Education In Islam Education in Islam has played a central role since the beginnings of the religion, owing in part to the centrality of scripture and its study in the Islamic tradition. Before the modern era, education would begin at a young age with study of Arabic and the Quran. For the...
Sunnah In Islam, Sunnah (سنة, sunnah, plural سنن, sunan), also sunna or sunnat are the traditions and practices of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, that constitute a model for Muslims to follow. The sunnah is what all the Muslims of Muhammad’s time, evidently saw and followed and passed on to the next generations. According to classical Islamic theories,...
Muwatta Imam Malik The Muwaṭṭaʾ (الموطأ, “well-trodden path”) or Muwatta Imam Malik (موطأ الإمام مالك) of Imam Malik (711-795) written in the 8th-century, is the earliest collection of hadith texts comprising the subjects of Islamic law, compiled by the Imam, Malik ibn Anas. Malik’s best-known work, Al-Muwatta was the first legal work to incorporate and combine hadith and fiqh (except...
Women Bearing Witness In Islam This article covers Women Bearing Witness In Islam. In some instances of bearing witness to certain civil contracts, two men are required or one man and two women. Again, this is no indication of the woman being inferior to man. It is a measure of...
Islamic Military Jurisprudence Islamic military jurisprudence refers to what has been accepted in Sharia (Islamic law) and Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) by Ulama (Islamic scholars) as the correct Islamic manner, expected to be obeyed by Muslims, in times of war. Some scholars and Muslim religious figures describe armed struggle based on Islamic principles as the Lesser jihad. Development of...
Islamic View Of Miracles This article covers the Islamic View of Miracles. A number of terms are used in Islam to refer to events not explicable by natural or scientific laws, explained as supernatural interventions in the life of human beings. In the Quran, the term āyah (آية; plural: آيات āyāt, literally “sign”) refers to signs...
Ulama In Islam, the ulama (علماء ʿUlamāʾ, singular عالِم ʿĀlim, “scholar”, literally “the learned ones”, also spelled ulema; feminine: alimah [singular] and uluma [plural]) are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam, including Islamic doctrine and law. By longstanding tradition, ulama are educated in religious institutions (madrasas). The Quran and sunnah (hadith) are the scriptural sources of traditional Islamic law....
Islamic State An Islamic state is a form of government based on Islamic law. As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As translation of the Arabic term dawlah islāmiyyah (دولة إسلامية) it refers to a modern notion associated with political Islam (Islamism). The concept of the modern...
Islamic Marital Jurisprudence This article covers the aspects of Islamic Marital Jurisprudence. In Islamic law (sharia), marriage (nikāḥ; نکاح) is a legal and social contract between two individuals. Islam is totally opposed to monasticism and celibacy. Marriage is an act of Islam and is strongly recommended; the age of marriage being whenever the individuals feel...
Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence) Fiqh (فقه) is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is often described as the human understanding of the sharia, that is human understanding of the divine Islamic law as revealed in the Quran and the Sunnah (the teachings and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and His companions). Fiqh expands and develops Shariah through interpretation (ijtihad) of the Quran and Sunnah by...
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...
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”...
What Is Sharia? Sharia, Sharia law, or Islamic law (شريعة) is a religious law forming part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith. In Arabic, the term sharīʿah refers to God’s immutable divine law and is contrasted with fiqh, which refers to its human scholarly interpretations. It has been described as “one of the major intellectual...
Who Is Ibn Arabi? Ibn ʿArabi (26 July 1165 – 16 November 1240) was an Andalusian Muslim scholar, mystic, poet, and philosopher, whose works have grown to be very influential beyond the Muslim world. Of the over 800 works which are attributed to him, 100 survive in the original manuscript....
What Is The Sunnah Of Muhammad? This article covers the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad. Sunnah (sunna) [sunna], plural sunan) is the body of traditional, social, and legal custom and practice of the Islamic community, based on the verbally transmitted record of the teachings, deeds and sayings, silent permissions (or disapprovals) of...
What Is Hadith Terminology? Hadith terminology (مُصْطَلَحُ الحَدِيْث, muṣṭalaḥ al-ḥadīth) is the body of terminology in Islam which specifies the acceptability of the sayings (hadith) attributed to the Prophet Muhammad by other early Islamic figures of significance, such as Muhammad’s family and/or successors. Individual terms distinguish between those hadith considered rightfully attributed to their source or detail the...
Sources of Sharia Various sources of sharia are used by Islamic jurisprudence to elaborate the body of Islamic law. The scriptural sources of traditional Sunni jurisprudence are the Qur’an, believed by Muslims to be the direct and unaltered word of God, and the Sunnah, consisting of words and actions attributed to...