Islamic Economics Islamic economics (الاقتصاد الإسلامي) is a term used to refer to Islamic commercial jurisprudence (فقه المعاملات, fiqh al-mu’āmalāt), and also to an ideology of economics based on the teachings of Islam that takes a middle ground between the systems of Marxism and capitalism. Islamic commercial jurisprudence entails the rules of transacting finance or other economic...
Islamic Democracy There exist a number of perspectives on the relationship of Islam and democracy among Islamic political theorists, the general Muslim public, and Western authors. Some modern Islamic thinkers, whose ideas were particularly popular in the 1970s and 1980s, rejected the notion of democracy as a foreign idea incompatible with Islam....
Shia–Sunni Relations This article covers Shia–Sunni relations throughout the history of Islam. Shia and Sunni Islam are the two major denominations of Islam. They chose sides following the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in AD 632. A dispute over succession to Islamic prophet Muhammad as a caliph of the Islamic community spread across various parts of the world, which led...
Tadabbur Tadabbur (contemplation) is an Arabic word which means -To ponder, reflect and think. Linguistic meaning Literally (Tadabbur), it means to look into the consequence or the end result of the matters, e. g. if we did that what would happen to us. Islamic meaning Tadabbur, means pondering over the...
Aniconism In Islam Aniconism is the avoidance of images of sentient beings in some forms of Islamic art. Aniconism in Islam stems in part from the prohibition of idolatry and in part from the belief that creation of living forms is God’s prerogative. Although the Quran does not explicitly prohibit...
Ritual Purity In Islam This article covers the importance of ritual purity in Islam. Purity (طهارة, ṭaharah) is an essential aspect of Islam. It is the opposite of najāsa, the state of being ritually impure. It is achieved by first removing physical impurities (for example, urine) from the body, and then removing ritual...
Wudu Wudu (الوضوء al-wuḍūʼ ) is the Islamic procedure for cleansing parts of the body, a type of ritual purification, or ablution. Wudu consists of washing the face, arms, then wiping the head and finally washing the feet with water. Wudu is an important part of ritual purity in Islam. It is governed by fiqh (Islamic...
History Of Islam The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic and developments of the Islamic civilization. Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century, approximately 600 years after the founding of Christianity. Muslims, however, believe that it did not start with Muhammad, but that...
Muʿtazila Muʿtazila (المعتزلة, al-muʿtazilah) is a rationalist school of Islamic theology that flourished in the cities of Basra and Baghdad, both now in Iraq, during the 8th to the 10th centuries. The adherents of the Muʿtazili school, known as Muʿtazilites, are best known for rejecting the doctrine of the Qur’an as uncreated and co-eternal...
Shahada The Shahada (الشهادة aš-šahādah,”the testimony”) is an Islamic creed, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, declaring belief in the oneness of God (tawhid) and the acceptance of Muhammad as God’s prophet. The declaration, in its shortest form, reads (right to left in Arabic): لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا ٱلله مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ ٱلله lā ʾilāha ʾillā llāh muḥammadun rasūlu llāh...
Madhhab A madhhab ( مذهب maḏhab, “way to act”; pl. مذاهب maḏāhib) is a school of thought within fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). The major Sunni madhhabs are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali. They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries CE and by the twelfth century almost all jurists aligned themselves with a particular madhhab. These four...
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...
Farewell Sermon The Farewell Sermon (خطبة الوداع, Khuṭbatu l-Wadāʿ), also known as Muhammad’s Final Sermon or the Last Sermon, is a religious speech, believed by Muslims to have been delivered by the Islamic prophet Muhammad on Friday the 9th of Dhu al-Hijjah, 10 AH (6 March 632) in the Uranah valley of Mount Arafat, during the Islamic pilgrimage of Hajj. Muhammad al-Bukhari refers to the sermon...
Event Of Mubahala According to Islamic sources, The Event of Mubahala was a meeting between the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a Christian delegation from Najran (present-day Saudi Arabia), in the month of Dhu’l-Hijja, 10 AH (October 631, October 631-2, October 632-3), where Muhammad invoked a curse attempting to reveal who was lying about...
Spread Of Islam What are the Reasons for the Fact that Islam Spread Over Such Vast Territories in Such a Short Time in the Past? What are the Reasons for the Muslims’ Defeat and Failure at the Present Time? A Muslim could be defined as one who believes in God...
Islam And Divorce This article covers Islam and Divorce. The first point this chapter must make is that divorce is contrary to the laws of nature. The annulling of the marriage-bond and the separation of those who should be life-partners is a denial of the true nature of man as...
Islam And The Family This article covers Islam And The Family. While the warp of society is the individual person and the woof is social order, the unit of the design is the family. Families in which mutual understanding, sincerity and tenderness reign, form details of a harmonious pattern. But...
Shia Islam Shia Islam or Shi’ism is one of the two main branches of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor and the Imam (leader) after him, most notably at the event of Ghadir Khumm, but was prevented from the caliphate as a result...