Ahl al-Bayt - "family of the Prophet Muhammad"
Al-Haq - "Reality" -- One of the Names of God
al-harakat al-jawhariyyah - "substantial motion" or "motion existing in substance"
al-hikmah al-muta’aliyah - "Transcendent Theosophy"
al-hikmat al-muti‘aliya - "transcendental wisdom"
al-Ikhwan - "the Brethren"
'alim - "a scholar of Islamic law"
al-khulafa al-rashidun - "rightly guided caliphs"
Al-Rida - "The Soothe" or "The One Who Is Pleasing to God"
amir al-mu'minin - "the commander of the faithful"
aql - "reason"
arbab al-anwa’ - "master of species"
asfar - "journey"
Aswad - "dark skinned or black complexion"
Ayatollah - "honorary title for high-ranking Twelver Shi'a clergy in Iran and Iraq that came into widespread usage in the 20th century"
'ayn - "place"
bay'ah - "allegiance"
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caliph - In Arabic, khalifah means "successor". In Islamic history the caliph was the ruler of the Muslim community. Although khalifah and its plural khulafa' occur several times in the Qur'an, referring to humans as God's stewards or vice-regents on earth, the term did not denote a distinct political or religious institution during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad. It began to acquire its later meaning and to take shape as an institution after Muhammad's death (on June 8, 632 CC), when Abu Bakr, a companion of the Prophet, and an early convert to Islam, was elected by a majority of Muslims as the leader of the Muslim community -- the umma -- and assumed the title khalifat rasul Allah -- "successor of the messenger of God". Abu Bakr's successor, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, is said to have first assumed the title khalifa Abi Bakr ("successor to Abu Bakr"), because the title khalifat khalifat rasul Allah ("the successor to the successor of the messenger of God") would have been cumbersome. 'Umar also designated himself amir al-mu'minin -- "the commander of the faithful" -- a title that became an additional customary title for succeeding rulers.
Abu Bakr and his three immediate successors are known as the "perfect" caliphs or the "rightly guided caliphs" -- khulafa al-rashidun. The rashidun caliphs combined rule is idealized by a majority of Muslims for having been based on the concepts of shura (consultation), ijma' (consensus) of Muslims, and bay'ah (allegiance). In contrast, subsequent rulers of the Muslim polity instituted dynastic rule, which violated the concept of shura -- of consultation -- and, therefore, the dynastic rule was largely regarded as illegitimate, although it often was grudgingly accepted from a pragmatic perspective.
The title of caliph was borne by the 14 Umayyad rulers of Damascus, and subsequently by the 38 'Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad, whose dynasty fell before the Mongols in 1258. There were titular caliphs of 'Abbasid descent in Cairo under the Mamluks from 1258 until 1517, when the last caliph was captured by the Ottoman sultan Selim I. The Ottoman sultans then claimed the title and used the title caliph until the caliphate was abolished by the Turkish Republic on March 3, 1924.
After the fall of the Umayyad dynasty at Damascus in 750, the title of caliph was also assumed the Andalusian branch of the family who ruled in Spain at Cordoba (755-1031 CC). The title "caliph" was also assumed by the Fatimid rulers of Egypt (909-1171 CC), who claimed to descend from Fatimah (a daughter of Muhammad) and Fatimah's husband, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib.
According to the Shi'a, who call the supreme Islamic office the "imamate" or leadership, no one can claim to be legimate unless he is a lineal descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. Later, Sunni scholars insisted that the office belonged to the tribe of Quraysh, to which Muhammad himself belonged, but this condition would have vitiated the claim of the Ottoman sultans, who held the office after the last 'Abbasid caliph of Cairo transferred the title to Selim I.
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cosmology - A branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe.
dhawq - "intellectual intuition"
emirs - "governors"
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essentialism - Philosophical essentialism is the idea that the nature of things is invariable and constant. Essentialism posits that one must be able to describe an entity according to that which is required, or essential, to its nature and existence.
The main issue regarding essentialism in philosophy surrounds the essence of humans. What are we? What makes us different from other creatures? Is there anything that is essential to being human?
In ontology, the view that some properties of objects are essential to them. The "essence" of a thing is conceived as the totality of its essential properties. Theories of essentialism differ with respect to their conception of what it means to say that a property is essential to an object. The concept of an essential property is closely related to the concept of necessity, since one way of saying that a property P is essential to an object O is to say that the proposition "O has P" is necessarily true. A general but not very informative way of characterizing essential properties is to say that a property is essential to an object if the object cannot lack the property and still be the object that it is. Properties of an object that are not essential in this sense are said to be accidental.
Ontology is the branch of philosophy that studies concepts such as existence, being, becoming, and reality.It includes the questions of how entities are grouped into basic categories and which of these entities exist on the most fundamental level.
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existentialism - In Western philosophy, existentialism is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. However, in Islamic philosophy (especially in the Islamic philosophy of the philosopher Mulla Sadra), Islamic existentialism should not be too readily compared to Western existentialism. Islamic existentialism is a question of existentialist cosmology as it pertains to God, and thus differs considerably from the individual, moral, and/or social, questions at the heart of Russian, French, German, or American existentialism.
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falasifah - "Muslim philosophers"
falsafah - "Islamic philosophy"
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Fars Province - Also known as Pars, as well as Persis or Persia, is one of the thirty-one provinces of Iran. It is located in Iran's southwest and its administrative center is Shiraz. Fars is the historical homeland of the Persian people. Fars is the historical homeland of the Persian people. It was the homeland of the Achaemenid and Sasanian Persian dynasties of Iran, who reigned on the throne by the time of the ancient Persian Empires. The ruins of the Achaemenid capitals Pasargadae and Persepolis, among others, demonstrate the ancient history of the region. Due to the historical importance of this region, the entire country has historically been also referred to as Persia in the West. Prior to Arab rule, this region was known as Pars.
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fatawa - "legal rulings"
fatwa - "legal ruling"
fayd - "self-flow"
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fiqh - "Islamic jurisprudence"
Fiqh is often described as the human understanding and practices of the sharia, that is the human understanding of the divine Islamic law as revealed in the Qur'an and the Sunnah (the teachings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions). Fiqh expands and develops sharia through interpretation (ijtihad) of the Qur'an and Sunnah by Islamic jurists ('ulama) and is implemented by the rulings (fatwa) of jurists on questions presented to them. Thus, whereas sharia is considered immutable and infallible by Muslims, fiqh is considered fallible and changeable. Fiqh deals with the observance of rituals, morals, and social legislation in Islam as well as with the political system. In the modern era, there are four prominent schools (madh'hab) of fiqh within Sunni practice, plus two (or three) within Shi'a practice. A person trained in fiqh is known as a faqih (plural fuqaha).
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gnosis (irfan) - "spiritual knowledge or insight into humanity's real nature as divine"
hadith - "record of the words, actions, and the silent approval of the Prophet Muhammad as transmitted through chains of narrators"
hajj - "pilgrimage"
hermeneutics - the theory and philosophy of Qur'anic understanding and interpretation
hikmah - "theosophy" or "knowledge"
hylomorphism - "doctrine that physical objects result from the combination of matter and form"
ijma' - "consensus"
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Imam (plural - a'immah) is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, serve as community leaders, and provide religious guidance. Thus, for Sunnis, anyone can study the basic Islamic sciences and become an Imam.
For most Shi'a Muslims, the Imams are absolute infallible leaders of the Islamic community after the Prophet. Shias consider the term to be only applicable to the members and descendents of the Ahl al-Bayt - the family of the Prophet Muhammad. In Twelver Shi'ism, there are 14 infalliables, 12 of which are Imams, the final being Imam Mahdi, the four year old Imam who will return at the end of times.
The title Imam was also used by the Zaidi Shi'a Imams of Yemen, who eventually founded the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (1918–1970).
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irfan - "gnosis"
ithna 'ashari - "Twelver"
jawhar - "substance"
jizya - "fees levied on individual subjects"
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Kalam - Kalam is the foreshortened version of 'Ilm al-Kalam which means "science of discourse". Kalam is sometimes called "Islamic scholastic theology" or "speculative theology". Kalam is the study of Islamic doctrine. Kalam was born out of the need to establish and defend the tenets of the Islamic faith against the philosophical doubters. The Arabic term Kalam means "speech, word, utterance" among other things. There are many possible interpretations as to why this discipline was originally so named. One such interpretation is derived from one of the most divisive controversies from the second and third centuries after the Hijra concerning whether the "Word of God" (Kalam Allah), as revealed in the Qur'an, is an eternal attribute of God and, therefore, not created as opposed to the argument that the words were "created" in the sense of ink and sounds and, therefore, are not eternal. A scholar of Kalam is referred to as a mutakallim (plural: mutakallimun), and it is a role distinguished from those of Islamic philosophers, jurists, and scientists.
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kamm - "quantity"
kayf - "quality"
khalifa see caliph
khalifat khalifat rasul Allah - "the successor to the successor of the messenger of God"
khalifat rasul Allah - "successor of the messenger of God"
kharaj - "revenues on the land"
khatm al-anbiya - "Seal of the Prophets"
khulafa' see caliph
khulafa' al-rashidun - "rightly guided caliphs"
kunya - "name of an adult derived from their oldest child"
mahdi - "the final Shi'a Imam" or "the Divinely Guided One"
mahiyyah - "principality of essence"
mallam - "a Quranic scholar"
mashsha'iyah - "Peripatetic"
masjid - "mosque" or "place of prayer
Masumeh - "Pure and Innocent"
mujaddid - "renewer of the faith"
Mulla - "religious teacher"
mushahada - "mystical visions"
nur muhammadiyyah - "Muhammadan Light"
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ontology - Ontology is the branch of philosophy that studies concepts such as existence, being, becoming, and reality.It includes the questions of how entities are grouped into basic categories and which of these entities exist on the most fundamental level.
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Padshah Begum was a superlative imperial title conferred upon the empress consort or 'First Lady' of the Mughal Empire and was considered to be the most important title in the Mughal harem or zenana.[1] This title can be equivalent with "empress" in English, but in only approximate terms in the Mughal context.
Padeshah, Padshah, Padishah, or Badishah is a superlative royal title, composed of the Persian pād (master) and shāh (king), which was adopted by several monarchs claiming the highest rank, roughly equivalent to the ancient Persian notion of "The Great" or "Great King", and later adopted by post-Achaemenid and Christian Emperors. Its Arabized pronunciation as Badshah was used by Mughal emperors, and Bashah or Pasha was used by Ottoman Sultans.
Begum, begam, baigum or beygum is a female royal and aristocratic title from Central and South Asia. It is the feminine equivalent of the title baig or bey, which in Turkic languages means chief or commander. It usually refers to the wife or daughter of a beg.
The title of 'Padshah Begum' could only be bestowed upon the chief or principal wife, a sister, mother, or a favored daughter of the Mughal emperor[2] and could not be held by more than one lady simultaneously.[3] This was evidenced by the fact that Emperor Jahangir's wife, Nur Jahan, could only be given the title after his chief wife, Saliha Banu Begum (the Padshah Begum for most of his reign), had died in 1620.[1]
Where the consorts of the Mughal emperors were concerned, the title could only be bestowed upon the chief wife of the emperor. The title was first bestowed upon Maham Begum, who was the chief wife of Emperor Babur. It was held by Bega Begum during the reign of Humayun. Then this title was bestowed upon Hamida Banu Begum by Akbar who bore it until her death in 1604.[4] Emperor Jahangir bestowed this title upon his chief wife, Saliha Banu Begum, and then to her successor (after her death), Nur Jahan. Emperor Shah Jahan bestowed this title upon his chief wife, Mumtaz Mahal but after she died, he bestowed it upon his daughter Jahanara Begum. Emperor Muhammad Shah bestowed this title upon his chief wife, Badshah Begum.
The title was also bestowed upon the daughter of the emperor, such as Emperor Shah Jahan's daughter, Princess Jahanara Begum, and Emperor Aurangzeb's daughter, Princess Zinat-un-Nissa, both of whom bore the title throughout their lives.[5]
In some cases, the title was also bestowed upon the sister of the emperor. Aurangzeb bestowed the title on his sisters Roshanara Begum and Jahanara Begum. When a Timurid Shahzadi held the title it meant "Empress amongst princesses".[6]
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Peripatetic philosophy (mashsha'iyah) - The Peripatetic school was a school of philosophy in Ancient Greece. Its teachings derived from its founder, Aristotle (384-322 BCT), and peripatetic is an adjective ascribed to Aristotle's followers. The Peripatetic school dates from around 335 BCT when Aristotle began teaching in the Lyceum. It was an informal institution whose members conducted philosophical and scientific inquiries. After the middle of the third century BCT, the school fell into a decline, and it was not until the Roman era that there was a revival. Later members of the school concentrated on preserving and commenting on Aristotle's works rather than extending them. The Peripatetic school died out in the third century CC.
The study of Aristotle's works by scholars who were called Peripatetics continued through the Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the works of the Peripatetic school were lost to the Latin West, but they were preserved in Byzantium and also incorporated into early Islamic philosophy. Western Europe recovered Aristotelianism from Byzantium and from Islamic sources in the Middle Ages.
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Qa‘ida imkan al-ashraf - "possibility of that which is superior"
Qa‘ida Laduniya - "Transcendental Principles"
Qa‘ida Mashraqiyah - "Principles of Oriental Philosophy"
quiddity - "essence"
sahn - "courtyard"
sahn e-jadid - "new court"
sarayan al-wujud - "penetration of being"
Seal of the Prophets - khatm al-anbiya
shadid ummah - "dark skinned or black complexion"
shaykh al-Islam - "supreme religious authority"
shura - "consultation"
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Sultan
Sultan. Originally, the term "sultan" was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", or "rulership", derived from the masdar sulṭah, meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain Muslim rulers who claimed almost full sovereignty in practical terms (i.e. the lack of dependence on any higher ruler), without claiming the overall caliphate, or it was used to refer to a powerful governor of a province within the caliphate. The term then developed some further meanings in certain contexts.
The title sultan was first given by the caliph to the Seljuk Amir al-Umara’, at first without political significance. The first to hold the title was Togril-Beg. Following the fall of the caliphate of Baghdad, the title sultan came to indicate the political independence of the prince. Eventually, the title sultan came to be the title held by the ruler of various Muslim states including the Seljuk and Ottoman empires.
The term sultan occurs frequently in the Qur’an with the meaning of a moral or magical authority. In hadith literature, it has exclusively the sense of power, usually governmental. As a personal title, the word was used for the first time by the great usurpers of power of the caliph such as the Buyids, the Ghaznavids and the Saljuqs. In 1051, the Great Saljuq Tughril I received from the caliph the title al-Sultan Rukn al-Dawla. It was with the Saljuqs that sultan became a regular sovereign title, to which such titles as malik and shah were subordinate. It was later adopted by the Mamelukes and the Ottomans. Jurists and historians then set themselves to construct theories to find a justification for the existence of potentates for whom the old conception of the Muslim caliphate had no place. Sultan is also the title given to Sufi shaykhs from the thirteenth century onwards, especially in Anatolia and countries influenced by Ottoman civilization.
Sultan is a title used by monarchs in Muslim countries. The title was one of indirect religious meaning, as the sultan was supposed to have both moral and spiritual authority as defined by the Qur’an. However, the sultan was not a religious leader. He was more a secular leader who ruled in accordance with Islam.
The first to carry the title was the Turkmen chief Mahmud of Ghasna (r.998-1030). Later both the Seljuks, Mamluks and Ottomans called their leaders sultans.
The religious element of the title was well illustrated by the fact that it was the shadow caliph in Cairo that bestowed the title “sultan” on the fourth leader of the Ottomans (the earlier leaders had been beys.).
At later stages, even smaller rulers took the title “sultan,” as was the case for the earlier leaders of today’s royal family of Morocco.
Today, the use of the title sultan is limited to such rulers as those in Oman and Brunei.
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tariqa (tariqah). Arabic term which means “the path” or “the way.” The term tariqa refers to a religious brotherhood of Sufis. The term also applies to the system of beliefs and training transmitted by particular schools of Sufism. The term turuq is the plural of tariqa.
The term tariqa is a widely used technical term referring to true Islam, to the Sufi tradition, and to individual Sufi brotherhoods. In the first sense, tariqa is equivalent to the phrase “the straight path” in the opening chapter -- the Surat al-Fatiha --of the Qur’an. Just as unbelief (kufr) and polytheism (shirk) characterize infidels, i.e., deviants from the straight path, so faith in God and total reliance on his will characterize the traveler on the straight path, i.e., the true Muslim. In handbooks of Sufi theorists, increasingly popular from the eleventh century of the Christian calendar onward, tariqa acquired a second, more specific denotation of an intermediate stage leading from observance of the law (sharia) to realization of the truth. Much of the controversy surrounding Sufism concerns the relationship of the path to the law. Itinerant, antinomian Muslims, such as the qalandar, dispersed with the law while the strict ‘ulama’ (the learned functionaries of Islam) denied the validity of the way. Moderate Sufis try to adhere to the requirements of both.
Many medieval theorists stressed the complementarity of the outer (the law) and the inner (the truth), assuming the path as an implicit link between them. The fourteenth century master Sharaf-al-Maneri wrote, “The Law is like the body, Truth like the soul. Just as a man cannot live without either body or soul, so he cannot believe unless he adheres to both the Law and the Truth.” Others have grafted truth to law by extending the mystic path inot a multidirectional quest. The journey to God is followed by a journey into God, which, however, then leads to a journey from God back to the phenomenal world. The paradigm for this spiritual ascent and descent is to the mi’raj or ascension of the Prophet Muhammad, whom Sufis extol not only as the founder of Islam but also as the model Sufi.
By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the way became channeled into organized brotherhoods, each with hierarchical lines of authority emanating from a single, all-powerful shaikh. These brotherhoods or tariqas (also silsilas) exhibited enormous variety. Some were pan-Islamic in scope and activity; others were solely regional. Some were politically influential; others were distrustful of any governmental connection. Collectively, the brotherhoods helped to extend the perimeters of the Muslim world. Without them Sufism would have been limited to literary artifacts and ecstatic personalities of the early medieval period.
Tariqa (“road,” “path,” or “way”) refers to the Muslim spiritual path toward direct knowledge (maʿrifah) of God or Reality (ḥaqq). In the 9th and 10th centuries tariqa meant the spiritual path of individual Sufis (mystics). After the 12th century, as communities of followers gathered around sheikhs (or pīrs,“teachers”), tariqa came to designate the sheikh’s entire ritual system, which was followed by the community or mystic order. Eventually tariqa came to mean the order itself.
Each mystic order claimed a chain of spiritual descent (silsilah) from the Prophet Muhammad, established procedures for initiation of members (murid, ikhwan, darwīsh, fakir), and prescribed disciplines. By following the path of a known“friend of God,” or Sufi saint, under the guidance of his sheikh, the Sufi might himself achieve the mystical state (hāl) of the friends of God. Though sober teachers inveighed against excesses, the search for spiritual ecstasy sometimes led to such practices as drug taking and wild acrobatics, activities that earned for some of the orders the names whirling, howling, and dancing dervishes. Dervish orders frequently established monasteries (ribat, khankah, zāwiyah, tekke) in which laity as well as members were invited to stay.
First established in the 12th century, the orders numbered in the hundreds by the mid-20th century, with a membership in the millions. The greatest expansion of Sufi tariqas has been in the central Islamic countries, where they played a vital role in the religious life of the Muslim community. Orders also exist in West Africa, eastern Europe, India, and in Central and Far Eastern Asia.
The traditional orders are:
* Abbasiyya
* Ahmadiya - Sheikh Muhammad Borhanuddin Uyesi
* Arusiyyah-Qadiriyyah
* Ashrafi
* Azeemia
* Ba'Alawi
* Badawiyyah
* Bektashi
* Chishti
* Darqawa
* Dar ul Ehsan
* Fazli Qadri
* Galibi
* Habibi Silsila
* Halveti
* Hurufi
* Idrisiyya
* Ismaili
* Jerrahi
* Mohammadiyaa
* Mevlevi
* Kibruyeh
* Naqshbandi
* Nasiriyya
* Nematollahi
* Noorbakshi
* Oveyssi
* Qadiri
* Qadiri 'Arusi
* Qadiri Al-Muntahi
* Qadiri Boutchichi
* Qalandari
* Qarnaiyniyah
* Qadri-Qadeeri Silsila
* Rifa'i
* Safaviyeh
* Sanusiyya
* Sarwari Qadiri
* Sarwariyya
* Shadhili
* Shattari
* Sirajiyah Haqqaniya
* Suhrawardiyya
* Tijani
* Zahediyeh
tariqah see tariqa
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'ulama' - (singular 'alim) also spelled ulema - "religious scholars" -- the learned of Islam. Those who possess the quality of 'ilm, "learning", in its widest sense. From the 'ulama', who were versed theoretically and practically in the Muslim sciences, come the religious teachers of the Islamic community -- theologians, canon lawyers (muftis), judges (qadis), professors -- and high state religious officials like the shaykh al-Islam. In a narrower sense, 'ulama' may refer to a council of learned men holding government appointments in a Muslim state.
Historically, the 'ulama' have been a powerful class, and in early Islam it was their consensus (ijma') on theological and juridical problems that determined the communal practices of future generations. Their authority over the community was so pervasive that Muslim governments always attempted to secure their support; in the Ottoman and Mughal empires they sometimes decisively influenced important policies. Although there is no priesthood in Islam, and every believer may perform priestly functions such as leading the liturgical prayer, the 'ulama' have played a clerical role in Islamic society.
In modern times, the 'ulama' have gradually lost ground to the new Western-educated classes. Although they have been abolished in Turkey, their hold on the conservative masses in the rest of the Muslim world remains firm.
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ulum al-aqliyyah - "philosophical sciences"
ulum al-din - "religious sciences"
umma - "the Muslim community"
vizier - "a high ranking political advisor or minister". The Abbasid caliphs gave the title vizier to a minister who was the official scribe or secretary for the caliph.
wad' - "position"
wahy - "revelation"
wird - "litany"
wujud - "existence" or "being"
Zindiq - "unbeliever"
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