4.Sawm: Fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. It usually lasts thirty days and it can be broken only if certain conditions are met. It is said the Quran’s revelations began in the last ten days of this month.
5.Hajj: A mandated, highly ritualized religious journey to Mecca, once in a lifetime and incumbent on all Muslims, if they are willing and able and meet certain other requirements. It is said that Muhammad only did one Hajj in his lifetime and the Quran mentions it about twenty times in different verses.
Grand mufti: Used differently in different nations. In most Sunni countries, the term is used for the highest official arbiter of Islamic law (even if there is no sharia in the country). In sharia nations like Saudi Arabia, the grand mufti assumes great stature, becoming the foremost religious and legal authority. Unlike Catholicism, Islam has no pope-like figure to unite under.
Hadith: Used to describe the actions, habits, traditions, and sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. Compilations of hadith, with the Quran, are the primary canon of Islam. It is of note that the hadith compilations in books such as Sahih Bukhari are enormously larger than the Quran itself. Within Islamic jurisprudence, and to this very day, the veracity of scores of hadith remains contested.
Hafiz: A hafiz (hafiza for women) is someone who has memorized the Quran. The person is treated with great respect and the word is deliberately chosen because it can mean “the guardian.” It is said they are the carriers of the holy book, should there ever come a time of Islam’s destruction. Memorizing the Quran is a hard task because it has 114 chapters containing 6,236 verses (about 80,000 Arabic words), and to do so requires Quranic study at a very early age with the rules of recitation (tajwid). Since so much of the Quran relies on recitation, a hafiz is a title so respectable that it is used as a prefix to a name. Interestingly, the deceased Saudi King Abdullah used the term to label his 2011 signature unemployment program.
Hai’a: Used for the Saudi-created “The General Presidency of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vices,” a government agency set up to police morality (usually cruelly). This agency employs the notorious and feared religious police called the mutaween (singular, mutawa), who are the ground enforcers of sharia law. There are about 4,000 of these barely literate men who can usually be identified because they wear their ghutrah (the Arabian peninsula–style headscarf) without an egal, the black cord that is usually used to keep the ghutrah in place. They often harass women for attire transgressions, enforce gender segregation, force shopowners to down their shutters at prayer times, or arbitrate actions they deem un-Islamic. The mutaween, set up in the eighties by King Fahd, behaved like state-sanctioned bullies with fearsome powers they abused. In 2016, they were stripped of most of their powers.
Hajj: The enormously desired annual pilgrimage to Mecca, which is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. All Muslims, if financially and physically capable (and meet a few other requirements) are mandated to make this pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime. Usually it lasts five days, beginning on the eighth and ending on the twelfth of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah. It is considered the largest gathering of humanity on the planet with a singular religious objective. It is highly ritualized. Many Muslims choose to use Hajji as an honorary prefix to their names upon successful completion of the pilgrimage, which is considered a big accomplishment.
Halal: Literally, “permissible.” In Islamic theology, halal denotes deeds and objects that are permissible to engage in or use. Like its opposite, haram, this is a principle of significance and has often been disagreed upon by theologians coming from different cultures, geographies, and times. The term is so critical that it even includes food and drinks. Mubah, “Islamically OK,” is another term used for basically the same ends.
Haram: In Arabic, there can be two meanings to haram, depending on the way it is written and pronounced. One is “sacred,” as in the Masjid al-Haram (the Noble Sanctuary), a phrase that is used (amongst others) to identify the holiest mosque in Islam, in Mecca, which contains the Kaaba. In this pronunciation there is no emphasis on the second “a” (or alif, the first letter of the Arab alphabet). This pronunciation creates a sacred zone that cannot be violated. The other meaning of the word haram, with particular emphasis on the second alif, denotes the very highest level of Islamic prohibition. Muslims generally assume that sharia law includes many prohibitions against actions considered haram. Scholars also say that in addition to denoting what is divinely forbidden, the use of this word in this context is one of five commandments of Islam that are used to define what is moral and what isn’t. Different schools of Islamic thought have differed on what acts they consider to be haram enough to merit punishment.
Hijab: A veil used by many Muslim women when in male company that is outside of family and friends. In reality, it is just a hair- and neck-covering scarf-like garment worn by many women by choice for reasons that can include cultural identity, modesty, and piety. There are also instances when it is not worn by choice. In the West, the choice factor is the most prevalent. It is seen by many Muslim scholars as an extension of the Prophet’s command for both men and women to dress modestly. A hijab is not an abaya or a burqa. Its equivalent in South Asia, where the majority of the world’s Muslims live, is called a dupatta. In countries like Egypt, magazines like the bestselling Hijab Fashion have transformed this simple scarf into an object of haute couture.
Hijra: The emigration of Muhammad and his earliest followers, facing persecution, from Mecca to Medina in the year 622. This year assumes great significance because that journey marks the beginning of the lunar Islamic calendar, which is also called the Hijri calendar.
Hira: A cave that sits on the mountain called Jabal al-Nour, about two miles from Mecca. It is the cave where Muhammad received his first Quranic revelation.
Hizbullah: Literally, “the Army of God.” In the West, the group is considered a terrorist organization. But many in the Middle East and Shias everywhere view it as a freedom movement. Born as a result of Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon in 1982, Hizbullah is based in the southernmost part of Beirut, in a vast area called Dahieh. Its influential secretary general is Hassan Nasrallah. Hizbullah is also a political party that has won legitimate seats in the Lebanese Parliament in elections. Worldwide opinion swings from labeling it a terrorist group, to a legitimate resistance movement, to a political party. The EU and UK, for example, differentiate between the group’s militant part and its political-party status, with the latter being affirmed. For the Russians, Hizbullah is a legitimate social and political organization.
Hudood: Literally, “limit” or “restriction,” in both Urdu and Arabic. In 1977, Pakistani dictator Zia-ul-Haq implemented the infamous Hudood Ordinances in his attempts to make the penal code left behind by the British sharia-compliant. Offenses are either hadd (fixed) or tazir (discretionary). Until the 2006 “Protection of Women Act,” rapists could roam free in Pakistan, and sometimes the victims ended up in prison, saying it was they who were guilty of zinna (adultery). The most horrific consequences range from public lashing to amputation of hands, death by stoning, and crucifixion. In modern times, sharia states like Saudi Arabia and Iran routinely enforce these punishments, claiming sharia compliance.
Ihram: Foremost a state of purity of mind and piety of spirit that a pilgrim performing the Hajj (the major pilgrimage) or the Umrah (the lesser pilgrimage) must enter. Like almost all of Islam, there are many rituals before a pilgrim dons the ihram, which for men is two unstitched pieces of white cloth. For women, the clothing is modesty ordained, and they must wear hijab on their heads, though their faces must be exposed. In Mecca, men and women should not even be separated and pray in the same lines. The geographical, cultural, and other diversities and immensity of Hajj, however, mean that both genders do not follow all the rules of attire in the absolutes of rituals Islam prefers.
Ijtihad: Literally, “effort” or “independent reasoning,” during and after Wahhab’s lifetime. The concept is not a novelty.
Early Muslims learned that not all problems had a solution in the Quran, in the hadith (sayings/traditions attributed to Prophet Muhammad), or even ijmāʿ (scholarly consensus). Thus came ijtihad, a principle as old as Islam itself. Many modern American or European scholars speaking on behalf of Islam see it as a quick fix and proof that Islam has “independent reasoning.” Yet violent ideologies like the Wahhabis, and thus their ideological partners in Daesh, claim they favor and still exercise the principle. Post-revolutionary Iran has also embraced it. Ijtihad therefore remains fraught and cannot be seen as a quick bandage for Islamic exegesis. Due to Islam’s pluralism, a unanimity of commandments applicable to 1.7 billion people cannot be assigned easily, not even if it is explicitly from the Quran.
Ikhtilat: The intermixing of men and women. It is the opposite of gender segregation, which most Islamic scholars say is mandated by sharia and should apply to Muslims everywhere. What we take for granted in the West (men and women working together, living together, etc.) is an enormously charged issue in countries that impose sharia, the biggest examples being Saudi Arabia and Iran. It has always been difficult for these regimes to implement gender segregation culturally. The majority population in both countries is below age thirty. Unsurprisingly, in the age of the social web, ikhtilat is increasingly desired by them and cannot be policed on the web. It often trends on Saudi Twitter as a hashtag.
Imam: The leader of a Muslim community, most commonly a “worship leader,” a man who can lead prayer for a congregation and can even have a pastoral role in communities. For Shia Muslims the term is decidedly more sacred.
Iqama: There are not many ways to enter Saudi Arabia. This is one, and it means a work permit/residence visa valid for up to two years. In a country where corruption is endemic, employers have been known to extend iqama indefinitely because of whom they know, thus creating a kind of indentured servitude for the recipients, who cannot leave the country. Some have said it’s akin to a modern-day slavery system.
Jaish-e-Mohammed: The banned Pakistani terrorist organization, whose name literally means “Army of Mohammed.” It is most active in Indian-controlled Kashmir. It is primarily influenced by the teachings of the Deobandi school of Islam. The group also has connections to both al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Even though the United Nations has named Jaish-e-Mohammed a terrorist group, it keeps on springing up with different names and allegedly with support from Pakistan’s primary intelligence agency, ISI.
Jamaat-ud-Daawa: The front for what the Indian and US governments view as a terrorist organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure), which was blamed for the Bombay terror attacks in 2008. It is claimed that Pakistan’s ISI continues to give both Lashkar and Jamaat logistical and perhaps financial support. The Jamaat continues to work as the Lashkar’s “charitable arm.”
Jamarat: A critical ritual of the Hajj, it represents the act of the Prophet Ibrahim when he stoned three pillars representing Shaitan (Satan) and his attempts to distract him from God’s will, that Ismael be slaughtered. The stoning happens thrice, ending with the tenth day of the month of Dhul al-Hijjah. The total number of pebbles to be used, according to most Sunni scholars, is forty-nine. After many stampedes and casualties, the Saudis replaced the walls surrounding the pillars with eighty-five-foot concrete walls. Today it is possible to engage in the stoning ritual from three levels, with the topmost being the most accident-free. However, this remains the most dangerous of all Hajj rituals. It is used as both a noun and a verb.
Jannat: Urdu and Arabic word for paradise.
Jannat al-Baqi: Literally, “Garden of Paradise.” An enormous cemetery of unmarked graves in Medina that borders the second-most-important mosque in Islam, Masjid al-Nabi or the Mosque of the Prophet, where Muhammad, many of his family, and other Islamic ancestors are buried. The cemetery suffered great destruction at the hands of the violent Ikhwan (literally, “brothers,” in this case a Wahhabi religious militia) in 1806 and 1925. All Shias and many Sunnis have denounced the Wahhabi destruction of what is essentially Islamic history. Muslims who die during Hajj are sometimes buried here, which is considered a great honor for the deceased.
Jannat al-Mu’alla: Literally, “Garden of the Mu’alla (judge, follower).” A cemetery in Mecca where the Prophet’s first wife, the older businesswoman called Khadija, his grandfather, and other Islamic ancestors are buried. The graves here met the same fate as those at Medina’s Jannat al-Baqi in 1925.
Jihad: Literally, this Arabic noun means “struggling, persevering, striving.” Some scholars claim its primary motive is proselytizing, a dual religious duty for all Muslims to keep the faith intact and to convert others. Other scholars use the term jihad al-nafs, or “struggle with the self,” presumably toward a better religious self. But there is also its association with an offensive concept: struggle or battle with the “enemies” of Islam. There are scholars who try to simplify it into just two compartments: the greater jihad, which they say is the inner spiritual struggle, and the lesser jihad, which is the struggle with the enemies of Islam. The word really entered global consciousness post-9/11, so much so that now it is seen as an almost English-language word. The concept of jihad remains one of ongoing global debate.
Kaaba: The cube-shaped building that is Islam’s ground zero. It is Islam’s version of something as holy as the Jewish tabernacle. Technically, 1.7 billion Muslims are commanded to perform Islam’s ritualized prayer five times a day in its direction. That direction from anywhere is called the Qibla. A black silk cloth inlaid with (literally) gold verses, called the Kiswa, covers it and is changed annually.
It is said that the original Kaaba was built by the Prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismael twenty-one centuries before Christ. Clearly they would not recognize its current grandeur. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim homes, prayer beads, and prayer rugs have some sort of pictorial representation of the Kaaba, and thus it is a very emotional experience for the millions lucky enough to see it in reality.
Kafir: A nonbeliever (disbeliever, infidel, apostate).
Karbala: A city in central Iraq, which many Shia Muslims regard as their second-holiest city after Mecca. This is because of the 680 battle of Karbala that claimed the life of the revered Imam Husayn, who is buried here in a grand mausoleum. They regard it as his martyrdom and mark his death on the tenth day of the Islamic month of Muharram. This battle and martyrdom are additional proof that Shiism needs to be treated as a distinct religion, one with separate rituals and identity. Husayn was “martyred” at Sunni hands, in Karbala by the despised alleged Caliph, Yazid. Husayn’s martyrdom at Karbala is Shia Islam’s raison d’être.
Mahdi: Literally, “the Guided One.” In Islam’s eschatology, he is the redeemer of the faith to appear on the Day of Judgment. Sunni scholars vary on the duration of his rule: five, seven, ten, or nineteen years. Some schools of Islam says the second coming of Jesus will also happen simultaneously. The mainstream Sunni view holds that the Mahdi has not yet been born. The majority Shia view is that he went into occultation and will return as Muhammad al-Mahdi, their Twelfth Imam. The first Daesh magazine, Dabiq, claimed such end-of-times logic and said the time for the Mahdi to come and the place would be a small town in northern Syria, also called Dabiq. Throughout history many have claimed Mahdi-hood. The Mahdi rhetoric has dangerously been used by terrorist organizations like Daesh and al-Qaeda.
Madrassa: Urdu and Arabic word for school. Some (inaccurately) call them religious schools specific to Muslims.
Majlis al-Shura: Literally, majlis means “a place of sitting” and shura means “consultation.” Therefore, this is an advisory council. It’s a critical concept because such a majlis assumes its members as knowledgeable of the Quran and sharia. This is one of two ways of “electing” a caliph. The council exists in political terms in Egypt, Oman, Qatar, Pakistan, Bahrain, and even Iran (where it is called Majles-e Shura-ye Eslami). This concept is the closest that totalitarian Saudi Arabia comes to some form of legislature. It is said even al-Qaeda had such a
majlis, and so does Daesh.
Marja, Marja-al taqlid: See Ayatollah.
Masjid al-Haram: Literally, “the Sacred Mosque.” Some also say it means “The Noble Sanctuary.” It is the holiest mosque in Islam, special because it contains the Kaaba, the heart of Islam, a structure that is said to predate Islam as we know it. The largest mosque in the world, it can allegedly accommodate 820,000 people, which is still not enough for Hajj numbers. The mosque has been in a constant state of expansion for decades. The reconstruction (destruction, say critics) is assigned to one of the world’s largest contracting firms, the Saudi bin Laden group. Osama bin Laden was one of many sons in this family tree and for a while worked for his family’s project of reconstructing the grand mosque.
There has been much criticism of the bin Laden family because the Ottoman and other historic architectural flourishes that formed a part of its history have been destroyed and replaced with faux gold and marble. It is common knowledge that in the mosque perimeters the bin Ladens, on Saud orders, destroyed the home the Prophet occupied with his first wife, Khadija, and built a row of toilets on top of it. The hills of Safa and Marwah, where the historically critical Hajjar ran to find water to save Ismael (who would lay forth Muhammad’s lineage) have now been turned into air-conditioned marble corridors. When a crane collapsed onto the mosque on September 11, 2015, 111 people died and 394 were injured. It is said that when this set of renovations started by King Abdullah will be completed by King Salman in 2020, the capacity of the mosque will increase to 2 million.
A Sinner in Mecca Page 33