1.
Aqidah
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Aqidah is an Islamic term meaning creed. Many schools of Islamic theology expressing different views on aqidah exist, any religious belief system, or creed, can be considered an example of aqidah. However, this term has taken a significant technical usage in Muslim history and theology and it is a branch of Islamic studies describing the beliefs of Islam. Literally, the word ʿaqīdah is derived from the Semitic root ʿqd, the first creed written as a short answer to the pressing heresies of the time is known as Fiqh Akbar and ascribed to Abu Hanifa. Two well known creeds were the Fiqh Akbar II representative of the Ashari and these creeds were more detailed than those described below. The six articles of faith or belief, derived from the Quran, in Sunni and Shia view, having Iman literally means having belief in Six Articles. However the importance of Iman relies heavily upon reason, Islam explicitly asserts that belief should be maintained in that which can be proven using faculties of perception and conception. Tawhid is the concept of monotheism in Islam, according to Islamic belief, Allah is the proper name of God, and humble submission to his will, divine ordinances and commandments is the pivot of the Muslim faith. He is the only God, creator of the universe, and he is unique and inherently one, all-merciful and omnipotent. The Quran declares the reality of Allah, His inaccessible mystery, His 99 descriptive names expressing a quality characteristic, Iman, in Islamic theology denotes a believers faith in the metaphysical aspects of Islam. Its most simple definition is the belief in the six articles of faith, the Hadith of Gabriel includes the Five Pillars of Islam in answer to the question, O messenger of God, what is Islam. This hadith is called the truly first and most fundamental creed. Salat is the practice of worship in Islam. Its importance for Muslims is indicated by its status as one of the Five Pillars of Islam, people who find it physically difficult can perform Salat in a way suitable for them. To perform valid Salat, Muslims must be in a state of ritual purity, in the terminology of Islamic law, sawm means to abstain from eating, drinking and sexual intercourse from dawn until dusk. The observance of sawm during the month of Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Zakat is the practice of giving by Muslims based on accumulated wealth and is obligatory for all who are able to do so. It is considered to be a responsibility for Muslims to ease economic hardship for others
2.
Tawhid
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Tawhid is the indivisible oneness concept of monotheism in Islam. Tawhid is the religions most fundamental concept and holds that God is One, because of the principle of Tawhid the Islamic belief in God is considered Unitarian. Tawhid constitutes the foremost article of the Muslim profession of faith, the first part of the Shahada is the declaration of belief in the oneness of God. To attribute divinity to an entity, known as shirk, is an unpardonable sin according to the Quran. Muslims believe that the entirety of the Islamic teaching rests on the principle of Tawhid, There is an uncompromising monotheism at the heart of the Islamic beliefs which is seen, from an Islamic standpoint, as distinguishing Islam from other major religions. The Quran asserts the existence of a single and absolute truth that transcends the world, a unique, independent and indivisible being, who is independent of the entire creation. God, according to Islam, is a universal God, rather than a local, tribal, or parochial one—God is an absolute, who integrates all affirmative values and brooks no evil. Islamic intellectual history can be understood as an unfolding of the manner in which successive generations of believers have understood the meaning. Islamic scholars have different approaches toward understanding it, Islamic theology, jurisprudence, philosophy, Sufism, even to some degree the Islamic understanding of natural sciences, all seek to explain at some level the principle of tawhid. The classical definition of tawhid was limited to declaring or preferring belief in one God, in modern Arabic, the verbs wahhada or yuwahhidu mean to unite or bring together something that which wasnt one, which reflects the struggle of monotheism against polytheism. Attribution of divinity to an entity, shirk, is considered a denial of the truth of God. Associating others with God is known as shirk and is the antithesis of Tawhid and it is usually but not always in the form of idolatry and supplicating to others than Allah, or believing that they hold the same attributes as him in an equal or lesser degree. Shirk is divided into two categories, Greater shirk, open and apparent, Lesser shirk, concealed or hidden, Greater Shirk consists of the above-mentioned deeds. A person commits lesser shirk or hidden polytheism when he claims to believe in God but his thoughts and actions do not reflect his belief. There are also forms of Shirk, they must be avoided as well. Within Islam, shirk is a crime, God may forgive any sin if one dies in that state except for committing shirk. Ali states that God is One means that God is away from likeness and numeration, the first step of religion is to accept, understand and realize him as the Lord. The correct form of belief in his unity is to realize that he is so absolutely pure and that is, one should realize that there is no difference between his person and his attributes, and his attributes should not be differentiated or distinguished from his person
3.
Prophets and messengers in Islam
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Belief in Islamic prophets is one of the six articles of the Islamic faith, and specifically mentioned in the Quran. Muslims believe the first prophet was also the first human being, Many of the revelations delivered by the 48 prophets in Judaism and many prophets of Christianity are mentioned as such in the Quran but usually in altered form and with different names. For example, the Jewish Elisha is called Alyasa, Job is Ayyub, Jesus is Isa, the Torah given to Moses is called Tawrat, the Psalms given to David is the Zabur, the Gospel given to Jesus is Injil). Notwithstanding, none of the seven Jewish Prophetesses are mentioned in the Quran as prophets, each came to preach Islam at different times in history and some told of the coming of the final Islamic prophet and messenger of God, who would be named Ahmed commonly known as Muhammad. Each Islamic prophet directed a message to a different group of people, in Arabic and Hebrew, the term nabī means prophet. Forms of this noun occur 75 times in the Quran, the term nubuwwah occurs five times in the Quran. The terms rasūl and mursal denote messenger or apostle and occur more than 300 times, the term for a prophetic message, risālah, appears in the Quran in ten instances. The Syriac form of rasūl Allāh, s̲h̲eliḥeh d-allāhā, occurs frequently in the apocryphal Acts of St. Thomas, the corresponding verb for s̲h̲eliḥeh—s̲h̲alaḥ, occurs in connection with the prophets in the Hebrew Bible. The words prophet and messenger appear several times in the Old Testament, the following table shows these words in different languages, In the Hebrew Bible, the word navi occurs more commonly, and the Hebrew word malakh refers to Angels in Judaism. According to Judaism, Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi were the last prophets, with them, the authentic period of Nevuah died, and nowadays only the Bath Kol exists. In the New Testament, however, the word becomes more frequent. Messenger may refer to Jesus, to his Apostles and to John the Baptist, but the last book of the Old Testament, the Book of Malachi, speaks of a messenger that Christian commentators interpret as a reference to the future prophet John the Baptist. In Muslim belief, every Islamic prophet preached Islam, the beliefs of charity, prayer, pilgrimage, worship of God and fasting are believed to have been taught by every prophet who has ever lived. The Quran itself calls Islam the religion of Abraham and refers to Jacob, the Quran speaks of the Islamic prophets as being the greatest human beings of all time. A prophet, in the Muslim sense of the term, is a person whom God specially chose to teach the faith of Islam, before man was created, God had specifically selected those men whom He would use as prophets. This does not, however, mean that every prophet began to prophesy from his birth, some were called to prophesy late in life, in Muhammads case at the age of 40. Others, such as John the Baptist, were called to prophesy while still at a young age, the Quran verse 4,69 lists various virtuous groups of human beings, among whom prophets occupy the highest rank. Verse 4,69 reads, All who obey Allah and the messenger are in the company of those on whom is the Grace of Allah—of the prophets, the sincere, the witnesses, and we have made the evil ones friends to those without faith
4.
Islamic view of angels
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Belief in Angels is one of the six Articles of Faith in Islam. They are considered heavenly beings without their own will unlike humans who perform tasks of God, the imagination of angels in Islam developed from the Quran and was influenced by other religions like Judaism and expanded by tafsir and the hadith literature. Angels take the role of performing different tasks of God. They are said to be created out of light, unlike humans or jinn, they have no biological needs and therefore no lower desires predicted by the natural world. They may be described as creatures of pure emotion and this is narrated in Sahih Bukhari Volume 4, book 56. Besides the personificated interpretation of angels, they are thought of carrying the laws of nature. Angels are not equal in status and consequently, they are delegated different tasks to perform, jibrail is the archangel responsible for revealing the Quran to Muhammad, verse by verse. Jibrail is the angel who communicates with the prophets and also for coming down with the blessings of Allah during the night of Laylat al-Qadr, mikail, who provides nourishments for bodies and souls. Mikail is often depicted as the archangel of mercy who is responsible for bringing rain, Israfil or Israafiyl, is an archangel in Islam who will blow the trumpet at the end of time. According to the hadith, Israfil is the responsible for signaling the coming of Qiyamah by blowing a horn. Azrael/Azraaiyl/Azrail also known as Malak al-maut, is the angel of death and he is responsible for parting the soul from the body of the deads. The angels of the Seven Heavens, hafaza, Kiraman Katibin, two of whom are charged to every human being, one writes down good deeds and another one writes down evil deeds. They are both described as Raqeebun Ateed in the Quran, muaqqibat who keep people from death until its decreed time and who bring down blessings. Jundullah, those who helped Muhammad in the battlefield Those who draw out the souls of the blessed and those angels who drive the clouds. The Angel of the Mountains Munkar and Nakir, who question the dead in their graves, dardail, who travel in the earth searching out assemblies where people remember Gods name. The angels charged with each existent thing, maintaining order and warding off corruption and their number is known only to God. Ridwan, the keeper of the Paradise, azazil is sometimes considered as an angel, who was the keeper of paradise and leader of an angelic army. He is also the instrument of divine anger, otherwise he is held for a Jinni raised to the angelic realm
5.
Islamic eschatology
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Islamic eschatology is the branch of Islamic scholarship that studies Yawm al-Qiyāmah or Yawm ad-Dīn. This is believed to be the final assessment of humanity by God, consisting of the annihilation of all life, resurrection, the time of the event is not specified, although there are major and minor signs which have been foretold to happen at al-Qiyamah. Many verses of the Quran contain the motif of the impending Last Judgment, surat al-Qiyama has as its main subject the resurrection. The Great Tribulation is also described in the hadith, and commentaries of the such as al-Ghazali, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Majah, Muhammad al-Bukhari. The Day of Judgment is also known as the Day of Reckoning, the hadith describe the end time with more specificity than the Quran, describing the events of al-Qiyamah through twelve major signs. At the time of judgment, terrible corruption and chaos will rule, the Mahdi will be sent and with the help of Jesus, will battle Masih ad-Dajjal. They will triumph, liberating Islam from cruelty, and this will be followed by a time of serenity with people living true to religious values, however, there is no mention of the advent of Mahdi and Isa in one era in any of the hadith. Some Muslim scholars translate the Arabic word Imam as Mahdi to prove the advent of Mahdi, like other Abrahamic religions, Islam also teaches resurrection of the dead, a final tribulation and eternal division of the righteous and wicked. Islamic apocalyptic literature describing Armageddon is often known as fitna, malāḥim, the righteous are rewarded with pleasures of Jannah Paradise, while the unrighteous are punished in Jahannam Hell. The Day of Judgment or Resurrection, al-Qiyāmah, is one of the six articles of faith in Islam. The tribulation associated with it is described in the Quran and hadith, and commentaries of ulama like al-Ghazali, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Majah, Muhammad al-Bukhari, the Day of Judgment is also known as the Day of Reckoning, the Hour, and the Last Day. The Day of Judgment or Resurrection, al-Qiyāmah, relates to one of the six articles in Sunni Islam and seven articles in Shia Islam. There are two sources in Islamic scripture that discuss the Last Judgment, the Quran, which is viewed in Islam as infallible. Hadith are viewed with more flexibility due to the compilation of the traditions in written form. The concept has also discussed in commentaries of ulama such as al-Ghazali, Ibn Kathir. The Quran describes the Last Judgment with a number of interpretations of its verses, there are specific aspects, The time is known only to God. Those who have been dead will believe that a time has passed between birth and death. God will resurrect all, even if they have turned to stone or iron and those that have accepted false deities will suffer in the afterlife
6.
Five Pillars of Islam
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The Five Pillars of Islam are five basic acts in Islam, considered mandatory by believers and are the foundation of Muslim life. They are summarized in the hadith of Gabriel. The Shia and Sunni both agree on the details for the performance and practice of these acts, but the Shia do not refer to them by the same name. They make up Muslim life, prayer, concern for the needy, self-purification, shahada is a declaration of faith and trust that professes that there is only one God and that Muhammad is Gods messenger. It is a set statement normally recited in Arabic, lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu muḥammadun rasūlu-llāh There is no god but God Muhammad is the messenger of God and it is essential to utter it to become a Muslim and to convert to Islam. Salat consists of five daily prayers according to the Sunna, the names are according to the times, Fajr, Dhuhr, ʿAṣr, Maghrib. All of these prayers are recited while facing in the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca, Muslims must wash before prayer, this washing is called wudu. The prayer is accompanied by a series of set positions including, bowing with hands on knees, a Muslim may perform their prayer anywhere, such as in offices, universities, and fields. However, the mosque is the more preferable place for prayers because the mosque allows for fellowship, Zakāt or alms-giving is the practice of charitable giving based on accumulated wealth. The word zakāt can be defined as purification and growth because it allows an individual to achieve balance, the principle of knowing that all things belong to God is essential to purification and growth. Zakāt is obligatory for all Muslims who are able to do so and it is the personal responsibility of each Muslim to ease the economic hardship of others and to strive towards eliminating inequality. Zakāt consists of spending a portion of wealth for the benefit of the poor or needy. A Muslim may also donate more as an act of voluntary charity, There are five principles that should be followed when giving the zakāt, The giver must declare to God his intention to give the zakāt. The zakāt must be paid on the day that it is due, after the offering, the payer must not exaggerate on spending his money more than usual means. This means if one is then he or she needs to pay a portion of their income. If a person does not have money, then they should compensate for it in different ways, such as good deeds. The zakāt must be distributed in the community from which it was taken, three types of fasting are recognized by the Quran, Ritual fasting, fasting as compensation for repentance, and ascetic fasting. Ritual fasting is an act during the month of Ramadan
7.
Shahada
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The Shahada, is an Islamic creed declaring belief in the oneness of God and the acceptance of Muhammad as Gods prophet. The declaration, in its shortest form, reads, لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāh, muḥammadur-rasūlu-llāh There is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God. Audio audio The noun šahāda, from the verbal root šahida meaning to observe, witness, testify, the Islamic creed is also called, in the dual form, šahādatān. The expression al-šahāda is used in Quran as one of the titles of God, in Sunni Islam, the shahada has two parts, la ilaha illallah, and Muhammadun rasul Allah, which are sometimes referred to as the first shahada and the second shahada. The first statement of the shahada is also known as the tahlīl, in the Quran, the first shahadah takes the form la ilaha illallah twice, and allahu la ilaha illa hu much more often. It appears in the form la ilaha illa Hu in many places. It appears in these forms about 30 times in the Quran, islams monotheistic nature is reflected in the first shahada, which declares belief in the oneness of God and that he is the only entity truly worthy of worship. The second shahada indicates the means by which God has offered guidance to human beings, the verse reminds Muslims that they accept not only the prophecy of Muhammad but also the long line of prophets who preceded him. While the first part is seen as a truth, the second is specific to Islam. Shahada is a statement of both ritual and worship, recitation of the shahādah is the most common statement of faith for Muslims. In Sunni Islam, it is counted as the first of the Five Pillars of Islam, while the Shii Twelvers and it is whispered by the father into the ear of a newborn child, and it is whispered into the ear of a dying person. The five canonical daily prayers include a recitation of the shahada. Recitation of the shahada in front of witnesses is also the first and this occasion often attracts more than the two required witnesses and sometimes includes a party-like celebration to welcome the convert into their new faith. In accordance with the importance played by the notion of intention in Islamic doctrine. Intention is what acts of devotion from mundane acts and a simple reading of the shahada from invoking it as a ritual activity. Though the two phrases of the shahada are both present in the Quran, they are not found there side by side as in the shahada formula. An inscription in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem reads There is no god but God alone, He has no partner with him, Muhammad is the messenger of God. Another variant appears in coins minted after the reign of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, although it is not clear when the shahada first came into common use among Muslims, it is clear that the sentiments it expresses were part of the Quran and Islamic doctrine from the earliest period
8.
Salah
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Salah, called namāz in some languages, is one of the Five Pillars in the faith of Islam and an obligatory religious duty for every Muslim. It is a physical, mental, and spiritual act of worship that is observed five times every day at prescribed times, in this ritual, the worshiper starts standing, bows, prostrates themself, and concludes while sitting on the ground. During each posture, the worshiper recites or reads certain verses, phrases, the word salah is commonly translated as prayer but this definition might be confusing. Muslims use the words dua or supplication when referring to the definition of prayers which is reverent petitions made to God. Salah is preceded by ritual ablution, Salah consists of the repetition of a unit called a rakʿah consisting of prescribed actions and words. The number of obligatory rakaʿāt varies from two to four according to the time of day or other circumstances, prayer is obligatory for all Muslims except those who are prepubescent, are menstruating, or are experiencing bleeding in the 40 days after childbirth. Every movement in the salat is accompanied by the takbir except the standing between the ruku and sujud, and the ending which has a derivation of the Muslim greeting As-salamu alaykum, Salah is an Arabic word whose basic meaning is bowing, homage, worship, prayer. In its English usage, the reference of the word is almost always confined to the Muslim formal, Muslims themselves use several terms to refer to salah depending on their language or culture. In many parts of the world, including many non-Arab countries such as Indonesia, the other major term is the Persian word namāz, used by speakers of the Indo-Iranian languages, as well as Turkish, Russian, Chinese, Bosnian and Albanian. In North Caucasian languages, the term is lamaz in Chechen and this is a book, there is no doubt in it, a guidance for righteous. Those who believe in unseen and offer Salah and spend from what we have given to them, and those who believe in what We have revealed to thee and what We revealed before thee, and on hereafter they believe. They are on guidance from their lord and they are successful, and offer Salah and pay Zakah and bow along those who bow. Guard your Salah and middle Salah, and stand before God devoutly obedient, then if you fear on foot or riding, then when you become secure remember God as he has taught you that which you did not know previously. And offer Salah at the two ends of day and at the approach of night, indeed good deeds remove bad deeds, offer Salah at the decline of the day until the darkness of night, and Quran at dawn, indeed Quran at dawn ever is a witness. And at night pray Tahajjud an extra for thee, it is expected that your lord raise you to praised station. ) Say call God or call Merciful, by whomever you call, He has good names, and offer Salah and pay Zakah and obey Messenger so that you may receive mercy. And recite that is revealed to you as a book and offer Salah, indeed Salah prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and remembrance of God is great, ) The chief purpose of salah is to act as a persons communication with and remembrance of God. By reciting The Opening, the first sura of the Quran, as required in daily worship, the worshiper can stand before God, thank and praise Him, under the Hanbali School of thought, a person who doesnt pray five times a day is an unbeliever
9.
Fasting in Islam
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Fasting in Islam, known as Sawm or siyam صيام, the Arabic words for fasting, is abstaining from eating and drinking. In the terminology of Islamic law, sawm means to abstain from eating and drinking during daylight hours, the observance of sawm during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, but is not confined to that month. Sawm is a cognate to Syriac, ܨܘܡܐ ṣawmā. Literally, it means to abstain, cognates to Hebrew tsom, fasting is not unique to the Muslims. It has been practiced for centuries in connection with religious ceremonies by Christians, Jews, Confucianists, Hindus, Taoists, for example, the Muslims of Central Asia, Afghanistan, India, Iran, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey use the words roza/rozha/roja/oruç, which comes from Farsi. While the Malay community in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore call it puasa, Muslims are prohibited from eating, drinking and engaging in conjugal sexual relationships from dawn to sunset. Fasting helps Muslims develop self-control, gain an understanding of God’s gifts. Fasting in Islam involves abstaining from all bodily pleasures between dawn and sunset, not only is food forbidden, but also any sexual activity. All things which are regarded as prohibited is even more so in this month, each and every moment during the fast, a person suppresses their passions and desires in loving obedience to God. This consciousness of duty and the spirit of patience helps in strengthening ones faith, fasting helps a person gain self-control. A person who abstains from permissible things like food and drink is likely to feel conscious of his sins, a heightened sense of spirituality helps break the habits of lying, staring with lust at the opposite sex, gossiping, and wasting time. Fasting is also viewed as a means of controlling ones desires, Sawm also carries a significant spiritual meaning. It teaches one the principle of God Consciousness, because when one observes fasting, it is out of deep love for God. Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, the month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the Criterion. And whosoever of you is present, let him fast the month, and whosoever of you is sick or on a journey, number of other days. God desireth for you ease, he desireth not hardship for you, and that ye should complete the period, and that ye should magnify God for having guided you, the intention means resolving to fast. It is essential to have the intention the night before, night by night, throughout the duration of the fast itself, Muslims will abstain from certain provisions that the Quran has otherwise allowed, namely eating, drinking and sexual intercourse. This is in addition to the standard obligation already observed by Muslims of avoiding that which is not permissible under Quranic or sharia law, without observing this standard obligation, sawm is rendered useless and is seen simply as an act of starvation
10.
Hajj
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It is one of the five pillars of Islam, alongside Shahadah, Salat, Zakat, and Sawm. The Hajj is the largest annual gathering of people in the world, the state of being physically and financially capable of performing the Hajj is called istitaah, and a Muslim who fulfills this condition is called a mustati. The Hajj is a demonstration of the solidarity of the Muslim people, the word Hajj means to intend a journey, which connotes both the outward act of a journey and the inward act of intentions. The pilgrimage occurs from the 8th to 12th of Dhu al-Hijjah, because the Islamic calendar is lunar and the Islamic year is about eleven days shorter than the Gregorian year, the Gregorian date of Hajj changes from year to year. Ihram is the given to the special spiritual state in which pilgrims wear two white sheets of seamless cloth and abstain from certain actions. The pilgrims then shave their heads, perform a ritual of animal sacrifice, Pilgrims can also go to Mecca to perform the rituals at other times of the year. This is sometimes called the lesser pilgrimage, or Umrah, the present pattern of Hajj was established by Muhammad. However, according to the Quran, elements of Hajj trace back to the time of Abraham, according to Islamic tradition, Abraham was ordered by God to leave his wife Hagar and his son Ishmael alone in the desert of ancient Mecca. In search of water, Hagar desperately ran seven times between the two hills of Safa and Marwah but found none, returning in despair to Ishmael, she saw the baby scratching the ground with his leg and a water fountain sprang forth underneath his foot. Later, Abraham was commanded to build the Kaaba and to people to perform pilgrimage there. The Quran refers to incidents in verses 2, 124-127 and 22. It is said that the archangel Gabriel brought the Black Stone from Heaven to be attached to the Kaaba, in pre-Islamic Arabia, a time known as jahiliyyah, the Kaaba became surrounded by pagan idols. In 630 CE, Muhammad led his followers from Medina to Mecca, cleansed the Kaaba by destroying all the pagan idols, in 632 CE, Muhammad performed his only and last pilgrimage with a large number of followers, and instructed them on the rites of Hajj. It was from this point that Hajj became one of the five pillars of Islam. During the medieval times, pilgrims would gather in big cities of Syria, Egypt and this was done in order to protect the caravan from Bedouin robbers or natural hazards, and to ensure that the pilgrims were supplied with the necessary provisions. Muslim travelers like Ibn Jubayr and Ibn Battuta have recorded detailed accounts of Hajj-travels of medieval time, the caravans followed well-established routes called in Arabic darb al-hajj, lit. Pilgrimage road, which usually followed ancient routes such as the Kings Highway, the date of Hajj is determined by the Islamic calendar, which is based on the lunar year. Every year, the events of Hajj take place in a period, starting on 8 and ending on 12 Dhu al-Hijjah
11.
Rashidun
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The concept of Rightly Guided Caliphs originated with the later Abbasid Caliphate based in Baghdad. It is a reference to the Sunni imperative Hold firmly to my example, the first four Caliphs who ruled after the death of Muhammad are often described as the Khulafāʾ Rāshidūn. The Rashidun were either elected by a council or chosen based on the wishes of their predecessor, in the order of succession, the Rāshidūn were, Abu Bakr. ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, – Umar is often spelled Omar in some Western scholarship, ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan – Uthman is often spelled Othman in some non-Arabic scholarship. ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib – During this period however, Mu‘awiyah I controlled the Levantine, in addition to this, there are several views regarding additional rashidun. Al-Hasan, the eldest grandson of Muhammad, briefly succeeded ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib as caliph in 661 CE, Al-Hasan abdicated his right to the caliphate in favour of Mu‘awiyah I in order to end the potential for ruinous civil war. ‘Umar ibn ‘Abdul-‘Aziz, who was one of the Umayyad caliphs, has often been regarded by Sunni historians as one of the Rashidun, more rarely, the Ottoman caliph Fatih Sultan Mehmed is also sometimes regarded to be among the rightly guided caliphs. In the Ibadi tradition however, only the first two caliphs, Abu Bakr and ‘Umar are considered to be the Two Rightly Guided Caliphs, ibn Hajar al-Asqalani also includes the Abbasid caliphs, including Harun al-Rashid, in his enumeration. Abu Bakr was a companion and the father-in-law of Muhammad. He ruled over the Rashidun Caliphate from 632-634 CE when he became the first Muslim Caliph following Muhammads death, Abu Bakr was called Al-Siddiq and was known by that title among later generations of Muslims. ‘Umar c.2 Nov. was a companion and adviser to Muhammad. He succeeded Abu Bakr on 23 August 634 as the second caliph, under Umar the Islamic empire expanded at an unprecedented rate ruling the whole Sassanid Persian Empire and more than two thirds of the Eastern Roman Empire. Among his conquests are Jerusalem, Damascus, and Egypt and he was killed by a Persian captive. Uthman ibn Affan was one of the companions of Muhammad, ‘Uthman was born into the Umayyad clan of Mecca, a powerful family of the Quraysh tribe. He became caliph at the age of 70, under his leadership, the empire expanded into Fars in 650 and some areas of Khorasan in 651, and the conquest of Armenia was begun in the 640s. His rule ended when he was assassinated, the committee members were also reciters of the Quran and had memorised the entire text during the lifetime of Muhammad. This work was due to the vast expansion of Islam under Uthmans rule. This had led to variant readings of the Qur’an for those converts who were not familiar with the language, after clarifying any possible errors in pronunciation or dialects, ‘Uthman sent copies of the sacred text to each of the Muslim cities and garrison towns, and destroyed variant texts
12.
Abu Bakr
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Abū Bakr ‘Abdallāh bin Abī Quḥāfah aṣ-Ṣiddīq popularly known as Abu Bakr, was a senior companion and—through his daughter Aisha—the father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Abu Bakr became the first openly declared Muslim outside Muhammads family, Abu Bakr served as a trusted advisor to Muhammad. During Muhammads lifetime, he was involved in campaigns and treaties. He ruled over the Rashidun Caliphate from 632 to 634 CE when he became the first Muslim Caliph following Muhammads death, as caliph, Abu Bakr succeeded to the political and administrative functions previously exercised by Muhammad. He was commonly known as The Truthful, Abu Bakrs reign lasted for 2 years,2 months and 14 days ending with his death after an illness. Abu Bakrs full name was Abd Allah ibn Uthman ibn Aamir ibn Amr ibn Kaab ibn Saad ibn Taym ibn Murrah ibn Kaab ibn Luai ibn Ghalib ibn Fihr al-Quraishi, the lineage of Abu Bakr joined that of Muhammad in the eighth degree in their common ancestor Murrah ibn Kab. The patrilineal lineage of Abu Bakr was, Abu Bakr, the son of Uthman Abu Quhafa, the son of Amar, the son of Umru, the son of Kaab, the son of Saad, the son of Taym, the son of Murrah. In Arabic, the name Abd Allah means servant of Allah, one of his early titles, preceding his conversion to Islam, was atiqe, the saved one. Muhammad later reaffirmed this title when he said that Abu Bakr is the atiqe and he was called Al-Siddiq by Muhammad after he believed him in the event of Isra and Miraj when other people didnt, and Ali confirmed that title several times. There is a dispute over his name being Abdullah,4, p.146 and many other narrations, narrates from Qasim Ibn Muhammad Ibn Abi Bakr, I asked Ayesha the name of Abu Bakr. I said people are saying Ateeq and she said Abu Quhafa had three children, one was Ateeq, second Mu’taq and third, Otaiq. All three names are similar and derived from the same root, Imam Jafar al Sadiq famously narrated how the title Siddiq was given to Abu Bakr from Muhammad. Jafar was a descendant of Abu Bakr from his maternal side. Jafar al-Sadiq was also the successor of the Naqshbandi Sufi order believed to be originating from Abu Bakr himself, Imam Muhammad al Baqir, the father of Imam Jafar Sadiq, also called Abu Bakr with the title Siddiq. Much of the knowledge about Muhammad comes through Abu Bakrs daughter. After the death of Abu Bakr, her brother Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr was raised by Ali, after Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr was killed by the Umayyads, Aisha raised and taught her nephew al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr. Aisha also taught another nephew Urwah ibn Zubayr and he then taught his son Hisham ibn Urwah, who was the main teacher of Malik ibn Anas whose views many Sunni follow. Qasims mother was of ‘Alis family and his daughter Farwah bint al-Qasim, therefore al-Qasim was the grandson of the first caliph Abu Bakr and the grandfather of Jafar al-Sadiq
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Umar
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Umar, also spelled Omar, was one of the most powerful and influential Muslim caliphs in history. He was a senior Sahabi of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and he succeeded Abu Bakr as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate on 23 August 634. He was an expert Islamic jurist known for his pious and just nature and he is sometimes referred to as Umar I by historians of Islam, since a later Umayyad caliph, Umar II, also bore that name. Under Umar, the caliphate expanded at a rate, ruling the Sasanian Empire and more than two-thirds of the Byzantine Empire. His attacks against the Sasanian Empire resulted in the conquest of Persia in less than two years, according to Jewish tradition, Umar set aside the Christian ban on Jews and allowed them into Jerusalem and to worship. Umar is revered in the Sunni tradition as a ruler and paragon of Islamic virtues. He is viewed adversely in Shia Islam, Umar was born in Mecca to the Banu Adi clan, which was responsible for arbitration among the tribes. His father was Khattab ibn Nufayl and his mother was Hantama bint Hisham and he is said to have belonged to a middle-class family. In his youth he used to tend to his fathers camels in the plains near Mecca and his merchant father was famed for his intelligence among his tribe. Umar himself said, My father, Al-Khattab was a ruthless man and he used to make me work hard, if I didnt work he used to beat me and he used to work me to exhaustion. Despite literacy being uncommon in pre-Islamic Arabia, Umar learned to read, though not a poet himself, he developed a love for poetry and literature. According to the tradition of Quraish, while still in his years, Umar learned martial arts. He was tall, physically powerful and a renowned wrestler and he was also a gifted orator who succeeded his father as an arbitrator among the tribes. Umar became a merchant and made journeys to Rome and Persia. As a merchant he was unsuccessful, like others around him, Umar was fond of drinking in his pre-Islamic days. In 610 Muhammad started preaching the message of Islam, like many others in Mecca, Umar opposed Islam and he even threatened to kill Muhammad. He resolved to defend the traditional religion of Arabia. He was adamant and cruel in opposing Muhammad and very prominent in persecuting Muslims and he firmly believed in the unity of the Quraish and saw the new faith of Islam as a cause of division and discord
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Uthman
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Uthman ibn Affan, also known in English by the Turkish and Persian rendering, Osman, was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the third of the Rashidun, or Rightly Guided Caliphs. Born into a prominent Meccan clan of the Quraysh tribe, he played a role in early Islamic history. Uthman was married to Ruqayyah, and then upon her death to Umm Kulthum, under the leadership of Uthman, the empire expanded into Farsi in 650, and some areas of Khorasan in 651. The empires conquest of Armenia began by the 640s, seven years after Muhammad, Uthman was born in Taif to the wealthy Umayyad clan of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca. Uthmans father, Affan, died young while travelling abroad but left Uthman a large inheritance, Uthman became a merchant, like his father. His business flourished, making him one of the richest men among the Qurayshi tribe and his mother was Arwa, daughter of Um Hakim bint Abdul Mutalib, the twin sister of Abdullah, father of Muhammad, making Uthman Muhammads first cousin. On returning from a trip to Syria in 611, Uthman found out that Muhammad had declared his mission. After a discussion with his friend Abu Bakr, Uthman decided to convert to Islam, Uthman thus became one of the earliest converts to Islam, following Ali, Zayd, Abu Bakr and a few others. His conversion to Islam angered his clan, the Banu Ummayyah, Uthman and his wife Ruqayya migrated to Abyssinia in 614–15, along with 11 men and 11 women, all Muslims. As Uthman already had business contacts in Abyssinia, he continued to practice his profession as a trader. After two years, the news had spread among the Muslims in Abyssinia that the Quraysh of Mecca had accepted Islam, however, when they reached Mecca, they found that the news about the Qurayshs acceptance of Islam was false. Some of the Muslims who had come from Abyssinia returned, but Uthman, in Mecca, Uthman had to start his business afresh, but the contacts that he had already established in Abyssinia worked in his favour and his business prospered once again. In 622 Uthman and his wife, Ruqayya, migrated to Medina and they were amongst the third batch of Muslims who migrated to Medina. On arrival in Medina, Uthman stayed with Abu Talha ibn Thabit, after a short while, Uthman purchased a house of his own and moved there. In Medina, the Muslims were generally farmers and were not very interested in trade, thus, there was considerable space for the Muslims in promoting trade. Uthman took advantage of position, soon establishing himself as a trader in Medina. He worked hard and honestly, and his business flourished, soon becoming one of the richest men in Medina, when Ali married Fatimah, Uthman bought Alis armor for five hundred dirhams. Four hundred was set aside as mahr for Fatimahs marriage, leaving a hundred for all other expenses, later Uthman presented the armor back to Ali as a wedding present
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Ali
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‘Ali ibn Abi Talib was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic Nabi Muhammad, ruling over the Caliphate from 656 to 661 ACE, and was Imam of Shi‘ite from 632 to 661 ACE. ‘Ali was the first young male who accepted Islam, after migrating to Medina, he married Muhammads daughter Fatimah. Ali took part in the early caravan raids from Mecca and later in almost all the battles fought by the nascent Muslim community and he was appointed caliph by Muhammads Companions in 656, after Caliph Uthman ibn Affan was assassinated. ‘Alis reign saw wars and in 661, he was attacked and assassinated by a Kharijite while praying in the Great Mosque of Kufa. ‘Ali is important to various Sunni and Shi‘ite denominations politically, legislatively and spiritually, while Sunnis consider Ali the fourth and final of the Rashidun caliphs, Shi‘ites regard ‘Ali as the first Imam after Muhammad due to their interpretation of the events at Ghadir Khumm. Shias also believe that ‘Ali and the other Shi‘ite Imams are the successors to Muhammad. This disagreement split the Ummah into the Sunni and Shia branches, ‘Alis father, Abu Talib, was the custodian of the Kabah and a sheikh of the Banu Hashim, an important branch of the powerful Quraysh tribe. He was also an uncle of Muhammad, Alis mother, Fatima bint Asad, also belonged to Banu Hashim, making Ali a descendant of Ismail, the son of Ibrahim. Many sources, especially Shii ones, attest that Ali was born inside the Kaaba in the city of Mecca, according to a tradition, Muhammad was the first person whom Ali saw as he took the newborn in his hands. Muhammad named him Ali, meaning the exalted one, Muhammad had a close relationship with Alis parents. When Muhammad was orphaned and later lost his grandfather Abdul Muttalib, Ali was born two or three years after Muhammad married Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. When Ali was five or six years old, a famine occurred in and around Mecca, affecting the economic conditions of Alis father, Muhammad took Ali into his home to raise him. The second period of life began in 610 when he declared Islam at the age of 10. When Muhammad reported that he had received a revelation, Ali, then only about ten years old, believed him. According to Ibn Ishaq and some authorities, Ali was the first male to embrace Islam. Tabari adds other traditions making the claim of being the first Muslim in relation to Zayd ibn Harithah or Abu Bakr. Some historians and scholars believe Alis conversion is not worthy enough to him the first male Muslim because he was a child at the time. Hence the Shia say of Ali that his face is honoured, the Sunnis also use the honorific Karam Allahu Wajhahu, which means Gods Favour upon his Face
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Fiqh
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Figuratively, fiqh means, knowledge about Islamic legal rulings from their sources. He must look deep down into a matter and not suffice himself with just the apparent meaning, a person who only knows the appearance of a matter is not a faqīh. Conceptually, the attempt to understand divine law. Whereas shariah is immutable and infallible, fiqh is fallible and changeable, fiqh is distinguished from usul al-fiqh, the methods of legal interpretation and analysis. Fiqh is the product of application of usul al-fiqh, the product of human efforts at understanding the divine will. A hukm is a ruling in a given case. Fiqh deals with the observance of rituals, morals and social legislation in Islam, in the modern era, there are four prominent schools of fiqh within Sunni practice, plus two within Shia practice. A person trained in fiqh is known as a Faqih, the word fiqh is an Arabic term meaning deep understanding or full comprehension. Technically it refers to the body of Islamic law extracted from detailed Islamic sources and this definition is consistent amongst the jurists. In Modern Standard Arabic, fiqh has come to mean jurisprudence in general and it is separated in Sunni, shia and others. Qiyas, i. e. analogy which is deployed if Ijma or historic collective reasoning on the issue is not available. For example, the Quran states one needs to engage in prayers and fast during the month of Ramadan. Details about these issues can be found in the traditions of Muhammad, so Quran, some topics are without precedent in Islams early period. In those cases, Muslim jurists try to arrive at conclusions by other means, Sunni jurists use historical consensus of the community, a majority in the modern era also use analogy and weigh the harms and benefits of new topics, and a plurality utilizes juristic preference. The conclusions arrived at with the aid of additional tools constitute a wider array of laws than the Sharia consists of. Thus, in contrast to the sharia, fiqh is not regarded as sacred and this division of interpretation in more detailed issues has resulted in different schools of thought. This wider concept of Islamic jurisprudence is the source of a range of laws in different topics that guide Muslims in everyday life, Islamic jurisprudence covers two main areas, Rules in relation to actions, and, Rules in relation to circumstances surrounding actions. The Sunni schools are Hanafi Maliki Shafii Hanbali see Wahhabism Zahiri Qurtubi No longer exists Laythi No longer exists, the schools of Shia Islam comprise, Jafari Zaydi Entirely separate from both the Sunni and Shia traditions, Khawarij Islam has evolved its own distinct school
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Hanafi
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The Hanafi school is one of the four religious Sunni Islamic schools of jurisprudence. It is named after the scholar Abū Ḥanīfa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit, the other major schools of Sharia in Sunni Islam are Maliki, Shafii and Hanbali. Hanafi is the fiqh with the largest number of followers among Sunni Muslims and it is predominant in the countries that were once part of the historic Ottoman Empire, Mughal Empire and Sultanates of Turkic rulers in the Indian subcontinent, northwest China and Central Asia. Thus, the Hanafi school came to be known as the Kufan or Iraqi school in earlier times. Ali and Abdullah, son of Masud formed much of the base of the school, as well as other such as Muhammad al-Baqir, Jafar al-Sadiq. Many jurists and historians had lived in Kufa including one of Abu Hanifas main teachers, in the early history of Islam, Hanafi doctrine was not fully compiled. The fiqh was fully compiled and documented in the 11th century, the Abbasids patronized the Hanafi school from the 10th century onwards. The Seljuk Turkish dynasties of 11th and 12th centuries, followed by Ottomans adopted Hanafi fiqh, the Turkic expansion spread Hanafi fiqh through Central Asia and into South Asia, with the establishment of Seljuk Empire, Timurid dynasty, Khanates and Delhi Sultanate. Nurit Tsafrir, The History of an Islamic School of Law, the Second Formation of Islamic Law, The Ḥanafī School in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire
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Maliki
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The Mālikī madhhab is one of the four major schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas in the 8th century, the Maliki school of jurisprudence relies on the Quran and hadiths as primary sources. Unlike other Islamic fiqhs, Maliki fiqh also considers the consensus of the people of Medina to be a source of Islamic law. The Maliki madhhab is one of the largest group of Sunni Muslims, comparable to the Shafii madhhab in adherents, but smaller than the Hanafi madhhab. Sharia based on Maliki doctrine is found in North Africa, West Africa, Chad, Sudan, Kuwait, Bahrain, the Emirate of Dubai. In the medieval era, the Maliki school was found in parts of Europe under Islamic rule, particularly Islamic Spain. A major historical center of Maliki teaching, from the 9th to 11th centuries, was in the Mosque of Uqba of Tunisia and it was eventually the Hanafi school, however, that earned official government favor from the Abbasids. The Malikis enjoyed considerably more success in Africa, and for a while in Spain and this dominance in Spanish Andalus from the Umayyads up to the Almoravids continued, with Islamic law in the region dominated by the opinions of Malik and his students. The Sunnah and Hadith, or prophetic tradition in Islam, played roles as Maliki jurists viewed both with suspicion, and few were well versed in either. The Almoravids eventually gave way to the predominantly-Zahiri Almohads, at which point Malikis were tolerated at times, with the Reconquista, the Iberian Peninsula was lost to the Muslims in totality. Although Al-Andalus was eventually lost, the Maliki has been able to retain its dominance throughout North, additionally, the school has traditionally been the preferred school in the small Arab States of the Persian Gulf. While the majority of Saudi Arabia follows Hanbali laws, the countrys Eastern Province has been known as a Maliki stronghold for centuries, the Mālikī school primarily derives from the work of Malik ibn Anas, particularly the Muwatta Imam Malik, also known as Al-Muwatta. The Muwaṭṭa relies on Sahih Hadiths, includes Malik ibn Anas commentary, Mālik included the practices of the people of Medina and where the practices are in compliance with or in variance with the hadiths reported. This is because Mālik regarded the practices of Medina to be a proof of the living sunnah than isolated, although sound. Mālik was particularly scrupulous about authenticating his sources when he did appeal to them, however, the second source, the Mudawwanah, is the collaborator work of Māliks longtime student, Ibn Qāsim and his mujtahid student, Sahnun. These two books, i. e. Maliki school is most closely related to the Hanafi school, the Maliki school differs from the other Sunni schools of law most notably in the sources it uses for derivation of rulings. Like all Sunni schools of Sharia, the Maliki school uses the Quran as primary source, followed by the sayings, customs/traditions and practices of Muhammad, transmitted as hadiths. In the Mālikī school, said tradition includes not only what was recorded in hadiths, Malik bin Anas himself also accepted binding consensus and analogical reasoning along with the majority of Sunni jurists, though with conditions
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Shafi`i
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The Shafii madhhab is one of the four schools of Islamic law in Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Arab scholar Al-Shafi‘i, a pupil of Malik, the other three schools of Sunni jurisprudence are Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali. The Shafi school predominantly relies on the Quran and the Hadiths for Sharia, where passages of Quran and Hadiths are ambiguous, the school first seeks religious law guidance from Ijma – the consensus of Sahabah. If there was no consensus, the Shafii school relies on individual opinion of the companions of Muhammad, the Shafii school was, in the early history of Islam, the most followed ideology for Sharia. However, with the Ottoman Empires expansion and patronage, it was replaced with the Hanafi school in many parts of the Muslim world, the Shafii school of thought stipulates authority to five sources of jurisprudence. Although al-Shafiis legal methodology rejected custom or local practice as a source of law. The Shafii school also rejects two sources of Sharia that are accepted in other schools of Islam - Istihsan and Istislah. The Shafii school rejected these two principles stating that these methods rely on subjective human opinions, its potential for corruption and adjustment to political context, the foundational text for the Shafii school is Al-Risala by the founder of the school, Al-Shafii. It outlines the principles of Shafii fiqh as well as the derived jurisprudence, Al-Risala became an influential book to other Sunni Islam fiqhs as well, as the oldest surviving Arabic work on Islamic legal theory. The Shafii madhhab was spread by Al-Shafii students in Cairo, Mecca and it became widely accepted in early history of Islam. The chief representative of the Iraqi school was Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi, whilst in Khorasan and these two branches merged around Ibn al-Salah and his father, before being reviewed and refined by al-Rafii and al-Nawawi. The Shafii jurisprudence was adopted as the law during the Great Seljuq Empire, Zengid dynasty, Ayyubid dynasty and later the Mamluk Sultanate. It was also adopted by the Kathiri state in Hadhramawt and most of rule of the Sharif of Mecca. The Shafii school is presently predominant in the parts of the Muslim world, Africa, Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, eastern Egypt. Shafii school is the second largest school of Sunni madhhabs by number of adherents, however, a UNC publication considers the Maliki school as second largest, and the Hanafi madhhab the largest, with Shafii as third largest. The demographic data by each fiqh, for nation, are unavailable
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Hanbali
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The Hanbali school is one of the four orthodox Sunni Islamic schools of jurisprudence. It is named after the Iraqi scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and was institutionalized by his students, the Hanbali madhhab is the smallest of four major Sunni schools, the others being the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafii. Hanbali school derives Sharia predominantly from the Quran, the Hadiths, Hanbali school is the strict traditionalist school of jurisprudence in Sunni Islam. It is found primarily in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where it is the official fiqh, Hanbali followers are the demographic majority in four emirates of UAE. Large minorities of Hanbali followers are found in Bahrain, Oman and Yemen and within Iraqi. The Hanbali school experienced a reformation in the Wahhabi-Salafist movement, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the founder of Hanbali school, was a disciple of Al-Shafi‘i. Ibn Hanbal advocated return to literal interpretation of Quran and Hadiths, influenced by the debates of his time, he was known for rejecting religious rulings from the consensus of jurists of his time, which he considered to be speculative theology. He associated them with the Mutazilis, whom he despised and he linked these discretionary principles with kalam. His guiding principle was that the Quran and Sunnah are the proper sources of Islamic jurisprudence. He also believed that there can be no consensus among jurists of his time. Imam Hanbal himself compiled Al-Musnad, a text with over 30,000 saying, actions, Ibn Hanbal never composed an actual systematic legal theory on his own, though his followers established a systemic method after his death. Much of the work of preserving the school based on Ibn Hanbals method was laid by his student Abu Bakr al-Khallal, his documentation on the founders views eventually reached twenty volumes. The original copy of the work, which was contained in the House of Wisdom, was burned along with other works of literature during the Mongol siege of Baghdad. The book was preserved in a summarized form by the Hanbali jurist al-Khiraqi. Relations with the Abbasid Caliphate were rocky for the Hanbalites, like all other schools of Sunni Islam, the Hanbali school holds that the two primary sources of Islamic law are the Quran and the Sunnah found in Hadiths. Hanbalis hold that this is impossible and leads to abuse, Ibn Hanbal did, however, accept the possibility and validity of the consensus of the Sahaba. Ibn Hanbals strict standards of acceptance regarding the sources of Islamic law were due to his suspicion regarding the field of Usul al-Fiqh. Ibn Hanbal taught that the Quran is uncreated due to Muslim belief that it is the word of God, the Mutazilites taught that the Quran, which is readable and touchable, is created like other creatures and created objects
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Thawri
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The Thawri Madhhab was a short lived school of Islamic Jurisprudence. Its founder was Sufyan Al-Thawri, a great 8th Century scholar, jurist, after Ath-Thawris move to Basra later in his life, his jurisprudential thought became more closely aligned to that of the Umayyads and of Al-Azwai. He is reported to have regarded the physical jihad as an obligation only as a defensive war and he spent the last year of his life hiding after a dispute between him and the Abbasid Caliph Muhammad Ibn Mansur Al-Mahdi. After his death, the Thawri Madhhab was taken up by his students, however, his school did not survive, but his jurisprudential thought and especially hadith transmission are highly regarded in Islam, and have influenced all the major schools
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Jariri
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Jariri is the name given to a short-lived school of Islamic jurisprudence that was derived from the work of Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, the 9th and 10th-century Muslim scholar of Baghdad. Although it eventually became extinct, al-Tabaris madhhab flourished among Sunni ulama for two centuries after his death, the Jariri school was frequently in conflict with the Hanbali school of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal. The Jariri school was notable for its attitudes toward the role of women, the Jariris for example held that women could be judges. Conflict was also found with the Hanafi school on the matter of juristic preference, university of Oxford lecturer Christopher Melchert describes the Jariri school as semi-rationalist, similar to the Shafii school. It also shared features with the Zahiri school in addition to the Shafiites
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Schools of Islamic theology
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See Islamic schools and branches for different schools of thought, see aqidah for the concept of the different creeds in Islam, see Kalam for the concept of theological discourse. Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of thought regarding aqidah, according to Muhammad Abu Zahra, Qadariyah, Jahmis, Murjiah, Muʿtazila, Batiniyya, Ashari, Maturidi, Athari are the ancient schools of aqidah. The main split between Sunni and Shia Islam was initially more political than theological, but over time theological differences have developed, aqidah is an Islamic term meaning creed or belief. Any religious belief system, or creed, can be considered an example of aqidah, however this term has taken a significant technical usage in Muslim history and theology, denoting those matters over which Muslims hold conviction. The term is translated as theology. Such traditions are divisions orthogonal to sectarian divisions of Islam, one of the earliest systematic theological school to develop, in the mid 8th-century, was Mutazila. In the 10th century, the Ashari school developed as a response to Mutazila, Ashari still taught the use of reason in understanding the Quran, but denied the possibility to deduce moral truths by reasoning. This was opposed by the school of Maturidi, which taught that moral truths may be found by the use of reason without the aid of revelation. Another point of contention was the position of iman vs. taqwa. Sunni Muslims are the largest denomination of Islam and are known as Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘h or simply as Ahl as-Sunnah, the word Sunni comes from the word sunnah, which means the teachings and actions or examples of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Therefore, the term Sunni refers to those who follow or maintain the sunnah of the prophet Muhammad, Sunni Muslims regard the first four caliphs as al-Khulafā’ur-Rāshidūn or The Rightly Guided Caliphs. A scholar of kalam is referred to as a mutakallim as distinguished from philosophers, jurists, after leaving the Mutazili school, Al-Ashari formulated the theology of Sunni Islam. He was followed in this by a number of distinguished scholars. The most famous of these are Abul-Hassan Al-Bahili, Abu Bakr Al-Baqillani, al-Juwayni, Al-Razi, thus Al-Ashari’s school became, together with the Maturidi, the main schools reflecting the beliefs of the Sunnah. Ashari is a school of early Islamic philosophy founded in the 10th century by Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari and it was instrumental in drastically changing the direction of Islam. The Asharite view was that comprehension of the nature and characteristics of God were beyond human capability. A Maturidi is one who follows Abu Mansur Al Maturidis theology, points which differ are the nature of belief and the place of human reason. The Maturidis state that belief does not increase nor decrease but remains static, the Asharis say that belief does in fact increase and decrease
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Ash'ari
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Asharism or Ashʿari theology is an early theological school of Sunni Islam based on clerical authority and rejection of cause and effect reasoning, it was founded by Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari. The disciples of the school are known as Asharites, and the school is referred to as the Asharite school. It is considered one of the orthodox theologies in Sunni Islam alongside the Maturidi, amongst the most famous Asharites, Al-Bayhaqi, Al-Nawawi, Al-Ghazali, Izz al-Din ibn Abd al-Salam, Al-Suyuti, Ibn Asakir, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Al-Qurtubi and Al-Subki. For example, the Mutazila believed the Quran to be created, on the other hand, the new movement marked a major shift for Islam. This new school became a base in educating Islam as a religion, as it depended on rationalism in understanding Islam from the Quran, Asharites state that Islamic faith is based on using the mind. With the prevalence of globalization, it became noticed that Asharism is rejected and attacked by Salafis, the Asharite view holds that, Interpreting the Quran and the Hadith should keep developing with the aid of older interpretations. Knowledge of God comes from studying the holy names and attributes in addition to studying the Quran, the unique nature and attributes of God cannot be understood fully by human reasoning and the senses. Although humans possess free will, they have no power to create anything in the world as only God can. This doctrine is now known in Western philosophy as occasionalism, knowledge of moral truths must be taught by means of revelation and is not known a priori or by deduction from a priori propositions or by sheer observation of the world. It is permissible for a Muslim to believe and accept that a proposition is a truth based solely on the authority of a consensus of authorised religious scholars. The school holds that reason, in and by itself, is not capable of establishing with absolute certainty any truth with respect to morality. He nonetheless believed in free will, elaborating the thoughts of Dirar ibn Amr and they condemned those who tried to rationalize the principles of religion as innovators. They considered discussion about motion, rest, body, accident, colour, space, atom, the leaping of atoms, and Attributes of God, to be an innovation and a sin. However, the school underwent many changes throughout history resulting in the term Ash’ari, in modern usage, for example, Abu’l Hasan al-Ash’ari of al-Lum’a differs from the Ash’arism of the Abu’l Hasan al-Ash’ari of al-Ibana, Ibn Fawrak differs from al-Bayhaqi. For example, the Asharite view was that comprehension of the unique nature, the solution proposed by Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari to solve the problems of tashbih and tatil concedes that the Divine Being possesses in a real sense the attributes and Names mentioned in the Quran. Insofar as these names and attributes have a reality, they are distinct from the essence. Others, however, argue that the Asharites not only accepted scientific methods, some authors have questioned the spiritual value of discussion methods employed by the Asharis and other dialectical theologians. The best method and the nearest one to reality was the method provided by the Quran, texts and Studies on the Development and History of Kalam
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Maturidi
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In Islam, a Maturidi is one who follows Abu Mansur Al Maturidis systematic theology, which is close to the Ashari theology. The school is known as Maturidism or Maturidiyyah and it is considered one of the orthodox theologies in Sunni Islam alongside the Ashari school. Māturīdism has been the predominant theological orientation among later Hanafis and enjoyed a preeminent status in the Ottoman Empire, many Turkic tribes and Asian Muslims practice Maturidism. Points about which the Maturidis differ from the Asharis are, among others, the nature of belief, the Maturidis state that iman does not increase nor decrease with actions, it is rather taqwa which increases and decreases. The Asharis say that belief does in fact increase and decrease according to the taqwa. The Asharis disagree, and conclude that the human mind is unable to determine if something is good or evil, lawful or unlawful, moral or immoral. Another point where Asharis and Maturidis differ regarding the role of reason is divine amnesty for certain non-Muslims in the afterlife
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Islamic schools and branches
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This article summarizes the different branches and schools in Islam. The best known split, into Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, and Kharijites, was mainly political when it occurred in the early Islamic era, there are three traditional types of schools in Islam, schools of jurisprudence, Sufi orders and schools of theology. The article also summarizes major denominations and movements that have arisen in the modern era, the first centuries of Islam gave rise to three major sects, Sunnis, Shias and Kharijites. Each sect developed distinct jurisprudence schools reflecting different methodologies of jurisprudence, for instance, Sunnis are separated into five sub-sects, namely, Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii, Hanbali and Ẓāhirī. Shia, on the hand, was first developed Kaysanites. Qarmatians, Ismailis, Fatimids, Assassins of Alamut and Druses all emerged from the Seveners, Ismailism later split into Nizari Ismaili and Musta’li Ismaili, and then Mustaali was divided into Hafizi and Taiyabi Ismailis. Moreover, Imami-Shia later brought into existence Jafari jurisprudence, akhbarism, Usulism, Shaykism, Alawites and Alevism were all developed from Ithnaasharis. Similarly, Kharijites were initially divided into five branches, Sufris, Azariqa, Najdat, Adjarites. Among these numerous branches, only Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii, Hanbali, Imamiyyah-Jafari-Usuli, Nizārī Ismāīlī, Alevi, Zaydi, Ibadi, Zahiri, Alawite, Druze and Taiyabi communities have survived. In addition, new schools of thought and movements like Quranist Muslims, Ahmadi Muslims, Sunni Muslims are the largest denomination of Islam and are known as Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘h or simply as Ahl as-Sunnah. The word Sunni comes from the sunnah, which means the teachings and actions or examples of the Islamic prophet. Therefore, the term Sunni refers to those who follow or maintain the sunnah of Muhammad, in many countries, overwhelming majorities of Muslims are Sunnis, so that they simply refer to themselves as Muslims and do not use the Sunni label. Sunni Muslims regard the first four caliphs as al-Khulafā’ur-Rāshidūn or The Rightly Guided Caliphs, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, there has never been another caliph as widely recognized in the Muslim world. Shia Islam, is the second-largest denomination of Islam, comprising 10-13% of the total Muslim population in the world, Shia Muslims, though a minority in the Muslim world, constitute the majority of the populations in Iran, and Iraq, as well as a plurality in Lebanon. The Shia Islamic faith is broad and includes many different groups, there are various Shia theological beliefs, schools of jurisprudence, philosophical beliefs, and spiritual movements. The Twelvers believe in twelve Imams, the Alawites are a sub-denomination of this sect. Ismailism, including the Nizārī, Sevener, Mustaali, Dawoodi Bohra, Hebtiahs Bohra, Sulaimani Bohra, the Druze are a distinct traditional religion that developed in the 11th century. The Zaidiyyah historically come from the followers of Zayd ibn Ali, Muslim groups who either ascribe divine characteristics to some figures of Islamic history or hold beliefs deemed deviant by mainstream Shii theology were called as Ghulāt
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Ahl-i Hadith
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Ahl-i Hadith or Ahl-e-Hadith is a religious movement that emerged in Northern India in the mid-nineteenth century. Adherents of Ahl-i Hadith profess to hold the same views as the early Ahl al-Hadith movement and they regard the Quran, sunnah, and hadith as the sole sources of religious authority and oppose everything introduced in Islam after the earliest times. In particular, they reject taqlid and favor ijtihad based on the scriptures, in recent decades the movement has expanded its presence in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan and has drawn both inspiration and financial support from Saudi Arabia. In the mid-nineteenth century an Islamic religious reform movement was started in Northern India that rejected everything introduced into Islam after the Quran, Sunnah, folk Islam and Sufism, commonly popular with the poor and working class in the region, are anathema to Ahl-i Hadith beliefs and practices. This attitude toward Sufism has brought the movement into conflict with the rival Barelvi movement even more so than the Barelvis perennial rivals, in the 1920s, the Ahl-i Hadith opened a center for their movement in Srinagar. Following other South Asian Islamic movements, the Ahl-i Hadith now also administer schools, in the modern era, the movement draws both inspiration and financial support from Saudi Arabia, now being favored over the rival Deobandi movement as a counterbalance to Iranian influence. They reject the use of kalam in theology, in the 19th century, the Ahle Quran formed in reaction to the Ahle Hadith, whom they considered to be placing too much emphasis on hadith instead of Quran. Like other Islamic movements, the Ahl-i Hadith are distinguished by certain common features, the men tend to have a particular style of untrimmed beard often considered a visual indicator. Leading proponents of the movement joined forces against the opposition faced from established ulama. One member organization of the conference is the Anjuman-i-Hadith, formed by students of Sayyid Miyan Nadhir Husain and divided into Bengal, after the 1947 separation of India and Pakistan, the Pakistani Ahle-Hadith center was based in and around Karachi. In 1930 Ahl-i Hadith was founded as a political party in India. In Pakistan, the movement formed a party, Jamiat Ahle Hadith. Their leader, Ehsan Elahi Zaheer, was assassinated in 1987, the number of Ahle Hadith madrassa in Pakistan has grown from 134 in 1988 to 310 in 2000. The group has 17 organisations active in Pakistan, looking after their own seminaries, during the rule of the British Raj, no accurate census was ever taken of the movements exact number of followers. In the modern era, the number of followers of the movement in Pakistan constitute 4% of the Muslim population, 25-30 million followers in India, and 27.5 million in Bangladesh. In the United Kingdom, the Ahl-i Hadith movement maintains 42 centers, although the movement has been present in the UK since the 1960s, it has not been the subject of extensive academic research and sources on the movement are extremely limited and rare
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Al-Ahbash
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Al-Ahbash, also known as the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects is a Sufi religious movement which was founded in the mid-1980s. The group follow the teachings of Ethiopian scholar Abdullah al-Harari, the AICP claims to run its Islamic schools being affiliated with Al-Azhar, a claim which has been denied by Al-Azhar. Due to the origins and activity in Lebanon, the Ahbash have been described as the activist expression of Lebanese Sufism. The AICP remained without a leader until the 1980s when Abdullah al-Harari became the head of the organization. And was taken over by Al-Ahbash in 1983, Al-Ahbash was founded in the suburb of Bourj Abu Haidar, in West Beirut, as a small philanthropic and spiritualist movement among the Sunni lower classes. From there they spread throughout Lebanon to Tripoli, Akkar and Iqlim Al-Kharrub in the Chouf, the Syrians supported and promoted the Ahbash in order to limit the influence of radical and fundamentalist Sunni movements in Lebanon. There growth was aided by the forcible seizure and control of many prominent mosques in West Beirut in the early 1980s. At the end of the 1990s there were close to 250,000 Ahbash members worldwide, several public figures became Ahbash members when it emerged in France beginning in 1991, such as rapper Kery James or Abd Samad Moussaoui. In 1995, members of a Salafi jihadi group called Osbat al-Ansar killed the leader of Al-Ahbash, Sheikh Nizar Halabi and his murder led to a heavy-handed Syrian response—concluding with the gruesome public execution of his assassins in 1997. Al-Ahbash beliefs are an interpretation of Islam combining elements of Sunni Islam, Al-Ahbash follows the Shafi school and Ashari theology, their Sufi aspect is derived from the Rifai brotherhood. The group rejects Islamist figures such as Ibn Taymiyyah, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and it advocates Islamic pluralism, and opposition to political activism. It also promotes its beliefs internationally through an internet presence and regional offices. Shaykh Habashis syncretic teachings draw upon a conflation of different branches of Islamic theology, in an address to his followers, Shaykh Habashi stated that e are Asharis and Shafiis. The Ashariyya is the basis of our belief, and the Shfiiyya is our daily code, the contention that it is a primarily Sufi movement, however, has been disputed. This position is reflected in the groupss decided opposition to the Salafist movement and Islamist thinkers, namely Sayyid Qutb, Muhammed ibn Abd-al-Wahhab. One further critical cleavage is al-Ahbashs strict rejection of any form of anthropomorphism of God which they accuse Wahhabis of. This is a controversial point of view within Islam which is not fully compatible with the consensus of Sunnis. Another famous example regards the interpretations of the Quranic sentence describing God seated on his throne after creating the world
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Barelvi
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Barelvi is a term used for the movement following the Sunni Hanafi school of jurisprudence, originating in Bareilly with over 200 million followers in South Asia. The name derives from the north Indian town of Bareilly, the hometown of its founder, the movement emphasizes personal devotion to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a synthesis of Sharia with Sufi practices such as veneration of saints. Because of this, they are often called Sufi, although they have little in common with the Sufism of classical Islamic mystics, the movement later identified as Barelvis to differentiate itself from the Deobandi movement, which was influenced by the Wahhabi movement in Arabia. The movement is the Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat People of the traditions, the Barelvi movement formed as a defense of the traditional mystic practices of South Asia, which it sought to prove and support. Unlike most other Muslim movements in the region, the Barelvis opposed the Indian independence movement due to its leadership under Mahatma Gandhi, on the other hand, Khan and his movement were largely responsible for staying out of political issues. Political scientist Rohan Bedi estimates that 60% of Pakistani Muslims are Barelvis, the majority of Pakistani and Kashmir origin Britons in the United Kingdom are descended from Barelvi-majority areas. The Barelvi movement in Pakistan has received funding from Barelvis in the UK, according to an editorial in the English-language Pakistani newspaper The Daily Times, many of these mosques have been however usurped by Saudi-funded radical organizations. Like other Sunni Muslims, Barelvis base their beliefs on the Quran and Sunnah and believe in monotheism, Barelvis follow the Maturidi school of Islamic theology and the Hanafi madhhab of fiqh in addition to choosing from the Qadiri, Chishti or Suhrawardi tariqas. Barelvis have several beliefs regarding Muhammads nature that distinguish them from Deobandi, Salafi and Shii groups in South Asia, He is a human being and he is present in many places at the same time. He is still witnessing all that goes on in the world and he has knowledge of that which is unknown, including the future. Veneration of dead and living saints and this consists of the intervention of an ascending, linked and unbroken chain of holy personages claimed to reach ultimately to Muhammad, who Barelvis believe intercede on their behalf with God. Use of devotional music and dhikr, leaving the beard to grow for men, the movement views a man who trims his beard to less than a fist-length as a sinner, and shaving the beard is considered abominable. Having formed as a reaction against the reformist Deobandi movement, relations between the two groups have often been strained, Ahmad Raza Khan, the founder of Barelvis, went as far as to declare all Deobandis infidels and apostates. Although conflict has occurred, relations with other Muslim movements in South Asia have not always been hostile, in mid-2012, leaders of both the Barelvi and Ahl al-Hadith movements in the Kashmir Valley denied that there was any animosity between the two sects in the region. Saying that Kashmiris can ill afford sectarian strife after two decades of bloodbath and he says this is one reason no Barelvi jihadist group has grown large enough to get involved in Pakistans Islamist and sectarian politics. The conflict with the Deobandi movement has been heated and uncivil. While both the Barelvi and Deobandi movements tend to prefer the Hanafi madhhab and accept Sufism, their fundamental beliefs and that occurred in the first years of the twentieth century—long before the Al-Saud and their Wahhabi allies got control of the Haramayn. The antipathy of the Deobandis toward the Ahl-i Sunnah on the level becomes more comprehensible when Ahmad Rizas fatwa receives a full explication
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Deobandi
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Deobandi is a revivalist movement within Sunni Islam. It is centered in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, has spread to the United Kingdom. The name derives from Deoband, India, where the school Darul Uloom Deoband is situated, the movement was inspired by scholar Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, and was founded in 1867 in the wake of the failed Sepoy Rebellion a decade earlier. The group founded an Islamic seminary known as Darul Uloom Deoband, in time, the Darul Uloom Deoband became the second largest focal point of Islamic teaching and research after the Al-Azhar University, Cairo. Through the organisations such as Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and Tablighi Jamaat, the Deobandi ideology began to spread, graduates of Deoband from countries such as Saudi Arabia, China and Malaysia opened thousands of madrasas throughout South Asia, specifically in parts of present day Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 1919, a group of Deobandi scholars formed the political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind. A minority group joined Muhammad Ali Jinnahs Muslim League, forming the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in 1945, the Deobandi Movement in India is controlled by the Darul Uloom Deoband and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind. About 20% of the Indian Muslims identify as Deobandi, even though a minority, the Deobandis form the dominant group among Indian Muslims due to their access to state resources and representation in Muslim bodies etc. The Deobandis are referred to as Wahhabis by their opponents — the Barelvis, in reality, they are not Wahhabis, even though they share many of their beliefs. The true Wahhabis among Indian Muslims are said to be fewer than 5 percent, some 20 percent of Pakistans Sunni Muslims consider themselves Deobandi. According to Heritage Online, nearly 65% of the seminaries in Pakistan are run by Deobandis, whereas 25% are run by Barelvis, 6% by Ahl-i Hadith. Having seen Deoband as a counterbalance to Iranian influence in the region, the same investigative report further said that 17 of the countrys 26 Islamic seminaries follow the ultra-conservative Deobandi teachings which had given birth to the Taliban. According to Times almost 80% of all domestically trained Ulema were being trained in these hardline seminaries, the Deobandi movement sees itself as a scholastic tradition, situated within orthodox Sunni Islam. Deobandis are strong proponents of the doctrine of Taqlid, in other words, they believe that a Muslim must adhere to one of the four schools of Sunni Islamic Law and generally discourage inter-school eclecticism. They themselves are predominantly followers of the Hanafi school and they often accuse those who adhere to the rulings of one scholar or legal school of blind imitation, and frequently demand scriptural evidence for every argument and legal ruling. Almost since the beginnings of the movement, Deobandi scholars have generated a copious amount of scholarly output in an attempt to defend their adherence to a madhhab in general. In particular, Deobandis have penned much literature in defense of their argument that the Hanafi madhhab is in accordance with the Quran. In response to this need to defend their madhhab in the light of scripture, in a Deobandi madrasa, the position of Shaykh al-Hadith, or the resident professor of Sahih Bukhari, is held in much reverence
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Islamic Modernism
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It featured a critical reexamination of the classical conceptions and methods of jurisprudence and a new approach to Islamic theology and Quranic exegesis. Founders include Muhammad Abduh, a Sheikh of Al-Azhar University for a period before his death in 1905, Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani. The earlier salafiyya, however, were predominantly rationalist Asharis, restricting traditional Islamic law by limiting its basis to the Quran and authentic Sunnah, limiting the Sunna with radical Hadith criticism. A more or less radical interpretation of the authoritative sources and this is particularly the case with the Quranic texts on polygyny, the hadd punishments, jihad, and treatment of unbelievers, which conflict with modern views. According to Mahmud Shaltut and other modernists, unbelief was not sufficient cause for declaring jihad, the conversion to Islam by unbelievers in fear of death at the hands of jihadists was unlikely to prove sincere or lasting. Much preferable means of conversion was education and its most prominent intellectual founder, Muhammad Abduh, was Sheikh of Al-Azhar University for a brief period before his death. This project superimposed the world of the century on the extensive body of Islamic knowledge that had accumulated in a different milieu. Subsequent secular writers including Farag Foda, al-Ashmawi, Muhamed Khalafallah, Taha Husayn, Husayn Amin, Abduh was skeptical towards Hadith, i. e. towards the body of reports of the teachings, doings, and sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Particularly towards those Traditions that are reported through few chains of transmission, furthermore, he advocated a reassessment of traditional assumptions even in Hadith studies, though he did not devise a systematic methodology before his death. The early Salafiyya influenced Islamist movements like Muslim Brotherhood and to some extent Jamaat-e-Islami, the MB is considered an intellectual descendant of Islamic modernism. He was a reader of the writings of Rashid Rida. The Indonesian Islamic organization Muhammadiyah was founded in 1912, described as Islamic Modernist, it emphasized the authority of the Quran and the Hadiths, opposing syncretism and taqlid to the ulema. However, as of 2006, it is said to have veered sharply toward a more conservative brand of Islam under the leadership of Din Syamsuddin the head of the Indonesian Ulema Council. The modernists used the term Salafiyya for their movement whose proponents strove to reconcile their faith with the Enlightenment, toward the end of the twentieth century, however, the term Salafi movement attached with the Wahhabism. The Salafi movement became inexplicably antithetical to Islamic modernism. Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi writes, Rashid Rida popularized the term Salafī to describe a movement that he spearheaded. That movement sought to reject the ossification of the madhhabs, and rethink through the issues of fiqh and modernity. A young scholar by the name of Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani read an article by Rida, eventually, al-Albānīs label was adopted by the Najdī daʿwah as well, until it spread in all trends of the movement. Otherwise, before this century, the term Salafī was not used as a common label, therefore, the term Salafī has attached itself to an age-old school of theology, the Atharī school
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Salafi movement
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It advocated a return to the traditions of the devout ancestors. Some scholars define this movement as Modernist Salafism, some 21st-century scholars have suggested there was a medieval form of Salafism, but there is little evidence of this. Generally scholars believe the Modernist form has been superseded since the century by what is called Purist Salafism. The Salafist doctrine can be summed up as taking a fundamentalist approach to Islam, emulating Muhammad and his earliest followers – al-salaf al-salih and they reject religious innovation or bidah, and support the implementation of sharia. The Salafi movement is described as being synonymous with Wahhabism. At other times, Salafism has been described as a hybrid of Wahhabism, Salafism has become associated with literalist, strict and puritanical approaches to Islam. Particularly in the West it is associated with Salafi jihadists, who espouse jihad as an expression of Islam against those they deem to be enemies of Islam. In legal matters, Salafis are divided between those who, in the name of independent legal judgement, reject strict adherence to the four Sunni schools of law, and others who remain faithful to these. Salafism takes its name from the Arabic term salaf, used to identify the earliest Muslims and they consider a hadith that quotes Muhammad saying, The best of my community are my generation, the ones who follow them and the ones who follow them. As a call to Muslims to follow the example of those first three generations, known collectively as the salaf. or pious Predecessors, the salaf are believed to include Muhammad himself, the Companions, the Followers, and the Followers of the Followers. Since the fifth Muslim generation or earlier, Sunni theologians have used the examples of the Salaf to understand the texts and tenets of Islam, according to Bernard Haykel, temporal proximity to the Prophet Muhammad is associated with the truest form of Islam among many Sunni Muslims. Salafis believe that the Quran, the Hadith and the consensus of approved scholarship, the Salafi dawa is a methodology, but it is not a madhhab in fiqh as is commonly misunderstood. Salafis may be influenced by the Maliki, Shafii, Hanbali or the Hanafi schools of Sunni fiqh, Salafis condemn certain common practices among Muslims such as polytheism and tawassul of religious figures. In North African cultures for instance, historically there were practices to venerate the graves of Islamic prophets and saints, Salafis place great emphasis on practicing actions in accordance with the known sunnah, not only in prayer but in every activity in daily life. For instance, many are careful always to use three fingers when eating, to water in three pauses, and to hold it with the right hand while sitting. In legal matters, Salafis are divided between those who, in the name of independent legal judgement, reject strict adherence to the four schools of law and others who remain faithful to these. Salafi scholars from Saudi Arabia are generally bound by Hanbali fiqh and advocate following an Imam rather than having individuals try to interpret, other Salafi scholars, however, believe that taqlid is unlawful. From their perspective, Muslims who follow a madhab without searching personally for direct evidence may be led astray, the latter group of scholars include Rashid Rida, al-Khajnadee, Muhammad Abduh, Saleem al-Hilali and Nasir al-Din al-Albani
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Wahhabism
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Wahhabism is an Islamic doctrine and religious movement founded by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. The term Wahhabi is often used polemically and adherents commonly reject its use, the movement emphasises the principle of tawhid. Wahhabism is named after a preacher and activist, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. The alliance between followers of ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Muhammad bin Sauds successors proved to be a durable one, today Ibn Abd Al-Wahhabs teachings are the official, state-sponsored form of Sunni Islam in Saudi Arabia. With the help of funding from Saudi petroleum exports, the movement underwent explosive growth beginning in the 1970s, However, Wahhabism has also been called a particular orientation within Salafism, or an ultra-conservative, Saudi brand of Salafism. Estimates of the number of adherents to Wahhabism vary, with one giving a figure of fewer than 5 million Wahhabis in the Persian Gulf region. The majority of mainstream Sunni and Shia Muslims worldwide strongly disagree with the interpretation of Wahhabism, Islamic scholars, including those from the Al-Azhar University, regularly denounce Wahhabism with terms such as Satanic faith. It has also criticized for the destruction of historic shrines of saints, mausoleums. A misguided creed that fosters intolerance, promotes simplistic theology, and restricts Islams capacity for adaption to diverse, a term used by opponents of Salafism in hopes of besmirching that movement by suggesting foreign influence and conjuring up images of Saudi Arabia. The term is most frequently used in countries where Salafis are a minority of the Muslim community but have made recent inroads in converting the local population to Salafism. The British also adopted it and expanded its use in the Middle East, Wahhabis do not like – or at least did not like – the term. Ibn Abd-Al-Wahhab was averse to the elevation of scholars and other individuals, according to Robert Lacey the Wahhabis have always disliked the name customarily given to them and preferred to be called Muwahhidun. Another preferred term was simply Muslims since their creed is pure Islam, However, critics complain these terms imply non-Wahhabis are not monotheists or Muslims, and the English translation of that term causes confusion with the Christian denomination. Early Salafis referred to simply as Muslims, believing the neighboring Ottoman Caliphate was al-dawlah al-kufriyya. The prominent 20th-century Muslim scholar Nasiruddin Albani, who considered himself of the Salaf, a New York Times journalist writes that Saudis abhor the term Wahhabism, feeling it sets them apart and contradicts the notion that Islam is a monolithic faith. Ingrid Mattson argues that, Wahhbism is not a sect and it is a social movement that began 200 years ago to rid Islam of rigid cultural practices that had acquired over the centuries. Journalist Karen House calls Salafi, a politically correct term for Wahhabi. In any case, according to Lacey, none of the terms have caught on
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Holiest sites in Sunni Islam
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According to Sahih al-Bukhari, Muhammad said Do not prepare yourself for a journey except to three Mosques, Masjid al-Haram, the Mosque of Aqsa and my Mosque. In the Islamic tradition, the Kaaba is considered the holiest site, followed by the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, Masjid al-Haram, is a large mosque in the city of Mecca, and the largest in Islam. It surrounds the Kaaba, the place which all Muslims turn towards each day in prayer, the current structure covers an area of 356,800 m2 including the outdoor and indoor praying spaces and can accommodate up to 820,000 worshipers during the Hajj period. During the Hajj period, the mosque is unable to contain the multitude of pilgrims, more than 2 million worshipers gather to pray during Eid prayers. The first of these spots is Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and the second is Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. And when We assigned to Ibrahim the place of the House, saying, Do not associate with Me aught, and remember Prophet Abraham and Ismail raised the foundations of the House, Our Lord. Accept from us, For Thou art the All-Hearing, the All-knowing, Al-Masjid an-Nabawi or the Mosque of the Prophet, located in Medina, is the second holiest site in Islam. The edifice was originally the house of Muhammad, he settled there after his migration to Medina and he himself shared in the heavy work of construction. The original mosque was an open-air building, the mosque also served as a community center, a court, and a religious school. There was a platform for the people who taught the Quran. The basic plan of the building has adopted in the building of other mosques throughout the world. Subsequent Islamic rulers greatly expanded and decorated the mosque, the most important feature of the site is the green dome over the center of the mosque, where the tomb of Muhammad is located. Constructed in 1817 CE and painted green in 1839 CE, it is known as the Dome of the Prophet, early Muslim leaders Abu Bakr and Umar are buried beside Muhammad. Medina is also home to the historically significant Quba Mosque and Masjid al-Qiblatayn, al-Ḥaram al-Šarīf is a holy site in Shia and Sunni Islam and is located in the Old City of Jerusalem and widely regarded as the Temple Mount. It includes the mosque and the Dome of the Rock. It is the third holiest site in Islam, Al-Aqsa Mosque is sacred because the first of the two Qiblas was Jerusalem. In Islamic tradition, Al-Aqsa is said to be the second Masjid, the mosque is also the third of the two holy Sanctuaries, under Islamic Law. When Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem after Muhammads wafat, a house was built on the site
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Jerusalem in Islam
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Jerusalem in Islam refers to the status of Jerusalem in the Muslim religious tradition. Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site in Sunni Islam after the mosques of al-Haram in Mecca and it is strongly associated with the Biblical prophets David, Solomon, Elijah and Jesus. Muhammads journey to the Farthest Mosque is mentioned in the Quran, the verse states, Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al- Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him of Our signs. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Seeing, islamic tafsirs hold the term the farthest Mosque to refer to the Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem. Holiest sites in Islam Islamization of Jerusalem Jerusalem in the Quran Al Quds fil Quran
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Mecca
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Mecca or Makkah is a city in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia that is also capital of the Makkah Region. The city is located 70 km inland from Jeddah in a valley at a height of 277 m above sea level. Its resident population in 2012 was roughly 2 million, although more than triple this number every year during the hajj period held in the twelfth Muslim lunar month of Dhu al-Hijjah. Mecca is home to the Kaaba, by majority description Islams holiest site, Mecca was long ruled by Muhammads descendants, the sharifs, acting either as independent rulers or as vassals to larger polities. It was conquered by Ibn Saud in 1925, during this expansion, Mecca has lost some historical structures and archaeological sites, such as the Ajyad Fortress. Today, more than 15 million Muslims visit Mecca annually, including several million during the few days of the Hajj, as a result, Mecca has become one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the Muslim world, despite the fact that non-Muslims are prohibited from entering the city. The Saudi government adopted Makkah as the spelling in the 1980s. The full official name is Makkah al-Mukarramah or Makkatu l-Mukarramah, which means Mecca the Honored, the ancient or early name for the site of Mecca is Bakkah. An Arabic language word, its etymology, like that of Mecca, is obscure, the form Bakkah is used for the name Mecca in the Quran in 3,96, while the form Mecca is used in 48,24. In South Arabic, the language in use in the portion of the Arabian Peninsula at the time of Muhammad. Other references to Mecca in the Quran call it Umm al-Qurā, another name of Mecca is Tihamah. Arab and Islamic tradition holds that the wilderness of Paran, broadly speaking, is the Tihamah, yaqut al-Hamawi, the 12th century Syrian geographer, wrote that Fārān was an arabized Hebrew word. One of the names of Mecca mentioned in the Torah, Mecca is governed by the Municipality of Mecca, a municipal council of fourteen locally elected members headed by a mayor appointed by the Saudi government. As of May 2015, the mayor of the city was Dr. Osama bin Fadhel Al-Bar, Mecca is the capital of the Makkah Region, which includes neighboring Jeddah. The provincial governor was prince Abdul Majeed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud from 2000 until his death in 2007, on 16 May 2007, prince Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud was appointed as the new governor. The early history of Mecca is still disputed, as there are no unambiguous references to it in ancient literature prior to the rise of Islam. The Roman Empire took control of part of the Hejaz in 106 AD, ruling cities such as Hegra, even though detailed descriptions were established of Western Arabia by Rome, such as by Procopius, there are no references of a pilgrimage and trading outpost such as Mecca. The first direct mention of Mecca in external literature occurs in 741 AD in the Byzantine-Arab Chronicle, claims have been made this could be a reference to the Kaaba in Mecca
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Medina
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Medina, also transliterated as Madīnah, is a city in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia that is also the capital of the Al Madinah Region. The city contains al-Masjid an-Nabawi, which is the place of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It served as the base of Islam in its first century where the early Muslim community developed. Medina is home to the three oldest mosques, namely the Quba Mosque, al-Masjid an-Nabawi, and Masjid al-Qiblatayn, Muslims believe that the chronologically final surahs of the Quran were revealed to Muhammad in Medina, and are called Medinan surahs in contrast to the earlier Meccan surahs. Similar to Mecca, non-Muslims are forbidden from entering the core of Medina or the city centre by the national government. The Arabic word al-Madīnah simply means the city, before the advent of Islam, the city was known as Yathrib. The word Yathrib has been recorded in Surat al-Ahzab of the Quran, an alternative name is al-Madīnah an-Nabawīyah or al-Madīna-tu an-Nabī. As of 2010, the city of Medina has a population of 1,183,205, in addition to its Arab inhabitants, during the pre-Islamic era Yathrib was inhabited by Jewish tribes. Later the citys name was changed to al-Madīna-tu n-Nabī or al-Madīnatu l-Munawwarah, Medina is celebrated for containing al-Masjid an-Nabawi and also as the city which gave refuge to him and his followers, and so ranks as the second holiest city of Islam, after Mecca. Muhammad was buried in Medina, under the Green Dome, as were the first two Rashidun caliphs, Abu Bakr and Umar, who were buried next to him in what used to be Muhammads house. Medina is 210 miles north of Mecca and about 120 miles from the Red Sea coast and it is situated in the most fertile part of all the Hejaz territory, the streams of the vicinity tending to converge in this locality. An immense plain extends to the south, in every direction the view is bounded by hills and mountains. The historic city formed an oval, surrounded by a wall,30 to 40 feet high, dating from the 12th century CE. Of its four gates, the Bab-al-Salam, or Egyptian gate, was remarkable for its beauty, beyond the walls of the city, west and south were suburbs consisting of low houses, yards, gardens and plantations. These suburbs also had walls and gates, almost all of the historic city has been demolished in the Saudi era. The rebuilt city is centred on the vastly expanded al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the graves of Fatimah and Hasan, across from the mosque at Jannat al-Baqi, and Abu Bakr, and of Umar, the second caliph, are also here. The mosque dates back to the time of Muhammad, but has been twice reconstructed, because of the Saudi governments religious policy and concern that historic sites could become the focus for idolatry, much of Medinas Islamic physical heritage has been altered. Medinas importance as a religious site derives from the presence of al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the mosque was expanded by the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I
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Mount Sinai
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Mount Sinai, also known as Mount Horeb or Gabal Musa, is a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt that is a possible location of the biblical Mount Sinai. The latter is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus and other books of the Bible, according to Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition, the biblical Mount Sinai was the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments. Mount Sinai is a 2, 285-metre moderately high mountain near the city of Saint Catherine in the Sinai region and it is next to Mount Catherine. It is surrounded on all sides by higher peaks of the mountain range, Mount Sinais rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shields evolution. Mount Sinai displays a complex that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite, the volcanic rocks are alkaline to peralkaline and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions and subvolcanic porphyry. Generally, the nature of the rocks in Mount Sinai indicates that they originated from differing depths. The biblical Mount Sinai is one of the most important sacred places in the Jewish, Christian, according to Bedouin tradition, it was the mountain where God gave laws to the Israelites. Christians settled upon this mountain in the third century AD, georgians from the Caucasus moved to the Sinai Peninsula in the Fifth Century, and a Georgian colony was formed there in the Ninth Century. Georgians erected their own churches in the area of the modern Mount Sinai, the construction of one such church was connected with the name of David The Builder, who contributed to the erecting of churches in Georgia and abroad as well. There were political, cultural and religious motives for locating the church on Mount Sinai, Georgian monks living there were deeply connected with their motherland. The church had its own plots in Kartli, some of the Georgian manuscripts of Sinai remain there, but others are kept in Tbilisi, St. Petersburg, Prague, New York, Paris, or in private collections. According to some scholars, the Song of Deborah suggests that God dwelt at Mount Seir, Saint Catherines Monastery lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of an inaccessible gorge at the foot of modern Mount Sinai in Saint Catherine at an elevation of 1550 meters. The monastery is Greek Orthodox and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, there are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, the steeper, more direct route is up the 3,750 steps of penitence in the ravine behind the monastery. The summit of the mountain has a mosque that is used by Muslims. It also has a Greek Orthodox chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th-century church, the chapel encloses the rock which is considered to be the source for the biblical Tablets of Stone. At the summit also is Moses cave, where Moses was said to have waited to receive the Ten Commandments
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Kutub al-Sittah
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The Kutub al-Sittah are six books containing collections of hadith compiled by six Sunni Muslim scholars in the ninth century CE. They are sometimes referred to as Al-Sihah al-Sittah, which translates as The Authentic Six and they were first formally grouped and defined by Ibn al-Qaisarani in the 11th century, who added Sunan ibn Majah to the list. Since then, they have enjoyed near-universal acceptance as part of the canon of Sunni Islam. Not all Sunni Muslim jurisprudence scholars agree on the addition of Ibn Majah, in particular, the Malikis and Ibn al-Athir consider al-Mawatta to be the sixth book. The reason for the addition of Ibn Majahs Sunan is that it contains many Hadiths which do not figure in the other five, Sunni Muslims view the six major hadith collections as their most important. They are, Sahih Bukhari, collected by Imam Bukhari, includes 7,275 ahadith Sahih Muslim, collected by Muslim b. According to the Cambridge History of Iran, After this period commences the age of the authors of the six collections of Sunni hadith, all of whom were Persian. The authors of the six collections are as follows, Muhammad b, ismail al-Bukhari, the author of the Sahih Bukhari, which he composed over a period of sixteen years. Traditional sources quote Bukhari as saying that he did not record any hadith before performing ablution, Bukhari died near Samarqand in 256/869–70 Muslim b. Hajjaj al-Naishapuri, who died in Nishapur in 261/874–5 and whose Sahih Muslim is second in authenticity only to that of Bukhari, some scholars rate the authenticity of Sahih Muslim more than Sahih Bukhari Abu Dawood Sulaiman b. Ashath al-Sijistani, a Persian but of Arab descent, who died in 275/888–9, isa al-Tirmidhi, the author of the well-known as Sunan al-Tirmidhi, who was a student of Bukhari and died in 279/892–3. Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Nasai, who was from Khurasan and died in 303/915–16, Ibn Majah al-Qazwini, who died in 273/886–7. Malik was born the son of Anas ibn Malik and Aaliyah bint Shurayk al-Azdiyya in Medina circa 711, according to Al-Muwatta, he was tall, heavyset, imposing of stature, very fair, with white hair and beard but bald, with a huge beard and blue eyes. In chronological order his work was compiled even earlier than Sahih Bukhari, a comprehensive Biography of Imam Malik
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Arabic script
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The Arabic script is a writing system used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa, such as Arabic, dialects of Mandinka, Central Kurdish, Luri, Persian, Urdu, Pashto, and others. Until the 16th century, it was used to write some texts in Spanish. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by the number of countries using it, the Arabic script is written from right to left in a cursive style. In most cases the letters transcribe consonants, or consonants and a few vowels, the script was first used to write texts in Arabic, most notably the Qurʼān, the holy book of Islam. It is also the basis for the tradition of Arabic calligraphy, the Arabic script has been adopted for use in a wide variety of languages besides Arabic, including Persian, Malay and Urdu which are not Semitic. Such adaptations may feature altered or new characters to represent phonemes that do not appear in Arabic phonology, the modified version of the Arabic script originally devised for use with Persian is known as the Perso-Arabic script by scholars. In the cases of Bosnian, Kurdish, Kashmiri, and Uyghur writing systems, the Arabic script can therefore be used in both abugida and abjad, although it is often strongly, erroneously connected to the latter. Use of the Arabic script in West African languages, especially in the Sahel, to a certain degree the style and usage tends to follow those of the Maghreb. Additional diacritics have come into use to facilitate writing of sounds not represented in the Arabic language, the term ʻAjamī, which comes from the Arabic root for foreign, has been applied to Arabic-based orthographies of African languages. There is evidence that writing Arabic in this set of letters influenced the style of modern Arabic script. After this initial period, Garshuni writing has continued to the present day among some Syriac Christian communities in the Arabic-speaking regions of the Levant, Kazakh in China Kurdish in Northern Iraq and Northwest Iran. It is mainly used in Sri Lanka and the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu for religious purposes, arwi language is the language of Tamil Nadu Muslims. Malayalam language represented by Arabic script variant is known as Arabi Malayalam, the script has particular letters to represent the peculiar sounds of Malayalam. This script is used in madrasas of the South Indian state of Kerala. It is similar to Chittagonian language in neighboring Bangladesh and sometimes using the Roman script. Malay in the Arabic script known as Jawi, in some cases it can be seen in the signboards of shops or market stalls. In addition, some television programming uses Jawi, such as announcements, advertisements, news, social programs, Berber languages have often been written in an adaptation of the Arabic alphabet. The use of the Arabic alphabet, as well as the competing Latin, West Africa Zarma language of the Songhay family
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Specials (Unicode block)
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Specials is a short Unicode block allocated at the very end of the Basic Multilingual Plane, at U+FFF0–FFFF. Of these 16 codepoints, five are assigned as of Unicode 9, U+FFFD � REPLACEMENT CHARACTER used to replace an unknown, unrecognized or unrepresentable character U+FFFE <noncharacter-FFFE> not a character. FFFE and FFFF are not unassigned in the sense. They can be used to guess a texts encoding scheme, since any text containing these is by not a correctly encoded Unicode text. The replacement character � is a found in the Unicode standard at codepoint U+FFFD in the Specials table. It is used to indicate problems when a system is unable to render a stream of data to a correct symbol and it is usually seen when the data is invalid and does not match any character, Consider a text file containing the German word für in the ISO-8859-1 encoding. This file is now opened with an editor that assumes the input is UTF-8. The first and last byte are valid UTF-8 encodings of ASCII, therefore, a text editor could replace this byte with the replacement character symbol to produce a valid string of Unicode code points. The whole string now displays like this, f�r, a poorly implemented text editor might save the replacement in UTF-8 form, the text file data will then look like this, 0x66 0xEF 0xBF 0xBD 0x72, which will be displayed in ISO-8859-1 as f�r. Since the replacement is the same for all errors this makes it impossible to recover the original character, a better design is to preserve the original bytes, including the error, and only convert to the replacement when displaying the text. This will allow the text editor to save the original byte sequence and it has become increasingly common for software to interpret invalid UTF-8 by guessing the bytes are in another byte-based encoding such as ISO-8859-1. This allows correct display of both valid and invalid UTF-8 pasted together, Unicode control characters UTF-8 Mojibake Unicodes Specials table Decodeunicodes entry for the replacement character
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