DICTIONARY OF ISLĀM. (continued 8)

(3) A term used by Ṣūfī mystics for a declension in spiritual life. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)

AL-FATTĀḤ (الفتاح‎), “The Opener” of that which is difficult.

One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. It occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah xxxiv., “For He is the opener who knows.”

FATWĀ (فتوى‎). A religious or judicial sentence pronounced by the K͟halīfah or by a Muftī, or Qāẓī. It is generally written. The following is a fatwā delivered by the present Muftī of the Ḥanafī sect at Makkah in reply to the question as to whether India is a Dāru ʾl-Islām. Fatwās are generally written in a similar form to this, but in Arabic:—

“All praises are due to the Almighty, who is Lord of all the creation!

O Almighty, increase my knowledge!

As long as even some of the peculiar observances of Islām prevail in it, it is the Dāru ʾl-Islām.

The Almighty is Omniscient, Pure and High!

This is the Fatwā passed by one who hopes for the secret favour of the Almighty, who praises God, and prays for blessings and peace on his Prophet.

(Signed) Jamal ibn ʿAbdu ʾl-lah Shaikh ʿUmaru ʾl-Ḥanafi, the present Muftī of Makkah (the Honoured).

May God favour him and his father.”

FAUJDĀR (فوجدآر‎). An officer of the Mog͟hul Government who was invested with the charge of the police, and jurisdiction in all criminal matters. A criminal judge. Faujdārī is a term now used in British courts for a criminal suit as opposed to dīwānī, or civil.

FAUTU ʾL-ḤAJJ (فوت الحج‎). The end of the Pilgrimage. [PILGRIMAGE.]

FAẒL (فضل‎). Lit. “That which remains over and above; redundant.” A word used in the Qurʾān for God’s grace or kindness. Sūrah ii. 244: “God is Lord of grace to men, but most men give no thanks.” The Christian idea of divine grace, as in the New Testament, seems to be better expressed by fayẓ-i-aqdas.

FAẒŪLĪ (فضولى‎). Lit. “That which is in excess.” A term used in Muḥammadan law for anything unauthorised, e.g. baiʿ-i-faẓūlī, is an unauthorised sale. Nikāḥ-i-faẓūlī is an unauthorised marriage, when the contracts are made by an unauthorised agent.

FEAST DAYS. Arabic ʿīd (عيد‎); dual ʿīdān; plural aʿyād. The two great festivals of the Muḥammadans are, the ʿĪdu ʾl-Fit̤r, and the ʿĪdu ʾl-Aẓḥā. The other festivals which are celebrated as days of rejoicing are, the Shab-i-Barāt, or the fifteenth day of Shaʿbān; the Nau-Roz, or New Year’s day; the Ak͟hir-i-Chahār Shamba, or the last Wednesday of the month of Ṣafar; the Laylatu ʾr-Rag͟hāʾib, or the first Friday in the month of Rajab; the Maulūd, or the birthday of Muḥammad.

An account of these feasts is given under their respective titles.

FEMALE INFANTICIDE, which existed amongst the ancient Arabians, was condemned by Muḥammad. Vide Qurʾān:—

Sūrah xvi. 60: “For when the birth of a daughter is announced to any one of them, dark shadows settle on his face, and he is sad. He hideth himself from the people because of the bad news: shall he keep it with disgrace or bury it in the dust? Are not their judgments wrong.”

Sūrah xvii. 33: “Kill not your children for fear of want: for them and for you will We (God) provide.”

Sūrah lxxxi. 8: “… And when the damsel that had been buried alive shall be asked (at the Day of Judgment) for what crime she was put to death.”

FIDYAH (فدية‎). A ransom. From fidāʾ, “to ransom,” “to exchange.” An expiation for sin, or for duties unperformed. The word occurs three times in the Qurʾān:—

Sūrah ii. 180: “For those who are able to keep it (the fast) and yet break it, there shall be as an expiation the maintenance of a poor man.”

Sūrah ii. 192: “Perform the pilgrimage and the visitation of the holy places.… But whoever among you is sick, or hath an ailment of the head, must expiate by fasting, or alms, or a sacrifice.”

Sūrah lvii. 14: “On that day (the Day of Judgment) no expiation shall be taken from you (i.e. the hypocrites) or from those who do not believe; your abode is the fire.”

The other word used in the Qurʾān for the same idea is kaffārah. [KAFFARAH, EXPIATION.]

FIG. Arabic at-Tīn (التين‎). The title of the XCVth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, so called because Muḥammad makes the Almighty swear by that fruit in the first verse. Al-Baiẓāwī says God swears by figs because of their great use. They are most excellent, because they can be eaten at once, having no stones, they are easy of digestion, and help to carry off the phlegm, and gravel in the kidneys or bladder, and remove obstructions of the liver, and also cure piles and gout. (Tafsīru ʾl-Baiẓāwī, in loco.)

FIJĀR (فجار‎). Lit. “That which is unlawful.” A term given to a series of sacrilegious wars carried on between the Quraish, and the Banū Hawāzin, when Muḥammad was a youth, about A.D. 580–590. (Muir, vol. ii. 3.)

AL-FĪL (الفيل‎). The title of the CVth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, as it gives an account of the Aṣḥābu ʾl-Fīl, or “People of the Elephant.” [ELEPHANT.]

FINES. Arabic Diyah (دية‎). A term which, in its strictest sense, means a sum exacted for any offence upon the person, in consideration for the claim of qiṣāṣ, or retaliation, not being insisted upon. (This does not apply to wilful murder.) A full and complete fine is that levied upon a person for manslaughter, which consists of either one hundred female camels or ten thousand dirhams (silver), or one thousand dīnārs (gold).

The fine for slaying a woman is half that for slaying a man, “because the rank of a woman is lower than that of a man, so also her faculties and uses!” The fine for slaying a ẕimmī (be he a Jew, Christian, or idolater) is the same as for slaying a Muslim.

A complete fine is also levied for the destruction of a nose, or a tongue, or a virile member, and, also, if a person tear out the beard, or the hair of the scalp, or the whiskers, or both eyebrows, so that they never grow again, “because the beauty of the countenance is thereby effaced.”

A complete fine is due for any fellow parts, as for two eyes, two lips, &c., and one half the fine for one single member.

For each finger, a tenth of the complete fine is due, and as every finger has three joints, a third of the fine for the whole is due for each joint.

The fine for a tooth is a twentieth of the complete fine.

A half fine is due for merely destroying the use of a limb, but if a person strike another in any way so as to completely destroy the beauty of his person, a complete fine must be paid. Wounds on the face, viz. from the crown of the head to the chin, are specially treated, and are termed shijāj. Of shijāj, or “face wounds,” there are ten: (1) hārifah, or such as draw no blood—a mere scratch; (2) dāmiyah, a scratch which draws blood, without causing it to flow; (3) damīyah, a scratch which causes blood to flow; (4) bāẓiʿah, a cut through the skin; (5) mutalāḥimah, a cut to the flesh; (6) simḥāq, a wound reaching into the pericranium; (7) mūẓiḥah, a wound which lays bare the bone; (8) hāshimah, a fracture of the skull; (9) munākilah, a fracture which causes the removal of part of the skull; (10) āmmah, a wound extending to the brain.

For an āmmah wound, a third of the complete fine is due. Fifteen camels are due for a munākilah, ten for a hāshimah, five for a mūẓiḥah, and so on.

All other wounds on other parts of the body may be adjusted for according to the above scale, but are left to the decision of the judge.

For further information on the subject see “Bābu ʾl-Diyah” in the Durru ʾl-Muk͟htār, or the Hidāyah, or the Fatāwā ʿĀlamgīrī, or the Raddu ʾl-Muḥtār.

FIQH (فقه‎). The dogmatic theology of the Muslims. Works on Muḥammadan law, whether civil or religious. The books most read by the Sunnīs are the Hidāyah, written by a learned man named ʿAlī ibn Abū Bakr, A.H. 593, part of which has been translated by the late Colonel Charles Hamilton; the Durru ʾl-Muk͟htār, by ʿAlāʾu ʾd-dīn, A.H. 1088; the Sharḥu ʾl-Wiqāyah, by ʿUbaidu ʾllāh ibn Masʿūd, A.H. 745; the Raddu ʾl-Muḥtār, by Saiyid Muḥammad Amīn ibn ʿĀbidi ʾd-dīn, and the Fatāwā ʿĀlamgīrī. Amongst the Imāmīyah School, or Shīʿahs, the principal works are Kitābu ʾsh-Sharāiʿ, by Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī (A.H. 326); the Muqniʿ fī ʾl-Fiqh, by Abū Jaʿfar (A.H. 360); the Sharāʿiʾu ʾl-Islām, by Shaik͟h Najmu ʾd-dīn (A.H. 679); and the Jāmiʿu ʾl-ʿAbbāsi, by Bahāʾu ʾd-dīn (A.H. 1031).

FĪRĀSAH (فراسة‎), or farāsah. A Ṣūfī term for the enlightenment of the heart. A penetration into the secrets of the unknown. ʿIlmu ʾl-firāsah, “The science of physiognomy.”

FIRĀSH (فراش‎). Lit. “A couch.” In Muḥammadan law “a wife.”

FIRʿAUN (فرعون‎). [PHARAOH.]

FIRDAUS (فردوس‎). The highest stage of celestial bliss. [PARADISE.]

FIRE. Arabic nār (نار‎). (1) The term an-nār, “the fire,” is generally used in the Qurʾān and the Traditions for “hell.” (2) In the Qurʾān (Sūrah xxxvii. 29) the power of God is declared as being able to “give fire out of a green tree.” On which al-Baiẓāwī says, “the usual way of getting fire is by rubbing two pieces of wood together, one of which is mark͟h and the other afār, and they produce fire, although both the sticks are green. (3) The burning to death of human beings is condemned by Muḥammad, who said “Let no one punish with the punishment of fire but God.”

FIRST-BORN. Although the Arabian legislator followed the Mosaic law in so many of his legal enactments, he has carefully avoided any legislation as to the rights of primogeniture, although it formed such a marked feature in the Pentateuch, in which the first-born of man and beast were devoted to God, and were redeemed with a price. In the Muslim law of inheritance, all the sons share equally, whilst in the Mosaic law the eldest son received a double portion of the father’s inheritance. (Deut. xxi. 17.)

In cases of chiefship, or monarchy, the eldest son usually inherits, but it rests entirely upon his fitness for the position. Very often the eldest son is passed by and a younger brother selected as ruler. This was also the case amongst the Jews when Solomon succeeded his father in the kingdom. (1 Kings i. 30; ii. 22.)

The curious fact that Muḥammad made no provision for these rights of primogeniture, may have arisen from his having had no son to survive him.

FISH. Arabic samak (سمك‎). (1) Fish which, dying of themselves, float upon the surface of the water, are abominated, according to Abū Ḥanīfah. Ash-Shāfiʿī, and Mālik say they are indifferent. Abū Ḥanīfah teaches that fish which are killed by accident are lawful, but such as die of themselves without any accident are unlawful. There are, however, different opinions regarding those which die of extreme heat or cold.

(2) In the law of sale, it is not lawful to sell fish which is not yet caught, nor is it lawful to sell fish which the vendor may have caught and afterwards thrown into a large tank.

(3) Whilst the destruction of all animals, except noxious ones, is forbidden during the pilgrimage, fishing in the sea is permitted by the Qurʾān, Sūrah v. 97: “Lawful for you is the game of the sea.”

FITAN (فتن‎), pl. of fitnah. Seditions; strifes; commotions.

A term specially used for those wars and commotions which shall precede the Resurrection. A chapter is devoted to the subject in all the books of traditions. (See Ṣaḥīḥu ʾl-Buk͟hārī, p. 1045; Ṣaḥīḥu Muslim, p. 388.)

Muḥammad is related to have said, “There will be K͟halīfahs after me that will not go the straight road in which I have gone, nor will follow my example, but in those times there will be the hearts of devils in the bodies of men.” Ḥuẕaifah then said to him, “O Prophet, what shall I do if I live to see those days?” And the Prophet said, “Obey him who has the rule over you, even though he flog your back and take your money.”

Ṣafīyah, in a tradition (recorded in at-Tirmiẕī and Abū Dāʾūd), said that Muḥammad said that the succession would last for thirty years, and that the “four rightly directed K͟halīfahs” reigned exactly that time: Abū Bakr, two years; ʿUmar, ten; ʿUs̤mān, twelve; and ʿAlī, six.

A mover or leader of sedition is called a bag͟hī or rebel. [REBELLION.]

FIT̤RAH (فطرة‎). Lit. “Nature.” Certain ancient practices of the prophets before the time of Muḥammad, which have not been forbidden by him.

ʿĀyishah relates that the Prophet said: “There are ten qualities of the prophets—clipping the mustachios, so that they do not enter the mouth, not cutting or shaving the beard, cleansing the teeth (i.e. miswāk), cleansing the nostrils with water at the usual ablutions, cutting the nails, cleaning the finger joints, pulling out the hairs under the arm-pits, shaving the hair of the privates, washing with water after passing urine, and cleansing the mouth with water at the time of ablution.” (See Ṣaḥīḥu Muslim.)

The nose is to be washed out with water because it is supposed that the devil resides in the nose during the night. (See Mishkāt.)

There is a chapter in the Avesta of the Parsees, containing injunctions as to the paring of the nails of the hands and feet.

FIVE FOUNDATIONS OF ISLĀM. (1) Shahādah, or bearing witness that there is no deity but God; (2) Ṣalāt, or the observance of the five stated periods of prayer; (3) Zakāt, giving the legal alms once a year; (4) Ṣaum, fasting during the whole of the month of Ramaẓān; (5) Ḥajj, the pilgrimage to Makkah once in a life-time. They are also called the five foundations of practice, as distinguished from the six foundations of faith. [ISLAM, IMAN.]

FIVE KEYS OF SECRET KNOWLEDGE, which are with God alone, are said to be found in the last verse of the Sūrah Luqmān (XXXIst, 34) of the Qurʾān: “God! with Him is (1) the Knowledge of the Hour; (2) and He sendeth down rain; (3) and He knoweth what is in the wombs; (4) but no soul knoweth what shall be on the morrow; (5) neither knoweth any soul in what land he shall die. Verily God is knowing and is informed of all.”

FIVE SENSES, The. Arabic al-ḥawāssu ʾl-k͟hamsah (الحواسّ الخمسة‎). According to Muḥammadan writers, there are five external (z̤āhirī) senses, and five internal (bāt̤inī) senses. The former being those five faculties known amongst European writers as seeing (baṣirah), hearing (sāmiʿah), smelling (shāmmah), taste (ẕāʾiqah), touch (lāmisah). The latter: common sense (ḥiss-i-mushtarak), the imaginative faculty (qūwat-i-k͟hayāl), the thinking faculty (qūwat-i-mutaṣarrifah), the instinctive faculty (qūwat-i-wāhimah), the retentive faculty (qūwat-i-ḥāfiz̤ah).

FOOD. Arabic t̤aʿām (طعام‎), pl. at̤ʿimah. The injunctions contained in the Qurʾān (Sūrah ii. 167) respecting food are as follows: “O ye who believe! eat of the good things with which we have supplied you, and give God thanks if ye are His worshippers. Only that which dieth of itself, and blood, and swine’s flesh, and that over which any other name than that of God hath been invoked, hath God forbidden you. But he who shall partake of them by constraint, without desire, or of necessity, then no sin shall be upon him. Verily God is forgiving and merciful.” Sūrah v. 92.: “O Believers! wine (k͟hamr) and games of chance, and statues, and divining-arrows are only an abomination of Satan’s work! Avoid them that ye may prosper.”

The other injunctions concerning food are found in the Traditions and sayings of Muḥammad.

No animal, except fish and locusts, is lawful food unless it be slaughtered according to the Muḥammadan law, namely, by drawing the knife across the throat and cutting the wind-pipe, the carotid arteries, and the gullet, repeating at the same time the words “Biʾsmi ʾllāhi, Allāhu akbar,” i.e. “In the name of God, God is great.” A clean animal, so slaughtered, becomes lawful food for Muslims, whether slaughtered by Jews, Christians, or Muḥammadans, but animals slaughtered by either an idolater, or an apostate from Islām, is not lawful.

Ẕabḥ, or the slaying of animals, is of two kinds. Ik͟htiyārī, or of choice, and Iẓt̤irārī, or of necessity. The former being the slaughtering of animals in the name of God, the latter being the slaughter effected by a wound, as in shooting birds or animals, in which case the words Biʾsmi ʾllāhi, Allāhu akbar must be said at the time of the discharge of the arrow from the bow or the shot from the gun.

According to the Hidāyah, all quadrupeds that seize their prey with their teeth, and all birds which seize it with their talons are unlawful, because the Prophet has prohibited mankind from eating them. Hyenas, foxes, elephants, weasels, pelicans, kites, carrion crows, ravens, crocodiles, otters, asses, mules, wasps, and in general all insects, are forbidden. But there is some doubt as to the lawfulness of horses’ flesh. Fishes dying of themselves are also forbidden.

The prohibition of wine in the Qurʾān under the word k͟hamr is held to exclude all things which have an intoxicating tendency, such as opium, chars, bhang, and tobacco.

A Muslim can have no religious scruples to eat with a Christian, as long as the food eaten is of a lawful kind. Saiyid Aḥmad K͟hān Bahādur, C.S.I., has written a treatise proving that Muḥammadans can eat with the Ahl-i-Kitāb, namely, Jews or Christians. The Muḥammadans of India, whilst they will eat food cooked by idolatrous Hindūs, refuse to touch that cooked either by Native or European Christians; and they often refuse to allow Christians to draw water from the public wells, although Hindūs are permitted to do so. Such objections arise solely from jealousy of race, and an unfriendly feeling towards the ruling power. In Afghanistan and Persia, no such objections exist; and no doubt much evil has been caused by Government allowing Hindūstānī Muslims to create a religious custom which has no foundation whatever, except that of national hatred to their English conquerors. [EATING.]

FORBIDDEN FRUIT, The. Mentioned in the Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 33: “And we (God) said, ‘O Adam, dwell thou and thy wife in Paradise and eat therefrom amply as you wish; but do not draw near this tree’ (shajarah).”

Concerning this tree, the Commentators have various opinions. Ḥusain says some say it was a fig tree, or a vine, but most people think it was a grain of wheat (ḥint̤ah) from a wheat stalk. [ADAM, FALL.]

FORGIVENESS. [PARDON, ʿAFU.]

FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES. Enjoined in the Qurʾān in the following words (Sūrah xlii. 38): “Let the recompense of evil be only a like evil—but he who forgiveth and maketh peace, shall find his reward for it from God; verily He loveth not those who act unjustly. And there shall be no way open (i.e. no blame) against those who, after being wronged, avenge themselves.… Whoso beareth wrongs and forgiveth—this is a bounden duty.”

FORNICATION. Arabic zināʾ (زناء‎). The word zināʾ includes both fornication with an unmarried person, and adultery with a married person. [ADULTERY.]

The sin of fornication must be established, as in the case of adultery, either by proofs or by confession.

To establish it by proof, four witnesses are required, and if any person bring an accusation against a woman of chaste reputation and fail to establish it, he must be punished with eighty stripes. [QAZF.]

When a person for conscience sake confesses the sin of fornication, the confession must be repeated four times at four different appearances before a qāẓī, and the person confessing must be very exact and particular as to the circumstances, so that there can be no mistake. A self-accused person may also retract the confession at any period before, or during, the infliction of the punishment, and the retractation must be accepted.

The punishment for fornication is one hundred stripes (or fifty for a slave). The scourging to be inflicted upon a man standing and upon a woman sitting; and the woman is not to be stripped. It should be done with moderation, with a strap or whip, which has no knots upon it, and the stripes should be given not all upon the same part of the body. [DIRRAH.]

In some countries banishment is added to the punishment of scourging for fornication, especially if the sin is often repeated, so as to constitute common prostitution.

The law is founded upon the following verse in the Qurʾān, Sūrah xxiv. 2–5:—

“The whore and the whoremonger—scourge each of them with an hundred stripes; and let not compassion keep you from carrying out the sentence of God, if ye believe in God and the last day: And let some of the faithful witness their chastisement.

“The whoremonger shall not marry other than a whore or an idolatress; and the whore shall not marry other than a whoremonger or an idolater. Such alliances are forbidden to the faithful.

“They who defame virtuous women, and bring not four witnesses, scourge them with fourscore stripes, and receive ye not their testimony for ever, for these are perverse persons—

“Save those who afterwards repent and live virtuously; for truly God is Lenient, Merciful!”

The Muḥammadan law differs from Jewish law with regard to fornication; see Exodus xxii. 16, 17:—“If a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.” Deut. xxii. 25–29:—“If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto a husband, and a man find her in the city and lie with her, then ye shall bring them out unto the gate of the city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die: the damsel because she cried not, being in the city, and the man because he hath humbled his neighbour’s wife; so shalt thou put away evil from among you. But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her and lie with her, then the man only that lay with her shall die. But unto the damsel shalt thou do nothing: there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death.… If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found, then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.”

FORTUNE-TELLING. Arabic kahānah (كهانة‎). Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥakam relates that he asked the Prophet if it were right to consult fortune-tellers about future events, and he replied, “Since you have embraced Islām, you must not consult them.” [MAGIC.]

FOSTERAGE. Arabic raẓāʿah, riẓāʿah (رضاعة‎). According to Abū Ḥanīfah, the period of fosterage is thirty months; but the two disciples, Yūsuf and Muḥammad, hold it to be two years, whilst Zufar maintains that it is three years. Fosterage with respect to the prohibitions attached to it is of two kinds; first, where a woman takes a strange child to nurse, by which all future matrimonial connection between that child and the woman, or her relations within the prohibited degrees, is rendered illegal; secondly, where a woman nurses two children, male and female, upon the same milk, which prohibits any future matrimonial connection between them. For further particulars on this subject, see Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. i. page 187.

FOUNDLING. Arabic laqīt̤ (لقيط‎). Lit. “That which is picked up.” The person who finds the child is called the multaqit̤. The taking up of a foundling is said to be a laudable and generous act, and where the finder sees that the child’s life is in peril, it is an incumbent religious duty. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 252.)

The maintenance of a foundling is defrayed from the public treasury, but the finder is not to demand anything for his trouble and expense, but after the finding of the child has been reported to the magistrate, the child is legally placed under the care of the multaqit̤, and supported by the state. A foundling is declared to be free, and not a slave, and unless he be found on the land or property of a Jew or Christian, he is declared a Muslim. But if the child be found on the property of a Jew or Christian, he will be declared a Jew or Christian as the case may be. The multaqit̤ cannot contract the foundling in marriage without the sanction of the magistrate, but he may send him to school and in every respect see to his education and training without consulting the magistrate.

FRIDAY. Arabic Jumʿah (جمعة‎). “The Day of Assembly.” The Muḥammadan Sabbath, on which they assemble in the Jāmiʿ Masjid, or chief mosque, and recite two rakʿahs of prayers and listen to the oration, or k͟hut̤bah at the time of mid-day prayer. Muḥammad claims in the Traditions to have established Friday as a day of worship by divine command. He says, “Friday was ordered as a divine day of worship both for the Jew and Christian, but they have acted contrary to the command. The Jew fixed Saturday and the Christian fixed Sunday.”

According to the same traditions, Friday is “the best day on which the sun rises, the day on which Adam was taken into Paradise and turned out of it, the day on which he repented and on which he died. It will also be the Day of Resurrection.”

There is also a certain hour on Friday (known only to God) on which a Muslim obtains all the good he asks of the Almighty. Muḥammad prayed that God may put a seal on the heart of every Muslim who through negligence omits prayer for three successive Fridays. Muḥammad said:—

“Whoever bathes on Friday and comes to prayers in the beginning and comes on foot and sets near the Imām and listens to the k͟hut̤bah, and says nothing playful, but sits silent, every step he took will get the rewards of a whole year’s worshipping and rewards of one year’s fast and one year’s prayings at night.”

“There are three descriptions of people present on Friday, one of them who comes to the masjid talking triflingly, and this is what he gets instead of rewards; and there is a man who is present for making supplications, and he asks God, and if He wills He gives him, if not, refuses; the third a man who attends to hear the k͟hut̤bah and is silent, and does not incommode anyone, and this Friday covers his sins till the next, and three days longer; for God says, Whoever doth one good act will receive ten in return.” (Mishkāt, book iv. c. xliii.) [KHUTBAH.]

FRIENDSHIP with Jews and Christians is condemned in the Qurʾān, Sūrah v. 56: “O ye who believe! take not the Jews and Christians for your friends (or patrons); they are the friends of each other; but whoso amongst you takes them for friends, verily he is of them, and, verily, God guides not an unjust people.”

FRUITS OF THE EARTH are described in the Qurʾān as evidences of God’s love and care for his creatures.

Sūrah vi. 142:—

“He it is who produceth gardens of the vine trellised and untrellised, and the palm trees, and the corn of various food, and olives, and pomegranates, like and unlike. Eat of their fruit when they bear fruit, and pay the due thereof on the day of its ingathering: and be not prodigal, for God loveth not the prodigal.”

Sūrah xiii. 3:—

“And He it is who hath outstretched the earth, and placed on it the firm mountains, and rivers: and of every fruit He hath placed on it two kinds: He causeth the night to enshroud the day. Verily in this are signs for those who reflect.

“And on the earth hard by each other are its various portions: gardens of grapes and corn, and palm trees single or clustered. Though watered by the same water, yet some make we more excellent as food than other: Verily in all this are signs for those who understand.”

FUGITIVES. (1) A fugitive slave, either male or female, is called ābiq (آبق‎). The capture of a fugitive slave is a laudable act, and the captor is entitled to a reward of forty dirhams. (2) A fugitive on account of religion is called muhājir (مهاجر‎). Special blessings are promised to those who flee their country on account of their being Muslims.

Sūrah iv. 101: “Whosoever flees in the way of God shall find in the earth a spacious refuge.”

Sūrah xxii. 57: “Those who flee in God’s way and then are slain or die, God will provide them with a godly provision.” [SLAVES, MUHAJIR.]

FULS (فلس‎). An idol (or an idol temple), belonging to the Banī T̤aiy, a tribe divided between the profession of idolatry and Christianity. Destroyed by ʿAlī by order of Muḥammad, A.H. 630. (Muir, vol. iv. p. 177.)

FUNERAL. Arabic janāzah (جنازه‎). [BURIAL.]

FURĀT (فــرات‎). The river Euphrates, said to be one of the rivers of Eden. [EDEN.]

AL-FURQĀN (الفرقان‎). (1) The title of the XXVth Sūrah of the Qurʾān. (2) One of the titles of the Qurʾān (Sūrah ii. 181; iii. 2; xxv. 1). (3) The title given to the Taurāt revealed to Moses (Sūrah ii. 50; xxi. 49). (4) The victory on the day of the battle of Badr (Sūrah viii. 42). (5) A term used by Ṣūfī mystics for a distinguishing between truth and error.

Muḥammadan lexicographers are unanimous in interpreting the word furqān to mean that which distinguishes between good and evil, lawful and unlawful. The Jews use the word perek, or pirka, from the same root, to denote a section or portion of scripture.

FUṢṢILAT (فصلت‎). Lit. “Were made plain.” A title of the XLIst Sūrah of the Qurʾān, from the word occurring in the second verse. The Sūrah is also known as the Hāmīm as-Sajdah, to distinguish it from the Sūrah XXXIInd, which is also called as-Sajdah, or “Adoration.”

FUTURE LIFE. The immortality of the soul and the reality of a future life are very distinctive doctrines of the religion of Muḥammad, and very numerous are the references to it in the Qurʾān. The whole system of Islām is based upon the belief in the future existence of the soul of man. A description of the special character of this future life will be found in the article on PARADISE.

The terms generally used to express a future life are Dāru ʾl-Ak͟hirat, Dāru ʾl-Baqāʾ, Dāru ʾl-Uqbā.

G.

GABR (گبر‎). [MAJUS.]

GABRIEL. Arabic Jibrāʾīl (جبرايل‎). In the Qurʾān Jibrīl (جبريل‎). The angelic being who is supposed to have been the medium of the revelation of the Qurʾān to Muḥammad. He is mentioned only twice in the Qurʾān by name. Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah ii. 91: “Whoso is the enemy of Gabriel—for he hath by God’s leave caused to descend on thy heart the confirmation of previous revelations,” &c. And again in Sūratu ʾt-Taḥrīm, lxvi. 4: “God is his Protector, and Gabriel.” He is, however, supposed to be spoken of in Sūrahs ii. 81, 254; v. 109; xvi. 104, as “the Holy Spirit,” Rūḥu ʾl-Qudus; in Sūrah xxvi. 193, as “the Faithful Spirit,” ar-Rūḥu ʾl-Amīn; and in liii. 5, as “one terrible in power,” Shadīdu ʾl-Quwā.

The account of Gabriel’s first appearance to Muḥammad is related as follows by Abū ʾl-Fidāʾ: “Muḥammad was wont to retire to Mount Ḥirā for a month every year. When the year of his mission came, he went to Mount Ḥirā in the month of Ramaẓān for the purpose of sojourning there, having his family with him; and there he abode until the night arrived in which God was pleased to bless him. Gabriel came to him, and said to him, ‘Recite!’ And he replied, ‘What shall I recite?’ And he said, ‘Recite thou, in the name of thy Lord who created. Created man from clots of blood. Recite thou! For the Lord is most Beneficent. Who hath taught the use of the pen. Hath taught man that which he knoweth not.’ After this the Prophet went to the middle of the mountain, and heard a voice from heaven which said, ‘Thou art the Messenger of God and I am Gabriel.’ He continued standing in his place to contemplate Gabriel until he withdrew.” [QURAN.]

Sir William Muir says: “It is clear that at a later period at least, if not from the first, Mahomet confounded Gabriel with the Holy Ghost. The idea may have arisen from some such misapprehension as the following. Mary conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Ghost, which overshadowed her. But it was Gabriel who visited Mary to announce the conception of the Saviour. The Holy Ghost was therefore another name for Gabriel. We need hardly wonder at this ignorance when Mahomet seems to have believed that Christians held Mary to be the third person in the Trinity!”

With reference to the verse quoted above, from the Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah, Sale says the Commentators say that the Jews asked what angel it was that brought the Qurʾān to Muḥammad, and on being told that it was Gabriel, they replied that he was their enemy, and the messenger of wrath and judgment; but that if it had been Michael they would have believed in him, because that angel was their friend, and the messenger of peace and plenty.

It is also important to observe that the only distinct assertion of Gabriel being the medium of divine revelation, occurs in a Madanīyah Sūrah.

Gabriel is called in Muslim books ar-Rūḥu ʾl-Aʿz̤am, “The Supreme Spirit”; ar-Rūḥu ʾl-Mukarram, “The Honoured Spirit”; Rūḥu ʾl-Īlqāʾ, “The Spirit of casting into”; Rūḥu ʾl-Qudus, “The Holy Spirit”; and ar-Rūḥu ʾl-Amīn, “The Faithful Spirit.”

GAMBLING (Arabic maisir, ميسر‎; qimār قمار‎) is forbidden in the Qurʾān.

Sūrah ii. 216: “They will ask thee concerning wine, and games of chance. Say both is a great sin, and advantage also, to men, but their sin is greater than their advantage.”

Sūrah v. 93: “Only would Satan sow hatred and strife among you, by wine and games of chance, and turn you aside from the remembrance of God, and from prayer: will ye not, therefore, abstain from them?”

The evidence of a gambler is not admissible in a Muḥammadan court of law, because gaming is a great crime. (Hidāyah ii. p. 688.)

GARDEN. Arabic jannah (جنة‎); Heb. ‏גַּן‎, pl. ‏גַּנִּים‎. In the Qurʾān the residence of our first parents is called Al-jannah, “the garden,” and not Jannatu ʿAdn, or the “Garden of Eden,” Jannatu ʿAdn being the fourth stage of celestial bliss. Al-jannāt, “the gardens,” is a term frequently used in the Qurʾān for the state of heavenly joy; and the stages of paradise, which are eight, are known as—(1) The garden of eternity, (2) The dwelling of peace, (3) The dwelling which abideth, (4) The garden of Eden, (5) The garden of refuge, (6) The garden of delight, (7) The garden of ʿIllīyūn, (8) The garden of Paradise. [PARADISE.]

GENII. Arabic jinn (جن‎), and jānn (جان‎). Muḥammad was a sincere believer in the existence of good and evil genii, and has left a record of his belief in the LXXIInd chapter of his Qurʾān, entitled the Sūratu ʾl-Jinn. It opens thus:—

“Say: It hath been revealed to me that a company of JINN listened and said,—Verily, we have heard a marvellous discourse (Qurʾān);

“It guideth to the truth; wherefore we believed in it, and we will not henceforth join any being with our Lord;

“And He,—may the majesty of our Lord be exalted!—hath taken no spouse neither hath he any offspring.

“But the foolish among us hath spoken of God that which is unjust:

“And we verily thought that no one amongst men or jinn would have uttered a lie against God.

“There are indeed people among men, who have sought for refuge unto people among jinn: but they only increased their folly:

“And they thought as ye think, that God would not raise any from the dead.

“And the Heavens did we essay, but found them filled with a mighty garrison, and with flaming darts;

“And we sat on some of the seats to listen, but whoever listeneth findeth an ambush ready for him of flaming darts.”

The following exhaustive account of the Muḥammadan belief on the subject is taken from the writings of the late Mr. Lane (the learned author of the Modern Egyptians and of Notes on the Arabian Nights), but slightly altered to meet the requirements of the present work.

According to a tradition from the Prophet, this species consists of five orders, namely, Jānn (who are the least powerful of all), Jinn, Shait̤āns (or devils), ʿIfrīts, and Marīds. The last, it is added, are the most powerful; and the Jānn are transformed Jinn, like as certain apes and swine were transformed men. It must, however, be remarked that the terms Jinn and Jānn are generally used indiscriminately as names of the whole species, whether good or bad, and that the former term is the more common. Also, that Shait̤ān is commonly used to signify any evil genius. An ʿIfrīt is a powerful evil genius; a Marīd, an evil genius of the most powerful class. The Jinn (but, generally speaking, evil ones) are called by the Persians Deves, the most powerful evil Jinn, Narahs (which signifies “males,” though they are said to be males and females); the good Jinn, Pīrīs, though this term is commonly applied to females. In a tradition from the Prophet, it is said, “The Jānn were created of a smokeless fire.” The word which signifies “a smokeless fire” has been misunderstood by some as meaning “the flame of fire.” Al-Jauharī (in the Ṣiḥāḥ) renders it rightly; and says that of this fire was the Shait̤ān or Iblīs created. Al-Jānn is sometimes used as a name for Iblīs, as in the following verse of the Qurʾān (Sūrah xv. 27): “And the Jānn [the father of the Jinn, i.e. Iblīs] we had created before [i.e. before the creation of Adam] of the fire of the Samūm [i.e. of the fire without smoke].” Jānn also signifies “a serpent,” as in other passages of the Qurʾān, and is used in the same book as synonymous with Jinn. In the last sense it is generally believed to be used in the tradition quoted in the commencement of this paragraph. There are several apparently contradictory traditions from the Prophet, which are reconciled by what has been above stated; in one it is said that Iblīs was the father of all the Jānn and Shait̤ān; Jānn being here synonymous with Jinn; in another, that Jānn was the father of all the Jinn, here Jānn being used as a name for Iblīs.

“It is held,” says al-Qazwīnī, “that the Jinn are aerial animals, with transparent bodies, which can assume various forms. People differ in opinion respecting these beings; some consider the Jinn and Shait̤āns as unruly men, but these persons are of the Muʿtazilahs [a sect of Muslim freethinkers], and some hold that God, whose name be exalted, created the angels of the light of fire, and the Jinn of its flame [but this is at variance with the general opinion], and the Shait̤āns of its smoke [which is also at variance with the common opinion]; and that [all] these kinds of beings are [usually] invisible to men, but that they assume what forms they please, and when their form becomes condensed they are visible.” This last remark illustrates several descriptions of genii in the Arabian Nights, where the form of the monster is at first undefined, or like an enormous pillar, and then gradually assumes a human shape and less gigantic size.

It is said that God created the Jānn [or Jinn] two thousand years before Adam [or, according to some writers, much earlier], and that there are believers and infidels and every sect among them, as among men. Some say that a prophet named Yūsuf was sent to the Jinn; others, that they had only preachers or admonishers; others, again, that seventy apostles were sent, before Muḥammad, to Jinn and men conjointly. It is commonly believed that the preadamite Jinn were governed by forty (or, according to some, seventy-two) kings, to each of whom the Arab writers give the name of Sulaiman (or Solomon); and that they derive their appellation from the last of these, who was called Jānn ibn Jānn, and who, some say, built the Pyramids of Egypt.

The following account of the preadamite Jinn is given by al-Qazwīnī:—

“It is related in histories that a race of Jinn in ancient times, before the creation of Adam, inhabited the earth, and covered it, the land and the sea, and the plains and the mountains; and the favours of God were multiplied upon them, and they had government, and prophecy, and religion and law; but they transgressed and offended, and opposed their prophets, and made wickedness to abound in the earth: whereupon God, whose name be exalted, sent against them an army of angels, who took possession of the earth, and drove away the Jinn to the regions of the islands, and made many of them prisoners; and of those who were made prisoners was ʿAzazīl (afterwards called Iblīs, from his despair), and a slaughter was made among them. At that time, ʿAzazīl was young; he grew up among the angels [and probably for that reason was called one of them], and became learned in their knowledge, and assumed the government of them; and his days were prolonged until he became their chief; and thus it continued for a long time, until the affair between him and Adam happened, as God, whose name be exalted, hath said, ‘When we said unto the Angels, Worship ye Adam, and [all] worshipped except Iblīs, [who] was [one] of the Jinn.’ (Sūrah l. 49).”

Iblīs, we are told by another authority, was sent as a governor upon the earth, and judged among the Jinn a thousand years, after which he ascended into heaven, and remained employed in worship until the creation of Adam. The name of Iblīs was originally, according to some, ʿAzazīl (as before mentioned), and according to others, al-Ḥāris̤; his patronymic is Abū Munnah or Abū ʾl-G͟himr. It is disputed whether he was of the angels or of the Jinn. There are three opinions on this point: (1) That he was of the angels, from a tradition from Ibn ʿAbbās; (2) That he was of the Shait̤āns (or evil Jinn), as it is said in the Qurʾān, “Except Iblīs, [who] was [one] of the Jinn”; this was the opinion of al-Ḥasanu ʾl-Baṣrī, and is that commonly held; (3) That he was neither of the angels nor of the Jinn, but created alone of fire. Ibn ʿAbbās founds his opinion on the same text from which al-Ḥasanu ʾl-Baṣrī derives his: “When we said unto the angels, worship ye Adam, and [all] worshipped except Iblīs, [who] was [one] of the Jinn” (before quoted); which he explains by saying that the most noble and honourable among the angels are called “the Jinn,” because they are veiled from the eyes of the other angels on account of their superiority; and that Iblīs was one of these Jinn. He adds, that he had the government of the lowest heaven and of the earth, and was called the T̤āʾus (lit. “Peacock”) of the angels; and that there was not a spot in the lowest heaven but he had prostrated himself upon it; but when the Jinn rebelled upon the earth, God sent a troop of angels, who drove them to the islands and mountains; and Iblīs being elated with pride, and refusing to prostrate himself before Adam, God transformed him into a Shait̤ān. But this reasoning is opposed by other verses, in which Iblīs is represented as saying, “Thou hast created me of fire, and hast created him [Adam] of earth.” It is therefore argued, “If he were created originally of fire, how was he created of light? for the angels were [all] created of light.” The former verse may be explained by the tradition that Iblīs, having been taken captive, was exalted among the angels; or, perhaps, there is an ellipsis after the word “Angels”; for it might be inferred that the command given to the Angels was also (and a fortiori) to be obeyed by the Jinn.

According to a tradition, Iblīs and all the Shait̤āns are distinguished from the other Jinn by a longer existence. “The Shait̤āns,” it is added, “are the children of Iblīs, and die not but with him; whereas the [other] Jinn die before him, though they may live many centuries. But this is not altogether accordant with the popular belief: Iblīs and many other evil Jinn are to survive mankind, but they are to die before the general resurrection, as also even the angels, the last of whom will be the Angel of Death, ʿIzrāʾīl. Yet not all the evil Jinn are to live thus long. Many of them are killed by shooting stars, hurled at them from heaven; wherefore, the Arabs, when they see a shooting star (shihāb), often exclaim, ‘May God transfix the enemy of the faith!’ Many also are killed by other Jinn, and some even by men. The fire of which the Jinn is created circulates in his veins, in place of blood; therefore, when he receives a mortal wound, this fire, issuing from his veins, generally consumes him to ashes.”

The Jinn, it has been already shown, are peaceable. They also eat and drink, and propagate their species, sometimes in conjunction with human beings; in which latter case, the offspring partakes of the nature of both parents. In all these respects they differ from the angels. Among the evil Jinn are distinguished the five sons of their chief, Iblīs; namely, T̤īr, who brings about calamities, losses, and injuries; al-Aʿwar, who encourages debauchery; Sūt, who suggests lies; Dāsim, who causes hatred between man and wife; and Zalambūr, who presides over places of traffic.

The most common forms and habitations or places of resort of the Jinn must now be described. The following traditions from the Prophet are to the purpose:—

The Jinn are of various shapes, having the forms of serpents, scorpions, lions, wolves, jackals, &c. The Jinn are of three kinds—one on the land, one on the sea, and one in the air. The Jinn consist of forty troops, each troop consisting of six hundred thousand. The Jinn are of three kinds—one have wings and fly; another are snakes and dogs; and the third move about from place to place like men. Domestic snakes are asserted to be Jinn on the same authority.

The Prophet ordered his followers to kill serpents and scorpions if they intruded at prayers; but on other occasions, he seems to have required first to admonish them to depart, and then, if they remained, to kill them. The Doctors, however, differ in opinion whether all kinds of snakes or serpents should be admonished first; or whether any should; for the Prophet, say they, took a covenant of the Jinn [probably after the above-mentioned command], that they should not enter the houses of the faithful; therefore, it is argued, if they enter, they break their covenant, and it becomes lawful to kill them without previous admonishment. Yet it is related that ʿĀyishah, one of the Prophet’s wives, having killed a serpent in her chamber, was alarmed by a dream, and fearing that it might have been a Muslim Jinnī, as it did not enter her chamber, when she was undressed, gave in alms, as an expiation, twelve thousand dirhams (about £300), the price of the blood of a Muslim.

The Jinn are said to appear to mankind most commonly in the shapes of serpents, dogs, cats, or human beings. In the last case they are sometimes of the stature of men, and sometimes of a size enormously gigantic. If good, they are generally resplendently handsome; if evil, horribly hideous. They become invisible at pleasure (by a rapid extension or rarefaction of the particles which compose them), or suddenly disappear in the earth or air, or through a solid wall. Many Muslims in the present day profess to have seen and held intercourse with them.

The Zaubaʿah, which is a whirlwind that raises the sand or dust in the form of a pillar of prodigious height, often seen sweeping across the deserts and fields, is believed to be caused by the flight of an evil genii. To defend themselves from a Jinn thus “riding in the whirlwind,” the Arabs often exclaim, “Iron! Iron!” (Ḥadīd! Ḥadīd!) or, “Iron! thou unlucky!” (Ḥadīd! yā Mashūm!), as the Jinn are supposed to have a great dread of that metal; or they exclaim, “God is most great!” (Allāhu akbar!) A similar superstition prevails with respect to the waterspout at sea.

It is believed that the chief abode of the Jinn is in the mountains of Qāf, which are supposed to encompass the whole of our earth. But they are also believed to pervade the solid body of our earth, and the firmament; and to choose, as their principal places of resort, or of occasional abode, baths, wells, the latrina, ovens, ruined houses, market-places, the junctures of roads, the sea, and rivers.

The Arabs, therefore, when they pour water, &c., on the ground, or enter a bath, or let down a bucket into a well, or visit the latrina, and on various other occasions, say, “Permission!” or “Permission, ye blessed!” (Iẕn! or Iẕn yā Mubārakūn!). The evil spirits (or evil genii), it is said, had liberty to enter any of the seven heavens till the birth of Jesus, when they were excluded from three of them. On the birth of Muḥammad, they were forbidden the other four. They continue, however, to ascend to the confines of the lowest heaven, and there listening to the conversation of the angels respecting things decreed by God, obtain knowledge of futurity, which they sometimes impart to men, who by means of talismans or certain invocations make them to serve the purposes of magical performances.

What the Prophet said of Iblīs in the following tradition, applies also to the evil Jinn over whom he presides: His chief abode [among men] is the bath; his chief places of resort are the markets and junctures of roads; his food is whatever is killed without the name of God being pronounced over it; his drink, whatever is intoxicating; his Muʾaẕẕin, the mizmār (a musical pipe), i.e. any musical instrument; his Qurʾān, poetry; his written character, the marks made in geomancy; his speech, falsehood; his snares are women.

That particular genii presided over particular places, was the opinion of the early Arabs. It is said in the Qurʾān (Sūrah lxxii. 6), “And there were certain men who sought refuge with certain of the Jinn.” In the commentary of the Jalālān, I find the following remark on these words:—“When they halted, on their journey, in a place of fear, each man said, ‘I seek refuge with the lord of this place, from the mischief of his foolish ones!’ ” In illustration of this, I may insert the following tradition, translated from al-Qazwīnī:—“It is related by a certain narrator of traditions, that he descended into a valley with his sheep, and a wolf carried off a ewe from among them; and he arose, and raised his voice, and cried, ‘O inhabitant of the valley!’ whereupon he heard a voice saying, ‘O wolf, restore to him his sheep!’ and the wolf came with the ewe, and left her, and departed.” The same opinion is held by the modern Arabs, though probably they do not use such an invocation.

A similar superstition, a relic of ancient Egyptian credulity, still prevails among the people of Cairo. It is believed that each quarter of this city has its peculiar guardian-genius, or Agathodæmon, which has the form of a serpent.

It has already been mentioned that some of the Jinn are Muslims, and others infidels. The good acquit themselves of the imperative duties of religion, namely, prayers, almsgiving, fasting during the month of Ramaẓān, and pilgrimage to Makkah and Mount ʿArafāt, but in the performance of these duties they are generally invisible to human beings.

No man, it is said, ever obtained such absolute power over the Jinn as Sulaimān ibn Dāʾud (Solomon, the son of David). This he did by virtue of a most wonderful talisman, which is said to have come down to him from heaven. It was a sealing ring, upon which was engraved “the most great name” of God [AL-ISMU ʾL-AʿZAM], and was partly composed of brass and partly of iron. With the brass he stamped his written commands to the good Jinn; with the iron (for a reason before mentioned) those to the evil Jinn or devils. Over both orders he had unlimited power, as well as over the birds and the winds, and, as is generally said, the wild beasts. His wazīr, Aṣaf the son of Bark͟hīyah, is also said to have been acquainted with “the most great name,” by uttering which the greatest miracles may be performed, even that of raising the dead. By virtue of this name, engraved on his ring, Sulaimān compelled the Jinn to assist in building the temple of Jerusalem, and in various other works. Many of the evil genii he converted to the true faith, and many others of this class, who remained obstinate in infidelity, he confined in prisons. He is said to have been monarch of the whole earth. Hence, perhaps, the name of Sulaimān is given to the universal monarchs of the preadamite Jinn; unless the story of his own universal dominion originated from confounding him with those kings of the Jinn.

The injuries related to have been inflicted upon human beings by evil genii are of various kinds. Genii are said to have often carried off beautiful women, whom they have forcibly kept as their wives or concubines. Malicious or disturbed genii are asserted often to station themselves on the roofs, or at the windows, of houses, and to throw down bricks and stones on persons passing by. When they take possession of an uninhabited house, they seldom fail to persecute terribly any person who goes to reside in it. They are also very apt to pilfer provisions, &c. Many learned and devout persons, to secure their property from such depredations, repeat the words, “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful!” on locking the doors of their houses, rooms, or closets, and on covering the bread-basket, or anything containing food. During the month of Ramaẓān, the evil genii are believed to be confined in prison; and, therefore, on the last night of that month, with the same view, women sometimes repeat the words above mentioned, and sprinkle salt upon the floors of the apartments of their houses.

To complete this sketch of Arabian mythology, an account must be added of several creatures generally believed to be of inferior orders of the Jinn. One of these is the G͟hūl, which is commonly regarded as a kind of Shait̤ān, or evil genii, that eats men, and is also described by some as a Jinn, or an enchanter, who assumes various forms. The G͟hūls are said to appear in the forms of various animals, and of human beings, and in many monstrous shapes; to haunt burial-grounds and other sequestered spots; to feed upon dead human bodies; and to kill and devour any human creature who has the misfortune to fall in their way; whence the term “G͟hūl” is applied to any cannibal.

An opinion quoted by a celebrated author respecting the G͟hūl is, that it is a demoniacal animal, which passes a solitary existence in the deserts, resembling both man and brute; that it appears to a person travelling alone in the night and in solitary places, and, being supposed by him to be itself a traveller, lures him out of his way. Another opinion stated by him is this: that, when the Shait̤āns attempt to hear words by stealth [from the confines of the lowest heaven], they are struck by shooting stars, and some are burnt; some falling into a sea, or rather a large river (baḥr), become converted into crocodiles; and some, falling upon the land, become G͟hūls. The same author adds the following tradition: “The G͟hūl is any Jinn that is opposed to travels, assuming various forms and appearances; and affirms that several of the Companions of the Prophet saw G͟hūls in their travels; and that ʿUmar among them saw a G͟hūl while on a journey to Syria, before Islām, and struck it with his sword.”

It appears that “G͟hūl” is, properly speaking, a name only given to a female demon of the kind above described; the male is called “Qut̤rub.” It is said that these beings, and the G͟haddār, or G͟harrār, and other similar creatures, which will presently be mentioned, are the offspring of Iblīs and of a wife whom God created for him of the fire of the Samūm (which here signifies, as in an instance before mentioned, “a smokeless fire”); and that they sprang from an egg. The female G͟hūl, it is added, appears to men in the deserts, in various forms, converses with them, and sometimes prostitutes herself to them.

The Siʿlāt, or Siʿlāʾ, is another demoniacal creature, described by some [or rather, by most authors] as of the Jinn. It is said that it is mostly found in forests; and that when it captures a man, it makes him dance, and plays with him as the cat plays with the mouse. A man of Isfahan asserted that many beings of this kind abounded in his country; that sometime the wolf would hunt one of them by night, and devour it, and that, when it had seized it, the Siʿlāʾ would cry out, “Come to my help, for the wolf devoureth me!” or it would cry, “Who will liberate me? I have a hundred dīnārs, and he shall receive them!” But the people knowing that it was the cry of the Siʿlāʾ, no one would liberate it; and so the wolf would eat it.

An island in the sea of China (Ṣīn) is called “the island of the Siʿlāʾ,” by Arab geographers, from its being said to be inhabited by the demons so named; they are described as creatures of hideous forms, supposed to be Shait̤āns, the offspring of human beings and Jinn, who eat men.

The G͟haddār is another creature of a similar nature, described as being found in the borders of al-Yaman, and sometimes in Tihāmah, and in the upper parts of Egypt. It is said that it entices a man to it, and either tortures him in a manner not to be described, or merely terrifies him, and leaves him.

The Dalhān is also a demoniacal being, inhabiting the islands of the seas, having the form of a man, and riding on an ostrich. It eats the flesh of men whom the sea casts on the shore from wrecks. Some say that a Dalhān once attacked a ship on the sea, and desired to take the crew; but they contended with it; whereupon it uttered a cry which caused them to fall on their faces, and it took them.

The Shiqq is another demoniacal creature, having the form of half a human being (like a man divided longitudinally); and it is believed that the Nasnās is the offspring of a Shiqq and of a human being. The Shiqq appears to travellers; and it was a demon of this kind who killed, and was killed by ʿAlqamah, the son of Safwān, the son of Umaiyah, of whom it is well known that he was killed by a Jinn. So says al-Qazwīnī.

The Nasnās (above mentioned) is described as resembling half a human being; having half a head, half a body, one arm, and one leg, with which it hops with much agility; as being found in the woods of al-Yaman, and being endowed with speech; “but God,” it is added, “is all knowing.” It is said that it is found in Ḥaẓramaut as well as al-Yaman; and that one was brought alive to al-Mutawakkil. It resembled a man in form, excepting that it had but half a face, which was in its breast, and a tail like that of a sheep. The people of Ḥaẓramaut, it is added, eat it; and its flesh is sweet. It is only generated in their country. A man who went there asserted that he saw a captured Nasnās, which cried out for mercy, conjuring him by God and by himself.

A race of people whose head is in the breast, is described as inhabiting an island called Jabah (supposed to be Java), in the sea of Hind, or India. A kind of Nasnās is also described as inhabiting the island of Raij, in the sea of China, and having wings like those of the bat.

The Hātif is a being that is heard, but not seen; and is often mentioned by Arab writers. It is generally the communicator of some intelligence in the way of advice, or direction, or warning. (See Lane’s Modern Egyptians; Lane’s Notes on the Arabian Nights.)

GENTILES. Arabic Ummī (امى‎, from umm, “a mother”); pl. ummīyūn, lit. “Ignorant as new-born babes.” Hebrew ‏גּוֹיִם‎. According to al-Baiẓāwī, all the people of the earth who do not possess a divine Book. In the Qurʾān, the term is specially applied to the idolators of Arabia.

Sūrah lxii. 2: “He (God) it is who sent unto the Gentiles a Prophet, amongst them to recite to them His signs and to purify them, and to teach them the Book, the wisdom, although they were before in obvious error.”

GEORGE, St. [JIRJIS, AL-KHIZR.]

AL-G͟HĀBAH (الـغـابة‎). “The desert.” A name given to the open plain near al-Madīnah.

G͟HABN (غبن‎). Fraud or deceit in sales.

G͟HADDĀR (غدار‎). A species of demon said to be found on the borders of al-Yaman. [GENII.]

G͟HADĪR (غدير‎). A festival of the Shīʿahs on the 18th of the month of Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah, when three images of dough filled with honey are made to represent Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUs̤mān, which are stuck with knives, and the honey is sipped as typical of the blood of the usurping K͟halīfahs. The festival is named from G͟hadīr, “a pool,” and the festival commemorates, it is said, Muḥammad having declared ʿAlī his successor at G͟hadīr K͟hūm, a watering place midway between Makkah and al-Madīnah.

G͟HAIB (غيب‎). Lit. “Secret.” The terms G͟haibu ʾl-Huwīyah, “Secret essence,” and al-G͟haibu ʾl-Mut̤laq, “the absolute unknowable,” are used by Ṣūfī mystics to express the nature of God. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)

G͟HAIRAH (غيرة‎). “Jealousy.” Muḥammad is related to have said, “There is a kind of jealousy (g͟hairah) which God likes, and there is a kind of jealousy which he abominates. The jealousy which God likes is when a man has suspicion that his wife or slave girl comes and sits by a stranger; the jealousy which God abominates is when, without cause, a man harbours in his heart a bad opinion of his wife.” (Mishkāt, book xiii. c. xv. pt. 2.)

G͟HAIR-I-MAHDĪ (غير مهدى‎). Lit. “Without Mahdī.” A small sect who believe that the Imām Mahdī will not reappear. They say that one Saiyid Muḥammad of Jeypore was the real Mahdī, the twelfth Imām, and that he has now gone never more to return. They venerate him as highly as they do the Prophet, and consider all other Muslims to be unbelievers. On the night called Lailatu ʾl-Qadr, in the month of Ramaẓān, they meet and repeat two rakʿah prayers. After that act of devotion is over, they say: “God is Almighty, Muḥammad is our Prophet, the Qurʾān and Mahdī are just and true. Imām Mahdī is come and gone. Whosoever disbelieves this is an infidel.” They are a very fanatical sect. (See Qānūn-i-Islām.)

G͟HAMARĀT (غمرات‎), plural of g͟hamrah, “abyss.” A word used to express the agonies of death. It occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah vi. 93: “But couldst thou see when the ungodly are in the floods of death (g͟hamarātu ʾl-maut), and the angels reach forth their hands, saying, ‘Yield up your souls:—this day shall ye be recompensed with a humiliating punishment.’ ”

AL-G͟HANĪ (الغنى‎). “The Independent One.” One of the ninety-nine special names or attributes of God, expressing the superiority of the Almighty over the necessities and requirements of mankind. The word occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah lx. 6, and is translated by Palmer, “He is rich.”

G͟HAṢB (غصب‎). “Using by force; usurpation.”

G͟haṣb, in its literal sense, means the forcibly taking a thing from another. In the language of the law it signifies the taking of the property of another which is valuable and sacred, without the consent of the proprietor, in such a manner as to destroy the proprietor’s possession of it, whence it is that usurpation is established by exacting service from the slave of another, or by putting a burden upon the quadruped of another, but not by sitting upon the carpet of another; because by the use of the slave of another, and by loading the quadruped of another, the possession of the proprietor is destroyed, whereas by sitting upon the carpet of another the possession of the proprietor is not destroyed. It is to be observed that if any person knowingly and wilfully usurp the property of another, he is held in law to be an offender, and becomes responsible for a compensation. If, on the contrary, he should not have made the usurpation knowingly and wilfully (as where a person destroys property on the supposition of its belonging to himself, and it afterwards proves the right of another), he is in that case also liable for a compensation, because a compensation is the right of men; but he is not an offender, as his erroneous offence is cancelled. (Hidāyah, vol. iii. p. 522.)

AL-G͟HĀSHIYAH (الغاشية‎). “The Covering, Overwhelming.” A name given to the LXXXVIIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, the word occurring in the first verse for the Day of Judgment: “Has there come to thee the story of the overwhelming?”

G͟HĀSIL (غاسل‎). “A washer of the dead.” An official is generally appointed for this purpose by the Imām of the parish.

G͟HASSĀN (غسان‎). A tribe of Arabs inhabiting the western side of the Syrian desert in the time of Muḥammad. (See Muir’s Life of Mahomet, vol. i. p. clxxxiii.)

G͟HAT̤AFĀN (غطفان‎). An Arabian tribe descended from Qais.

G͟HAUS̤ (غوث‎). Lit. “One to whom we can cry for help.” A mediator. A title given to a Muḥammadan saint. Some hold it to be the highest order of sanctity, whilst others regard it as second in rank to that of Qut̤b. According to the G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah it is an inferior rank of sanctity to that of Qut̤b.

G͟HAẒAB (غـضـب‎). “Anger,” “wrath.” A word used frequently in the Qurʾān for the wrath of God, e.g. Sūrah iv. 95: “God shall be angry with him.”

G͟HĀZĪ (غازى‎). One who fights in the cause of Islām. A hero; a warrior. One who slays an infidel. It is also a title of distinction conferred by Muslim rulers upon generals and warriors of renown. In the Turkish Empire the title of G͟hāzī implies something similar to our “Field Marshal.” The Prophet is related to have said, “God is sponsor for him who goes forth to fight in the road of God, for His satisfaction and for that of His Prophet. He shall, if he be not killed, return to his home with plunder and rewards. And if he die, his reward is paradise.” (Mishkāt, book xvii. c. 1.)

G͟HAZWAH (غـزوة‎). A military force when it is led by either an Apostle (Rasūl) or an Imām. A small force commanded by one of the Imām’s lieutenants is a sarīyah, or brigade. (See G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah, in loco.)

AL-G͟HAZZĀLĪ (الغزالى‎). Abū Ḥamīd Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-G͟hazzālī, is a well known Sunnī doctor surnamed Ḥujjatu ʾl-Islām (“the proof of Islām”). He was a native of T̤ūs, and for some time a professor in the college at Naisāpūr. Born A.H. 450 (A.D. 1058), died A.H. 505 (A.D. 1111), at T̤ūs. His exposition on the nature of God will be found in the article GOD. His great theological work is the Iḥyāʾu ʿUlūmi ʾd-Dīn.

G͟HĪBAH (غـيبة‎). “Slander; calumny.” Anything whispered of an absent person to his detriment, although it be true. (Buhtān expressing a false accusation.) G͟hībah is condemned in the Qurʾān (Sūrah xlix. 12): “O believers, avoid frequent suspicions, for some suspicions are a crime; neither let one of you traduce (g͟hībah) another in his absence.” A chapter is devoted to the condemnation of backbiting and calumny in the Traditions (vide Mishkāt, book xxii. ch. x.)

G͟HIFĀR (غـفـار‎). An Arabian tribe in the time of Muḥammad who inhabited a tract of country in the vicinity of al-Madīnah. They were descendants of Abū Zarri ʾl-G͟hifārī.

G͟HISHĀWAH (غشاوة‎). Lit. “A covering.” A dimness in the eye. A word used in the Qurʾān for spiritual blindness. Sūrah ii. 6: “Their hearts and their ears hath God sealed up, and over their eyes is a covering.”

G͟HISLĪN (غسلين‎). The water, blood, and matter, supposed by Muḥammadans to run down the skin and flesh of the damned in hell. See Qurʾān, Sūrah lxix. 36: “No friend shall he have here that day, nor food but g͟hislīn.”

G͟HŪL (غول‎). A man-devouring demon of the woods. A species of Jinn. [GENII.]

G͟HULĀM (غلام‎), pl. g͟hilmah. A boy under age. A term used in modern Muslim countries for a slave, the legal word being ʿabd. It occurs in the Qurʾān for a son. Sūrah iii. 42: “She (Mary) said, ‘How can I have a son when a man has not touched me?’”

G͟HULĀT (غلاة‎). Lit. “The Zealots.” A title given to a leading sect of the Shīʿahs who, through their excessive zeal for the Imāms, have raised them above the degree of human beings.

G͟HULŪL (غلول‎). Defrauding or purloining any part of the lawful plunder in a jihād or religious war. Forbidden in the Qurʾān, Sūrah iii. 155: “But he who shall defraud, shall come forth with his defraudings on the day of the resurrection: then shall every soul be paid what it hath merited, and they shall not be treated with injustice.”

G͟HURĀB (غراب‎). Lit. “A crow.” G͟hurābu ʾl-Bain: “The crow of separation.” A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for a certain state of separation from God. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)

G͟HURRAH (غرة‎). A fine of five hundred dirhams. A slave of that value. It is the fine for a person striking a woman so as to occasion a miscarriage. (Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 552.)

G͟HUSL (غسل‎), as distinguished from g͟hasl (washing) is the religious act of bathing the whole body after a legal impurity. It is founded upon the express injunction of the Qurʾān, Sūrah v. 9: “If ye are polluted then purify yourselves.” And the Traditions most minutely relate the occasions on which the Prophet performed the ceremony of g͟husl, or bathing. The Muslim teachers of all sects are unanimous in prescribing the washing of the whole body after the following acts, which render the body junub, or impure: (1) Ḥayẓ, menses; (2) nifās, puerperium; (3) jimāʿ, coitus; (4) iḥtilām, pollutio nocturna. It is absolutely necessary that every part of the body should be washed, for ʿAlī relates that the Prophet said, “He who leaves but one hair unwashed on his body, will be punished in hell accordingly.” (Mishkāt, book ii. c. viii.)

G͟HUSL MASNŪN (غسل مسنون‎). Lit. “Washings which are Sunnah.”

Such washings are founded upon the Sunnah, or precept and practice of Muḥammad, although they are not supposed to be of divine institution. They are four in number: (1) Upon the admission of a convert to Islām; (2) Before the Friday prayers and on the great festivals; (3) After washing the dead; (4) After blood-letting. (See Ṣaḥīḥu ʾl-Buk͟hārī, p. 39, Bābu ʾl-G͟husl.) Akrimah relates that people came from al-ʿIrāq and asked Ibn ʿAbbās if he believed that bathing on Fridays was a divine institution, and Ibn ʿAbbās replied, “No, but bathing is a great purifier, and I will tell you how the custom of bathing began. The people were engaged in daily labour and wore blankets, and the people sweated to such a degree as to cause a bad smell, so the Prophet said, ‘O men! bathe ye on Fridays and put some scent on your clothes.’ ” (Matthew’s Mishkāt, vol i. p. 120, from the Ḥadīs̤ of Abū Dāʾud.)

GIANTS. There is but one allusion to giants in the Qurʾān, namely, to the tribe ʿĀd, who are spoken of as men “with lofty statures” (Sūrah lxxxix. 6), and the commentator, Shāh ʿAbdu ʾl-ʿAzīz of Delhi, says they were men of not less than twelve yards in stature. According to a tradition in the Kitābu ʾsh-Shafah by the Qāẓī ʿAyāẓ (p. 65), Adam was sixty yards in height. In the G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah, a giant named ʿŪj is mentioned, who was born in the days of Adam and lived until the time of Moses, a period of 3,500 years, and that he was so high, that the flood in the days of Noah only reached to his waist. There are traditions and stories of giants whose graves exist unto the present day, throughout the whole of Asia. Opposite the Church Mission House at Peshawur is a grave nine yards long, which is held in great reverence by both Muḥammadans and Hindūs. De la Belle, in his Travels in Persia, vol ii. p. 89, mentions several which exist in Persia. Giant graves in Hindūstān are numerous.

GIDEON. In the Qurʾān there is evidently a confusion in one passage between the story of Saul as told therein, and the account of Gideon given in the Old Testament, as the following extracts will show:—

“And when Saul marched forth with his forces, he said, ‘God will test you by a river: He who drinketh of it shall not be of my band; but he who shall not taste it, drinking a drink out of the hand excepted, shall be of my band.’ And, except a few of them, they drank of it. And when they had passed it, he and those who believed with him, the former said, ‘We have no strength this day against Goliath (Jālūt) and his forces:’ But they who held it as certain that they must meet God, said, ‘How oft, by God’s will, hath a small host vanquished a numerous host! and God is with the steadfastly enduring.’ ” (Sūrah ii. 250.)

Which compare with Judges vii. 5:—

“So they brought down the people unto the water; and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.… The Lord said, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand.”

GIFTS. Arabic hibah (هبة‎), pl. hibāt. A deed of gift. The term hibah in the language of Muslim law means a transfer of property made immediately and without exchange. He who makes the gift is called the wāhib, or donor; the thing given, mauhūb; and the person to whom it is given is mauhūb lahu.

Muḥammad sanctioned the retraction of a gift when he said, “A donor preserves his right to his gift, so long as he does not obtain a return for it.” Although there is another tradition which says: “Let not a donor retract his gift; but let a father if he pleases retract his gift to his son.” Ash-Shāfiʿī maintains that it is not lawful to retract a gift, except it be from a father to a son. All the doctors are agreed that to retract a gift is an abomination, for Muḥammad said: “The retraction of a gift is like eating one’s spittle.” The general opinion is that a gift to a stranger may be retracted, but not a gift to a kinsman. A retracted gift, by the mutual consent of the parties, should be effected by a decree of the Qāẓī, or judge. (Hidāyah, vol. iii. p. 290.)

GIRDLE. Arabic nit̤āq (نطاق‎). Amongst the Bak͟htāshīs and several other orders of faqīrs, investiture with a girdle is the sign of incorporation into the order. The Bak͟htāshīs say that Adam was the first to wear the girdle worn by them, and after him fifteen other prophets wore it in succession, viz. Seth, Noah, Shuʿaib, Job, Joseph, Abraham, Hushaʿ, Yūshaʿ, Jirjis, Jonas, Ṣāliḥ, Zakariah, al-K͟hiẓr, Ilyās, and Jesus. (Brown’s Dervishes, p. 145.)

GNOSTICS. “The singular correspondence between the allusions to the crucifixion in the Corân, and the wild speculations of the early heretics, have led to the conjecture that Mahomet acquired his notions of Christianity from a Gnostic source. But Gnosticism had disappeared from Egypt before the sixth century, and there is no reason for supposing that it had at any time gained footing in Arabia. Besides, there is no affinity between the supernaturalism of the Gnostics and Docetæ, and the rationalism of the Corân. According to the former, the Deity must be removed far from the gross contact of evil matter; and the Æon Christ, which alighted upon Jesus at His baptism, must ascend to its native regions before the crucifixion. With Mahomet, on the contrary, Jesus Christ was a mere man—wonderfully born, indeed—but still an ordinary man, a servant of the Almighty, as others had been before him. But although there is no ground for believing that Gnostic doctrines were taught to Mahomet, yet some of the strange fancies of those heretics, preserved in Syrian tradition, may have come to the ears of his informants (the chief of whom, even on Christian topics, seem to have been Jews, unable probably to distinguish heretical fable from Christian doctrine), and have been by them adopted as a likely and convenient mode of explaining away that which formed the great barrier between Jews and Christians.” (Muir’s Life of Mahomet, new ed. p. 161.)

GOD. The name of the Creator of the Universe in the Qurʾān is Allāh, which is the title given to the Supreme Being by Muḥammadans of every race and language.

Allāh is supposed to be derived from ilāh, a deity or god, with the addition of the definite article al—Al-ilāh, “the God”—or, according to some authorities, it is from lāh, i.e. Al-lāh, “the secret one.” But Abū Ḥanīfah says that just as the essence of God is unchangeable, so is His name, and that Allāh has ever been the name of the Eternal Being. (See G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah.)

Allāh may be an Arabic rendering of the Hebrew ‏אֵל‎ el, and the unused root ‏אוּל‎ ūl, “to be strong,” or from ‏אֱלוֹהַּ‎, the singular form of ‏אֱלֹהִים‎. It is expressed in Persian and Hindustani by the word K͟hudā, derived from the Persian k͟hud, self; the self-existing one.

Another word very frequently used for the Almighty in the Qurʾān is Rabb, which is generally translated in English versions of the Qurʾān, “Lord.” It seems to stand in the relative position of the Jehovah of the Old Testament and the Κύριος of the New Testament. The word is understood by Muslims to mean “the sustainer,” but it is probably derived from the Hebrew ‏רַבָּה‎ rabbah, “a stronghold,” or from its root rab, which, according to Gesenius, means “a multitude,” or anything of size or importance.

The title Allāh is called the Ismu ʾẕ-Ẕāt, or, the essential name of God, all other titles, including Rabb, being considered Asmāʾu ʾṣ-Ṣifāt, or “attributes” of the Divine Being. These attributes are called al-Asmāʾu ʾl-ḥusnā, or the “excellent names.” The expression occurs in the Qurʾān (Sūrah vii. 179), “But God’s are excellent names, call on Him thereby.” This verse is commented upon in the Traditions, and Abū Hurairah says that Muḥammad said, “Verily, there are ninety-nine names of God, and whoever recites them shall enter into Paradise.”

In the same tradition these names (or attributes) are given as follows:—

1. Ar-Raḥmān The Merciful.

2. Ar-Raḥīm The Compassionate.

3. Al-Malik The King.

4. Al-Quddūs The Holy.

5. As-Salām The Peace.

6. Al-Muʾmin The Faithful.

7. Al-Muhaimin The Protector.

8. Al-ʿAzīz The Mighty.

9. Al-Jabbār The Repairer.

10. Al-Mutakabbir The Great.

11. Al-K͟hāliq The Creator.

12. Al-Bārīʾ The Maker.

13. Al-Muṣawwir The Fashioner.

14. Al-G͟haffār The Forgiver.

15. Al-Qahhār The Dominant.

16. Al-Wahhāb The Bestower.

17. Ar-Razzāq The Provider.

18. Al-Fattāḥ The Opener.

19. Al-ʿAlīm The Knower.

20. Al-Qābiẓ The Restrainer.

21. Al-Bāsit̤ The Spreader.

22. Al-K͟hāfiẓ The Abaser.

23. Ar-Rāfiʿ The Exalter.

24. Al-Muʿizz The Honourer.

25. Al-Muzīl The Destroyer.

26. As-Sāmiʿ The Hearer.

27. Al-Baṣīr The Seer.

28. Al-Ḥākim The Ruler.

29. Al-ʿAdl The Just.

30. Al-Lat̤īf The Subtle.

31. Al-K͟habīr The Aware.

32. Al-Ḥalīm The Clement.

33. Al-ʿAz̤īm The Grand.

34. Al-G͟hafūr The Forgiving.

35. Ash-Shakūr The Grateful.

36. Al-ʿAlī The Exalted.

37. Al-Kabīr The Great.

38. Al-Ḥafīz̤ The Guardian.

39. Al-Muqīt The Strengthener.

40. Al-Ḥasīb The Reckoner.

41. Al-Jalīl The Majestic.

42. Al-Karīm The Generous.

43. Ar-Raqīb The Watcher.

44. Al-Mujīb The Approver.

45. Al-Wāsiʿ The Comprehensive.

46. Al-Ḥakīm The Wise.

47. Al-Wadūd The Loving.

48. Al-Majīd The Glorious.

49. Al-Bāʿis̤ The Raiser.

50. Ash-Shahīd The Witness.

51. Al-Ḥaqq The Truth.

52. Al-Wakīl The Advocate.

53. Al-Qawī The Strong.

54. Al-Matīn The Firm.

55. Al-Walī The Patron.

56. Al-Ḥamīd The Laudable.

57. Al-Muḥṣī The Counter.

58. Al-Mubdī The Beginner.

59. Al-Muʿīd The Restorer.

60. Al-Muḥyī The Quickener.

61. Al-Mumīt The Killer.

62. Al-Ḥaiy The Living.

63. Al-Qaiyūm The Subsisting.

64. Al-Wājid The Finder.

65. Al-Majīd The Glorious.

66. Al-Wāḥid The One.

67. Aṣ-Ṣamad The Eternal.

68. Al-Qādir The Powerful.

69. Al-Muqtadir The Prevailing.

70. Al-Muqaddim The Bringing forward.

71. Al-Muʾak͟hk͟hir The Deferrer.

72. Al-Awwal The First.

73. Al-Āk͟hir The Last.

74. Az̤-Z̤āhir The Evident.

75. Al-Bāt̤in The Hidden.

76. Al-Wālī The Governor.

77. Al-Mutaʿālī The Exalted.

78. Al-Barr The Righteous.

79. At-Tauwāb The Accepter of Repentance.

80. Al-Muntaqim The Avenger.

81. Al-ʿAfūw The Pardoner.

82. Ar-Raʾuf The Kind.

83. Māliku ʾl-Mulk The Ruler of the Kingdom.

84. Ẕū ʾl-Jalāli wa ʾl-Ikrām The Lord of Majesty and Liberality.

85. Al-Muqsit̤ The Equitable.

86. Al-Jāmīʿ The Collector.

87. Al-G͟hanī The Independent.

88. Al-Mug͟hnī The Enricher.

89. Al-Muʿt̤ī The Giver.

90. Al-Māniʿ The Withholder.

91. Aẓ-Ẓārr The Distresser.

92. An-Nāfiʿ The Profiter.

93. An-Nūr The Light.

94. Al-Hādī The Guide.

95. Al-Badīʿ The Incomparable.

96. Al-Bāqī The Enduring.

97. Al-Wāris̤ The Inheritor.

98. Ar-Rashīd The Director.

99. Aṣ-Ṣabūr The Patient.

The list either begins or closes with Allāh, thus completing the number of one hundred names, which are usually recited on a rosary in the ceremony of Ẕikr [ZIKR], as well as at all leisure moments, by devout Muslims. The Wahhābīs do not use a rosary, but count the names on their fingers, which they say was the custom of the Prophet, for from the Traditions it appears that Muḥammad did not use a rosary.

According to the Traditions (Mishkāt, book x. c. i.), the Almighty has an “exalted name” known as the Ismu ʾl-Aʿz̤am, which Muḥammad is related to have said was either in the Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah, the second chapter of the Qurʾān, 158th verse, or in the Sūratu Āli ʿImrān, the third chapter, first verse. The names of God which occur in these two verses are ar-Raḥmān, “the Merciful,” ar-Raḥīm, “The Compassionate,” al-Ḥaiy, “the Living,” and al-Qaiyūm, “the Subsisting.” There is, however, another tradition, from which it would appear that the name may be either al-Aḥad, “the One,” or aṣ-Ṣamad, “the Eternal.”

ʿAbdu ʾl-Ḥaqq, in his remarks on these traditions, says that it is generally held, according to a tradition by ʿĀyishah, that this great name is known only to the prophets and other saintly persons. The compiler of the Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrifāt says it is none other than the name of Allāh.

The Prophet having said that whoever calls upon God by this name shall obtain all his desires (Mishkāt, book x. c. i. pt. 2), the various sects of faqīrs and mystics spend much time in endeavouring to ascertain what the name really is [DAʿWAH], and the person who is able to assert that he has obtained this secret knowledge possesses great influence over the minds of the superstitious.

There can be little doubt that the discussion regarding this exalted name has arisen from the circumstance that Muḥammad became aware of the fact that the Jews never recited the great name of Jehovah, and spoke of it as “the great and terrible name,” “the peculiar name” of God.

The attributes of God as expressed in the ninety-nine names, are divided into the asmāʾu ʾl-jalālīyah, or the glorious attributes, and the asmāʾu ʾl-jamālīyah, or the terrible attributes. Such names as ar-Raḥīm, “the Merciful,” al-Karīm, “the Kind,” and al-ʿAfūw, “the Forgiver,” belonging to the former; and al-Qawī, “the Strong,” al-Muntaqim, “the Avenger,” and al-Qādir, “the Powerful,” to the latter.

In praying to God it is usual for the worshipper to address the Almighty by that name or attribute which he wishes to appeal to. For example, if praying for pardon, he will address God as either al-ʿAfūw, “the Pardoner,” or at-Tauwāb, “the Receiver of repentance.”

A belief in the existence of God, His Unity, His Absolute Power, and in the other essential attributes of an Eternal and Almighty Being, is the most important part of the Muslim religion, and is supposed to be expressed in the two clauses of the well-known formula:—

لااله الاالله‎

Lā ilāha Il-lā ʾl-lāhu.

There is no deity But Allāh.

The first clause, “There is no deity,” is known as the Nafī, or that which is rejected, and the second clause, “But Allāh,” as the Is̤bāt, or that which is established, the term Nafī wa-Is̤bāt being applied to the first two clauses of the Muslim’s Kalimah, or creed.

The teaching of Muḥammad in his Qurʾān as to the nature of God, forms such an important consideration in an exposition of Islām, that no apology is needed for full and lengthy quotations from that book on the subject.

The following verses are arranged in chronological order according to Jalālu ʾd-dīn as-Suyūt̤ī’s list:—

Sūratu ʾl-Ik͟hlāṣ. Chapter cxiii.

(One of the earliest chapters of the Qurʾān)

“Say, He is God, One [God]

“God, the Eternal.

“He begetteth not nor is begotten,

“And there is none equal unto Him.”

Sūratu ʾl-Aʿrāf. Chapter vii. 52.

(Given at al-Madīnah.)

“Verily your Lord is God, who created the heavens and the earth in six days: then He ascended the throne. He causeth the night to cover the day; it followeth it swiftly: and He created the sun and the moon and the stars, made subject utterly to His command. Do not the whole creation and command belong to Him? Blessed be God, the Lord of the Worlds.”

Sūratu Maryam. Chapter xix. 91–96.

(Given at Makkah.)

“They say, ‘The Compassionate hath gotten offspring’: Ye have done an impious thing.

“It wanteth little but that the heavens be rent thereat, and that the earth cleave asunder, and that the mountains fall down in pieces.

“For that they have attributed offspring to the Compassionate, when it beseemeth not the Compassionate to get offspring.

“There is none of all that are in the heavens and the earth but he shall come unto the Compassionate as a servant. He hath known them and numbered them with an exact numbering.

“And each of them shall come unto Him on the day of resurrection, alone.

“Verily those who have believed and have done the things that are right, on them the Compassionate will bestow [His] love.”

Sūratu ʾl-Ḥijr. Chapter xv. 16–25.

(Given at Makkah.)

“We (God) have placed in heaven the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and adorned them for the beholders with the constellations;

“And We have guarded them (by means of shooting stars) from every accursed devil.

“Excepting him who listened by stealth, whom a manifest shooting star pursueth.

“We have also spread forth the earth, and thrown thereon firm mountains, and We have caused to spring forth in it every kind [of green thing] weighed.

“And We have provided for you therein necessaries of life, and for him whom ye do not sustain;

“And there is not a thing but the store-houses thereof are with Us, and We send it not down save in determined quantities.

“We also send the fertilizing winds, and We send down water from heaven, and give you to drink thereof; and ye are not the storers of it.

“And verily We give life and death, and We are the heirs of all the creation.

“We also know those who have gone before you, and We know those who follow after [you].

“And verily thy Lord will assemble them together: for He is Wise, Knowing.”

Sūratu ʾl-Anʿām. Chapter vi. 59–64.

(Given at Makkah.)

“With Him are the keys of the hidden things: none knoweth them but He: and He knoweth whatsoever is on the land and in the sea, and there falleth not a leaf but He knoweth it, nor a grain in the dark parts of the earth, nor a moist thing nor a dry thing, but [it is noted] in a distinct writing.

“And it is He who taketh your souls at night, and knoweth what ye have gained in the day; then He reviveth you therein, that an appointed time may be fulfilled. Then unto Him shall ye return: then will He declare unto you what ye have done.

“And He is the Supreme over His servants, and He sendeth watchers over you, until when death cometh unto any one of you, Our messengers take his soul, and they fail not.

“Then are they returned unto God their Lord, the True. Doth not judgment belong to Him? And He is the most quick of reckoners.

“Say, Who delivereth you from the darknesses of the land and of the sea, when ye supplicate Him humbly and in secret, saying, ‘If Thou deliver us from these dangers, we will assuredly be of [the number of] the thankful’?

“Say, God delivereth you from them and from every affliction.”

Ib., 95–103:—

“Verily God causeth the grain to come forth, and the date-stone: He bringeth forth the living from the dead, and He bringeth forth the dead from the living: This is God; then wherefore are ye turned away?

“He causeth the dawn to appear, and hath ordained the night for rest, and the sun and the moon for reckoning time: this is the appointment of the Mighty, the Wise.

“And it is He who hath ordained for you the stars, that ye may be guided by them in the darkness of the land and of the sea: We have clearly shown the signs of Our power unto the people who know.

“And it is He who hath produced you from one soul, and there is a place of rest and of storing: We have clearly shown the signs to the people who understand.

“And it is He who hath sent down water from heaven, and We have produced thereby the germs of everything, and We have caused the green thing to come forth therefrom, from which We draw forth grains massed; and from the palm-tree, from its fruit-branch, clusters of dates heaped together: and gardens of grapes, and the olive and the pomegranate, like one another and not like. Look ye at their fruits when they bear fruit, and their ripening. Verily therein are signs unto the people who believe.

“Yet they have set up the Jinn as partners of God, though He hath created them, and without knowledge have they falsely attributed to Him sons and daughters. Extolled be His purity, and high be He exalted above that which they attribute [to Him]!

“He is the Author of the heavens and the earth. How then should He have offspring, when He hath no consort, and hath created everything and knoweth everything?

“This is God your Lord. There is no God but He, the Creator of everything: therefore worship ye Him; and He is guardian over everything.

“The eyes see Him not, but He seeth the eyes: and He is the Gracious, the Knowing.”

Sūratu Banī Israʾīl. Chapter lxvii. 1–4.

(Given at Makkah.)

“Blessed be He in whose hand is the dominion and who is all powerful;

“Who hath created death and life, that He may prove you, which of you [will be] best in works: and He is the Mighty, the Very-Forgiving:

“Who hath created seven heavens, one above another. Thou seest not any fault in the creation of the Compassionate. But lift up the eyes again to heaven. Dost thou see any fissures?

“Then lift up the eyes again twice; the sight shall return unto thee dull and dim.”

Sūratu ʾl-ʿAnkabūt. Chapter xxix. 40–43.

(Given at Makkah.)

“The likeness of those who take to themselves Tutelars instead of God is as the likeness of the spider, which maketh for herself a dwelling; and the frailest of dwellings surely is the dwelling of the spider! If they knew——!

“Verily God knoweth whatever thing they invoke in His stead; and He is the Mighty, the Wise.

“And these parables we propound unto men; but none understand them except the wise.

“God hath created the heavens and the earth in truth: verily therein is a sign unto the believers.”

Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah. Chapter ii. 157–160.

(Given at al-Madīnah.)

“And your God is One God: there is no god but He, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

“Verily in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the varying of night and day, and the ships that course upon the sea laden with what is profitable to mankind, and the water that God hath sent down from heaven, quickening the earth thereby after its death, and scattering about it all kinds of beasts; and in the changing of the winds, and the clouds that are compelled to do service between heaven and earth, are signs unto a people who understand.

“Yet among men are those who take to themselves, beside God, idols, which they love as with the love of God: but those who have believed are more loving towards God than these towards their idols.”

Ib., 256:—

“God! There is no God but He, the Ever-Living, the Ever-Subsisting. Slumber seizeth Him not, nor sleep. To Him belongeth whatsoever is in the Heavens and whatsoever is in the Earth. Who is he that shall intercede with Him, unless by His permission? He knoweth what [hath been] before them and what [shall be] after them, and they shall not compass aught of His knowledge save what He willeth. His Throne comprehendeth the Heavens and the Earth, and the care of them burdeneth Him not. And He is the High, the Great.”

Sūratu Āli ʿImrān. Chapter iii. 25.

(Given at al-Madīnah.)

“Say, O God, to whom belongeth dominion, Thou givest dominion to whom Thou wilt, and from whom Thou wilt Thou takest it away; Thou exaltest whom Thou wilt, and whom Thou wilt Thou humblest. In Thy hand is good. Verily Thou art all-powerful.

“Thou causest the night to pass into the day, and Thou causest the day to pass into the night; and Thou bringest forth the living from the dead, and Thou bringest forth the dead from the living; and Thou givest sustenance to whom Thou wilt without measure.”