. Glorification at the bow is a sunna; its number is disputed, and recitation of the Qur'an in the bow is disliked. An imam should not lengthen the bow to wait for a latecomer where it burdens the congregation, and bowing to a creature in honour is unlawful, and it is unbelief if meant as worship.Rukun (inclining to a suitor): the approval that precedes marriage, and retraction from it
Rukun in the lexicon is inclining, settling and feeling at ease; in law it is the inclination toward a suitor and the appearance of the woman's or her guardians' consent. Retraction from it is allowed for a valid reason, since marriage is a lasting contract whose harm endures; retraction without a valid reason is disliked.Ruqya (healing by recitation and charms): when it is lawful, its conditions, and the taking of a fee for it
Ruqya in the lexicon is the charm recited over a sufferer from fever or fits, and its plural is ruqa. The majority allow healing by recitation under three conditions: that it use the words of God or His names and attributes; that it be in Arabic or in words whose meaning is known; and that the one who recites believe that it works only by God's leave, following the saying that there is no harm in charms when they contain no shirk. Some scholars disliked it as harming trust in God, and some allowed it only for the evil eye and a sting. The majority allow a fee for ruqya.Rusgh (the wrist): the limit of washing the hands in ablution and of wiping them in tayammum, and the place of the cut in theft
Rusgh in the lexicon is the joint between the forearm and the palm; in the jurists' usage it marks the limit of washing the hands in ablution and wiping them in tayammum, and the place of the cut for theft. It is a sunna to wash the hands up to the wrists at the start of ablution. The jurists differ on wiping in tayammum: the Hanafis, the Shafi'is in the school's view and some Malikis take the elbows; the Hanbalis, a view of Abu Hanifa, most Malikis and the older Shafi'i view take the wrists; al-Zuhri and Muhammad ibn Maslama take the shoulders. The jurists of the cities hold that a thief's hand is cut from the wrist.Rutuba (moisture): whether the moisture of a woman's private part, of a beast and of a contact with an impurity is pure, and its effects on cleaning with stones and on wet semen
Rutuba is dampness, the opposite of dryness; the Hanbalis distinguish moisture from wetness in ruling on impurity. Abu Hanifa and the Hanbalis hold a woman's private moisture pure, while the Malikis, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad hold it impure; the Shafi'is divide it into three kinds. The majority hold the moisture of a pure animal's private part pure, and the Malikis limit this to animals that may be eaten. The Hanafis and Malikis hold that what touches a moist impurity does not become impure, in the sounder view, while the Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold it impure. Cleaning with stones requires a dry surface, and wet semen is washed while dry semen is rubbed off, according to the Hanafis and Hanbalis.The ark and sakina (sacred relics)
Sha'rawi holds that relics tied to events of faith and prophethood should be preserved and not treated as idolatry. He reads the ark as carrying sakina from God and the remains left by the house of Musa and Harun, and holds that rulers should guard such things so that people find peace in them.Charity (sadaqa)
Charity in the usage of the Forty hadiths 25 and 26 is wider than alms of money: the poor Companions supposed there was no charity without wealth, until the Prophet directed them to charities within their power — glorification, magnification, praise, the declaration of unity, commanding right and forbidding wrong, removing harm from the road, aiding the weak, guiding the blind, making the deaf and mute understand, pointing out needs, running to the distressed, and 'in the intercourse of one of you is alms' — all of it a charity from a man upon himself; Hudhayfa's hadith in Muslim runs 'every act of kindness is charity' and Abu Masud's in the two Sahihs 'a man's spending on his family is charity'; in Abu Hurayra's hadith a charity is due on every sulama — joint or small hollow bone, three hundred and sixty joints in one version — each day the sun rises, and two mid-morning rak'as suffice for all of them in the Abu Dharr and Burayda routes; for Ibn Rajab the apparent sense is that a permissible act such as intercourse earns reward by an intention like seeking a righteous child or self-restraint, and al-Nawawi draws from it that permissible things become acts of obedience through sincere intentions.Ongoing charity (sadaqa jariya)
Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy says that the reward of planting continues for whatever eats from it or shelters under it. He holds that teaching beneficial knowledge, building a mosque, writing a copy of the Qur'an, and founding a library or a school bring reward after death. He also describes a charitable project for orphans in Giza governorate.Sadaqah
Sadaqah in legal usage is what is given seeking the reward; the jurists detail its rulings in the chapters of zakat and vows.The middle prayer (al-salat al-wusta)
On the verse 'guard the prayers and the middle prayer,' Sha'rawi lists ways to identify the middle prayer: by count, by the order in which they were prescribed, by number of rak'at, and by the angels present. He holds that it was left unnamed on purpose, so that every prayer is guarded, and reports that many scholars take it to be Maghrib.Sama' (hearing) and its rulings
In the lexicon sama' means perceiving by the sense of hearing, and it carries the senses of answering, understanding and accepting; the technical sense does not depart from them. The jurists treat hearing in several separate rulings: joining the congregation for one who hears the call to prayer, reading aloud in prayer, listening to the Friday sermon, the prostration of recitation, hearing a claim before a judge, testimony by hearing, listening to singing, the Qur'an, hadith and idle talk.Samt (direction, bearing) and facing the qibla
In the lexicon samt means a direction or aim, and musamata means facing or being opposite; one who faces the qibla is said to have musamata it. It also means following the right path and the bearing of the good, and tasmit means invoking blessing on a sneezer. The technical sense does not depart from this. Facing the qibla is, by agreement of the jurists, a condition for the validity of prayer for one able to do it.Sarf (exchange of money for money: its conditions of mutual receipt, equal weight, no option, no deferment, the kinds of exchange, defective coins, and copper coins)
In the law sarf is the sale of a price for a price: the exchange of money for money, of the same kind or of different kinds, and it is one kind of sale in general. It is valid only if both sides are received before the parties part from the session; the majority also hold that a stipulated option or deferment voids it. When the kind is the same the weight must be equal, even if the workmanship differs (majority); when the kinds differ, excess is allowed if the exchange is made hand to hand. The jurists also treat exchanges on credit, adulterated coins, copper coins, defects in the money received, and whether coins are fixed by being named.Sarura (one who has not yet performed the pilgrimage for himself: his proxy pilgrimage, and the payment for it)
In the jurists' usage a sarura is one who has not performed the pilgrimage of Islam for himself; Ibn 'Abidin takes the word more widely to include one who has made a proxy pilgrimage or a voluntary or vowed one, while some Malikis mean one who has never made the pilgrimage at all. al-Shafi'i and Ibn 'Aqil disliked the name, and the report 'there is no sarura in Islam' is weak in its chain. Pilgrimage can be done by proxy in general. The Shafi'is and Hanbalis require the proxy in the obligatory pilgrimage to have performed his own first; if a sarura does it, the pilgrimage falls for himself and he must return the expenses. The Hanafis allow it with disapproval, and the Malikis forbid a healthy capable person to make a proxy pilgrimage for an obligation. Hire for a proxy pilgrimage is forbidden by the Hanafis and by the common view of the Hanbalis, and allowed with disapproval by the Malikis.Sha'a'ir (the outward rites and signs of Islam)
Sha'a'ir is the plural of sha'ira, a sign or mark. When attributed to God the word means the signs of His religion and obedience. It covers prayer, fasting, zakat, the pilgrimage and its rites, and in other matters the call to prayer, congregational prayer, the Friday and festival prayers, and jihad. Muslims must establish and display the outward rites of Islam, and a community that agrees to abandon one of them may be fought.The shahada
The testimony that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is God's messenger, named first in the hadith 'Islam is built on five' that lists what Islam is built on.Shahid (martyr)
The shahid in Sunni tradition is one killed defending religion, property or life, joined by jurists' extension to the plague-stricken, the drowned and those killed under collapsed buildings — 'whoever is killed defending his property is a martyr', 'the plague victim and the stabbed are martyrs'.Shawwal (the month after Ramadan: fasting six days of it, the sighting of its new moon, and the rule when one sees it alone)
Shawwal is the lunar month after Ramadan; it is the month of the festival of breaking the fast and the first of the months of the pilgrimage. Some jurists hold that fasting six days of it is recommended, while others dislike it, lest it be taken for part of Ramadan. Its new moon is established by completing the thirty days of Ramadan, or, for most, by two just witnesses. One who sees it alone may not break the fast unless he has an excuse, following the saying 'the fast is the day you fast and the breaking the day you break', while the Shafi'is say he must break it quietly.Shuru' (commencing an act and its binding effect in worship and contracts)
Shuru' in language is taking up an act and entering it. In law it is made in worship by the act joined to intention, in contracts by words or what stands in their place, and in crimes and prescribed penalties by the act alone. A duty imposed by God must be completed once begun unless necessity prevents it; the jurists differ on whether a voluntary act must be completed. Sale, endowment and loan are completed by offer and acceptance, and the jurists differ on whether a gift or an endowment binds on its own.Small groups overcoming large ones by God's leave
Sha'rawi holds that victory is measured not by numbers but by faith and patience. A believing group that endures hardship earns help, and the division between those who feared and those who did not returns to their bond with God.Shamm (smelling: its rulings in fasting and pilgrimage, hiring for scent, injury to the sense of smell, and proof of drinking wine)
Shamm is the perception of scents by the nose. It may be obligatory, as when witnesses smell the mouth of a drunkard to find the smell of wine; forbidden or disliked, as the use of perfume by a pilgrim according to some; or permitted, as the smelling of lawful flowers and perfumes, except that smelling a perfume worn by a foreign woman is forbidden. The Hanafis and Malikis hold that a fasting person who lets incense reach his throat breaks his fast, while smelling air carrying the scent of roses does not. The schools differ on hiring something for its smell and on injury to the sense of smell, where retaliation is due if possible and otherwise full blood money in the majority view.Saboon (soap: made from impure oil, water mixed with soap in purification, and wearing it in the pilgrim state)
Saboon is what clothes are washed with; it is made of fatty acids and alkalis. The jurists differ on soap made from impure oil: the Hanafis hold, in their preferred view, that it is pure, and may be used; the Shafi'is allow its use while not calling it pure; the Malikis allow using what is soiled but not what is impure in essence; the Hanbalis do not hold it purified. Water with soap is unfit for ablution once its thinness is gone, according to the Hanafis, and the rule differs for others. A pilgrim in the state of consecration may use soap, since it is not a perfume.Stepping over people's necks (takhatti al-riqab)
Takhatti al-riqab is stepping over people to reach a place further in. Its rulings vary: the imam may do it at the Friday gathering when he has no other way; others may do it only out of need; it is disliked outside prayer where it harms no one and forbidden where it harms. It is forbidden to make someone rise from his place to sit in it, and one who has to leave may step over people.Sunan rawatib (the regular sunnas attached to the obligatory prayers)
Rawatib is the plural of ratiba, a supererogatory prayer kept up regularly; the name comes from the lawfulness of keeping at them. It names the sunna prayers set before or after the obligatory prayers. Most jurists recommend keeping at them; the Hanbalis hold leaving them without excuse disliked; they are recommended on a journey, though more emphatic at home. Their number varies: ten units is the least perfection for the Shafi'is and Hanbalis, twelve for the Hanafis, and the Malikis set no fixed number. The entry also covers making up missed ones, recitation within them, and praying them at home, in the mosque or in congregation.Surah (a chapter of the Qur'an) and its recitation in prayer
In language surah means rank or height; the technical sense is a distinct portion of the Qur'an with a beginning and an end, not fewer than three verses, and with its own name. Most jurists recommend reciting surahs in the order of the codex; they dislike reversing their order. The Fatiha is a pillar of each unit of prayer for the majority and an obligation for the Hanafis, who require only what is easy of the Qur'an. Most jurists allow joining two surahs in one unit, and repeating a surah. In the funeral prayer the Hanafis and Malikis recite nothing, while the Shafi'is and Hanbalis require the Fatiha.Sutrah (prayer screen)
The sutrah in fiqh is the screen a worshipper sets before him to bar passers-by; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia details its size, description, placement and the worshipper's stance toward it.Ta'awwudh (seeking refuge)
Ta'awwudh is seeking refuge with God from Satan before and during recitation; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia examines the formulas of refuge, the best of them, and the rulings on pausing and repeating it.Tabarruk (seeking blessing)
Tabarruk is seeking blessing; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia treats its sanctioned forms — through the basmala and hamdala, the water of Zamzam, and certain times and places.Ta'abbudi (rules whose reason is not given: acts of pure obedience)
Ta'abbudi is what the law commands without a reason the servant can grasp, so that obedience alone is the point. Most scholars hold that God's rulings have reasons in the interest of people, and a ruling is called ta'abbudi only when the reason cannot be found. Its marks: it is not reasoned from by analogy, the basis of worship is the command while the basis of custom is the purpose; some hold ta'abbudi more excellent for its pure submission.Ta'addud (plurality in worship, expiation, marriage, divorce and the rest)
Ta'addud is plurality. Its applications: several muezzins are lawful and recommended; repeating the congregation in a mosque after the quarter's imam is disliked by the Hanafis, Malikis and Shafiis, and lawful for the Hanbalis. More than one Friday prayer in a town is forbidden by the majority except by necessity, and lawful for the Hanafis. Repeating the fast's expiation by repeated intercourse is disputed. Marriage up to four is established by the Qur'an. Several judges in a town are lawful, but more than one imam is forbidden by the majority.Ta'jil (doing a thing early: repentance, burial, debt, breaking the fast, the pilgrim's early departure, prayer before its time, zakat and expiations)
Ta'jil is doing a thing before its set time, or at the very beginning of it. It is lawful in several cases: repentance, which is due at once; the burial, which is recommended once death is certain; payment of a debt when due, which is required; breaking the fast at sunset, which is a sunna; the pilgrim's early departure on the second day of the tashriq, which is a concession; prayer before its time, unlawful except in combining; zakat before the year, disputed; and expiations after their cause, disputed.Ta'mim (generalisation in purification, supplication and alms)
Ta'mim means in language making a thing general and comprehensive, and the jurists use it in this sense. In ablution every part that must be washed must be reached by water. Except al-Zuhri, the jurists agree that the ears are not part of the face; the Hanbalis differ on the inside of mouth and nose and make them obligatory, while the other three schools require only the outer nose. Clay or dough stuck under the nails must be removed so that water reaches the skin; some Hanafis and Shafiis excuse the baker and the clay worker, and the Malikis excuse nail dirt unless it is excessive. In the full bath the whole body must be reached, with the inside of mouth and nose a point of dispute: the Hanafis and Hanbalis require it, the Malikis and Shafiis do not. Water must reach the roots of hair, and plaited locks must be unbraided if water cannot reach beneath. In tayammum the schools differ on covering the face: the Malikis, Shafiis and Hanbalis require covering the whole face, including the beard; the Hanafis hold the covering of the face and hands a condition, not a pillar. Generality in supplication is recommended. A report that the dearest prayer to God is one that asks mercy for the community of Muhammad as a whole was given by al-Khatib, and Ibn Adi rejected it; a bedouin who prayed for himself and Muhammad only was told he had narrowed a wide mercy. Covering all eight categories of zakat recipients is not obligatory for most jurists; the Shafiis require it. A general invitation to a feast (al-juffa) may be accepted by most jurists; the Hanbalis allow it with dislike.Ta'rif (making known: the Arafat gathering in towns, the announcement of a found thing, identifying the parties in a claim)
Ta'rif is making known and clear; the usulis use it for a definition that includes and excludes. Among its applications for the jurists: the gathering in towns on the day of Arafat, which Ahmad allowed without recommending while Abu Hanifa and Malik disliked it; the announcement of a found thing, which the three imams hold obligatory and the Shafiis hold the sounder view; and identifying the claimed thing and the defendant, a condition of hearing a claim by agreement.Ta'yin (specification of an object, intention or term)
Ta'yin (specification) is in language singling out a thing from its like, and in law making a thing distinct so that nothing shares it; its opposite is ibham (vagueness). In the usulis' usage it contrasts with choice among obligations: a specified obligation such as the noon prayer, and a vague one among a set number of options, such as the expiations for an oath; the Mu'tazila denied an obligation of choice. A compulsory prayer must be named in intention as noon or afternoon; the follower must intend to follow an imam but need not name him, and for the Hanafis a wrongly named imam invalidates the prayer. Naming the optional prayers is disputed. Most jurists require the fast of Ramadan, a make-up fast, an expiation or a vow to be named in intention; the Hanafis and one Hanbali view allow a general intention for Ramadan. In a sale, the currency most common in the town is taken as specified when one prevails; when several prevail, the currency must be named in words; when they are equal, the sale is valid without naming. The term must be named in a salam, and most jurists require the place of delivery when it has burden. A sale needs a known object and known price: a sheep from a flock, or a price by value, by another's ruling, or at what people sell, is not valid, and the Hanafis count this as defective but correctable at the session. On whether a specified coin is bound by specification in the contract, the Shafiis and Hanbalis say yes, the Hanafis and Malikis say no. The Hanafi option of specification: one buys one of two or three garments, the buyer choosing later; four are not allowed, and the contract must say so. The Shafiis and Hanbalis void such a sale for uncertainty. The salam object may not be specified but must be a debt, since a specified object may perish before delivery; a salam in the fruit of a named orchard is void, as Ibn al-Mundhir reports the consensus, following the report about the Jews of Banu Qaynuqa. An agent bound to a named buyer or a named time or place must keep to it, unless the principal had no interest in it. A lease must specify the kind of benefit and its term; some early jurists allowed leasing unknowns. If a man says one of my two wives is divorced and intends one, that wife is divorced, and he must specify. A claim must specify the thing claimed: an animal's sex, age, colour and kind, or a sum's kind, quantity and description.Tadarruk (making up or repairing a missed part of worship)
Tadarruk is performing an act of worship, or part of it, that the person left out at its proper time, as long as the time has not passed. Making up a fixed pillar is obligatory; the rules for obligatory and recommended parts differ by school. In wudu, the Hanafis and Malikis make up only the missed part, while the Shafi'is require order. In the pilgrimage the making up of circuits, running, standing and stoning follow their own rules; in madness and fainting, the duty of prayer, fasting and pilgrimage is decided by the state of the person.Seeking treatment (tadawi)
Treatment is lawful in general. Most jurists hold it permitted; the Shafi'is, al-Qadi, Ibn Aqil and Ibn al-Jawzi among the Hanbalis hold it recommended; most Hanbalis hold that leaving it is better. Treatment with what is unlawful or impure is forbidden except in necessity, under conditions the schools dispute; recitation with God's words and names is allowed under conditions. For a muhrim, scent used in treatment requires ransom; for the sick, silk and gold for the nose and teeth are allowed.Tadhakkur (remembering and its legal effect)
In law, tadhakkur is the recollection that governs the effect of forgetting and inattention on rulings. The Hanbalis and Malikis do not void the prayer of one who ate forgetfully, the Hanafis do, and the Shafi'is distinguish little from much. A fast is broken by eating forgetfully in the Maliki view, but not in the majority view. For a judge or a witness, most jurists rely on remembrance, not on handwriting.Tadhkiya (ritual slaughter and taking of game)
Tadhkiya is the lawful cause that makes the flesh of a land animal that is slaughtered allowed to eat. It covers slaughter, throat-cutting at the base of the neck, wounding an animal beyond reach, and hunting. Most jurists require that the one who slaughters be a Muslim or a People of the Book, and discerning; they require the naming of God at the time, unless it was forgotten. A tooth or nail still attached to the body may not be used; fish and locusts are lawful without it.Ta'dil (certifying a witness's probity; equalising shares; correcting postures in prayer; the value-based division)
Ta'dil is equalising or setting straight; in law it is certifying a witness or narrator as upright. A judge must seek the probity of the witnesses if he does not know it, according to the Shafiis, Hanbalis, Malikis, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad; Abu Hanifa accepts the apparently upright, except in penalties and retaliation. Settling the postures in prayer is obligatory: a pillar for the majority and a duty short of obligation for the Hanafis. Division by value divides a common thing by worth rather than by parts; the majority also allow a change of value in the fixed penalty for hunting in pilgrimage.Taghut (every object of wrongful obedience)
Sha'rawi defines taghut as an intensive form of tyranny. Its forms include Satan, clerics who legislate in religion's name for worldly power, sorcerers and charlatans, and a ruler who rules without God's command. He holds that taghut is the one whom obedience makes more tyrannical.Ritual purity
Ritual purity in the jurists' terminology is lifting the state of ritual impurity and removing filth with water or tayammum; the hadith of Abu Malik al-Ash'ari sets it in a sweeping faith-scale — 'purity is half of faith', transmitted by Muslim (223), worded 'the ablution is half of faith' in al-Tirmidhi's route and 'perfecting the ablution is half of faith' in Mu'awiya ibn Salam's route in Ibn Majah; within the same hadith it stands alongside the scale-filling praise, prayer as light, almsgiving as proof, patience as radiance and the Qur'an as argument, so that purity is one of the measures by which a servant's works are weighed on the Day of Resurrection, as Ibn Rajab's commentary presents it.Takhlil (passing water between fingers, hair and teeth; vinegar from wine)
Takhlil is passing water through the fingers, combing or separating the hair, or cleaning between the teeth; in purification its rulings range from obligation to sunna and recommendation. Wine that turns to vinegar by itself becomes pure and lawful; adding something to wine to make vinegar is disputed, the Shafi'is and Hanbalis forbidding it and the Hanafis and (preferably) Malikis allowing it.Takhyir (choice left to the obligated person)
Takhyir is leaving to the obligated person's choice one of several options fixed by the law. It has its own rules in many places: the choice of the time for prayer within its broad window, the collector's choice of zakat type, the choice of ransom for a violation of ihram, the expiation for hunting in the sacred precinct and for an oath, the choice of a husband who converts with more than four wives, a child's choice in custody, the imam's choice over captives and the penalty for brigandage, the finder's choice over a lost item, and the victim's choice among retaliation, blood-money and pardon.Obligation within capacity
On the verse that God burdens no soul beyond its capacity, Sha'rawi holds that the rulings fall within capacity, and that God lightens them when capacity narrows, as for the traveller and the sick. He reads the good as natural and evil as effortful, and holds that God answered the believers' prayer against heavy burdens.Declaring God free of likeness in His attributes
Sha'rawi holds that the attributes and acts God reports of Himself are taken as He states them, within the denial of any likeness. God's existence, knowledge and speech are not measured by those of creatures.Tarabbu (sitting cross-legged in prayer)
Tarabbu is a way of sitting: one sits on the hips, stretches the right knee to the right and the right foot to the left. In prayer it is allowed for one who cannot stand; in an obligatory prayer without excuse the Hanafis call it disliked, and most jurists hold it departs from the required posture. In a voluntary prayer, sitting is allowed while one can stand, though standing is better. Reciting the Qur'an is allowed in any position.Tarada (invoking God's pleasure upon a person)
Tarada is asking for pleasure, that is, the formula of God's pleasure upon someone. Its ruling depends on who is named: it is recommended for those whose prophethood is disputed, agreed to be recommended for the Companions, and allowed for other early scholars and the righteous. The writer should keep writing it, and a listener should also invoke it when the Companions are named.Taraddi (an animal that falls and dies, and its lawfulness)
Taraddi is falling from a height to a lower place; the mutaraddiya is an animal that has fallen into a well or from a mountain. The Qur'an forbids such an animal unless it is slaughtered in the lawful way, and the emergency slaughter is by wounding one that cannot be reached. For game that falls into water or from a height, the schools differ: the Hanafis forbid it if it fell into water, and the Hanbalis forbid it when the water would kill its kind.Tarahhum (invoking mercy upon the dead and the righteous)
Tarahhum is asking for mercy and invoking it. Jurists recommend it for parents, living or dead, and for the righteous. The sources differ on invoking mercy upon the Prophet inside and outside prayer, on the formula for the Companions and for those who came after them, on greeting among Muslims, and on invoking mercy upon unbelievers, which is forbidden after their death.Tarassul (measured pace in the call to prayer)
Tarassul is a measured, unhurried pace in the call to prayer, with a pause between each two sentences long enough for a listener to answer, without drawn-out or excessive elongation. It is a sunna in the call; hadr, speeding up, is a sunna in the iqama and disliked in the call.Tarjia (repeating the testimonies in the call to prayer)
Tarjia in the call to prayer is the muezzin lowering his voice on the two testimonies while letting those present hear, then raising it again on them. The Hanafis and Hanbalis hold there is no tarjia in the call, the Malikis and Shafi'is recommend it, and some Shafi'is hold it a pillar.Tarjil (combing and dressing the hair)
Tarjil is combing, cleaning and dressing the hair; the rule is recommendation. It is allowed to one in seclusion; for the muhrim the Shafi'is call it disliked; a widow in mourning may comb with something without perfume (the majority allow it, the Hanafis forbid it); starting from the right is recommended, and doing it every other day rather than daily is the sunna.Tartib (order among parts of a duty)
Tartib is the arrangement of many things under one name, with some parts before others. In wudu it is obligatory for the Shafi'is and Hanbalis and a sunna for the Hanafis and Malikis. In making up missed prayers it is obligatory for the Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis and recommended for the Shafi'is. It also arises in the rows of prayer, funerals, pilgrimage, debts and expiations.Tartil (measured recitation)
Tartil is the measured, distinct articulation of the recitation; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia treats tartil and tarsil among the rules of tilawa.Tasbih (glorifying God, the formula of praise in worship)
Tasbih is declaring God free of every defect; the word is also used for remembrance, prayer and praise. Its rule is recommendation, at all times. It has set places in bowing, prostration and the opening of prayer, and rules for voice and number. It is disliked in unclean places, forbidden for one listening to the sermon in some schools, and disliked aloud before a funeral; it is recommended at thunder.Tasfiq (clapping, in prayer and elsewhere)
Tasfiq is striking one palm on the other. In prayer it is for women, to alert the imam to an error or to turn back someone passing in front; a man glorifies God instead, and all agree a man's clapping in prayer is disliked; the Malikis dislike it for women too. On the Shafii view clapping in prayer in play invalidates it; the Hanafis and Malikis treat two-handed clapping as a large act that breaks prayer. It is forbidden during the sermon according to the majority, and allowed for a real need outside prayer and the sermon.Tashabbuh (imitating others)
Tashabbuh is taking on the look of another; jurists use the word in its lexical sense. For dress that marks unbelievers, the majority of Hanafis (on the sound view), Malikis and Shafiis rule that one who wears it out of inclination to them in Muslim lands, without necessity, becomes an unbeliever; the Hanbalis call it forbidden without unbelief, and one Hanafi view requires belief in their creed. Imitation in worship is disliked (prayer at makruh times, shortened prayer, continuous fasting, singling out Ashura for fasting), imitating them at their festivals is not permitted, men imitating women and the reverse is disliked by most, and protected non-Muslims are marked by signs of dress and mounts.Tashahhud (the testimony sitting in prayer)
The tashahhud is the set of words said in the sitting of prayer, named for its two testimonies. In the sitting not followed by the salam (the first), it is obligatory for the Hanafis on the sound view, for the Malikis in one view and for the Hanbali school, and a sunna for the Malikis in their school view, the Shafiis and one Hanbali narration. The last sitting is obligatory for the Hanafis, a sunna for the Malikis in their school view, and a pillar for the Shafiis and Hanbalis. The best wording is the version taught to Ibn Masud for the Hanafis and Hanbalis, Umar's for the Malikis, and Ibn Abbas's for the Shafiis. Saying it quietly is the sunna. Omitting it in the first sitting by forgetfulness requires the forgetfulness prostration; deliberate omission is disputed.Tashbik (interlacing the fingers)
Tashbik is putting the fingers of one hand between those of the other. The jurists agree it is disliked in prayer. Hanafis, Shafiis and Hanbalis dislike it in the mosque while waiting for prayer, since waiting counts as prayer; after the prayer the majority do not dislike it, even in the mosque, citing the hadith of Dhu al-Yadayn. Malikis dislike it only during prayer, and the others dislike it during the Friday sermon.Tashih (correction and validation: of a hadith, a contract, an act of worship, and inheritance shares)
Tashih means removing an error. For the hadith scholars it is ruling a hadith sound once its conditions are met; for the experts in inheritance it removes fractions between shares and heads; for the jurists it is removing what spoils a worship or a contract. Correcting a defect is a duty once known. On hadith the conditions are disputed, and a scholar's practice in line with a hadith is not a ruling that it is sound. A defective contract is not made valid by removing its defect, according to the non-Hanafi jurists; the Hanafis hold that a weak defect may be removed while a void one may not. A worship spoiled in the course of it can be corrected by removing the fault quickly, as when a worshipper's judgement of the qibla changes or a garment slips or an impurity falls on him. Inheritance shares are corrected by multiplication according to the agreement, overlap and separateness of the numbers of heads.Tashmir (tucking up one's garments)
Tashmir is lifting a garment or its hem. Related terms: sadl, letting a cloth hang over the shoulders without closing its sides, which is disliked in prayer by agreement; and isbal, letting a garment trail to the ground out of pride, which is disliked and carries the warnings in the hadiths. Tucking up in prayer is disliked by agreement, on the prohibition of tucking garments and hair; the Malikis dislike it in prayer only when done for the prayer, and tucking up the hem for a task that happens to be unfinished when prayer comes is not disliked.Tashmit (replying to a sneezer)
Tashmit is praying for a sneezer's good and blessing once he has praised God. All agree that the sneezer praises God and is answered only if he does; the one present should remind a sneezer who forgot. Among the Shafiis it is a sunna; for the Hanafis and one Hanbali view a duty; for the Malikis and the known Hanbali view a communal obligation, with an-Nawawi preferring that each who hears answers, and some saying an individual duty. Within prayer, answering a sneezer breaks it for most jurists, as it is human speech, while praising God silently does not; it is disliked in the lavatory and, for the Hanafis and Malikis, during the sermon; a sneezer is not answered beyond three sneezes unless he has a cold.Tashrik (associating another in a sale, an act of worship or a divorce)
Tashrik is bringing another into an affair so that he becomes a partner in it, as when a buyer takes a partner in a purchase. Taking a partner in a sale is lawful by consensus; mixing a purpose that needs no intention into an act of worship is lawful, as trade with the pilgrimage; combining two worships where one falls within the other, as the Friday and the major-impurity washing, is lawful; combining two independent acts of worship under one intention is not. In a divorce addressed to four wives at once, a single pronouncement of one talaq falls on each.Taslim (delivery, handing over, and the greeting of peace)
In the lexicon taslim means delivery, handing over and enabling; for jurists it names the greeting of peace, the closing of the prayer, the enabling of possession in contracts, and the delivery of pledges, sureties, wages and dowries. The initiating greeting is a strongly recommended practice, and its reply is obligatory for one person and a communal duty for a group. The first closing salutation is required in prayer for the Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis, while the Hanafis hold it obligatory. In sale, possession comes by enabling: real property is taken by enabling, movables by custom. The payment of capital in a salam must be made at the session of the contract. In a pledge, the debt is paid first, then the pledged item is handed over.Tasnim (raising the grave into a ridge, against leveling it)
In the jurists' usage tasnim is raising a grave above the ground by about a span or a little more; its opposite is tasttih (tasteeh), making the grave flat and level. All agree that raising the earth over a grave by about a span is recommended, and some Hanafis allow a little more, so that the grave is known, avoided and prayed for. The Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis recommend the ridge and dislike leveling, since leveling resembles the buildings of the world. The Shafi'is recommend leveling and hold it better. If a Muslim dies in a land outside the abode of Islam and cannot be moved to it, the better course is to level the grave and conceal it, for fear it will be dug up.Tasweed (making black or making a sayyid: honouring with the title sayyid, and dyeing or dressing in black)
Tasweed has two senses that the jurists treat: the first is honouring someone with the title sayyid, and the second is dyeing with black, the opposite of white. Under sovereignty they discuss the title for the Prophet in prayer and outside it, for others, for the hypocrite, and whether sayyid may be said of anyone but God. Under black they discuss dyeing with it, wearing it in mourning, condolence and dress, and blackening the face in discretionary punishment. Most schools dislike dyeing with black except in jihad and differ on the detail; the Shafi'is hold it forbidden.Taswiya (equality and levelling: rows, bowing, zakat shares, wives, judges, gifts, shuf'a, public places, graves)
Taswiya means justice and fairness in the language; its opposite is injustice. In the jurists' use it means equality in many matters: levelling the rows and the back in bowing in prayer, equal shares among the eight categories in zakat, equal turns among wives, equal treatment of two litigants before the judge, equal gifts among children, equal shares among those entitled to pre-emption, equal use of public places, and levelling the grave. Equal turns among wives and equal treatment of litigants are required by agreement; the other matters range between obligation and recommendation according to the school. On equal gifts to children, the Hanbalis hold it obligatory and the majority hold it recommended.Tatawwu (voluntary acts beyond the obligatory, in worship and in giving)
Tatawwu is giving freely; for the jurists it is what goes beyond the obligatory and the required, and the sunna, the recommended, the nafl and the desirable are used as the same word by most of them. It has counterparts among acts of worship, such as prayer, fasting, zakat, pilgrimage and holy war, and it covers giving, lending, endowment, bequest and lending of goods. It is recommended as a rule, and may become obligatory, such as giving food to one in dire need, or forbidden or disliked at times of prohibition. Its doer must be a Muslim, sane and discerning in worship, and sane, adult and of sound judgement in giving. The Malikis and Shafiis hold prayer the best of bodily worship, the Hanbalis holy war.Tatayyub (perfuming oneself)
Tatayyub is perfuming oneself; perfume is what has a pleasant smell, such as musk, camphor and rose. The rule is that it is a sunna for men and women; it is recommended for Friday and the festivals, is permitted to the fasting person for the Hanafis, and to the one in seclusion. In the pilgrimage garb it is forbidden after entering the state of consecration, and whoever perfumes himself owes a redemption; the rules for perfuming before entering it and for a perfumed garment differ between schools.Tatbiq (placing one palm on the other between the knees in bowing)
Tatbiq is the worshipper placing the back of one palm on the back of the other and setting them between his knees and thighs in bowing. Most jurists dislike it, on the report of Musab ibn Sad who was told that the early practice was abrogated and that the hands are to be placed on the knees. Ibn Masud and his companions Alqama and al-Aswad held tatbiq to be the sunna, and an-Nawawi explains that the abrogation had not reached them.Tawassul
Tawassul is making a means in supplication; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia details its kinds — through God's names and attributes, through faith and righteous works, and through the Prophet in life and on Judgment Day — and the scholars' disagreement over tawassul through him after his death.Ta'widh (amulets and incantations)
Ta'widh is in language from 'udha, to seek refuge, a charm or what one seeks protection by; in law it covers incantations (ruqa) and amulets (tamima) and the like, lawful and unlawful, and ruqya is narrower. A tamima is a thread or beads hung on children against the evil eye; a wadi'a is a white object from the sea hung for the same purpose; a tawla is an object meant to make a wife or husband fond; a nushra is an incantation or writing washed and given to drink; a ratima is a thread tied to remember a need. The ruling depends on the material: charms in an unknown tongue are forbidden by most jurists, and the warning in the reports is read as applying to belief that the bead averts harm. Charms of God's words or names in Arabic that can be understood are allowed by most, on condition that the power is God's. Charms with names other than God's are disliked. Al-Sha'bi, Sa'id ibn Jubayr, Qatada and others disliked incantation as a matter of trust in God. On breathing over the sick during incantation, al-Nawawi reports agreement that it is allowed and most recommend it; others such as Ibrahim and Ikrima dissent. The nushra is allowed by most Hanafis, Shafiis and Hanbalis; Ibn Abd al-Salam among the Malikis, al-Hasan and al-Nakha'i forbid it, and Mujahid disliked writing verses and washing them. The ratima for memory is not disliked by Ibn Abidin, and disliked by others as idle; the ratima hung on the neck in the time of ignorance is forbidden. Healing by the Qur'an is disputed: some say it is healing of hearts only, while most jurists permit reciting it over the sick, choosing a suitable passage; a report of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri on the Opening chapter and a fee is cited, and Ibn Hajar discusses the report that only the protective surahs may be used. Healing by approved prayers and remembrance is allowed by agreement, as in the report of Uthman ibn Abi al-As with the hand on the place of pain. The tawla is forbidden by the Hanafis as a form of sorcery; Ibn Rislan of the Shafiis thought an object with permitted speech or food, believed to have a property by God's decree, is allowed. Most scholars hold the evil eye real and able to harm property, people and animals; some naturalists and innovators denied it. Protection from the evil eye includes reciting prayers, the one who admires blessing what he admires, seeking a cure by incantation, and ordering the one who causes the evil eye to wash, the victim then bathing in the water; Ibn Battal said a known eye-striker should be restrained, which Nawawi calls the sound view. The people of ignorance hung amulets for protection, which Islam abolished in the reports on the tamima and the wadi'a. Hanging beads, threads or bones on a person is forbidden. Hanging writing of unknown charms is forbidden. Hanging Qur'an or approved prayers is disputed: allowed by Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn al-As and one view of Ahmad; forbidden by Ibn Mas'ud, Ibn Abbas, Hudhayfa, Uqba ibn Amir, Ibn Hakim, many Successors and one view of Ahmad, to block the means. Those who allow it require it to be in a tube or on a strip, not worn during intercourse or relief, and only after the harm has come. Hanging an amulet on a clean animal is disliked; on an unclean one it is forbidden. Those who allow amulets see no harm in a junub or menstruating woman wearing one that is wrapped or sewn in leather. Whether a non-Muslim may recite over a Muslim is disputed: the Hanafis, al-Shafi'i and one view of Malik allow it with the Qur'an and the name of God, while Malik in another view disliked it. A Muslim reciting over a non-Muslim is allowed by agreement. Taking a fee for amulets and incantations is allowed by most jurists; al-Zuhri disliked it for the Qur'an in all cases.Tayyib (purity and lawfulness)
The attribute of deeds, wealth, words and beliefs that God accepts — tayyib, the pure — as opposed to khabith, the foul; in his commentary on Abu Hurayra's hadith 'God is pure and accepts only what is pure' Ibn Rajab explains tayyib as the pure, God being exalted above all defect, and transmits two readings of 'He accepts only what is pure': a specific reading confining it to alms — only lawfully gained charity being accepted, as in the hadith 'no one gives charity of pure earnings but God accepts only the pure' — and a broader reading making purity a condition of deeds through freedom from corrupting motives such as showing off and conceit, and of wealth through lawfulness, since deeds, words and beliefs are all described as pure or foul; hence the Quran's contrast between the good word like a good tree and the foul word like a foul tree, and the Prophet's description as one who permits the pure things and forbids the foul.Tazahum (crowding, and competing claims)
Tazahum is crowding, pressing against one another in a place. It is forbidden if it hurts someone or leads to a forbidden act. It covers a follower's crowding in prostration, the use of signs at the Black Stone in circumambulation, competing creditors of an insolvent debtor, competing bequests, and killing in a crowd.Three sources of economic support: voluntary aid, obligatory zakat, and the good loan
Sha'rawi holds that Islam built economic life on three things: voluntary aid (rifd), obligatory zakat, and the good loan. A person in need who lacks the first two turns to the loan, and documenting debt protects the one who works and earns.Tiryaq (antidote compound, and whether it may be taken)
Tiryaq is a medicine used against poison, of several kinds, and it may contain viper flesh. The Hanbalis do not allow eating or drinking it when the flesh of a viper is in it, since the flesh is forbidden and no forbidden thing may be used for cure. The Hanafis and Shafi'is forbid it in the apparent view, though some allow it when a cure is known and no other remedy exists. The Malikis allow eating a viper that is slaughtered properly.Turab (earth and dust)
Turab is the surface of the earth, a generic noun; the jurists imply that sand and rock dust are not turab, though some schools give them its ruling. Tayammum is valid with any clean earth that has dust clinging to the hand. The Shafi'is and Hanbalis require earth with water to clean the vessel licked by a dog, while the Hanafis and Malikis do not. Eating earth deliberately breaks a fast, and the jurists differ on selling it.Udhn (the ear: newborn's call, injury and blood-money, the woman's nakedness, sacrifice and ablution)
The ear (udhn) is the organ of hearing, distinct from hearing itself. Rulings attach to it: the call to prayer in a newborn's right ear, the duty to shut out what is forbidden, the blood-money for injury to it, its place in a woman's nakedness, the fact that it does not stand for the whole person, and its status in sacrifice and marking. p.2023} p.2024} p.2025}The limb (udw) and its rulings in purity, injury and burial
In the lexicon, udw is any bone surrounded by flesh, of a person or an animal; its root sense is cutting and separating, and it refers to a distinct part of the body. In purity, the duty of washing attaches to what remains of an amputated limb: if the cut is above the elbow or ankle, washing of what is cut off falls away; the Malikis do not wash the stump of an elbow. The jurists agree that an extra limb growing in the place of washing must be washed; they differ when it grows elsewhere. A limb separated from a living person is buried without washing or prayer; for a dead person's separated part, the Hanafis and Malikis wash and pray over it only where it is more than half the body, while the Shafi'is and the main Hanbali view pray over any part of a dead Muslim whose death is known. A limb cut from a living animal is carrion, except fish and locusts; a human limb is subject to retaliation when deliberately injured where it can be matched, and otherwise to blood-money or an assessed award.Ummi (unlettered, and the prayer of one who cannot recite)
Ummi is one who is attributed to his mother, and it is used for one who can neither read nor write, since reading and writing are acquired. For one who cannot recite the opening surah, the views differ: some have him repeat what he can recite seven times, al-Shafi'i and Ahmad have him praise God in place of the recitation, and Abu Hanifa and some Malikis have him pray without recitation.The lesser pilgrimage (umra): its forms, pillars, obligations and invalidation
In the lexicon, 'umra is a visit; as a term most jurists define it as circling the House and running between Safa and Marwa in the state of ihram. The Malikis and Hanafis hold it a confirmed sunna, some Hanafis hold it obligatory once in a lifetime, and the sounder view of the Shafi'is and Hanbalis is that it is an obligation once in a lifetime. It may be performed alone, combined with the pilgrimage (tamattu') or in one ihram with it (qiran); the majority hold that the one who combines needs only one circuit and one running. The majority hold its pillars to be three: ihram, circumambulation and running, and the Shafi'is add shaving; the Hanafis hold circumambulation alone to be its pillar. Running and shaving or clipping the hair are obligatory according to the majority. Performing it in Ramadan is recommended, repeating it is encouraged, some disliked repeating it in the months of pilgrimage, and the best place to enter ihram for it is disputed. It is invalidated by omitting a pillar or by a voiding act before release; the compensation for that is disputed, and performing it on behalf of another person is permitted by the majority.Goods of trade (urud) and zakat on them
In the lexicon, urud is the plural of ard, and one sense of ard is goods. Abu Ubayd defined urud as merchandise that is not measured by volume or weight and is neither an animal nor real estate. As a technical term, ard is all property other than the currencies, of every kind: plants, animals, real estate and other property. The jurists hold that zakat is due on goods of trade when its conditions are met, relying on the Qur'an, on prophetic reports and on the reasoning that goods held for gain are, like livestock and the two precious metals, prepared for growth. The detailed rules are treated under «zakat».The naked person and the rules of bathing, prayer and tawaf (uryan)
In the lexicon, a naked person (uryan) is one stripped of clothing, the opposite of dressing, and the technical sense does not differ from this. Bathing naked in front of people is forbidden according to all jurists; when alone it is permitted but disliked, and covering oneself is recommended even then. Entering a bathhouse is permitted according to the majority, provided no part of the body that must be covered is exposed. Covering the private parts is a condition for a valid prayer according to the majority; one who cannot cover himself prays naked, and the manner of his prayer differs between the schools. Whether one who prayed naked must repeat the prayer after finding a covering is disputed. Covering is also required for tawaf, so a naked person able to cover himself may not validly circumambulate.Sihha (validity in law: what makes an act valid, its difference from ijza' and from void acts, the effect of health on duties, and the rules of sound hadith)
In the principles of law validity is one of the kinds of legal rulings: the act's agreement with the law. For the majority it covers acts of worship and contracts; for the Hanafis, in worship, it means that the duty to repeat is cleared, and in contracts that its effect follows. Ijza' is agreement with the lawgiver's command by having all its conditions; the Hanafis take voidness in contract to be an act that is unlawful in its root or its attribute. Health of the body is a condition for some duties, such as leading prayer, jihad and the pilgrimage, but not for stoning or retaliation. The hadith scholars set five conditions for a sound hadith.The vision of God as the highest bliss
Sha'rawi holds that the highest bliss of the Hereafter is God's good pleasure and the vision of Him. The believer worships God because He is worthy of worship, not only for blessing, and paradise has degrees according to the intention of the worshipper. He reports a saying of Rabi'a al-Adawiyya, without reproducing its verses.Voluntary charity (sadaqa al-tatawwu': its kinds, who gives and who receives, the property given, intention, secrecy, and withdrawal)
In the law, charity (sadaqa) is a transfer of ownership without return, sought for the reward of the Hereafter. The word covers zakat and voluntary charity, and jurists usually mean the voluntary kind when it is used alone. Charity is recommended by texts of the Qur'an and the Sunna, and it is more meritorious in Ramadan, the excellent days, the holy places and times of need. Only a person with capacity to give and owning the property may give; a young child who cannot discern cannot give, and gifts may be made to a child, a person under restraint, the rich, and, by the varying views of the schools, non-Muslims. The property should be lawful, good and of high quality, and should exceed the giver's own needs and those he supports; giving with reproach or hurt is forbidden, secret giving is better, and there is no withdrawal once given.Wadi (the thick white fluid after urine: its purity, ablution and bath)
Wadi in the lexical sense is the thick white fluid that comes after urine or on lifting a heavy weight; it also means the young palm shoots. It differs from semen, which comes with desire, and from madhi, which is thin and comes with desire; wadi comes after urine. Most jurists hold wadi impure, and the Hanbalis hold that what is not eaten is impure, while the flesh of the animal eaten is pure. It must be removed when needed, by water or stones, and its exit requires only ablution, not bathing, on the report of Ibn Abbas; its exit breaks the ablution by agreement. One who wakes with a wet mark and is unsure whether it is semen or wadi or something else is not bound to bathe, according to most jurists; the Shafi'is let him choose the rule that fits the probable one.Wadi Muhassir (the valley between Mina and Muzdalifa on the pilgrimage)
Wadi Muhassir is the valley that lies between Mina and Muzdalifa and belongs to neither; it is named for Abraha's elephant, which stumbled there. Pilgrims are recommended to hasten for about a stone's throw when they reach it after leaving Muzdalifa, since the Prophet moved his camel gently at the valley's bed, and the jurists note that it is a place where punishment fell. Passing it, the prayer of Umar ibn al-Khattab is recommended. Most jurists hold that Wadi Muhassir is neither Mina nor Muzdalifa and that standing there does not suffice, on the Prophet's words that the whole of Muzdalifa is a place of standing and that one should leave the bed of Muhassir. Some Shafi'is say it is part of Mina, citing the report of al-Fadl ibn Abbas.Wajh (the face: washing in ablution, tayammum, covering and looking, and the face in supplication)
Wajh in the lexical sense comes from confronting; it is the front of anything, and in a person it runs from the hairline down to the chin and across between the earlobes. Washing the face is required in ablution, and wiping it is a pillar of tayammum by agreement. Most jurists hold that a free adult woman's face is not an intimate part, while some Hanbalis hold it is; looking at a woman's face with desire, or where temptation is feared, is forbidden. Jurists rebuke a young woman who uncovers her face before unrelated men out of fear of temptation; some Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold that the men must lower their gaze and the woman is not obliged to cover her face in the street. Striking or branding the face is forbidden, in man or beast, by the Prophet's prohibition. The Hanafis and Malikis forbid a pilgrim in ihram from covering his face, while the Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow it. The Hanafis and, in the accepted view, the Shafi'is allow wiping the face with the hands after supplication, and the Shafi'is recommend it.Wajib (the obligatory: kinds, grades and how it is discharged)
The obligatory (wajib) in the technical sense is, for the Hanafis, what is required by evidence that admits doubt, and for the majority what the law blames one for omitting in some respect. The Hanafis hold the fard to be what is established by certain evidence and the wajib by probable evidence, such as the alms of the breaking of the fast and the sacrifice; for the majority the two terms are synonymous in the law. The grades of obligation differ, for the Shafi'is by the blame attached to omission, and for the Hanafis by the strength of the evidence. An obligation is individual or collective, specific or optional, timed or untimed; a timed one is narrow or broad, and is immediate or may be delayed. If an obligation is missed through delay it must be made up, or repaired by expiation; the insane, the menstruating and the child are excused the making up for reasons of mercy. On exceeding an obligation, the schools differ: the Hanafis rule on what the law specifies, the Malikis dislike the excess, and the Shafi'is and Hanbalis distinguish an excess that can be separated from one that cannot. For the Shafi'is an obligation may arise and then fall away when the cause and the bar conflict.Waqt (time, fiqh)
Waqt, lexically, is a fixed measure of time set for a matter, or the end of the time fixed for an act, as in the miqat of the pilgrimage; technically it is a measure of time, or of time fixed for a thing or an act. Related words: sa'a, the hour, which can mean any moment, and is used for the Last Hour and for death; and dahr, which can mean any length of time. Waqt is a part of dahr. First, the best times: the jurists agree that some times are better than others by the favour God has placed in them, not by qualities within them; Ibn Rajab cites the sacred months, the pilgrimage, Ramadan, the Night of Power and the first ten days of Dhu al-Hijja. Second, the time of menstruation, its least and greatest length, and the least and greatest length of purity, detailed under their headings. Third, the time of the call to prayer: the jurists agree it is the time of the prescribed prayer; it may not be called before the time, except for dawn, since that would confuse people. Fourth, the times of prayer: the five prayers are fixed by agreement; detail under the prayer times. Fifth, the time when zakat becomes due: the jurists agree that livestock, money and trade goods require a full year in the owner's hands, on the saying that there is no zakat on property until a year has passed over it; crops and fruit are due at harvest; minerals and buried treasure when obtained. Sixth, the time when the fast of Ramadan becomes due: the month's arrival, shown by seeing the new moon on the evening of the thirtieth of Sha'ban, or by completing thirty days of Sha'ban, on the verse of sura al-Baqara. Hajj: the time for entering the pilgrimage state is, for the majority of jurists, the months of Shawwal, Dhu al-Qa'da and the first ten days of Dhu al-Hijja, on the verse of sura al-Baqara. The umra may be performed at any time of the year, and the jurists differ on the times when it is disliked. Worship divided by its time of performance: unrestricted and time-bound, detailed under performance. Performing an act when the time is short, making up what is missed, the timing of the natural practices of purity, and the time of the aqiqa are all treated under their own headings. The maxim of attributing an event to the nearest time: when an event occurs and its time is disputed, it is attributed to the time nearest the present, unless it is proved to belong to a distant time. Examples the book gives: a wife claims that her husband divorced her during a terminal illness and seeks inheritance, while the heirs say it was during his health; the word of the wife prevails, since the divorce is referred to the nearer time, unless the heirs prove that the husband died in health. A restricted person, or his guardian, who claims a sale was made after the judgement of restriction is believed, since the later date is nearer; a buyer must prove the earlier date. A buyer who was released from defects present at the contract is believed on a defect arising later, because the absence of defect is the default. A father who sold his son's property is believed to have sold it before the son's majority when the son claims a sale after majority, since majority is the nearer time and the father must prove the default was broken.Wasat (the middle, moderation, the choice)
Wasat in the jurists' usage has three senses: the moderate, the choice, and what lies between two ends. The general rule is that what is due in each kind is its middling part; as an example, the zakat on livestock is the middling animal, on the report "but from the middle of your property". Flogging for penalties and discretionary punishment uses a middling whip, neither new and cutting nor worn and painless; stones for stoning are the size of a palm; and the feeding in expiation is of the middle quality of food eaten by one's household, a point on which the jurists differ in detail. In the sense of choice, wasat is used of the middle prayer, on whose identity the jurists differ at length. In the sense of what lies between two ends, it is recommended that the imam stand in the middle of the row; standing at its right or left wing is reported as contrary to the sunna. Women's imam stands in the middle of the women's row. Eating from the middle of a dish or bread is disliked, and sitting in the middle of a circle is disliked by most jurists and forbidden by some Shafi'is.Washm (tattooing)
In the lexicon washm is a mark, and the word is also used for the first green growth of a plant and for a change of skin colour from a blow or fall. Technically it is piercing the skin with a needle until blood comes, then rubbing on indigo or kohl so that the mark turns blue or green. A woman who is tattooed at her own request is the mustawshima, and the tattooer is the washima, who marks the face, arm, lips, chest or any part of the body. The wasm (branding) is a mark made by fire or by a stipulated sign; it differs from tattooing in its tool and its ruling. Most jurists hold tattooing forbidden, on sound reports cursing the tattooer and the one tattooed; some later Malikis and Shafi'is count it among the grave sins, and some later Malikis call it disliked. Some jurists exempt two cases: when tattooing is the only treatment for an illness, and when a wife tattoos herself to adorn herself for her husband with his permission; a report from A'isha on the second point is cited, its hadith source not found by the book. The jurists agree that tattooing is impure, because blood is held in the place where the dye was rubbed. They differ on removal: the Hanafis hold that washing suffices and skinning is not required, since the mark is hard to remove, and prayer and leading prayer are valid with it; the Malikis do not require removal by fire when it was done in the forbidden manner, treating it as a pardoned impurity; the Shafi'is require removal unless it risks harm that permits tayammum, and do not require it of a minor or a person forced; the Hanbalis compare it to a wound stitched with impure thread, so removal is not required where removal risks harm, and is required where it does not; a dead person who was bound to remove it is cleaned unless the cleaning would mutilate the body. For the Hanafis, the fee a tattooer takes for forbidden tattooing is unlawful gain and forbidden.Wasm (branding)
Wasm (branding) in the lexicon is the mark left by a burn. Branding animals is lawful, and the Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold it sunna for the camels, cattle and sheep of zakat, of fay' and of the poll-tax; zakat animals are marked with a word such as "zakat" or "sadaqa" and poll-tax animals with "jizya". The mark goes on a firm, visible place, the ear for sheep and the thigh for camels and cattle. Branding the face is forbidden according to the preferred Shafi'i view, on the report that the Prophet cursed whoever branded a donkey's face; the Malikis, the weaker Shafi'i view and some Hanbalis regard it as disliked. Branding a human being is forbidden by consensus unless it is for treatment.Waswasa (whispering doubts and scrupulosity)
Waswasa and wiswas in the lexicon mean a faint sound. In jurists' usage it has four senses: the passing thought and the hesitation within it; what Satan casts into a person's mind; the scruple that comes from excessive caution and scrupulousness, so that a person repeats an act many times; and the waswas, a man whose mind is disordered. A passing thought is forgiven to this community as long as no word or deed follows, so that a thought of theft or of divorce brings no sin and no divorce or vow takes effect, on the report that God overlooks for my community what its souls whisper. Repelling passing thoughts in prayer is lawful, and attentiveness is a virtue; Hanbali jurists differ on whether a prayer is void when whispering dominates it: Ibn Taymiyya says no, while Ibn Hamid and Ibn al-Jawzi say yes. Satanic whispering is repelled by remembrance of God, and al-Ghazali divides it into three kinds according to its source. Believers too suffer whispers of unbelief; Ibn Taymiyya holds that such a whisper that the believer hates and repels is a sign of pure faith, while one who answers it may fall into unbelief or hypocrisy. The scruple that comes from excess in caution is an exit from scrupulousness into rigidity; the jurists note that a matter not contested by two sound indicators is either clearly lawful or clearly forbidden, and that a bare imagined possibility carries no weight. Examples given include refusing marriage in a large city for fear of an unmentioned close relative, and the cases in the sunna of the woman who claimed to have suckled the groom and of the instruction to Sawda to veil from her half-brother. Al-Juwayni and Ibn al-Jawzi describe the practices of such people, including wasting water and washing clean clothes again and again, and note that the law is easy. The cause is a mistaken reading of the principle of caution and of avoiding doubtful things; the remedy is to follow the path of the early generations and avoid rigidity, as the Prophet warned against excess in religion and in ablution. Rules for the scrupulous person: a visible impurity is removed by peeling it off and the washes are counted as three for him; urinating where one bathes is disliked; sprinkling the private parts after cleansing is recommended by the Shafi'is and Hanbalis to cut off doubt, and the Hanafis allow that the one who is often troubled should sprinkle and then disregard any doubt. If doubt about the intention in ablution is mere imagination, the person continues without repeating; the Malikis hold that a scrupulous person's doubt counts as nothing; and a follower keeps pace with the imam and lags only for a real physical reason. A waswas who is out of his mind cannot divorce and his words cannot be apostasy; Ibn al-Qayyim reports this as agreed.Wa'z (admonition, fiqh)
Admonition (wa'z), lexically, is a rebuke joined with fear, and includes advice and reminding of consequences; technically it is reminding people of good in a way that softens the heart. Nasiha, sincere counsel, means calling to what is good and forbidding what is corrupt; the two share the call to good. The ruling: the basis is recommendation. Al-Haskafi says preaching from pulpits and being admonished is the practice of the prophets. It may be forbidden when it stirs up a calamity so that it becomes wailing, or when it aims at leadership, gain or popularity; the Hindiyya says a preacher may not beg from his audience during the sermon. The pillars of admonition: the preacher, the one admonished, and the method. Conditions of the preacher: sane, adult, just; a man of hadith, who has studied the hadith books and knows the sound from the weak; an exegete, who has studied the strange words and difficulties of the Qur'an; it is recommended that he be eloquent, gentle, speak to people only as far as they can understand, and make things easy rather than hard. The preacher's conduct: he should avoid acts that look wrong even if he is right, because people may take them as general permission, belittle him, think ill of him, reject his narrations, testimony and fatwas. If he must do such a thing, he should say it is not forbidden and explain its basis. The book cites the report of Sahl ibn Sa'd about the Prophet's pulpit, the report of Safiyya about the Prophet escorting her in the mosque, and the report of 'Ali drinking standing to show what he saw the Prophet do. Preventing the unqualified: the Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold that a person who takes up admonition without being qualified, or who lies, must be prevented, lest people be deceived by him. The heretic may attend only to refute him, as the verse of sura al-An'am (cited by sura and verse) indicates. Conduct of the listeners: they should listen and not talk among themselves; if they do not, the preacher may ask them to be silent, citing the report of Jarir that the Prophet asked the people to be silent at the Farewell Pilgrimage. Listening to the admonisher: the scholars hold that the learners must be silent before the learned, since scholars are the heirs of the prophets. The Prophet asked the people to be silent during his sermon at the Farewell Pilgrimage, and al-Thawri says the beginning of knowledge is listening, then silence, then memorising, then acting, then spreading. Manners of the listeners: they should face the preacher, not play or talk during the admonition, and not ask too many questions. If a question is strongly connected to the matter but too subtle for common people, the listener keeps silent during the session and asks in private or waits until the talk ends. The method of admonition. First, using clear words that convey the meaning and avoiding words the audience does not know, on the report of 'A'isha that the Prophet's speech was clear and that everyone who heard it understood. Second, repeating words when they are not understood without it, to give emphasis, or when the audience is large, on the report of Anas that the Prophet repeated a word three times until it was understood. Third, taking account of people's condition: not telling them what their minds cannot bear or what may be distorted as they retell it, following the saying of 'Ali, 'speak to people in what they know and leave aside what they would deny', and Ibn Mas'ud's saying that a speech that a group's minds cannot reach becomes a trial for some of them. Fourth, moderation: neither so long as to bore nor so short as to be unclear, on the report of 'Ammar that a long prayer and a short sermon are a sign of understanding. Fifth, the preacher should choose times when people are receptive, not admonish every day lest they tire, and fix a time such as Thursday, following the practice of Ibn Mas'ud. Sixth, knowing the wrong to be forbidden and the state of the one admonished: whether he committed it in ignorance or knowingly. The one who persists in a wrong known to be wrong, such as drinking, injustice or backbiting, is admonished by warning, fear of God and reports of threat, with kindness and without violence; admonition in private is better than in public, as Umm al-Darda' al-Sughra is reported to have said. Forbidding wrong by admonition: the admonisher must know the wrong and the state of the one admonished, whether he committed it in ignorance or knowingly. One who commits a wrong while knowing it, or persists after knowing it, is admonished and warned by fear of God, with reports of threat and the example of the pious ancestors, with kindness and without violence; in private is better; if it does not work he seeks the help of the righteous, and then of the authorities. A degree of forbidding is harsh speech, when gentleness has failed and persistence and mockery appear; the aim must be the wrongdoer's return, not the admonisher's own victory, citing Abraham's words in sura al-Anbiya' (by sura). What the admonisher should use from verses, hadith and stories: four kinds, namely the verses that warn sinners, the stories of the prophets and the pious ancestors, the teaching that punishment in this world is expected for a sin, and the particular punishments of particular sins such as wine, adultery, theft, murder and backbiting. Admonition in other chapters of law: (a) admonishing a wife who is disobedient, by the verse of sura al-Nisa', the detail under disobedience. (b) admonishing parties to a lian: the Malikis and Shafi'is recommend warning them before the oath and at the fifth oath, reading to them the verse of sura Al 'Imran, and saying to them what the Prophet said to those who swore lian; the Hanbalis recommend that the imam admonish them after the fourth oath and before the fifth, with a man's hand on the mouth of the husband and a woman's on the wife's. (c) admonition before the prayer for rain: most jurists recommend it. (d) admonition after the eclipse prayer: the Malikis recommend it; the Hanafis and Hanbalis hold that the eclipse prayer has no sermon, the Shafi'is recommend two sermons. Admonishing the ruler: there is no dispute that the ruler may be admonished and enjoined to good and forbidden from wrong when he is just. The jurists differ on a tyrant. The Hanafis, Shafi'is and a Hanbali report permit gentle and mild admonition; the Shafi'is and Ibn al-Jawzi forbid harsh speech to him, such as calling him an oppressor, if it would stir a sedition whose harm would reach others, but permit it if the harm falls on the admonisher alone, on the saying that the greatest struggle is a word of justice before an unjust ruler. The Malikis hold it obligatory to admonish and warn the ruler of the consequences in this world and the next; Abu 'Umar says this is most binding on those who associate with him and can advise him, and Malik adds, when there is hope of being heard. A Hanbali report holds that leaving off the denunciation of an unjust ruler is better; Ahmad is reported to have said not to confront the ruler, for his sword is drawn; where denunciation is allowed it must be done gently, citing God's words to Moses and Aaron in sura Ta-Ha. Admonishing rebels: when the imam sends someone to explain the right course to rebels who refuse to return, the Malikis and Hanbalis hold it obligatory to admonish them and warn them of fighting, since the aim is to restrain them and not to kill them; if they return by words, that is better than fighting, and if not they are fought, on the verse of sura al-Hujurat. The Hanafis hold that the people of justice should call the rebels to justice, citing the report that 'Ali sent Ibn 'Abbas to the Haruriyya to argue with them; the Shafi'is recommend admonishing them with encouragement and warning. Earning by admonition: it is not lawful for the admonisher to ask his audience for anything for himself in the session, since this is earning worldly gain by knowledge; the Hanafis and Hanbalis hold so. Women attending admonition sessions: the Hanafis and Shafi'is dislike the attendance of young women for fear of temptation, and allow older women, citing the report of 'A'isha that the women of the Children of Israel were forbidden the mosque.Wearing a ring
Wearing a ring means putting a ring on a finger. Jurists examine it by the metal of the ring, where it is worn, its weight, number, inscription and stone. Gold is lawful for women and forbidden to men; silver is lawful for women and, with differences between the schools, for men.God's guardianship of the believers
Sha'rawi holds that God's guardianship of believers begins with setting out the proofs before faith, continues with help and support after it, and ends in reward in the Hereafter. He reads darkness and light as ignorance and faith, and holds that those who disbelieve are brought out from light to darkness by taghut.Wird (litanies and daily devotional portions)
Wird (plural awrad) is, in the lexicon, a fixed portion of recitation or other practice; in the technical sense it is what a person sets himself each day or night as a regular act. The related term hizb is a practice a person keeps up, such as prayer or recitation, and its technical sense does not depart from the lexical one. Al-Ghazali treats the awrad as the path to meeting God, since love and intimacy come only from constant remembrance, which in turn needs leaving worldly concerns to what is necessary. The virtue of remembrance is supported by Qur'an passages in several surahs (al-Ahzab, al-Ankabut, al-Nisa', al-Baqara) and by a hadith on those who go ahead by remembering God often; Ibn Abbas explains remembrance as practised after prayers, on going to sleep and on leaving home. Because the soul tires of one kind of act, varying the awrad keeps them pleasant and sustained. Prayer is the best of the awrad, and half of its right is the outward and inward work; six inward acts are to be observed in it: presence of heart, understanding, reverence, awe, hope and modesty. Attending the congregation in the nearest mosque, in the first row, and without worldly talk is recommended. Recitation of the Qur'an is the best remembrance, and its amount varies with the reader: a man busy with teaching or judging keeps to what does not disturb his work, and others recite as much as they can without tiring. The Qur'an is divided into seven portions by length; the division is reported through a report from Aws ibn Hudhayfa, which Ibn Abd al-Barr judged not firmly established. Transmitted supplications and remembrances belong to the awrad, while devising remembrances unsupported by the Book and the sunna is to be avoided; al-Sha'rani records a covenant to that effect, and Ibn Allan reports from al-Nawawi that the practices of the shaykhs may be followed where they do not depart from the transmitted. The principle is constancy: a small act done regularly is loved by God, while an act abandoned loses its effect. The seven daytime awrad run from dawn to sunset: first the supplication, remembrance, recitation and reflection after the dawn prayer, then the forenoon prayer, then work and a midday rest, then the prayer after noon, then Qur'an reflection in the afternoon, and finally glorification and seeking forgiveness until sunset. The night awrad include the voluntary prayers between maghrib and isha, the recitation of transmitted surahs and the witr before sleep, moderate sleep, the night prayer in the later part of the night, and seeking forgiveness at dawn. The awrad vary with the state of the person: the devotee gives his time to worship and recitation; the scholar to teaching and writing; the student to learning; the ruler gives the needs of Muslims precedence over his own awrad; the craftsman joins remembrance to his work and gives away what he does not need; and one absorbed in love of God moves according to what his practice calls for. A missed wird should be made up, and a sound report says that whoever sleeps through his night portion and reads it between dawn and noon is credited as if he read it at night. Certain months, days and nights are given extra merit for devotion, and the entry refers the detail to other headwords.Wirk (the hip; tawarruk and retaliation)
Wirk (hip) in the lexicon is the joint between the thigh and the leg; a person has two, above the thighs, and the technical sense does not depart from this. Sitting with the hip down (tawarruk) in the tashahhud is recommended in general. The Malikis apply it to every sitting in prayer; the Shafi'is and Hanbalis to the final tashahhud; the Hanbalis do not apply it to prayers with only one tashahhud, such as dawn and Friday prayers; the Hanafis prescribe spreading the leg (iftirash) for men and tawarruk for women. The Hanbalis differ on tawarruk in the tashahhud after forgetfulness prostrations; al-Qadi applies it in every such tashahhud. On retaliation, the jurists agree in general that a leg cut at its root in the hip is subject to retaliation, since equal cutting is possible, once the general conditions for retaliation on limbs are met. On the blood-money for a leg cut at the hip there is disagreement: the majority of Malikis and Hanbalis and Abu Yusuf hold that the full sum of fifty camels applies, as in the report of Amr ibn Hazm; Abu Hanifa, Muhammad, the Shafi'is and al-Qadi among the Hanbalis add an assessed compensation for the part above the ankles to the sum for the foot. When a leg is cut at the ankle and then at the knee or hip, an assessed compensation is owed for the second cut by agreement.Wisal (continuous fasting)
In fasting, wisal means, for most jurists, fasting two or more days with no break between them. Some Shafi'is define it as fasting two or more days without taking any food on purpose during the night without excuse; by their view intercourse at night does not turn it into a different case. Some Hanafis define it as fasting the whole year and not breaking the fast on the days when fasting is forbidden. Most jurists (Hanafis, Malikis, Hanbalis and some Shafi'is) hold wisal disliked for the community, because the prohibition was an act of mercy; the preferred Shafi'i view is that it is forbidden for the community and permitted for the Prophet. Some early authorities distinguished: permitted for one who is not harmed, who does not imitate the People of the Book and does not turn away from the sunna of breaking the fast early; this is reported of Ibn al-Zubayr and some Successors, who argued that the Prophet himself continued fasting with his companions after the prohibition. For the Prophet, most jurists hold wisal permitted; Imam al-Haramayn holds it an act of devotion for him. Among the views on his words that he is fed and watered by his Lord: the food is from Paradise; or he is given the strength of one who eats and drinks; or the love of God occupies him from food. The Hanbalis do not hold wisal until suhur disliked, though leaving it is better for keeping the sunna of early breaking; the Shafi'is hold that delaying the meal to suhur for any proper purpose is not wisal. The Shafi'is give as the reason for the prohibition that the one who continues may grow weak in fasting, prayer and other acts, or tire of them, or harm his body; the Hanbalis say it is mercy. Wisal does not void the fast, according to the Shafi'is and most jurists, because the prohibition does not concern the fast itself. Most jurists hold that intercourse on a night of wisal ends it, because the one who has intercourse does not keep all the features of a fasting person; some Shafi'is say it does not leave the case of wisal. On wisal in prayer, few jurists define it; a hadith forbids continuing in prayer, and al-Shafi'i, as reported to Ahmad, lists cases such as the follower saying amin together with the imam's 'wa la al-dallin', the imam joining the takbir to the recitation, the follower joining his opening takbir to the imam's, and joining the two final salutations. Al-Ghazali lists five cases and the jurists give rulings for them: whether a follower's opening takbir joined to the imam's invalidates his prayer is disputed; amin is recommended after a short pause following the Fatiha; and the majority hold that a pause between the opening takbir and the recitation, by the opening supplication, is sunna.Duty of the Hajj: immediate or deferrable
The jurists' dispute over when the pilgrimage becomes due for one who is able. Rashid Rida reports that many scholars of law and transmission hold it immediate, and others hold it deferrable. He lists the reports used by the first view and records the weakness attributed to them, and advises caution against delay without a valid excuse. On the sense of ability he reports Muhammad Abduh's reading.Wujub (obligation as a state of the duty-bearer, and the difference from performance)
Wujub in the lexical sense is affirmation and binding, a falling to the ground, and death; for the jurists it is the occupation of the duty-bearer's obligation by the duty, and for the usuli scholars it is the link of the command to the acts of the responsible person. Command (iljab) is the demand of an act with a prohibition of leaving it, and the obligatory is the act of the person himself; when a ruling is attributed to the lawgiver it is called iljab, and when attributed to the person it is called wujub. The Shafi'i Zarkashi holds no difference between wujub and wujub al-ada (obligation to perform), while most Hanafis distinguish them: wujub is the debt laid on the person, and wujub al-ada is the demand to discharge it.Yawm al-Jumu'a (Friday, fiqh)
Yawm al-jumu'a is the last day of the week; before Islam it was called the day of al-'Aruba, and some say Ka'b ibn Lu'ayy first named it al-jumu'a, while others say it was named in Islam for the gathering in the mosque. In fiqh it carries rules of its own: the Friday prayer is an individual duty on adult Muslim males; the washing for it is sunna on the majority view, with disputes over its time and whether it is for the day or the prayer; fasting it alone is disliked on the majority view; it holds an hour of answered prayer; adornment is recommended; and sale is forbidden at the call to the prayer.Yawm al-nahr (the day of sacrifice, fiqh)
Yawm al-nahr is the tenth of Dhu al-Hijja, so named for the abundance of sacrifices and offerings slaughtered in it; the days of sacrifice are three on the Hanafi, Maliki, Hanbali and Thawri view and four on the Shafi'i. Many jurists call it the day of the greater hajj on Ibn Umar's hadith in Abu Dawud, and they dispute whether it, the day of Arafa, or Friday is the best of days. In it the stoning of the Aqaba pillar is obligatory on the majority view; fasting it is forbidden on the majority view and disliked to the degree of prohibition on the Hanafi; it is sunna for the sacrificer to hold back from food until he breaks his fast on his sacrifice's liver; and for the non-pilgrim the eid prayer, takbir, the udhiya and congratulation are prescribed, while they dispute its sermon at Mina.Yawm al-Sabt (Saturday, fiqh)
Sabt lexically is rest, ceasing, an age, and a day of the week; the sabbath of the Jews is their ceasing from work and gain, and the jurists use the word in its lexical sense. Among its rules: fasting it alone is disliked on the majority view, on the hadith forbidding its fast except what is obligatory; and it bears on the treatment of Jews — the Hanbalis do not object to a Muslim pressing his Jewish wife to break her sabbath where his right is due, a Jew who fails to claim pre-emption because of his sabbath loses it, and a Jew is summoned to court on his sabbath on the Hanafi and Shafi'i view.Yawm al-Shakk (the day of doubt, fiqh)
Yawm al-shakk is a juristic term for the thirtieth of Sha'ban when the sighting of Ramadan's crescent is not legally established; it is so named because it may be the first of Ramadan. The schools differ on its definition and on the ruling of fasting it: the Hanafis allow only supererogatory fasting with a distinction between the select and the common people, the Malikis bar a precautionary fast for Ramadan, the Shafi'is on the sound view do not permit it without a reason, and the Hanbalis dislike a fast intended precautionarily as Ramadan.Yawm Arafa (the day of Arafa, fiqh)
Yawm Arafa is the ninth of Dhu al-Hijja; the pilgrimage is completed by the standing at Arafa, a pillar established by the Sunna and consensus, so whoever omits it or delays it past its time has lost the pilgrimage. The jurists agree its time ends at the dawn of the day of the sacrifice and differ on when it begins, on whether joining night and day is obligatory, and on whether intention is required.Zakat (alms tax)
Jurists define zakat as the transfer of a prescribed portion of a prescribed property to a prescribed recipient, the third pillar (pp. 43, 45). The book lists nisab for camels (5), cattle (30) and sheep (40), gold (20 mithqal) and silver (200 dirhams) at a quarter-tenth, land at a tenth or half-tenth by irrigation, and one-fifth on minerals and treasure (pp. 46-47). Banknotes and shares are zakatable (p. 46). The eight recipient categories are listed (pp. 48-49); the book says the muallafa lapsed after the Prophet but cites al-Shawkani for their continuance (p. 49). The author offers his own reading of the rate (p. 50). The 1965 Academy conference resolutions are reported on p. 54, with a date the book prints in conflicting forms.Visiting graves
Visiting graves is lawful for the sake of remembering the hereafter, greeting those buried and praying for them, as the Prophet allowed. Visiting in order to pray there, circle the grave or seek help from its occupant is, in Ibn Qayyim's view as the extract presents it, an innovation and a form of shirk.
Practice
The call to prayer (adhan)
The public call to prayer in its fixed formula: Allahu akbar, the two testimonies, 'hurry to prayer' and 'hurry to success', with an added phrase at dawn.Aqiqah
Aqiqah is the animal slaughtered for the newborn; Fiqh al-Sunna calls it a confirmed sunna that the Prophet and his Companions performed.Ashura
The tenth of Muharram; Quraysh fasted it in the Jahiliyya and the Prophet fasted it and ordered its fast until Ramadan made it voluntary; in 61 AH Husayn ibn Ali was killed at Karbala on this day, and the Shi'a adopted it as a day of mourning.Burial
BurialDhikr (remembrance of God)
Repeating God's names, tasbih and istighfar, alone and in gatherings — 'in the remembrance of God hearts find rest'; the Sufi orders built litanies and assemblies on it.Du'a (supplication)
Supplication to God; the Qur'an says 'call on Me, I answer you', scholars call it the marrow of worship, with etiquettes from facing the qibla to raising the hands.Eid al-Adha
The festival of sacrifice on 10 Dhu al-Hijjah at the close of the Hajj — the udhiyah, its distribution, and the Eid prayer.Eid al-Fitr
The festival closing Ramadan on 1 Shawwal — the Eid prayer, zakat al-fitr, feasts and visits; the Muslim world's widest celebration.Ritual bath (ghusl)
The major ritual bath after intimacy, menstruation and postpartum — water over the whole body with intention before prayer.Washing the deceased
Washing the deceasedHajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca)
The journey to the Sacred House at Mecca to perform prescribed rites, one of the five pillars; the Qur'an makes it a duty for those who are able to make the way there, and tells of the call to proclaim it to the people.Hifz al-Qur'an (memorisation)
Hifz al-Qur'an (memorisation)Ijaza (teaching licence)
Ijaza (teaching licence)Istikhara (guidance prayer)
Two rak'as and the istikhara supplication before a decision one wavers over; the Prophet taught his companions it as he taught a sura of the Qur'an.I'tikaf (retreat)
Staying in the mosque for worship, especially in the last ten nights of Ramadan; the Prophet kept it until his death, and his wives after him.Expiation for oaths
Expiation for oathsCompleting a Qur'an recital
Completing a Qur'an recitalThe sermon (khutba)
The sermon(s) before Friday and Eid prayers; a condition of the Friday prayer for most schools, containing praise of God, exhortation and supplication.Laylat al-Qadr vigil
Laylat al-Qadr vigilThe miswak (tooth-stick)
Cleaning the mouth with an arak twig; a sunna of the Prophet that remains an everyday dental tool in many homes today.Nadhr (vow)
Nadhr (vow)Nikah (marriage contract)
Nikah (marriage contract)Qiyam al-Layl (night vigil)
Qiyam al-Layl (night vigil)Journey in quest of knowledge
Journey in quest of knowledgeSadaqa (voluntary charity)
Sadaqa (voluntary charity)Sa'i (walking between Safa and Marwa)
Walking seven times between Safa and Marwa in hajj and umrah, in memory of Hagar seeking water for her son Ishmael.Salah (the prescribed prayer)
The prescribed prayer, five times in the day and night, one of the five pillars of Islam; the Qur'an commands establishing it and calls it a timed obligation on the believers, and the hadith adds that other prayers are voluntary.Duha prayer
Duha prayerRain prayer (istisqa)
Rain prayer (istisqa)The funeral prayer
Prayer over the dead standing, without bowing or prostration — four takbirs with the Fatiha, blessing the Prophet and supplication for the deceased; a communal obligation.Friday congregational prayer
Friday congregational prayerPrayer in fear (salat al-khawf)
Prayer performed in fear of an enemy. Sha'rawi holds that the prayer does not lapse at the meeting with the enemy. He reads the detailed forms the jurists describe as belonging to battles that the Prophet led, and in his own view, after the Prophet's death each group may have its own imam.Eclipse prayer
Eclipse prayerWitr prayer
Witr prayerSama' and Mevlevi whirling
Sama' and Mevlevi whirlingFasting in Ramadan
Fasting through the month of Ramadan; the Qur'an prescribes it and says that whoever witnesses the month should fast it, with a number of other days for the sick and the traveller.Suhur (pre-dawn meal)
Suhur (pre-dawn meal)Sujud al-tilawa (prostration of recitation)
Sujud al-tilawa is a prostration made when reciting one of the Qur'an's prostration verses; the Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia devotes a section to its rulings and its repetition in a single sitting.Tahajjud
Tahajjud is night prayer after sleep; al-Bukhari gives it a dedicated 'Book of Tahajjud' in his Sahih.Tajwid (Qur'anic recitation rules)
Tajwid (Qur'anic recitation rules)Taraweeh night prayers
Ramadan night prayer in congregation after 'isha'; a confirmed sunna in Sunni practice, most intense in the last ten nights.Tawaf (circling the Kaaba)
Circling the Kaaba seven times in hajj, umrah and voluntary rites; beginning and ending at the Black Stone with the Kaaba on the left.Tayammum (dry ablution)
Tayammum (dry ablution)Condolence (ta'ziya)
Condolence (ta'ziya)Udhiyya (Eid sacrifice)
Udhiyya (Eid sacrifice)Umrah
UmrahWudu (ablution)
The minor water ablution before prayer and some rites: washing face and hands, wiping the head, washing the feet — set out in Sura al-Ma'ida.Zakat (obligatory alms)
The obligatory alms, one of the five pillars; the Qur'an pairs it with prayer and names its recipients in the verse on alms, among them those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and the hadith of Jibril calls it the 'obligatory' alms to set it apart from voluntary giving.Zakat al-Fitr
Zakat al-Fitr
Question
What are the two Eids in Islam?
There are two Eids in the year: Eid al-Fitr, after Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha, in Dhu al-Hijja on the day of sacrifice. Each has a congregational prayer on the morning of the Eid.What is Ashura?
Ashura is the tenth of Muharram. The Prophet fasted it in thanks for the deliverance of Musa and prescribed it as a sunna. Al-Husayn ibn Ali was martyred on that day, which made it a day of particular importance for the Shia.What is fiqh?
Fiqh is the science of deriving practical rulings from their evidence. It took shape in major schools of law, among them the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali and Ja'fari schools.What is halal?
Halal is what the Sacred Law permits of actions, foods and earnings. Its opposite is haram. In matters of food it applies especially to meat slaughtered in the lawful manner.What is ihram?
Ihram is the intention to enter the rites of Hajj or Umrah, with their uniform garb and abstention from what is forbidden in them. It begins at the fixed places of entry (mawaqit).What is the Friday prayer?
Friday prayer is the weekly congregational noon prayer held on Friday, preceded by two sermons. According to most jurists it is obligatory for men.What is the caliphate?
The caliphate is the leadership of the community after the Prophet. It was held by the Rightly Guided caliphs, then by the Umayyad, Abbasid and Ottoman states, until its abolition in 1924.What is Laylat al-Qadr?
The Night of Power is the night in Ramadan when the Quran was revealed, and it is better than a thousand months. It is sought in the last ten nights, and according to most scholars its most hoped-for nights are the odd ones.What is the Islamic madrasa?
The madrasa is the historical Islamic institution of learning, from the Nizamiyya of Baghdad to al-Azhar, al-Qarawiyyin and al-Zaytuna, and up to today.What is the Mawlid?
The Mawlid is the celebration of the Prophet's birth in Rabi al-Awwal. It spread from the Fatimid period, and scholars have disagreed about it, between those who permit it and those who reject it.What is the mihrab?
The mihrab is the recess in the qibla wall by which Muslims know the direction of prayer. It is among the oldest elements of mosque architecture and the most artistically inventive.What is the minaret?
The minaret is the tower of the mosque from which the call to prayer is given. The first Islamic minaret dates from the Umayyad period, and its forms then varied, from the minaret of Marrakesh to the minarets of Istanbul.What is the minbar?
The minbar is the platform from which the preacher ascends to deliver the Friday sermon. It began as three steps in the Prophet's mosque and became one of the greatest arts of Islamic woodwork.What is the mosque?
The mosque is the congregational house of worship of the Muslims. The first was the Quba Mosque, then the Mosque of the Prophet. Throughout history, prayer, teaching, assembly and judgement have all been held in it.What is the qibla?
The qibla is the direction of the Noble Kaaba that Muslims face in prayer. It was changed from Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem) to the Kaaba while the community was in Medina.What is salah?
Salah is the second pillar of Islam: five obligatory prayers each day, in which the Muslim stands before God through standing, bowing and prostration.What is the sharia?
Sharia is the Islamic normative framework encompassing worship, dealings and ethics. Its sources are the Quran and the Sunna, and the schools of jurisprudence apply it.What is Sufism?
Sufism is the Islamic spiritual heritage of purifying the soul and sincerity. It was organized by Sufi paths (turuq) such as the Qadiriyya, Naqshbandiyya, Shadhiliyya and Mawlawiyya.What is tasbih?
Tasbih is saying 'Subhan Allah'. It is the best-known formula of remembrance after prayer and at all times, and according to many, the thirty-three glorifications after prayer are a sunna.What is the ummah?
The ummah is the one community of believers, crossing races and lands. It is a community of creed, not of ethnicity, from the time of the Charter of Medina to the present day.What is umrah?
Umrah is visiting the Sacred House with ihram, tawaf, sai and taqsir, at any time of the year, and it is called the lesser hajj.What is the waqf?
Waqf is the holding of a principal asset and the devotion of its yield to works of charity. Mosques, schools, hospitals and public fountains in Islamic civilization were established and sustained by it.What is zakat al-fitr?
Zakat al-fitr is an obligatory charity at the end of Ramadan: a sa' of food for each person, paid to the poor before the Eid prayer as a purification for the fasting person.Who are the Rightly Guided Caliphs?
The four Rightly Guided Caliphs: Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib. They ruled from Medina, 632–661.Who are the Sahaba?
The Sahaba are those who met the Prophet while believing in him and died in Islam. They led the conquests and the compilation, and transmitted the religion to the generations after them.
Screening Room
The Men of Angelos
Farajollah Salahshour's Iranian series on the People of the Cave — the youths who slept through a pagan empire's persecution; an early Iranian religious drama widely dubbed into Arabic.Times and Winds
2006 CE · 1427 AH†Reha Erdem's film about three children in an Anatolian village whose days are structured by the five prayer times — a landmark portrayal of rural worship.Inside Mecca
2003 CE · 1424 AH†A National Geographic documentary following pilgrims from three continents through the hajj inside Mecca, with background on the Kaaba and the rites.Hafalan Shalat Delisa
2011 CE · 1432 AH†Hafalan Shalat Delisa.Khawatir
Ahmad al-Shugairi's MBC Ramadan programme across eleven seasons, blending faith with social service and travel — the Arab world's most successful youth religious programme.One Night in Al-Aqsa
2019 CE · 1440 AH†Abrar Hussain's documentary filmed on Laylat al-Qadr inside al-Aqsa — following Palestinian worshippers, guardians and workers through the holiest night of the year.Lorong Waktu
Indonesia's six-season Ramadan series about a scholar and children who travel through time exploring science and faith — a generational classic of religious television.Para Pencari Tuhan
Indonesia's long-running Ramadan series about a village mosque community navigating everyday crises and repentance.Koran by Heart
2011 CE · 1432 AH†Greg Barker's HBO documentary following three children from Senegal, Tajikistan and the Maldives through Cairo's international Qur'an-memorisation contest.Journey to Mecca
2009 CE · 1430 AH†An IMAX docudrama dramatising Ibn Battuta's first pilgrimage in 1325, filmed alongside real modern hajj footage inside the Haram.A Sinner in Mecca
2015 CE · 1436 AH†A Sinner in Mecca.One Day in the Haram
2017 CE · 1438 AH†Abrar Hussain's documentary observing a full day in Masjid al-Haram through the eyes of its muezzins, imams, cleaners and guards.Zaky
One4Kids' kangaroo character — songs and lessons on prayer, fasting and manners for Muslim children; among the first and most-watched Islamic children's works on YouTube.
What is missing? Tell us · A theme is open when it has a reviewed guide, 10 questions, 25 entries across 5 classes, and voices from several traditions and regions.