Part 14

His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

bidʹa: innovation, changing the original teaching of the Prophet

Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in a

deen: the life‐transaction, submission and obedience to a particular system

of rules and practices, a debt of exchange between two parties, in this usage

between the Creator and the created. Allah says in the Qurʹan: Surely the deen

with Allah is Islam. (3.19).

faqih: a scholar of fiqh who by virtue of his knowledge can give an

fiqh: Islamic jurisprudence, the science of the application of the shar

fuqaha: the plural of faqih.

hadith: reported speech, particularly of, or about, the Prophet

Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

hadith qudsi: those words of Allah on the tongue of His Prophet, may

Allah bless him and grant him peace, which are not part of the Revelation of the

hajj: the annual pilgrimage to Makka which every Muslim who has the

means and ability must make once in his or her life‐time; the performance of the

rites of the hajj in the protected area which surrounds the Kaʹaba. The hajj is one

of the indispensable pillars of Islam.

halal: permitted by the shariʹah.

haram: forbidden by the shariʹah; also a protected area, an inviolable place

hasan: good; a category of hadith which is reliable, but which is not as

well authenticated as one which is sahih.

hijrah: emigration in the way of Allah. Islam takes its dating from the

hijrah of the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace,

from Makka to Madina, in 622 A.

ihsan: the state of being hasan; being absolutely sincere to Allah in

oneself; it is to worship Allah as though you see Him, knowing that although

you do not see Him, He sees you.

imam: the one who leads the prayer, an eminent scholar.

iman: acceptance, belief, trust, in Allah, a gift from Him. Iman is to believe

in Allah, His angels, His revealed Books, His messengers, the Last Day, the

Garden and the Fire, and that everything is by the Decree of Allah, both the good

Islam: peace and submission to the will of Allah, the way of life embodied

by all the prophets, given its final form in the prophetic guidance brought by the

Prophet Muhammad, may the blessings and peace of Allah be on him. The five

pillars of Islam are the affirmation of the shahada, doing the salah, paying the

zakah, fasting the month of Ramadan, and doing the hajj once in a life‐time if you

isnad: the written record of the names of the people who form the chain of

human transmission, person to person, by means of which a hadith is preserved.

One of the sciences of the Muslims which was developed after the Prophet

Muhammadʹs death, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is the science of

assessing the authenticity of a hadith by assessing the reliability of its isnad.

jahiliyyah: the time of ignorance, before the coming of Islam.

jihad: struggle, particularly warfare, to establish and defend Islam.

Inwardly, the jihad is to oppose whatever in your self is displeasing to Allah.

Outwardly, it is oppose kufr by word and action.

jinn: unseen beings created from smokeless fire who co‐habit the earth

Kaʹaba: the cube‐shaped building at the centre of the Haram in Makka,

originally built by the Prophet Ibrahim, peace be on him, and rebuilt with the

help of the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace; also

known as the House of Allah. The Kaʹaba is the focal point which all Muslims

face when doing the salah. This does not mean that Allah lives inside the Kaʹaba,

nor does it mean that the Muslims worship the Kaʹaba. It is Allah Who is

worshipped and Allah is not contained or confined in any form or place or time

kafir: a person who commits kufr, the opposite of a mumin.

kaflrun: the plural of kafir.

kalima: the declaration: There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the

kufr: to cover up the truth, to reject Allah and His Messenger, may the

blessings and peace of Allah be on him.

la ilaha illaʹllah: there is no god but Allah.

makruh: disapproved of, without being forbidden, by the shariʹah.

marfuʹ: a hadith from a companion of the Prophet Muhammad containing

words attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him

Muhammad ar‐Rasuluʹllah: Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, may

the blessings and peace of Allah be on h

muhsin: someone who possesses the quality of ih‐san, who remembers

mumin: someone who possesses the quality of iman, who trusts in Allah

and accepts His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

muminun: the plural of mumin.

munafiq: a hypocrite; the hypocrites amongst the Muslims outwardly

profess Islam on the tongue, but inwardly reject Allah and His Messenger, may

Allah bless him and grant him peace, siding with the kafirun against the

Muslims. The deepest part of the Fire is reserved for the munafiqun

munafiqun: the plural of munafiq.

mushrik: one who commits shirk.

mushrikeen: the plural of mushrik.

muslim: someone who follows the way of Islam, doing what is obligatory,

avoiding what is forbidden, keeping within the limits prescribed by Allah, and

following the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant

him peace, in what he or she is able. A Muslim is, by definition, one who is safe

and sound, at peace in this world, and promised the Garden in the next world.

qiblah: the direction faced in prayer, which, for the Muslims, is towards

the Kaʹaba in Makka. Everyone has a direction in life, but only the Muslims have

Qurʹan: the ʹRecitationʹ, the last Revelation from Allah to mankind and the

jinn before the end of the world, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah

bless him and grant him peace, through the angel Jibril, over a period of twenty‐

three years, the first thirteen of which were spent in Makka and the last ten of

which were spent in Madina. The Qurʹan amends, encompasses, expands,

surpasses and abrogates all the earlier revelations revealed to the earlier

messengers, peace be on all of them. The Qurʹan is the greatest miracle given to

the Prophet Muhammad by Allah, for he was illiterate and could neither read

nor write. The Qurʹan is the uncreated word of Allah. The Qurʹan still exists

today exactly as it was originally revealed, without any alteration or change or

addition or deletion. Whoever recites the Qurʹan with courtesy and sincerity

receives knowledge and wisdom, for it is the well of wisdom in this age.

rakʹa: a unit of the prayer, a complete series of standing, bowing,

rakʹat: the plural of rakʹa.

Ramadan: the month of fasting, the ninth month in the Muslim lunar

calendar, during which all adult Muslims who are in good health fast from the

first light of dawn until sunset each day. The Qurʹan was first revealed in the

month of Ramadan. The fast of Ramadan is one of the indispensable pillars of

sahaba: companions, particularly the com‐panions of the Prophet

Muhammad, may the blessings and peace of Allah be on him and on his family

sahih: healthy and sound with no defects; often used to describe a fully

authenticated hadith. The two most reliable collections of hadith by Imam Al‐

Bukhari and Imam Muslim are both described as sahih

salafi: adjective from as‐salaf, ʹthe early yearsʹ, and used generally to

describe the early generations of the Muslims, particularly the sahaba, the

companions of the Messenger of Allah, may the blessings and peace of Allah be

on him and on his family and on his companions. In the present age the term is

sometimes used to describe those Muslims who closely follow the sunnah of the

salah: the prayer, particularly the five daily obligatory ritual prayers of the

Muslims which are called maghrib, ʹisha, fajr, dhur and ʹasr. They consist of fixed

numbers of rakʹat in worship to Allah. salah is one of the indispensable pillars

sawm: fasting, particularly the fast of Ramadan, from food and drink and

making love if you are married during daylight, from the first light of dawn until

shahada: to witness, to bear witness that: There is no god but Allah and

that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him

peace. The shahada is the gateway to Islam and the gateway to the Garden in the

next world. It is easy to say, but to act on it is a vast undertaking which has far‐

reaching consequences, both in inward awareness and in outward action, both in

this world and in the next world. Continual affirmation of the shahada is one of

the indispensable pillars of Islam.

shariʹah: a road, the legal and social modality of a people based on the

revelation of their prophet. The last shariʹah in history is that of Islam. It

abrogates all previous shariʹahs. It is, being the last, therefore the easiest to

follow, for it is applicable to the whole human race wherever they are.

shaytan: a devil, particularly Iblis (Satan), an evil jinn who prompts

mankind and the jinn to rebel against Allah. Shaytan is part of the creation of

Allah, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil that He has created

shirk: the unforgivable wrong action of worshipping something or

someone other than Allah or associating something or someone as a partner with

Him; the opposite of tawhid which is affirmation of Divine Unity. Shirk is idol‐

worship, which is attributing form to Allah by attempting to confine Him within

an object, a concept, a ritual or a myth whereas Allah is not like anything and has

no form. He cannot be conceived of or perceived.

seerah: the historical study of the Prophet Muhammadʹs life, may the

blessings and peace of Allah be on

sunnah: a form, the customary practice of a person or group of people. It

has come to refer almost exclusively to the practice of the Messenger of Allah,

Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, but also comprises the

customs of the first generation of Muslims in Madina, who acted in accordance

with what they had learned from him and who transmitted what they had

learned to the next generation. The sunnah is a complete behavioral science that

has been systematically kept outside the learning framework of this society, but

which nevertheless has been preserved by those to whom it has been transmitted

and who continue to embody it as their way of life. The Messenger of Allah, may

Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: T have left two matters with you. As