Covenant (religion) A covenant in its most general sense and historical sense is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. A covenant is a type of agreement analogous to a contractual condition. The covenantor makes a promise to a covenantee to do (affirmative covenant) or...
Sexuality In Islam Views and laws about sexuality in Islam are largely predicated on the Quran, the sayings of Muhammad (hadith) and the rulings of religious leaders (fatwa) confining sexual activity to marital relationships between men and women. While most traditions discourage celibacy, all encourage strict chastity, modesty and privacy with regard to any relationships between genders, holding forth...
Political Islam Political Islam is any interpretation of Islam as a source of political identity and action. It can refer to a wide range of individuals and/or groups who advocate the formation of state and society according to their understanding of Islamic principles. It may also refer to the use...
Animals In Islam This article covers the treatment of animals in Islam. According to Islam, animals are conscious of God. According to the Quran, they praise Him, even if this praise is not expressed in human language. Baiting animals for entertainment or gambling is prohibited. It is forbidden to kill any animal except for food or to prevent it...
Capital Punishment In Islam Capital punishment in Islam was traditionally regulated by Sharia, the religious law in Islam that comes from the Hadith that lists the sayings and practices of Muhammad. Crimes according to the Sharia laws which could result in capital punishment include murder, rape, adultery, homosexuality, etc. Capital punishment is in use in many Muslim-majority countries, where...
Islamic Art Islamic art is a part of Islamic culture and encompasses the visual arts produced since the 7th century CE by people who lived within territories inhabited or ruled by Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across a wide range of lands, periods, and genres, Islamic art is a concept used first by Western art historians since the...
Common Ground Between Islam And Christianity For many, Islam and Christianity have little in common. More than a few Christians misperceive Islam as a religion of the sword and of oppression, while many Muslims see Christianity as permissive and rampant with sin. Yet, much of this misperception arises from the...
Arba’een Pilgrimage The Arba’een Pilgrimage, or the Arba’een Walk or Karbala Walk, is the world’s largest annual public gathering. It is held at Karbala, Iraq at the end of the 40-day mourning period following Ashura, the religious ritual for the commemoration of martyrdom of the grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the third Shia Muslim Imam, Husayn ibn Ali‘s in 61 AH...
Mourning Of Muharram The Mourning of Muharram (also known as Azadari, Remembrance of Muharram, or Muharram Observances) is a set of commemoration rituals observed primarily by Shia people. The commemoration falls in Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. Many of the events associated with the ritual take place in congregation halls known as Hussainia or Imambargah. The event marks...
Battle Of Karbala The Battle of Karbala (مَعْرَكَة كَرْبَلَاء) was fought on 10 October 680 (10 Muharram in the year 61 AH of the Islamic calendar) between the army of the second Umayyad Caliph Yazid I and a small army led by Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, at Karbala, modern day Iraq. Prior to his death, the Umayyad...
Husayn ibn Ali Husayn ibn Ali or Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (أبو عبد الله الحسين بن علي بن أبي طالب, 10 January 626 – 10 October 680), also known as Husayn ibn Ali or Imam Husayn, was a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a son of Ali ibn Abi...
Hasan ibn Ali Hasan ibn Ali (حسن ابن علي, Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī; c. 625 – 2 April 670) was a prominent early Islamic figure. He was the eldest son of Ali and Fatima and a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He briefly ruled as caliph from January 661 until August 661. He is considered the second Shia Imam, succeeding Ali and...
Fatimah Fatima or Fatimah (Fatimah binte Muhammad, Fāṭima bint Muḥammad, فَاطِمَة ٱبْنَت مُحَمَّد, 605/15–632 CE), commonly known as Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ (فَاطِمَة ٱلزَّهْرَاء), was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his wife Khadija. Fatima’s husband was Ali, the fourth of the Rashidun Caliphs and the first Shia Imam. Fatima’s sons were Hasan and Husayn, the second and third Shia Imams, respectively. Fatima...
Anti-Shiism Anti-Shiism or Anti-Shi’ism is hatred of, prejudice against, discrimination against, persecution of, and violence against Shia Muslims because of their religious beliefs, traditions, and cultural heritage. The term was first used by Shia Rights Watch in 2011, but it has been used in informal research and written in scholarly articles for decades. The dispute over who was the rightful successor to Muhammad resulted in...
Origin Of Shia Islam The article covers the origin of Shia Islam. Shia Islam originated as a response to questions of Islamic religious leadership which became manifest as early as the death of Muhammad in 632 CE. The issues involved not only whom to appoint as the successor to Muhammad, but also what attributes a true successor...
Jewish Culture Jewish culture is the culture of the Jewish people, from its formation in ancient times until the current age. Judaism itself is not a faith-based religion, but an orthoprax and ethnoreligion, pertaining to deed, practice, and identity. Jewish culture covers many aspects, including religion and worldviews, literature, media, and cinema, art and architecture, cuisine...
Indian Culture Indian culture is the heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse India. The term also applies beyond India to countries and cultures whose histories are strongly connected to India by...
Lotus Sutra The Lotus Sutra or Lotus Sūtra (सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्रम्, Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra, ‘Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma’) is one of the most influential and venerated Buddhist Mahāyāna sūtras. It is the main scripture on which the Tiantai, Tendai, Cheontae, and Nichiren schools of Buddhism were established. It is also influential for other East Asian...
Janamsakhis The Janamsakhis (ਜਨਮਸਾਖੀ, Janam-sākhī, lit. birth stories), are legendary biographies of Guru Nanak – the founder of Sikhism. Popular in Sikh history, these texts are considered by scholars as imaginary hagiographies of his life story, full of miracles and travels, built on a Sikh oral tradition and some historical facts. The first Janamsakhis were composed between 50...
Waheguru Waheguru or Vahiguru also spelt and pronounced Vahguru, is the distinctive name of the Supreme Being in the Sikh dispensation, like YHWH in Judaism and Allah in Islam. In Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, the term does not figure in the compositions of the Gurus, though it occurs therein, both as Vahiguru and...