ABD. Slave. Common in names, e.g., AbduUah—stave of God.
ABU. Father of. Common in names, e.g., Abu Hamid.
AKL. Reason; intelligence.
AMIR., EMIR. A ruler, a commander, a chief, a nobleman.
BIDA. An innovation in Muslim belief or practice; the converse of sunna, the alleged practice of the Prophet.
DAR AL-HARB. The abode of war, i.e., territory not under Muslim sovereignty, against which warfare for the propagation of Islam is licit. The converse of Dar al-Islam, the abode of Islam.
DHIMMI. A member of one of the protected religions, i.e., the non-Muslim religions tolerated by the Muslim state in accordance with the sharia, on payment of certain taxes and on acceptance of an inferior social status.
FAQIH. A doctor of the sharia; a canon lawyer of Islam.
FATIHA. The opening chapter of the Koran.
FATWA. The formal opinion of a canon lawyer (mufti)
HADD., (plural) HUDUD. Punishment the limits of which have been defined in the Koran and the Hadith.
HADITH. A tradition of the sayings or practice of the Prophet. One of the main sources of Islamic law.
HAJJ. The pilgrimage to Mecca.
HIJRA. The Prophet’s flight to Medina from Mecca, in A.D. 622 on September 20. The Muslim era begins at the beginning of the Arab year in which the Hijra took place.
HaLAKHAH. The legal side of Judaism (as distinct from haggadah, the nonlegal material).
IBN. Son of. Corresponds to Hebrew ben.
IJMA. Consensus of the Islamic community. One of the foundations of law and practice.
IMAM. Leader in prayer; leader of the whole community of Islam.
ISNAD. The chain of transmitters of a tradition.
JIHAD. The duty of Muslims to fight all unbelievers.
JINN. Intelligent creatures of air and fire.
JIZYA. The poll-tax paid by dhimmis.
KRALIFA. Caliph. The successor of the Prophet, and thus head of all Muslims, combining in himself both the temporal and religious powers.
KAABA. The cubelike building in the center of the mosque at Mecca that contains the Black Stone, a meteorite considered holy and dating from pre-Islamic times.
KAFIR. An infidel, i.e., a non-Muslim.
KHARAJ. Land tax paid by dhimmis.
KIYAS (QIYAS). Method of reasoning by analogy.
MADRASA. A school for Muslim learning.
MAGHRIB. Arabic-speaking countries of North Africa, west of Egypt.
MATN. The subject matter of a tradition.
MIDRASH. A Jewish term referring to an exegesis, especially of scripture, where the exegetical material is attached to the text of scripture. The earliest collections of Midrashim come from the second century A.D., but much of their contents is older.
MISHKATU’L MASABIH. A well-known book of Sunni tradtion, much used by Sunni Muslims in India, ... It was orginally compiled by the Imam Husain al-Baghawi, the celebrated commentator, who died 1117 or 1122, ... It was revised in 1336 by Waliyu-ddin.
MISHNAH. A method and form of Jewish scriptural exegesis in which the exegetical material was collected on its own. The Mishnah of Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (ca. 135-ca. 220) was very influential.
MUEZZIN. The caller of the azan or “summons to prayer.” When the mosque has a minaret, he calls from the top of it, but in smaller places of worship, from the side of the mosque, the first muezzin was Bilal, son of a black slave girl.
MUFTI. The officer who expounds the law. He assists the qadi (qazi) or judge and supplies him with fatwas, or decisions. He must be learned in the Koran and Hadith, and in the Muslim works of law.
MULLA (MULLAH). A member of the ulama.
QADI (KADI). A judge in a court administering the sharia.
QIYAS. Analogy, especially in jurisprudence.
RAMADAN. The ninth month of the Muslim calendar, during which Muslims fast between sunrise and sunset.
RASUL. Someone sent; an apostle.
SAHIH. Authentic, genuine.
SALAAM. Arabic “Al-Salam” = Peace. The ordinary salutations of the Muslim is “al-Salamu alaikum” i.e. “the peace be on you.” And the usual reply is “Wa alaikum al-salam” i.e., “And on you also be the peace.”
SHARIA. Islamic law consisting of the teachings of the Koran, the sunna of the Prophet which is incorporated in the recognized traditions; the consensus of the scholars of the orthodox community; the method of reasoning by analogy (Kiyas or Qiyas).
SHAYKH (SHEIKH). Old man, leader of a tribe; a title of respect.
SHIA. The supporters of Ali’s claims to the caliphate. Evolved into the principal minority religious group of Muslims. Includes Twelver Shia and the Ismailis.
SHIRK. The unforgivable sin of associating anyone or anything with Allah.
SUNNA. Properly, a custom or practice, and later narrowed down to the practice of the Prophet or a tradition recording the same.
SUNNI. A member of the majority group of Muslims, usually called orthodox.
TALMUD. The Jewish compilations that embody the Mishnah, or oral teaching of the Jews, and the Gemara, or the collection of discussions on the Mishnah. The two main forms of the Talmud, the Palestinian (or Jerusalem) and the Babylonian were completed by the middle of the fifth century and the year 500, respectively.
ULAMA. A scholar, especially in religious subjects; the whole Muslim ecclesiastical class.
ZINA. Adultery, fornication.
ZINDIQ. Dualist, heretic.