Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

RELIGIONS

of the East India Company in 1838 and in 1876 when he retired he had attained the highest judicial office then attainable by a "na- tive." He considered the British as the legitimate rulers of India. After the failure of the 1857 uprising he became convinced that the best of Western civilisation could and should be assimilated by the Muslims. In the early 1860s he founded an association, the Scien- tific Society, for the translation into Urdu of Western science and scholarship and after his visit to England in 1869-70 he founded at Aligarh the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, the beginning of the first secular university for Indian Muslims. Muhammad Iqbal (1875-1938) dominated the religious and political thought of the Muslims in India during the first half of the 20th century as Sayyid Ahmed Khan had done in the second half of the 19th. He was born in a family of converted Kashmiri Brahmins who had settled in Sialkot. He studied in Lahore where he was introduced to classical Islamic learning. From 1905 to 1908 he studied law and philosophy at Cambridge before taking his doctorate in "the metaphysics in Persia" in Germany. Before going abroad in 1905, Iqbal had become popular as a fine Urdu poet. After his return to Lahore the philosophy of H. Bergson and Nietzsche and their dynamic world view became the predominant Western in- fluence. In his first major work in Persian poetry, Secrets of the Self (1915) he stressed the development of the ego instead of mystical annihilation, whereas shortly afterwards in Mysteries of Selfless- ness he elaborated on the duties of the individual in the ideal Muslim Community. In 1928 Iqbal started co-operating with the Muslim League and at its annual session in Allahabad in 1930, he presented his famous statement on the necessity of forming a separate Muslim State in North -West India. Iqbal's contribution to the resurgence of Islam as a historical force must be acknowledged. Poetry for him was not a means in itself but a means to teach the Muslim how to regain strength by developing his personality. The Indian Muslims had as their chief mentor Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958). Born in Makkah as the heir of a dis- tinguished family, he was Indian on the father's side and Arab on the mother's. When he was 10 years old the family returned to Cal- cutta. In 1912 he founded the Urdu weekly al-Hilal and then al- Balag, when al-Hilal was proscribed. He advocated joint political action to end colonial rule with the Hindus. When interned in Ranchi in 1916 he began writing Tarjuman al-Quran , his translation and commentary of the Quran. When the hopes of the Khilafat movement came to an end Azad continued to advocate Hindu- Muslim joint action. Maulana Azad's religious and theological re- sponse to the challenge of sharing one home land with people of other faiths was to turn to the Quran itself to seek there the answer to the basic problems posed. Azad is the first Muslim thinker in modern India to have been deeply concerned with developing a

Glossary of Islam

to the name of a Sufi. kurf. ingratitude; infidelity, unbelief. madrasa: a school, often associated with a mosque, in which the religious subjects of Islam are studied in the traditional manner. majlis: a gathering or assembly, especially to listen to a Sufi master or to practise communal recollection of God. manzil: a place where one alights; hence. a dwelling place. maulvi: a graduate in theology. mazar: the tomb of aSufi orperson reputed to be holy. muqallid: one who imitates, especially in religious matters. nabi: a prophet. namaz: ritual prayer. nur: light. nur muhammadi: Muhammad’s preexistent light (cf. Logos). pir: an elder; used for a Sufi master. qadi: (qazi): a Muslim judge. qanun: law. qur'an: recitation; name of the Holy Book of the Muslims. Ramadan: (Ramzan): the ninth month in the Muslim calendar; the month of fasting. rasul: apostle, i.e. Muhammad and others. ridda: rebellion; apostasy. rooza : fasting. sahaba : a companion (of Muhammad). hence, a respectable person. salat: ritual prayer, (namaz in Persian) saum: fasting, (roza). shaheed: martyr. shaikh: an elder; religious leader; Sufi master (cf. pir and murshid). shari'a: (shari'at): Islamic law, divided into four schools ( mazhabs ). shirk: the greatest and only unforgivable sin of putting anyone or anything on the same level as God. polytheism. suf: wool: the word Sufi is derived from it. sunna: the customary practice of the Prophet, as reported by his companions, concerning Muhammad's deeds, utter- ances and unspoken approval; as a source of authority in Islam it is second only to the Quran. ta'ziya: a consolation: refers to a model of Husain's tomb in Karbala and is carried during the Muharram procession. umma: community, particularly the Muslim community. 'urs: wedding: anniversary of the death day of a Sufi, the day of complete union with God. ustadh: (ustad): a preceptor or teacher; a master in any field. usual: principles, fundamentals. wait (pl. auliya): one who is near to God:

Allahu akbar: God is Great; this phrase has many usages in Islam. 'aqiqa: the naming ceremony of a child, usually on the eighth day after birth, but in India it can be much later. a'shura: the tenth of Muharram, the day commemorating the martydom of Husain at Karbala, 680. azad : free; applied to faquirs etc. who consider themselves beyond the shari'at. dargah: a shrine built around the tomb of Sufi. fatwa: a legal decision based on the shari'at. fu'ad: heart. hadith (pi. ahadith): (hadis): a saying technically, Tradition, records of what Muhammad did or enjoined, or was done in his presence and not forbidden by him. haji: a person who has performed the hanaftca: seeking the truth; monotheism. haram: forbidden; also means sacred. hijra: the migration of the Prophet and his followers from Makkah to Madina (Yathrib) in A.D. 622 (=A.H. 1), i.e. the beginning of the Islamic era. 'id: festival; the two great festivals of Islam ar e'id al-fir , when the Ramzan month ends 'id al-adha (Baqara-'Id) when the sacrifice of Abraham is commemorated. 'idda: (’iddat): number; the period during which, after the death of her husband (four months and ten days) or divorce (three months), or childbirth (when pregnant) a woman may not re-marry. ijma: Consensus of opinion; one of the four foundations (usual) of Islam. imam: a religious leader in Islam; prayer- leader; the descendants of Ali acknowledged by the Shi'as as their leaders. islam: complete surrender to God. jami' masjid: the chief mosque in a city where people can gather for the Friday prayer. jihad: 'striving' for moral and religious perfection including, if need be, armed struggle kafir: unbeliever. kalima: (kalimat): the succinct expression of Islamic faith; "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah. khalifa: Caliph; successor or viceregent of the Prophet; after the first four pious Caliphas (632-661) came the Umayyads (661-750) and the 'Abbasids (750-1258); also known as Imam and commander of the Faithful. khutha: the sermon delivered during Friday congregational prayer. khwaja: a gentleman; sometimes prefixed pilgrimage to Makkah ( hajj). hajj: the pilgrimage to Makkah.

Anyone who dies in debt or leaves behind dependants who are in danger of becoming destitutes, they should come to me because I am their guardian. - Prophet Muhammad

(FatherT.F. & A.W.S.U.K)