“Windows To Spirituality”
|
Common articles: |
Christian Views On Slavery Christian views on slavery are varied regionally, historically and spiritually. Slavery in various forms has been a part of the social environment for much of Christianity’s history, spanning well over eighteen centuries. In the early years of Christianity, slavery was an established feature of the economy and society...
Criticism Of Christianity Criticism of Christianity has a long history stretching back to the initial formation of the religion during the Roman Empire. Critics have challenged Christian beliefs and teachings as well as Christian actions, from the Crusades to modern terrorism. The intellectual arguments against Christianity include the suppositions that...
Apocalypse An apocalypse (ἀποκάλυψις apokálypsis, “an uncovering”) is the disclosure or revelation of knowledge. In religious and occult concepts an apocalypse usually discloses something hidden, or provides what Bart Ehrman has termed “a vision of heavenly secrets that can make sense of earthly realities”. Historically, the term has a heavy religious connotation as commonly seen...
Catholic Church And Islam Relations between the Catholic Church and Islam deal with the current attitude of the Catholic Church towards Islam, as well as the attitude of Islam towards the Catholic Church and Catholics, and notable changes in the relationship since the 20th century. Second Vatican Council and Nostra aetate The...
Islamic Culture Islamic culture and Muslim culture refer to cultural practices common to historically Islamic people. The early forms of Muslim culture, from the Rashidun Caliphate to the early Umayyad period and the early Abbasid period, were predominantly Arab, Byzantine, Persian, and Levantine. With the rapid expansion of the Islamic empires, Muslim...
Muslims Muslims are people who follow or practice Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their holy book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet and messenger Muhammad. The majority of Muslims also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad (sunnah) as recorded in traditional accounts (hadith). The derivation...
Islamic Holy Books Islamic Holy Books are the texts which Muslims believe were authored by God through various prophets throughout humanity’s history. All these books, in Muslim belief, promulgated the code and laws that God ordained for those people. Muslims believe the Quran to be the final revelation of God to mankind...
Islamic Dietary Laws This article covers Islamic Dietary Laws. Islamic jurisprudence specifies which foods are halāl (حَلَال “lawful”) and which are harām (حَرَامْ “unlawful”). This is derived from commandments found in the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, as well as the Hadith and Sunnah, libraries cataloging things the Islamic prophet Muhammad is reported to have said and done. Extensions of these rulings...
Haram Haram (حَرَام , ḥarām) is an Arabic term meaning forbidden. This may refer to: either something sacred to which access is forbidden to the people who are not in a state of purity or who are not initiated into the sacred knowledge; or to an evil thus “sinful action that...
Halal Halal (حلال, ḥalāl; also spelled halaal) is an Arabic word that translates to “permissible or lawful” in English. In the Quran, the word halal is contrasted with haram (forbidden). This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification known as “the five decisions”: mandatory, recommended, neutral, reprehensible and forbidden. Islamic jurists disagree on whether...
Mosque A mosque (مَسْجِد, masjid, literally “place of ritual prostration”) is a place of worship for Muslims. Any act of worship that follows the Islamic rules of prayer can be said to create a mosque, whether or not it takes place in a special building. Informal and open-air places of worship are called musalla, while mosques used for...
Church Building A church building or church house, often simply called a church, is a building used for Christian religious activities, particularly for Christian worship services. The term is often used by Christians to refer to the physical buildings where they worship, but it is sometimes used as an analogy to refer to buildings of other...
Christian Kabbalah The Renaissance saw the birth of Christian Kabbalah (often transliterated as Cabala to distinguish it from Jewish Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah, also spelled Cabbala. Interest grew among some Christian scholars in the mystical aspects of Jewish Kabbalah, which they interpreted under their Christian theology. Background The movement was influenced by a desire to interpret aspects...
Hindu–Islamic Relations This article covers Hindu–Islamic relations. Hinduism is a religion and a way of life of the Hindu people of India, their diaspora, and other regions which have experienced Hindu influence since ancient and medieval times. Islam is a monotheistic religion in which the deity is Allah (الله “the God”: see God in Islam), the last prophet being Muhammad, whom Muslims...
Christendom Christendom historically refers to the “Christian world“: Christian states, Christian-majority countries and the countries in which Christianity dominates or prevails. Since the spread of Christianity from the Levant to Europe and North Africa during the early Roman Empire, Christendom has been divided in the pre-existing Greek East and Latin West. Consequently, different versions...
The Kaaba The Kaaba (كَعْبَة kaʿbah, “Cube”), also referred to as al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah (ٱلْكَعْبَة ٱلْمُشَرَّفَة, lit. ‘Honorable Ka’bah’), also spelled Ka’bah, is a building at the center of Islam‘s most important mosque, Great Mosque of Mecca (ٱلْمَسْجِد ٱلْحَرَام, lit. ‘The Sacred Mosque’), in the Hejazi city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is the most sacred site in Islam. It is considered by Muslims to be the Bayt Allāh (بَيْت ٱللَّٰه, “House of God”). Its...
Slaughter Offering A slaughter offering in the Hebrew Bible (זָבַח, zevakh) is a type of Jewish animal sacrifice. The term specifically refers to the slaughter of an animal to God followed by a feast or a meal. This is distinguished from the burnt offering, shechita, guilt offering, sin offering, korban sacrifice, and the gift offering (Hebrew minchah). A common subcategory...
Qurbani Qurbani (قربانى), Qurban, or uḍḥiyyah (أضحية) as referred to in Islamic law, is the ritual animal sacrifice of a livestock animal during Eid al-Adha. The word is related to the Hebrew קרבן qorbān “offering” and Syriac qurbānā “sacrifice“, etymologised through the cognate Arabic triliteral as “a way or means of approaching someone” or “nearness”. In...
Korban In Judaism, the korban (קָרְבָּן qorbān), also spelled qorban or corban, is any of a variety of sacrificial offerings described and commanded in the Torah. The plural form is korbanot, korbanoth or korbans. A korban was a kosher animal sacrifice, such as a bull, sheep, goat, or a dove that underwent shechita (Jewish Ritual Slaughter). Sacrifices could also consist of...
Dhabihah In Islamic law, dhabihah (or ذَبِيحَة, ‘slaughtered animal’, pronounced zabiha by the people from non-Arab Muslim countries such as Iran and Pakistan,) is the prescribed method of ritual slaughter of all lawful halal animals. This method of slaughtering lawful animals has several conditions to be fulfilled. The name of God or “In the name of God”...
