An Amulet of the Attribute of God— Ḥāfiz̤ , “the Protector.”

ظ‎ ف‎ ا‎ ح‎

ح‎ ظ‎ ف‎ ا‎

ا‎ ح‎ ظ‎ ف‎

ف‎ ا‎ ح‎ ظ‎

AL-ANʿĀM (الانعام‎). “The Cattle.” The title of the VIth Sūrah, in verse of which some superstitious customs of the Meccans, as to certain cattle, are incidentally mentioned.

ANĀNĪYAH (انانية‎). From ana, “I.” “Egotism.” Al-anānīyah is a term used by the Ṣūfīs to express the existence of man.

ANAS IBN MĀLIK (انس ابن مالك‎). The last of the Companions of Muḥammad, and the founder of the sect of the Mālikīs. He died at al-Baṣrah, A.H. 93, aged 103.

AL-ANFĀL (الانفال‎). “The Spoils.” The title of the VIIIth Sūrah which was occasioned by a dispute regarding the spoils taken at the battle of Badr, between the young men who had fought and the old men who had stayed with the ensigns.

ANGEL. Arabic malʾak or malak (ملاك‎, ملك‎). Persian Firishtah (فرشته‎). “It is believed,” says Ibn Mājah, “that the angels are of a simple substance (created of light), endowed with life, and speech, and reason; and that the difference between them, the Jinn, and Shait̤āns is a difference of species. Know,” he adds, “that the angels are sanctified from carnal desire and the disturbance of anger: they disobey not God in what He hath commanded them, but do what they are commanded. Their food is the celebrating of His glory; their drink, the proclaiming of His holiness; their conversation, the commemoration of God, Whose name be exalted; their pleasure, His worship; and they are created in different forms and with different powers.” (Arabian Nights, Lane’s edition, Notes to the Introduction, p. 27.)

Four of them are archangels, or, as they are called in Arabic, Karūbīyūn (Cherubim), namely, Jabraʾīl, or Jibrīl, (Gabriel), the angel of revelations; Mīkaʾīl, or Mīkāl, (Michael), the patron of the Israelites; Isrāfīl, the angel who will sound the trumpet at the last day; and ʿIzrāʾīl, or ʿAzrāʾīl, the angel of death. Angels are said to be inferior in dignity to human prophets, because all the angels were commanded to prostrate themselves before Adam (Sūrah ii. 32). Every believer is attended by two recording angels, called the Kirāmu ʾl-kātibīn, one of whom records his good actions, and the other his evil actions. There are also two angels, called Munkar and Nakīr, who examine all the dead in their graves. The chief angel who has charge of hell is called Mālik, and his subordinates are named Zabāniyah, or guards. A more extended account of these angels will be found under their particular titles.

The angels intercede for man: “The angels celebrate the praise of their Lord, and ask forgiveness for the dwellers on earth.” (Sūrah xlii. 3.) They also act as guardian angels: “Each hath a succession of angels before him and behind him, who watch over him by God’s behest.” (Sūrah xiii. 12.) “Is it not enough for you that your Lord aideth you with three thousand angels sent down (from on high)?” (Sūrah iii. 120.) “He is the supreme over His servants, and sendeth forth guardians who watch over you, until, when death overtaketh any one of you, our messengers receive him and fail not.” (Sūrah vi. 61.)

There are eight angels who support the throne of God, “And the angels shall be on its sides, and over them on that day eight shall bear up the throne of thy Lord.” (Sūrah lxix. 17.) Nineteen have charge of hell. “Over it are nineteen. None but angels have we made guardians of the fire.” (Sūrah lxxiv. 30, 31.)

The names of the guardian angels given in the book on Exorcism (daʿwah), entitled the Jawāhiru ʾl-K͟hamsah, are Isrāfīl, Jibrāʾīl, Kalkāʾīl, Dardāʾīl, Durbāʾīl, Raftmāʾīl, Sharkāʾīl, Tankafīl, Ismāʾīl, Sarakīkāʾīl, K͟harūrāʾīl, T̤at̤āʾīl, Rūyāʾīl, Hūlāʾīl, Hamwākīl, ʿItrāʾīl, Amwākīl, ʿAmrāʾīl, ʿAzrāʾīl, Mīkāʾīl, Mahkāʾīl, Hartāʾīl, ʿAtāʾīl, Nurāʾīl, Nukhāʾīl. [EXORCISM.]

ANIMALS. Arabic Ḥayawān (حيوان‎). According to the Qurʾān, Sūrah xxiv. 44, “God hath created every animal of water.” “An idea,” says Rodwell, “perhaps derived from Gen. i. 20, 21.”

It is believed that at the Resurrection the irrational animals will be restored to life, that they may be brought to judgment, and then be annihilated. See Qurʾān, Sūrah vi. 38, “No kind of beast is there on the earth, nor fowl that flieth with its wings, but is a community like you; nothing have We passed over in the book (of the Eternal decrees): then unto their Lord shall they be gathered.”

AL-ʿANKABŪT (العنكبوت‎). “The Spider.” The title of the XXIXth Sūrah, in which there is a passing reference to this insect in the 40th verse:—“The likeness for those who take to themselves guardians besides God is the likeness of the spider who buildeth her a house; but truly the frailest of all houses surely is the house of the spider.”

AL-ANṢĀR (الانصار‎). “The Helpers,” a term used for the early converts of al-Madīnah; but when all the citizens of al-Madīnah were ostensibly converted to Islām, they were all named Anṣār, while those Muslims who accompanied the Prophet from Makkah to al-Madīnah were called Muhājirūn, or exiles. (Muir’s Life of Mahomet, vol iii. p. 26.) [MUHAMMAD.]

ANTICHRIST. [MASIHU ʾD-DAJJAL.]

APOSTASY FROM ISLĀM. Arabic irtidād (ارتداد‎). According to Muslim law, a male apostate, or Murtadd, is liable to be put to death if he continue obstinate in his error; a female apostate is not subject to capital punishment, but she may be kept in confinement until she recant. (Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 227.) If either the husband or wife apostatize from the faith of Islām, a divorce takes place ipso facto; the wife is entitled to her whole dower, but no sentence of divorce is necessary. If the husband and wife both apostatize together, their marriage is generally allowed to continue, although the Imām Zufar says it is annulled. But if, after their joint apostasy, either husband or wife were singly to return to Islām, then the marriage would be dissolved. (Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 183.)

According to Abū Ḥanīfah, a male apostate is disabled from selling or otherwise disposing of his property. But Abū Yūsuf and Imām Muḥammad differ from their master upon this point, and consider a male apostate to be as competent to exercise every right as if he were still in the faith. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 235.)

If a boy under age apostatize, he is not to be put to death, but to be imprisoned until he come to full age, when, if he continue in the state of unbelief, he must be put to death. Neither lunatics nor drunkards are held to be responsible for their apostasy from Islām. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. 246.) If a person upon compulsion become an apostate, his wife is not divorced, nor are his lands forfeited. If a person become a Musalmān upon compulsion, and afterwards apostatize, he is not to be put to death. (Hidāyah, vol. iii. 467.)

The will of a male apostate is not valid, but that of a female apostate is valid. (Hidāyah, vol. iv. 637.)

ʿIkrimah relates that some apostates were brought to the K͟halīfah ʿAlī, and he burnt them alive; but Ibn ʿAbbās heard of it, and said that the K͟halīfah had not acted rightly, for the Prophet had said, “Punish not with God’s punishment (i.e. fire), but whosoever changes his religion, kill him with the sword.” (Ṣaḥīḥu ʾl-Buk͟hārī.)

APOSTLE. Arabic rasūl (رسول‎), ḥawārī (حوارى‎). The term rasūl (apostle or messenger) is applied to Muḥammad, that of ḥawārī being used in the Qurʾān (Sūrah iii. 4, 5; Sūrah iv. 111, 112; Sūrah lxi. 14) for the Apostles of Jesus. The word ḥawārī seems to be derived from the Æthiopic ḥōra, “to go”; ḥawāryā, “apostle”; although, according to al-Baiẓāwī, the commentator, it is derived from ḥawira, “to be white,” in Syriac, ḥewar, and was given to the disciples of Jesus, he says, on account of their purity of life and sincerity, or because they were respectable men and wore white garments. In the Traditions (Mishkāt, book i. c. vi. part 2) ḥawārī is used for the followers of all the prophets. [PROPHETS.]

AL-ʿAQABAH (العقبة‎). A sheltered glen near Minā, celebrated as the scene of the two pledges, the first and second pledge of al-ʿAqabah. The first pledge was made by ten men of the tribe of K͟hazraj and ten of Aus, when they plighted their faith to Muḥammad thus:—“We will not worship any but one God; we will not steal; nor commit adultery; nor kill our children; nor will we slander our neighbour; and we will obey the Prophet of God.” The date assigned to this pledge by Sir W. Muir is April 21, A.D. 621. The second pledge was a few months afterwards, when seventy-three men and two women came forward, one by one, and took an oath of fealty to the Prophet. Muḥammad named twelve of the chief of these men, and said:—“Moses chose from amongst his people twelve leaders. Ye shall be sureties for the rest, even as were the Apostles of Jesus; and I am surety for my people. And the people answered, Āmīn, So be it.” (Muir’s Life of Mahomet, vol. ii. pp. 216, 232.)

ʿĀQIB (عاقب‎). “A successor or deputy.” “One who comes last.” Al-ʿāqib is a title given to Muḥammad as being styled “the last of the prophets.”

ʿĀQILAH (عاقلة‎). The relatives who pay the expiatory mulct for manslaughter, or any other legal fine. They must be relatives descended from one common father. (Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. iv. pages 449, 452; Baillie’s Law of Sale, p. 214.)

ʿAQĪQAH (عقيقة‎). A custom observed by the Arabs on the birth of a child; namely, leaving the hair on the infant’s head until the seventh day, when it is shaved, and animals are sacrificed, namely, two sheep for a boy and one for a girl. (Mishkāt, xviii. c. 3.) It is enjoined by Muḥammadan law, and observed in all parts of Islām.

ARABIA. Bilādu ʾl-ʿArab (بلاد العرب‎), Jazīratu ʾl-ʿArab (جزيرة العرب‎), ʿArabistān (عربستان‎). The peninsula bearing, amongst the Arabs, these names is the country situated on the east of the Red Sea, and extending as far as the Persian Gulf.

The word probably signifies a “barren place,” “desert” (Heb. ‏עֲרָבָה‎).

Ptolemy divides Arabia into three parts, Arabia Petræa, Arabia Felix, and Arabia Deserta; but Arabian geographers divide it into Tiḥāmah, al-Ḥijāz, an-Najd, al-ʿArūz̤, and al-Yaman.

The races which have peopled Arabia are divided into three sections, al-ʿArabu ʾl-Bāʾidah, al-ʿArabu ʾl-ʿĀribah, and al-ʿArabu ʾl-Mustaʿribah.

I. Al-ʿArabu ʾl-Bāʾidah, are the old “lost Arabs,” of whom tradition has preserved the names of several tribes, as well as some memorable particulars regarding their extinction. This may well be called the fabulous period of Arabian history; but, as it has the sanction of the Qurʾān, it would be sacrilege in a Muslim to doubt its authenticity. According to this account, the most famous of the extinct tribes were those of ʿĀd, S̤amūd, Jadīs, and T̤asm, all descended in the third or fourth generation from Shem. ʿĀd, the father of his tribe, settled, according to tradition, in the Great Desert of al-Aḥqāf soon after the confusion of tongues. Shaddād his son succeeded him in the government, and greatly extended his dominions. He performed many fabulous exploits; among others, he erected a magnificent city in the desert of ʿAdan, which had been begun by his father, and adorned it with a sumptuous palace and delightful gardens, in imitation of the celestial paradise, in order to inspire his subjects with a superstitious veneration for him as a god. This superb structure was built with bricks of gold and silver alternately disposed. The roof was of gold, inlaid with precious stones and pearls. The trees and shrubs were of the same precious materials. The fruits and flowers were rubies, and on the branches were perched birds of similar metals, the hollow parts of which were loaded with every species of the richest perfumes, so that every breeze that blew came charged with fragrance from the bills of these golden images. To this paradise he gave the name of Iram (see Qurʾān, Sūrah lxxxix. 6). On the completion of all this grandeur, Shaddād set out with a splendid retinue to admire its beauties. But heaven would not suffer his pride and impiety to go unpunished; for, when within a day’s journey of the place, they were all destroyed by a terrible noise from the clouds. As a monument of Divine justice, the city, we are assured, still stands in the desert, though invisible. Southey, in his Thalaba, has viewed this and many of the other fables and superstitions of the Arabs with the eye of a poet, a philosopher, and an antiquary. According to at̤-T̤abarī, this legendary palace was discovered in the time of Muʿāwiyah, the first K͟halīfah of Damascus, by a person in search of a stray camel. A fanciful tradition adds, that the Angel of death, on being asked whether, in the discharge of his duties, an instance had ever occurred in which he had felt some compassion towards his wretched victims, admitted that only twice had his sympathies been awakened—once towards a shipwrecked infant, which had been exposed on a solitary plank to struggle for existence with the winds and waves, and which he spared; and the second time in cutting off the unhappy Shaddād at the moment when almost within view of the glorious fabric which he had erected at so much expense. No sooner had the angel spoken, than a voice from heaven was heard to declare that the helpless innocent on the plank was no other than Shaddād himself; and that his punishment was a just retribution for his ingratitude to a merciful and kind Providence, which had not only saved his life, but raised him to unrivalled wealth and splendour. The whole fable seems to be a confused tradition of Belus and the ancient Babylon; or, rather, as the name would import, of Benhadad, mentioned in Scripture as one of the most famous of the Syrian kings, who, we are told, was worshipped by his subjects.

Of the ʿĀdites and their succeeding princes, nothing certain is known, except that they were dispersed or destroyed in the course of a few centuries by the sovereigns of al-Yaman.

The tribe of S̤amūd first settled in Arabia Felix, and on their expulsion they repaired to al-Ḥijr, on the confines of Syria. Like the ʿĀdites, they are reported to have been of a most gigantic stature, the tallest being a hundred cubits high and the least sixty; and such was their muscular power, that, with a stamp of the foot in the driest soil, they could plant themselves knee-deep in the earth. They dwelt, the Qurʾān informs us, “in the caves of the rocks, and cut the mountains into houses, which remain to this day.” In this tribe it is easy to discover the Thamudeni of Diodorus, Pliny, and Ptolemy.

The tribes of T̤asm and Jadīs settled between Makkah and al-Madīnah, and occupied the whole level country of al-Yaman, living promiscuously under the same government. Their history is buried in darkness; and when the Arabs wish to denote anything of dubious authority, they call it a fable of T̤asm.

The extinction of these tribes, according to the Qurʾān, was miraculous, and a signal example of Divine vengeance. The posterity of ʿĀd and S̤amūd had abandoned the worship of the true God, and lapsed into incorrigible idolatry. They had been chastised with a three years’ drought, but their hearts remained hardened. To the former was sent the Prophet Hūd, to reclaim them and preach the unity of the Godhead. “O my people!” exclaimed the prophet, “ask pardon of your Lord; then turn unto Him with penitence, (and) He will send down the heavens upon you with copious rains, and with strength in addition to your strength will He increase you.” Few believed, and the overthrow of the idolaters was effected by a hot and suffocating wind, that blew seven nights and eight days without intermission, accompanied with a terrible earthquake, by which their idols were broken to pieces, and their houses thrown to the ground. (See Qurʾān, Sūrah vii. 63, xi. 53.) Luqmān, who, according to some, was a famous king of the ʿĀdites, and who lived to the age of seven eagles, escaped, with about sixty others, the common calamity. These few survivors gave rise to a tribe called the Latter ʿĀd; but on account of their crimes they were transformed, as the Qurʾān states, into asses or monkeys. Hūd returned to Ḥaẓramaut, and was buried in the neighbourhood, where a small town, Qabr Hūd, still bears his name. Among the Arabs, ʿĀd expresses the same remote age that Saturn or Ogyges did among the Greeks; anything of extreme antiquity is said to be “as old as King ʿĀd.”

The idolatrous tribe of S̤amūd had the prophet Ṣāliḥ sent to them, whom D’Herbelot makes the son of Arphaxad, while Bochart and Sale suppose him to be Peleg, the brother of Joktan. His preaching had little effect. The fate of the ʿĀdites, instead of being a warning, only set them to dig caverns in the rocks, where they hoped to escape the vengeance of winds and tempests. Others demanded a sign from the prophet in token of his mission. As a condition of their belief, they challenged him to a trial of power, similar to what took place between Elijah and the priests of Baal, and promised to follow the deity that should gain the triumph. From a certain rock a camel big with young was to come forth in their presence. The idolaters were foiled; for on Ṣāliḥ’s pointing to the spot, a she-camel was produced, with a young one ready weaned. This miracle wrought conviction in a few; but the rest, far from believing, hamstrung the mother, killed her miraculous progeny, and divided the flesh among them. This act of impiety sealed their doom. “And a violent tempest overtook the wicked, and they were found prostrate on their breasts in their abodes.” (Qurʾān, Sūrah vii. 71, xi. 64.)

The tribes of Jadīs and T̤asm owe their extinction to a different cause. A certain despot, a T̤asmite, but sovereign of both tribes, had rendered himself detested by a voluptuous law claiming for himself a priority of right over all the brides of the Jadīsites. This insult was not to be tolerated. A conspiracy was formed. The king and his chiefs were invited to an entertainment. The avengers had privately hidden their swords in the sand, and in the moment of mirth and festivity they fell upon the tyrant and his retinue, and finally extirpated the greater part of his subjects.

II.—The pure Arabs are those who claim to be descended from Joktan or Qaḥt̤ān, whom the present Arabs regard as their principal founder. The members of this genuine stock are styled al-ʿArabu ʾl-ʿĀribah, the genuine Arabs. According to their genealogy of this patriarch, his descendants formed two distinct branches. Yaʿrub, one of his sons, founded the kingdom of al-Yaman, and Jurhum that of al-Ḥijāz. These two are the only sons spoken of by the Arabs. Their names do not occur in Scripture; but it has been conjectured that they were the Jerah and Hadoram mentioned by Moses as among the thirteen planters of Arabia (Gen. x. 26).

In the division of their nation into tribes the Arabs resemble the Jews. From an early era they have retained the distinction of separate and independent families. This partition was adverse to the consolidation of power or political influence, but it furnishes our chief guide into the dark abyss of their antiquities. The posterity of Yaʿrub spread and multiplied into innumerable clans. New accessions rendered new subdivisions necessary. In the genealogical tables of Sale, Gagnier, and Saiyid Aḥmad K͟hān, are enumerated nearly three-score tribes of genuine Arabs, many of whom became celebrated long before the time of Muḥammad, and some of them retain their names even at the present day.

III.—The ʿArabu ʾl-Mustaʿribah, the mixed Arabs, claim to be descended from Ishmael and the daughter of al-Muẓāẓ, King of al-Ḥijāz, whom he took to wife, and was of the ninth generation from Jurhum, the founder of that kingdom. Of the Jurhumites, till the time of Ishmael, little is recorded, except the names of their princes or chiefs, and that they had possession of the territory of al-Ḥijāz. But as Muḥammad traces his descent to this alliance, the Arabs have been more than usually careful to preserve and adorn his genealogy. The want of a pure ancestry is, in their estimation, more than compensated by the dignity of so sacred a connexion; for they boast as much as the Jews of being reckoned the children of Abraham. This circumstance will account for the preference with which they uniformly regard this branch of their pedigree, and for the many romantic legends they have grafted upon it. It is not improbable that the old giants and idolaters suffered an imaginary extinction to make way for a more favoured race, and that Divine chastisements always overtook those who dared to invade their consecrated territories.

The Scripture account of the expulsion and destiny of this venerated progenitor of the Arabs is brief, but simple and affecting. Ishmael was the son of Abraham by Hagar, an Egyptian slave. When fourteen years of age, he was supplanted in the hopes and affections of his father by the birth of Isaac, through whom the promises were to descend. This event made it necessary to remove the unhappy female and her child, who were accordingly sent forth to seek their fortune in some of the surrounding unoccupied districts. A small supply of provisions, and a bottle of water on her shoulder, was all she carried from the tent of her master. Directing her steps towards her native country, she wandered with the lad in the wilderness of Beer-sheba, which was destitute of springs. Here her stock failed, and it seemed impossible to avoid perishing by hunger or thirst. She resigned herself to her melancholy prospects, but the feelings of the mother were more acute than the agonies of want and despair. Unable to witness her son’s death, she laid him under one of the shrubs, took an affecting leave of him, and retired to a distance. “And she went, and sat her down over against him, a good way off, as it were a bow-shot; for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lifted up her voice and wept.” (Gen. xxi. 16.) At this moment an angel directed her to a well of water close at hand,—a discovery to which they owed the preservation of their lives. A promise formerly given was renewed, that Ishmael was to become a great nation—that he was to be a wild man—his hand against every man, and every man’s hand against him. The travellers continued their journey to the wilderness of Paran, and there took up their residence. In due time the lad grew to manhood, and greatly distinguished himself as an archer, and his mother took him a wife out of her own land. Here the sacred narrative breaks off abruptly, the main object of Moses being to follow the history of Abraham’s descendants through the line of Isaac. The Arabs, in their version of Ishmael’s history, have mixed a great deal of romance with the narrative of Scripture. They assert that al-Ḥijāz was the district where he settled, and that Makkah, then an arid wilderness, was the identical spot where his life was providentially saved, and where Hagar died and was buried. The well pointed out by the angel, they believe to be the famous Zamzam, of which all pious Muslims drink to this day. They make no allusion to his alliance with the Egyptian woman, by whom he had twelve sons (Gen. xxv. 12–18), the chiefs of as many nations, and the possessors of separate towns; but as polygamy was common in his age and country, it is not improbable he may have had more wives than one.

It was, say they, to commemorate the miraculous preservation of Ishmael that God commanded Abraham to build the Kaʿbah, and his son to furnish the necessary materials.

Muḥammadan writers give the following account of Ishmael and his descendants:—Ishmael was constituted the prince and first high-priest of Makkah, and, during half a century he preached to the incredulous Arabs. At his death, which happened forty-eight years after that of Abraham, and in the 137th of his age, he was buried in the tomb of his mother Hagar. Between the erection of the Kaʿbah and the birth of their Prophet, the Arabs reckon about 2,740 years. Ishmael was succeeded in the regal and sacerdotal office by his eldest son Nebat, although the pedigree of Muḥammad is traced from Kedar, a younger brother. But his family did not long enjoy this double authority; for, in progress of time, the Jurhumites seized the government and the guardianship of the temple, which they maintained about 300 years. These last, again, having corrupted the true worship, were assailed, as a punishment of their crimes, first by the scimitars of the Ishmaelites, who drove them from Makkah, and then by divers maladies, by which the whole race finally perished. Before quitting Makkah, however, they committed every kind of sacrilege and indignity. They filled up the Zamzam well, after having thrown into it the treasures and sacred utensils of the temple, the black stone, the swords and cuirasses of Qalaʿah, the two golden gazelles presented by one of the kings of Arabia, the sacred image of the ram substituted for Isaac, and all the precious movables, forming at once the object and the workmanship of a superstitious devotion. For several centuries the posterity of Ishmael kept possession of the supreme dignity.

The following is the list of chiefs who are said to have ruled the Ḥijāz, and to have been the lineal ancestors of Muḥammad, as far as ʿAdnān:—

A.D. 538 ʿAbdu ʾllāh, the father of Muḥammad.

505 ʿAbdu ʾl-Mut̤t̤alib.

472 Hāshim.

439 ʿAbd Manāf.

406 Quṣaiy.

373 Kilāb.

340 Murrah.

307 Kaʿab.

274 Luwaiy.

241 Ghālib.

208 Fihr or Quraish.

175 Mālik.

142 an-Naẓr.

109 Kinānah.

76 Khuzaimah.

43 Mudrikah.

10 al-Yaʾs.

B.C. 23 Muẓar.

56 Nizār.

89 Maʿadd.

122 ʿAdnān.

The period between Ishmael and ʿAdnān is variously estimated, some reckoning forty, others only seven, generations. The authority of Abū ʾl-Fidāʾ, who makes it ten, is that generally followed by the Arabs, being founded on a tradition of one of Muḥammad’s wives. Making every allowance, however, for patriarchal longevity, even forty generations are insufficient to extend over a space of nearly 2,500 years. From ʿAdnān to Muḥammad the genealogy is considered certain, comprehending twenty-one generations, and nearly 160 different tribes, all branching off from the same parent stem.

(See Abū ʾl-Fidāʾ; Gagnier’s Vie de Mahomet; Pocock, Specim. Arab. Hist.; Saiyid Ahmad K͟hān’s Essays; Sale’s Koran, Prelim. Dis.; Crichton’s Hist. Arabia.)

ARABIC. Lisānu-ʾl-ʿArab; Lug͟hatu ʾl-ʿArab. The classical language of Arabia is held to be the language of the Qurʾān, and of the Traditions of Muḥammad, and by reason of its incomparable excellence is called اللغة‎ al-lug͟hah, or “the language.” (See Qurʾān, Sūrah xvi. 105, “They say, Surely a person teacheth him [i.e. Muḥammad]. But the tongue of him at whom they hint is foreign, while this [i.e. the Qurʾān] is plain Arabic.”)

This classical language is often termed, by the Arabians themselves, the language of Maʿadd, and the language of Muẓar, and is a compound of many sister dialects, very often differing among themselves, which were spoken throughout the whole of the Peninsula before the religion of Muḥammad incited the nation to spread its conquering armies over foreign countries. Before that period, feuds among the tribes, throughout the whole extent of their territory, had prevented the blending of their dialects into one uniform language; but this effect of disunion was counteracted in a great measure by the institution of the sacred months, in which all acts of hostility were most strictly interdicted, and by the annual pilgrimage, and the yearly fair held at ʿUkāz̤, at which the poets of the various tribes contended for the meed of general admiration.

Qatādah says that the Quraish tribe used to cull what was most excellent in the dialects of Arabia, so that their dialect became the best of all. This assertion, however, is not altogether correct, for many of the children of the tribe of Quraish, in the time of Muḥammad, were sent into the desert to be there nursed, in order to acquire the utmost chasteness of speech. Muḥammad himself was sent to be brought up among the tribe of Saʿd ibn Bakr ibn Hawāzin, descendants of Muẓar, but not in the line of Quraish; and he is said to have urged the facts of his being a Quraish, and having also grown up among the tribe of Saʿd, as the grounds of his claim to be the most chaste in speech of the Arabs. Certain it is that the language of Maʿadd was characterised by the highest degree of perfection, copiousness, and uniformity, in the time of Muḥammad, although it afterwards declined.

The language of the Qurʾān is universally acknowledged to be the most perfect form of Arabic speech. At the same time we must not forget that the acknowledged claims of the Qurʾān to be the direct utterance of the Divinity have made it impossible for any Muslim to criticise the work, and it has become the standard by which other literary compositions have to be judged. (See Lane’s Introduction to his Arabic Dictionary, and Palmer’s Qurʾān.)

ARABIC LEXICONS. The first Arabic lexicon is that which is generally ascribed to al-K͟halīl, and entitled Kitābu ʾl ʿAin. The following are the most celebrated Arabic dictionaries composed after the ʿAin.

The Jamharah, by Ibn Duraid, died A.H. 321.

The Tahẕīb, by al-Azhari, died A.H. 370.

The Muḥīt̤, by the Ṣāḥib Ibn ʿAbbād, died A.H. 385.

The Mujmal, by Ibn Fāris, died A.H. 395.

The Ṣiḥāḥ, by al-Jauharī, died A.H. 398.

The Jāmiʿ, by al-Qazzāz, died A.H. 412.

The Mūʿab, by Abū G͟hālib, died A.H. 436.

The Muḥkam, by Ibn Sīdah, died A.H. 458.

The Asās, by az-Zamak͟hsharī, died A.H. 538.

The Mughrib, by al-Mut̤arrizī, died A.H. 610.

The ʿUbāb, by aṣ-Ṣāghānī, died A.H. 660.

The Lisānu ʾl-ʿArab, by Ibn Mukarram, died A.H. 711.

The Tahẕību ʾt-Tahẕīb, by Maḥmūd at-Tanūk͟hi, died A.H. 723.

The Miṣbāḥ, by Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Faiyūmī, compiled A.H. 734.

The Mughni ʾl-Labīb, by Ibn Hishām, died A.H. 761.

The Qāmūs, by al-Fairūzābādī, died A.H. 816.

The Ṣiḥāḥ (says Mr. Lane in his Preface to his Dictionary), is among the books of lexicology like the Ṣaḥīḥ of Al-Buk͟hārī amongst the books of traditions; for the point on which turns the title to reliance is not the copiousness of the collection, but the condition of genuineness and correctness.

Two well-known dictionaries, compiled in modern times in Hindustān, are the G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hat, by Maulawī G͟hiyās̤u ʾd-dīn of Rāmpūr, and the Muntaha ʾl-ʿArab, by ʿAbdu ʾr-Raḥīm ibn ʿAbdu ʾl-Karīm of Ṣafīpūr. These are both Arabic and Persian lexicons.

The Arabic-Latin dictionary of Jacob Golius, was printed at Leyden, A.D. 1653; that of Freytag at Halle, A.D. 1830–35.

The Arabic-English and English-Arabic dictionaries extant are—

Richardson’s Persian-Arabic-English, A.D. 1777.

Richardson’s English-Persian-Arabic, A.D. 1810.

Francis Johnson’s Persian-Arabic-English, A.D. 1852.

Catafago’s Arabic-English and English-Arabic, new edition, 1873.

Lane’s Arabic-English, A.D. 1863 to 1882, imperfect.

Dr. Badger’s English-Arabic, A.D. 1881.

Dr. Steingass’s English-Arabic, A.D. 1882.

AL-AʿRĀF (الاعراف‎). (1) The partition between heaven and hell, described in the Qurʾān, Sūrah vii. 44, “Betwixt the two (heaven and hell) there is a partition; and on al-Aʿrāf are men who know all by their marks; and they shall cry out to the inhabitants of Paradise, ‘Peace be upon you!’ (but) they have not (yet) entered it, although they so desire. And when their sight is turned towards the dwellers in the Fire, they say, ‘O our Lord, place us not with the unjust people.’ ” According to Sale, al-Aʿrāf is derived from the verb ʿarafa, which signifies “to distinguish between things, or to part them”; though some commentators give another reason for the imposition of this name, because, say they, those who stand on this partition will know and distinguish the blessed from the damned by their respective marks or characteristics: and others say the word properly intends anything that is elevated, as such a wall of separation must be supposed to be. Some imagine it to be a sort of limbo for the patriarchs and prophets, or for the martyrs and those who have been most eminent for sanctity. Others place here those whose good and evil works are so equal that they exactly counterpoise each other, and therefore deserve neither reward nor punishment; and these, say they, will on the last day be admitted into Paradise, after they shall have performed an act of adoration, which will be imputed to them as a merit, and will make the scale of their good works to preponderate. Others suppose this intermediate space will be a receptacle for those who have gone to war, without their parents’ leave, and therein suffered martyrdom; being excluded from Paradise for their disobedience, and escaping hell because they are martyrs. (2) The title of Sūrah vii. (3) A term used by Ṣūfī mystics to express a condition of the mind and soul when meditating on the existence of God in all things.

ʿARAFAH (عرفة‎). The vigil of the ʿĪdu ʾl-Aẓḥā, or Feast of Sacrifice, when the pilgrims proceed to Mount ʿArafāt. [ʿIDU ʾL-AZHA.]

ʿARAFĀT (عرفات‎), or ʿArafah. The “Mount of Recognition,” situated twelve miles from Makkah; the place where the pilgrims stay on the ninth day of the pilgrimage, and recite the mid-day and afternoon prayers, and hear the K͟hut̤bah or sermon. Hence it is a name given to the ninth day of the month Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah. Upon the origin of the name given to this mountain, Burton says, “The Holy Hill owes its name to the following legend:—When our first parents forfeited heaven for eating wheat, which deprived them of their primeval purity, they were cast down upon earth. The serpent descended upon Ispahān, the peacock at Cābul; Satan at Bilbays (others say Semnān or Seistān), Eve upon ʿArafāt, and Adam at Ceylon (Sarandīb). The latter, determining to seek his wife, began a journey, to which the earth owes its present mottled appearance. Wherever our first father placed his foot, which was large, a town afterwards arose; and between the strides will always be country. Wandering for many years, he came to the Mountain of Mercy, where our common mother was continually calling upon his name, and their recognition of each other gave the place the name of ʿArafah.”

ARĀẒĪ (اراضى‎). Lit. “lands”; the sale of lands. Tombs are not included in the sale of lands. A place or station for casting the harvest is not considered to be amongst the rights and advantages of land, and therefore does not enter into the sale of it. (Baillie’s Law of Sale, pages 54, 55.) [LAND.]

ARCHITECTURE. The term Saracenic is usually applied by English writers to Muḥammadan architecture. But though the style may be traced to the Arabians, they cannot themselves be considered the inventors of it. They had, in fact, no distinctive style of their own when they made their rapid conquests, but adapted existing styles of architecture to meet the religious and national feelings of the Muslims.

Muḥammad built a mosque at al-Madīnah, but it was an exceedingly simple structure, and he left no directions in the Qurʾān or in the Traditions on the subject.

The typical varieties of the earlier Muḥammadan architecture are those which appeared in Spain and in Egypt; its later form appeared in Constantinople. The oldest specimen of Saracenic architecture in Spain is the mosque of Cordova, which now serves as the cathedral of the city. It was commenced by the K͟halīfah ʿAbdu ʾr-Raḥmān, 786 A.D., with the avowed intention that it should be the finest mosque in the world, and Byzantine architects are said to have been specially invited to superintend its construction.

The earliest of the Muḥammadan buildings in Egypt, of which any portions still remain, is the Mosque of ʿAmr at old Cairo, begun about A.D. 642, but greatly altered or rebuilt about sixty years later.

On the capture of Constantinople, St. Sophia was converted by the Muslim conquerors into their chief Mosque, and made their architectural model. The older Saracenic style, as seen at Cordova and old Cairo, continued to be the basis of the new, but it was modified throughout by Byzantine influence. In Persia we may clearly trace in Muḥammadan buildings the older Persian type, and in India the Saracenic architects showed the same pliancy in adopting the styles of the various peoples amongst whom they settled. It thus happens (says Fergusson, in his History of Indian Architecture), that we have at least twelve or fifteen different styles of Muḥammadan architecture in Central Asia and in India.

A striking and distinctive feature in early Muḥammadan architecture is the horse-shoe arch, which in time gives way to a cusped or scalloped arch, strictly so termed, the outline being produced by intersecting semi-arches. Another variety of Saracenic arch is the circular-headed and stilted form. The pillars are commonly of exceedingly slender proportions, almost to apparent insecurity; but owing to the style of the embellishment, this lightness of particular forms tends to heighten the general luxuriance. Some have imagined that this element of slenderness in regard to pillars indicates a tent origin of the style. This tent-like character has been further kept up by concave ceilings and cupolas, emblazoned with painting and gilding. Decorations composed of animal and human figures, being interdicted by Muḥammadan law [PICTURES] are not found in Saracenic architecture; but their geometrical patterns exhibit singular beauty and complexity, inexhaustible variety of combinations, and a wonderful degree of harmonious intricacy, arising out of very simple elements. Lattice or open trellis work is another fertile source of embellishment, and is similar to the tracery met with in Gothic buildings. Another characteristic of Saracenic style is that of the dome. For the most part domes occur in mosques and tombs, and are of Byzantine origin. Minarets are also a special feature in Muḥammadan mosques, and contribute much to the picturesqueness of these buildings. They are found in mosques of the later Saracenic style. (See Fergusson’s Indian and Eastern Architecture, Mr. Owen Jones’s Alhambra Palace, Hersemer’s Arabische Bauverzierungen.)

ʿARĪYAH (عرية‎). A kind of sale permitted in Islām, namely, when a person computes what quantity of fruit there is on a tree and sells it before it is plucked. (Mishkāt, xii. c. v.)

ʿĀRĪYAH (عارية‎) (1) A loan for the use of anything of which Qarẓ cannot be made: e.g. the loan of a horse is ʿĀrīyah; the loan of money is Qarẓ. (2) A gift, of which the following is an example:—A person makes a gift to another of the dates of a palm-tree in his garden; but having afterwards some doubt of the propriety of that person coming daily to his garden where his family usually are, and being at the same time unwilling to depart from his promise, or to retract his gift, he gives some of the dates that have already been pulled in lieu of those upon the tree. (Baillie’s Law of Sale, p. 300.)

ARK, NOAH’S (فلك نوح‎). It is mentioned in the history of the Deluge, as recorded in the Qurʾān, in two places—Sūrah xi. 39, “Build the ark under our eye and after our revelation,” and Sūrah xxiii. 27. There is also supposed to be an allusion to the ark in Sūrah xxxvi. 41, “And a sign to them is that we bare their offspring in the laden ship.”

Al-Baiẓāwī says that Noah was two years building the ark, which was 300 cubits long, 50 wide, and 30 broad, and which was made of Indian plane-tree; that it consisted of three storeys, the lowest for beasts, the middle for men and women (who were separated from each other), and the highest for birds.

The ark is said to have rested on the mountain al-Jūdī. [NOAH.]

ARK OF THE COVENANT. The Hebrew word for “Ark” is ‏תֵּבָה‎ (i.e. a chest, a coffer), Chald. ‏תֵּיבוּתָא‎, Arabic تابوت‎, تابوة‎. See Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 249, “The sign of his (Saul’s) kingdom is that there shall come unto you the ark (Tābūt); in it shall be security (or the Shechinah, sakīnah, Heb. ‏שְׁכִינָה‎) from your Lord, and the relics of what the family of Moses and the family of Aaron left; the angels shall bear it.” Jalālu ʾd-dīn says this ark contained the images of the prophets, and was sent down from heaven to Adam, and at length came to the Israelites, who put great confidence therein, and continually carried it in front of their army, till it was taken by the Amalekites. But on this occasion the angels brought it back in the sight of all the people, and placed it at the feet of Saul (T̤ālūt), who was thereupon unanimously received as king.

ARMS, The Sale of. The sale of armour or warlike stores to rebels, or in their camp, is forbidden, because selling arms into the hands of rebels is an assistance to defection. But it is not forbidden to sell the materials for making arms to such persons. (Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. ii. 225.)

ARSH (ارش‎). (1.) A legal term for compensation. (2.) A mulct; a fine; particularly that which is paid for shedding of blood. (3.) A gift for conciliating the favour of a judge; a bribe. (4.) Whatever a purchaser receives from a seller after discovering a fault in the article bought.

ʿARSH (عرش‎). The term used in the Qurʾān for the throne of God. Sūrah ix. 131, “He is the Lord of the mighty throne.” Husainī, the commentator, says the throne has 8,000 pillars, and the distance between each pillar is 3,000,000 miles.

ʿAṢABAH (عصبة‎). A legal term for male relatives by the father’s side, agnates.

ĀṢAF (اصف‎). The wazīr or prime minister of Solomon. Alluded to in the Qurʾān, Sūrah xxvii. 40, as “He with whom was knowledge of the scripture.” Muḥammadan commentators say he was the son of Bark͟hīya.

AS̤AR (اثر‎). Relating; handing down by tradition. Generally used for a Ḥadīs̤ related by one of the Companions, as distinguished from one of the Prophet’s own.

AL-AS̤ARU ʾSH-SHARĪF (الاثر الشريف‎). The sacred relic. A hair of either the beard or mustachios of Muḥammad, or a foot-print of the Prophet. One of these sacred relics (a hair of his beard) is exhibited in the great mosque at Delhi, another in a mosque in Cashmere.

AṢḤĀB (اصحاب‎), pl. of Ṣāḥib. The Companions or Associates of Muḥammad. The term used for a single companion is ṣaḥābī. Concerning the title of “Companion,” there is considerable controversy as to the persons to whom it can be applied. Saʿīd ibn al-Musaiyab reckoned none a “Companion,” but those who had been a year or more with Muḥammad, and had gone on a warlike expedition with him. Some say that everyone who had attained puberty, had embraced Islām, and had seen the Prophet, was a “Companion,” even though he had attended Muḥammad but an hour. Others, however, affirm that none could be a “Companion” unless Muḥammad chose him and he chose Muḥammad, and he adhered to the Prophet at all times. The general opinion is that every one who embraced Islām, saw the Prophet, and accompanied him, even for a short time, was a “Companion.”

It is related that the Prophet marched to Makkah with 10,000 Muslims, to Ḥunain with 12,000, and that 40,000 accompanied him on the farewell pilgrimage. The number of the “Companions” at his death is said to have been 144,000.

In point of merit, the refugees (Muhājirūn) are more worthy than the auxiliaries (Anṣār); but by way of precedence, the auxiliaries are more worthy than the later refugees.

The “Companions” have been arranged in thirteen classes, which are given by Abū ʾl-Fidāʾ as follows:—I. Those who first embraced Islām, such as K͟hadījah, ʿAlī, Zaid, and Abū Bakr, and those who did not delay till he had established his mission. II. The Companions who believed in him after his mission had been fully established, amongst whom was ʿUmar. III. Those who fled to Abyssinia. IV. The first Companions of ʿAqabah, who preceded the Auxiliaries. V. The second Companions of ʿAqabah. VI. The third Companions of ʿAqabah, who were seventy. VII. The refugees who went to the Prophet after his flight, when he was at Qubā, before the erection of the temple. VIII. The soldiers of the great battle of Badr. IX. Those who joined Islām between Badr and Hudaibiyah. X. Those who took the oath of fealty under the acacia tree at Hudaibiyah. XI. Those who joined after the treaty of Hudaibiyah, but before the conquest. XII. Those that embraced Islām on the day of conquest. XIII. Those who were children in the time of the Prophet, and had seen him.

Muḥammad frequently commended the “Companions,” and spoke of their excellences and virtues, a chapter in the Traditions being devoted to this subject. (Mishkāt, xxiv. c. xiii.) He is related to have said, “My companions are like stars by which roads are found, for which ever companion you follow you will find the right road.”

AL-AṢḤĀBU ʾL-FĪL (اصحاب الفيل‎). “The Companions of the Elephant.” A term used in the Chapter of the Elephant, or the CVth Sūrah:—“Hast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant? Did He not cause their stratagem to miscarry? And He sent against them birds in flocks, small stones did they hurl down upon them, and he made them like stubble eaten down!”

This refers to the army of Abrahah, the Christian king of Abyssinia and Arabia Felix, said to have been lost, in the year of Muḥammad’s birth, in an expedition against Makkah for the purpose of destroying the Kaʿbah. This army was cut off by small-pox, and there is no doubt, as the Arabic word for small-pox also means “small stones,” in reference to the hard gravelly feeling of the pustules, what is the true interpretation of the fourth verse of this Sūrah, which, like many other poetical passages in the Qurʾān, has formed the starting point for the most puerile and extravagant legends.

AṢḤĀBU ʾL-KAHF (اصحاب الكهف‎). “The Companions of the Cave,” i.e. the Seven Sleepers, mentioned in the Sūratu ʾl-kahf, or Chapter xviii. of the Qurʾān. The story, as told by early Christian writers, is given by Gibbon (Rise and Fall, Chapter xxxi.). When the Emperor Decius persecuted the Christians, seven noble youths of Ephesus are said to have concealed themselves in a cave in the side of a mountain, where they were doomed to perish by the tyrant, who gave orders that the entrance should be firmly secured with a pile of huge stones. They immediately fell into a deep slumber, which was miraculously prolonged, without injuring the powers of life, during a period of 187 years. This popular tale, which Muḥammad must have heard when he drove his camels to the fairs of Syria, is introduced into the Qurʾān as a divine revelation.

AṢḤĀBU ʾṢ-ṢUFFAH (اصحاب الصفة‎). “The sitters on the bench” of the temple at Makkah. They are thus described by Abū ʾl-Fidāʾ: “They were poor strangers, without friends or place of abode, who claimed the promises of the Apostle of God and implored his protection. Thus the porch of the temple became their mansion, and thence they obtained their name. When Muḥammad went to meals, he used to call some of them to partake with him; and he selected others to eat with his companions.”

ʾASHARAH MUBASHSHARAH (عشرة مبشرة‎). “The ten who received glad tidings.” Ten of the most distinguished of Muḥammad’s followers, whose certain entrance into Paradise he is said to have foretold. They are Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, Us̤mān, ʿAlī, T̤alḥah, az-Zubair, ʿAbdu ʾr-Raḥmān, Saʿd-ibn-Abū-Waqqāṣ, Saʿīd ibn Zaid, Abū ʿUbaidah ibn al-Jarrāḥ. (Mishkāt, book xxiv. c. xx., part ii.) Muḥammad declared it presumption for anyone to count upon an entrance into heaven with absolute certainty, but he made an exception in favour of these ten distinguished persons.

AL-ASHʿARĪYAH (الاشعرية‎). A sect formed by Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ashʿarī, born A.H. 260 (A.D. 873–4).

They hold that the attributes of God are distinct from His essence, yet in such a way as to forbid any comparison being made between God and His creatures. They say they are not “ʿain nor g͟hair:” not of His essence, nor distinct from it: i.e. they cannot be compared with any other things. They also hold that God has one eternal will, from which proceed all things, the good and the evil, the useful and the hurtful. The destiny of man was written on the eternal table before the world was created. So far they go with the Ṣifātīs, but in order to preserve the moral responsibility of man, they say that he has power to convert will into action. But this power cannot create anything new, for then God’s sovereignty would be impaired; so they say that God in His providence so orders matters that whenever “a man desires to do a certain thing, good or bad, the action corresponding to the desire is, there and then, created by God, and, as it were, fitted on to the desire.” Thus it seems as if it came naturally from the will of the man, whereas it does not. This action is called Kasb (acquisition), because it is acquired by a special creative act of God. It is an act directed to the obtaining of profit or the removing of injury: the term is therefore inapplicable to the Deity. Abū Bakr al-Bakil­lānī, a disciple of al-Ashʿarī, says: “The essence or substance of the action is the effect of the power of God, but its being a action of obedience, such as prayer, or an action of disobedience, such as fornication, are qualities of the action, which proceed from the power of man.” The Imām Al-Ḥaramain (A.H. 419–478) held “that the actions of men were effected by the power which God has created in man.” Abū Isḥaq al-Isfarāyinī says: “That which maketh impression, or hath influence on action, is a compound of the power of God and the power of man.” They also believe that the word of God is eternal, though they acknowledge that the vocal sounds used in the Qurʾān, which are the manifestation of that word, are created. They say, in short, that the Qurʾān contains (1) the eternal word which existed in the essence of God before time was; and (2) the word which consists of sounds and combinations of letters. This last they call the created word.

Thus Al-Ashʿarī traversed the main positions of the Mutazilites, denying that man can, by the aid of his reason alone, rise to the knowledge of good and evil. He must exercise no judgment, but accept all that is revealed. He has no right to apply the moral laws which affect men to the actions of God. It cannot be asserted by the human reason that the good will be rewarded or the bad punished in a future world. Man must always approach God as a slave, in whom there is no light or knowledge to judge of the actions of the Supreme. Whether God will accept the penitent sinner or not cannot be asserted, for He is an absolute Sovereign, above all law. (Sale, from Ibn K͟haldun; Die Muʿtaziliten oder die Freidenker in Islām, von H. Steiner, 1865; Zur Geschichte Abu ʾl-Ḥasan al-ashʿarīsh, von W. Spitta, 1876; De Strijd over het Dogma in den Islām tot op El-ashʿarī, door Dr. M. Th. Houtsma, Leiden, 1875; and Exposé de la Réforme de l’Islamisme, by M. A. F. Mehren, Leiden, 1878.)

ʿĀSHŪRĀʾ (عاشوراء‎). Lit. “the tenth.” A voluntary fast day, observed on the tenth of the month of Muḥarram. It is related that Muḥammad observed it, and said it was a day respected by Jews and Christians. (Mishkāt, vii. c. vii. 1.)

It is the only day of Muḥarram observed by the Sunnī Muslims, being the day on which it is said God created Adam and Eve, heaven and hell, the tablet of decree, the pen, life, and death. It is kept by the Sunnīs as a fast. [MUHARRAM.]

ĀSIYAH (آسية‎). The wife of Pharaoh. One of the four perfect women (the Virgin Mary, K͟hadījah, and Fāt̤imah, being the other three). See Mishkātu ʾl-Masābīḥ, xxiv. c. 22. She is mentioned in the Qurʾān (Sūrah lxvi. 11): “And God striketh out a parable for those who believe: the wife of Pharaoh, when she said, ‘My Lord, build for me a house with Thee in Paradise, and save me from Pharaoh and his works, and save me from the unjust people.’”

AṢL (اصل‎). Cause, first principle, foundation. Aṣl-wafarʿ, “cause and effect,” “fundamental and derivative principle.”

ASMĀʾU ʾLLĀH (آسماء الله‎). [GOD, NAMES OF.]

ʿASR (عصر‎). The afternoon prayer. [PRAYERS.] The title of the CIIIrd Sūrah of the Qurʾān.

ASS. According to the Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, the ass is an unclean animal, and its flesh and milk are unlawful; nor is zakāt to be given on an ass. (Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. i. 16, iv. 74, 86.)

ASSISTANTS. [ANSAR.]

ASTROLOGY. Arabic ʿIlmu ʾn-nujūm. Qatādah says, referring to the Qurʾān, that God has created stars for three uses: (1) as an ornament to the heavens (Sūrah lxvii. 5); (2) to stone the Devil with (Sūrah lxvii. 5); and (3) to direct travellers through the forests and on the sea (Sūrah xv. 16). Muḥammad condemns those who study the stars for any other purpose (Mishkāt, xxi. c. iii. pt. iii.), and consequently the science of Astrology is not considered lawful in Islām.

ASWAD (الاسود‎). An impostor who, in the time of Muḥammad, claimed the prophetic office. His name was ʿAbhalah ibn Kaʿb, and he belonged to the tribe of ʿAus, of which he was an influential chief. He was surnamed Ẕū ʾl-Ḥimār, or “The Master of the Ass,” because he used frequently to say, “The master of the ass is coming unto me,” and pretended to receive his revelations from two angels, named Suhaik and Shuraik. Being a good hand at legerdemain, and having a smooth tongue, he gained mightily on the multitude by the strange feats which he shewed them, and the eloquence of his discourse. By these means he greatly increased his power, and having made himself master of Najrān and the territory of T̤āʾif, on the death of Bādhān, the governor of Yaman for Muḥammad, he seized that province also, killing Shahr, the son of Bādhān, and taking to wife his widow Āzād, whose father he had also slain. The news being brought to Muḥammad, he sent to his friends and to the tribe of Hamdān, a party of whom conspiring with Qais ibn ʿAbd Yaghūth, who bore Aswad a grudge, and with Fīrūz and Aswad’s wife, broke by night into his house, where Fīrūz surprised him and cut off his head. While dying, it is said that he roared like a bull, at which his guards came to the chamber door, but were sent away by his wife, who told them that the prophet was only agitated by the divine inspiration. This was done the very night before Muḥammad died. The next morning the conspirators caused the following proclamation to be made, viz. “I bear witness that Muḥammad is the Apostle of God, and that ʿAbhalah is a liar”; and letters were immediately sent away to Muḥammad, with an account of what had been done; but a messenger from heaven outstripped them, and acquainted the prophet with the news, which he imparted to his Companions a little before his death, the letters themselves not arriving till Abū Bakr was chosen Khalif. It is said that Muḥammad on this occasion told those who attended him that before the Day of Judgment thirty more impostors, besides Musailimah and Aswad, should appear. The whole time from the beginning of Aswad’s rebellion to his death was four months.

ATHEIST. [DAHRI.]

ʿATĪRAH (عتيرة‎). The sacrifice offered by the idolatrous Arabs in the month of Rajab. It was allowed by the Prophet at the commencement of his mission, but was afterwards abolished. Mishkāt, book iv. c. 50, “Let there be no Faraʿ nor ʿAtīrah.”

AT-TAḤĪYĀT (التحيات‎). Lit. “the greetings.” A part of the stated prayers, recited after the Takbīru ʾl-Quʿūd, after every two rakʿahs. It is recited whilst the worshipper kneels upon the ground. His left foot bent under him, he sits upon it, and places his hands upon his knees, and says:—“The adorations (i.e. at-taḥīyātu) of the tongue are for God, and also of the body and of alms-giving. Peace be on thee, O Prophet, with the mercy of God and His blessing. Peace be upon us, and upon God’s righteous servants.” (Mishkāt, iv., c. xvi.) [PRAYER.]

AUGURY. [FAʾL.]

AULĪYĀʾ (اولياء‎), pl. of walī. “Favourites of God.” The expression occurs in the Qurʾān in the following verse, “Are not the favourites of God those on whom no fear shall come, nor shall they be put to grief?” (Sūrah x. 63).

AUTĀD (اوتاد‎). Lit. “props or pillars.” A term used by the Ṣūfīs for the four saints, by whom the four corners of the world are said to be supported.

AʿŪẔU BILLĀH (اعوذ بالله‎). Another name for the Taʿauwuẕ, or the prayer in the daily liturgy: “I seek refuge with God from the cursed Satan.” [PRAYER.]

AVENGER OF BLOOD. In the Muḥammadan law, as in the Jewish, the punishment for wilful murder is left to the next of kin; but in the Jewish code the avenger of blood was compelled to take the life of the murderer, whilst in the Muslim code he may accept compensation, vide Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 173, “O believers! retaliation (Qiṣāṣ) for blood-shedding is prescribed to you: the free man for the free, and the slave for the slave, and the woman for the woman; but he to whom his brother shall make any remission is to be dealt with equitably; and a payment should be made to him with liberality. This is a relaxation (i.e. of the stricter lex talionis) from your Lord, and a mercy.” [QISAS.]

ĀYAH (آية‎). Lit. “a sign, or miracle.” The term used for one of the smaller portions of the chapters of the Qurʾān, which we call verses. The number of verses is often set down after the title of the chapter, but the verses are not marked in the text as they are in our English Bibles. The number of verses in the Qurʾān is variously estimated, but they are generally said to be about six thousand two hundred. [QURʾAN.]

AL-AʿYĀNU ʾS̤-S̤ĀBITAH (الاعيان الثابتة‎), pl. of ʿayn, in the sense of “the essence” of a thing. The established essences. A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics to express figures emblematic of the names of God. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dictionary of Technical Terms of the Ṣūfīs. Sprenger’s edition.)

ĀYATU ʾL-FATḤ (اية الفتح‎). Lit. “The verse of victory.” The fifty-ninth verse of the Sūratu ʾl-Anʿām (vi.) of the Qurʾān. The powers of this verse are said to be so great, that if a person constantly recite it he will obtain his desires. It is generally recited with this object forty times after each season of prayer. It is as follows:—“And with Him are the keys of the secret things; none knoweth them but He; and He knoweth whatever is on the land and in the sea; and no leaf falleth but He knoweth it; neither is there a grain in the darknesses of the earth, nor a green thing nor a dry thing, but it is noted in a clear book.”

ĀYĀTU ʾL-ḤIFZ̤ (ايات الحفظ‎). “The verses of protection.” Certain verses of the Qurʾān which are usually inscribed on amulets. They are:—Sūrah ii. 256, “And the preservation of both (heaven and earth) is no burden unto Him.” Sūrah xii. 64, “God is the best protector.” Sūrah xiii. 12, “They guard him by the command of God.” Sūrah xv. 17, “We guard him from every devil driven away by stones.” Sūrah xxxvii. 7, “A protection against every rebellious devil.”

ĀYATU ʾL-KURSĪ (اية الكرسى‎). “The verse of the throne.” Verse 256 of the Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah, or chap. ii. of the Qurʾān. It is related (Mishkāt, book iv., c. xix., part iii.) that ʿAlī heard Muḥammad say in the pulpit, “that person who repeats the Āyatu ʾl-Kursī after every prayer, nothing prevents him entering into Paradise but life; and whoever says it when he goes to his bed-chamber, God will keep him in safety, together with his house and the house of his neighbour. The verse is as follows:—“God! There is no God but He; the Living, the Abiding. Neither slumber seizeth Him, nor sleep. To Him belongeth whatsoever is in heaven and whatsoever is in earth. Who is he that can intercede with Him but by His own permission? He knoweth what hath been before them, and what shall be after them; yet nought of His knowledge do they comprehend, save what He willeth. His THRONE reacheth over the heavens and the earth, and the upholding of both burdeneth Him not; and He is the High, the Great.”

ĀYATUʾL-MAWĀRĪS̤ (اية المواريث‎). “The verse of inheritances.” The twelfth verse of the Sūratu ʾn-nisā, or fourth chapter of the Qurʾān. It relates to inheritance, and is the foundation of the Muslim law on the subject. It is given in the article on Inheritance. [INHERITANCE.]

AYIMMATUʾL-ASMĀʾ (ائمة الاسماء‎). “The leading names.” The seven principal names or titles of God, namely:—

Al-Ḥayy The Living.

Al-ʿAlīm The Knowing.

Al-Murīd The Purposer.

Al-Qādir The Powerful.

As-Samīʿ The Hearer.

Al-Baṣīr The Seer.

Al-Mutakallim The Speaker.

ʿĀYISHAH (عائشة‎). The daughter of Abū Bakr, and the favourite wife of Muḥammad, to whom she was married when only nine years of age. She survived her husband many years, and died at al-Madīnah, A.H. 58 (A.D. 678), aged sixty-seven, and obtained the title of Ummu ʾl-Muʾminīn, “The Mother of the Believers.”

AYMĀN (ايمان‎), pl. of Yamīn. [OATHS.]

AYYĀMUʾL-BĪẒ (ايام البيض‎). “The days of the bright nights,” mentioned in the Mishkāt (book vii. c. 7, part 3), as days on which Muḥammad did not eat, whether halting or marching. They are the 13th, 14th, and 15th nights of the month. (See Lane’s Dict., p. 284.)

AYYĀMU ʾL-QARR (ايام القر‎). The day of rest after the day of sacrifice at the Pilgrimage. [HAJJ.]

AYYĀMU ʾN-NAḤR (ايام النحر‎). The season of sacrifice at the Pilgrimage. [HAJJ.]

AYYĀMU ʾT-TASHRĪQ (ايــام التشريق‎). The three days after the feast of sacrifice at Minā during the Pilgrimage. So called because the flesh of the victims is then dried, or because they are not slain until after sun-rise. [HAJJ, PILGRIMAGE.]

AYYIM (ايم‎). A legal term for a woman having no husband, whether she be a virgin or a widow.

ʿAẔĀBU ʾL-QABR (عذاب القبر‎). “The punishment of the grave.” That all persons, whether believers or not, undergo some punishment in their graves, is a fundamental article of the Muslim belief. These punishments are described in the following Ḥadīs̤ on the authority of Abū Hurairah:—

“The Prophet of God said, When a corpse is placed in its grave, two black angels come to it, with blue eyes. The name of the one is Munkar and of the other Nakīr, and they interrogate the dead person concerning the Prophet of God. If he be a Muslim, he will bear witness to the Unity of God and the mission of Muḥammad. The angels will then say, ‘We knew thou wouldst say so’; and the grave will then expand seventy times seventy yards in length, and seventy times seventy in breadth. A light will then be given for the grave, and it will be said, ‘Sleep.’ Then the dead person will say, ‘Shall I return to my brethren and inform them of this?’ Then the angels will say, ‘Sleep like the bridegroom, till God shall raise thee up from the grave on the Day of Resurrection.’ But if the corpse be that of an unbeliever, it will be asked, ‘What sayest thou about the Prophet?’ and he will reply, ‘I know him not.’ And then the angels will say, ‘We knew thou wouldst say so.’ Then the ground will be ordered to close in upon him, and it will break his sides, and turn his right side to his left, and he will suffer perpetual punishment till God raise him therefrom.” In another tradition, recorded by ʿAnas, it is said, “The wicked will be struck with a rod (mit̤raqah), and they will roar out, and their cries will be heard by all animals that may be near the grave excepting man and the genii.” (Mishkāt, book i., c. v.).

All Muḥammadan doctors of the orthodox schools (whether we apply the term orthodox to Sunnī or Shīʿah) believe in the literal interpretation of these punishments in the grave, which are said to take place as soon as the funeral party has left the grave-yard. A perusal of the various traditions on the subject must convince any unprejudiced mind that Muḥammad intended to teach a literal interpretation of his sayings on this subject. It is related that on one occasion, when the Prophet was riding through a grave-yard, his mule, hearing the groans of the dead, tried to throw his master. On that occasion, Muḥammad said, “If I were not afraid that you would leave off burying, I would ask God to give you the power of hearing what I hear.” Shaik͟h ʿAbdu ʾl-Ḥaqq, in his commentary on the Mishkāt, says, “The accounts which are here given of the punishment of the grave, are undoubtedly true, and they are not either imaginary or figurative.” (Mishkāt, book i., chap. v.; see Persian edition with ʿAbdu ʾl-Ḥaqq’s commentary.)

AZAL (ازل‎). Eternity with respect to the past, as distinguished from abad (ابد‎), eternity without end.

AẔĀN (اذان‎). Lit. “announcement.” The call or summons to public prayers proclaimed by the Muʾaẕẕin (or crier)—in small mosques from the side of the building or at the door, and in large mosques from the minaret.

It is in Arabic as follows:—

الله اكبر — الله اكبر — الله اكبر — الله اكبر — اشهد ان لا اله الا الله — اشهد ان لا اله الا الله — اشهد ان محمدا رسول الله — اشهد ان محمدا رسول الله — حى على الصلوة — حى على الصلوة — حى على الفلاح — حى على الفلاح — الله اكبر — الله اكبر — لا اله الا الله.‎

Allāhu akbar! Allāhu akbar! Allāhu akbar! Allāhu akbar! Ashhadu an lā ilāha illa ʾllāh! Ashhadu an lā ilāha illa ʾllāh! Ashhadu anna Muḥammadan rasūlu-llāh! Ashhadu anna Muḥammadan rasūlu-llāh! Ḥayya ʿala ʾṣ-ṣalāti! Ḥayya ʿala ʾṣ-ṣalāti! Ḥayya ʿala ʾl-falāḥ! Ḥayya ʿala ʾl-falāḥ! Allāhu akbar! Allāhu akbar! Lā ilāha illa ʾllāh!

Which is translated:—

“God is most great! God is most great! God is most great! God is most great! I testify that there is no god but God! I testify that there is no god but God! I testify that Muḥammad is the Apostle of God! I testify that Muḥammad is the Apostle of God! Come to prayer! Come to prayer! Come to salvation! Come to salvation! God is most great! God is most great! There is no god but God!”

In the Aẕān in the early morning, after the words, “Come to salvation!” is added الصلوة خير من النوم — الصلوة خير من النوم.؜‎ Aṣ-ṣalātu k͟hairun mina ʾn-naumi! Aṣ-ṣalātu k͟hairun mina ʾn-naumi! “Prayer is better than sleep! Prayer is better than sleep!”

The Shīʿahs make a slight alteration in the Aẕān, by adding the words, حى على خير العمل — حى على خير العمل‎ Ḥayya ʿalā k͟hairi ʾl-ʿamali! Ḥayya ʿalā k͟hairi ʾl-ʿamali! “Come to the best of works! Come to the best of works!” and by repeating the last sentence of the Aẕān, “There is no god but God,” twice instead of once, as in the Sunnī Aẕān.

When the Aẕān is recited, it is usual for men of piety and religious feeling to respond to each call, as, for example, when the Muʾaẕẕin cries:—

“Allāhu akbar! Allāhu akbar! Allāhu akbar! Allāhu akbar!”

Those who hear it repeat:—

“Allāhu akbar! Allāhu akbar! Allāhu akbar! Allāhu akbar!”

The Muʾaẕẕin says:—

“I testify that there is no god but God; I testify that there is no god but God.”

They reply:—

“I testify that there is no god but God; I testify that there is no god but God.”

Muʾaẕẕin.—“I testify that Muḥammad is the Apostle of God.”

Reply.—“I testify that Muḥammad is the Apostle of God.”

Muʾaẕẕin.—“Come to prayer.”

Reply.—“I have no power nor strength but from God the most High and Great.”

Muʾaẕẕin.—“Come to salvation.”

Reply.—“What God willeth will be; what He willeth not willeth not be.”

The recital of the Aẕān must be listened to with great reverence. If a person be walking at the time, he should stand still; if reclining, sit up. Mr. Lane, in his Modern Egyptians, says, “Most of the Muʾaẕẕins of Cairo have harmonious and sonorous voices, which they strain to the utmost pitch; yet there is a simple and solemn melody in their chants which is very striking, particularly in the stillness of the night.” But Vambéry remarks that “the Turkistānees most carefully avoid all tune and melody. The manner in which the Aẕān is cried in the west is here (in Bokhārā) declared sinful, and the beautiful melancholy notes which, in the silent hour of a moonlit evening, are heard from the slender minarets on the Bosphorus, fascinating every hearer, would be listened to by the Bok͟hariot with feelings only of detestation.”

The summons to prayer was at first the simple cry, “Come to public prayer.” After the Qiblah was changed, Muḥammad bethought himself of a more formal call. Some suggested the Jewish trumpet, others the Christian bell; but neither was grateful to the Prophet’s ear. The Aẕān, or call to prayer was then established. Tradition claims for it a supernatural origin, thus:—“While the matter was under discussion, ʿAbdu ʾllāh, a Khazrajite, dreamed that he met a man clad in green raiment, carrying a bell. ʿAbdu ʾllāh sought to buy it, saying that it would do well for bringing together the assembly of the faithful. ‘I will show thee a better way,’ replied the stranger; ‘let a crier cry aloud, “God is most great,” &c.’ Waking from sleep, ʿAbdu ʾllāh proceeded to Muḥammad, and told him his dream.” (Muir, from Kātibu ʾl-Wākidī.) Hishāmi recites the story as if ʿAbdu ʾllāh had actually met the man.

Bingham, in his Antiquities (vol. ii., book viii. chap. vii.), relates that, in the monastery of virgins which Paula, the famous Roman lady, set up and governed at Jerusalem, the signal for prayer was given by one going about and singing “Hallelujah!” for that was their call to church, as St. Jerome informs us.

The Aẕān is proclaimed before the stated times of prayer, either by one of the congregation, or by the Muʾaẕẕin or crier, who is paid for the purpose. He must stand with his face towards Makkah, with the points of his forefingers in his ears, and recite the formula which has been given above.

It must not be recited by an unclean person, a drunkard, a madman, or a woman.

ĀZAR (آزر‎). Terah, the father of Abraham. Sūrah vi. 74, “And when Ābrahīm said to his father Āzar, Takest thou images as gods?”

“The Eastern authors unanimously agree that he was a statuary, or carver of idols; and he is represented as the first who made images of clay, pictures only having been in use before, and taught that they were to be adored as gods. However, we are told his employment was a very honourable one, and that he was a great lord, and in high favour with Nimrod, whose son-in-law he was, because he made his idols for him, and was excellent in his art. Some of the Rabbins say Terah was a priest and chief of the order.”—(Sale.)

AL-AZĀRIQAH (الازارقة‎). A sect of heretics founded by Nāfiʿ ibn al-Azraq, who say that ʿAlī was an infidel, and that his assassin was right in killing him. (See ash-Shahrastānī, ed. Cureton, p. ٨٩‎, Haarbruecker’s translation, I., p. 133.)

AL-ʿAẒBĀʾ (العضباء‎). The slit-eared; one of Muḥammad’s favourite camels.

AL-AẒḤĀ (الاضحى‎). [ʿIDUʾL-AZHA.]

AL-ʿAZ̤ĪM (العظيم‎). One of the ninety-nine special names of God. “The great One.”

ʿAZĪMAH (عزيمة‎). An incantation. [EXORCISM.]

AL-ʿAZĪZ (العزيز‎). One of the ninety-nine special names of God. It frequently occurs in the Qurʾān. It means “the powerful, or the mighty One.”

ʿAZRĀʾĪL (عزرائيل‎). The angel of Death. Mentioned in the Qurʾān under the title of Malaku ʾl-Maut, Sūrah xxxii. 11, “The angel of death who is charged with you shall cause you to die.” [MALAKU ʾL-MAUT.]