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RELIGIONS
Eternal India
encyclopedia
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
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)
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
pilgrimage to Makkah (
hajj).
hajj:
the pilgrimage to Makkah.
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
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: