Basic Arabic Terms of Islam

LEARNING BASIC ARABIC TERMS OF ISLAM

FIQH (Jurisprudence of Fiqh) (Asool Al Fiqh)

Part of a series on Islam
Usul al-fiqh
(The Roots of Jurisprudence)
Fiqh

• Qur'an and Sunnah
• Taqlid (imitation)
• Ijtihad (interpretation)
• Ijma (consensus)
• Madh'hab (school of law)
• Minhaj (method)
• Qiyas (analogical reasoning)
• Urf (society custom)
• Islamic jurisprudence
• Bid‘ah (innovation)
• Madrasah (school/seminary)
• Ijazah (authorization)


QURAN N SUNNAH

Qur'an and Sunnah is an often quoted Islamic term regarding the sources of Islam.
Muslims hold that Islam is derived from two sources: one being infallible and containing compressed information — the Qur'an — and another being a detailed explanation of the everyday application of the principles established in the Qur'an: The Sunnah, or the living example of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.


TAQLID

Taqlid or taqleed (Arabic تَقْليد taqlīd) is an Arabic term meaning "following (someone blindly)" or "imitation". In Islamic legal terminology it refers to the practice of following the decisions of a religious authority without necessarily examining the scriptural basis or reasoning of that decision. In Islamic theology taqlid of someone regarded as a higher religious authority (e.g. an 'ālim) is acceptable in the details of the laws of the religion (shariah), such as matters of worship and personal affairs. According to orthodox Islam, merely following or imitating the statements of scholars in the fundamentals of "metaphysical" belief, such as about the existence of God (Allah)), is not acceptable however.[1] Most often, this refers to the adherence to one of the four classical schools (madhhab) of jurisprudence (fiqh).


IJTIHAD

Ijtihad (Arabic: اجتهاد‎, ’iğtihād) is a technical term of Islamic law that describes the process of making a legal decision by independent interpretation of the legal sources, the Qur'an and the Sunnah. The opposite of ijtihad is taqlid, Arabic for "imitation".
Generally, a Mujtahid (Arabic: مجتهد‎, ’muğtihād) is an educated Muslim who makes up his own ruling on the permissibility of an Islamic law but only for himself.[1]
Ijtihad is mainly associated with the Shi'a Muslim Jafari school of jurisprudence. Western scholars such as Joseph Schacht accepted the notion that the "gates of ijtihad" were "closed" in the 10th century in Sunni fiqh, meaning that ijtihad is not practiced in Sunni Islam anymore. Modern scholars of Islamic law (e.g. Wael Hallaq) demonstrate that ijithad has remained an essential part of the Sunni Muslim tradition, despite the emphasis on taqlid.


IJMA’A

Ijmā' (إجماع) is an Arabic term referring ideally to the consensus of the ummah (the community of Muslims, or followers of Islam).
The hadith of Muhammad which states that "My community will never agree upon an error" is often cited as support for the validity of ijmā'. Sunni Muslims regard ijmā' as the third fundamental source of Sharia law, after the divine revelation of the Qur'an, the prophetic practice or Sunnah. The analogical reasoning or qiyas is described as fourth source in Sunni Islam, whereas Shi'a Islam uses 'aql (intellect). Many conservative Muslim writers have claimed that the use of ijmā' makes Islamic law compatible with democracy. Usuli Shia accepts ijmā' under restricted conditions as a source of Islamic law. Technically it is “the unanimous doctrine and opinion of the recognized religious authorities at any given time”.
Various proponents of liberal movements within Islam criticize the traditional view that ijmā' is only a consensus among traditional Islamic scholars (Arabic ulema). They claim that truly democratic consensus should involve the entire community rather than a small and conservative clerical class, especially since there is no hierarchical system in Islam.


MADHAB

Madhhab (Arabic: مذهب [mæðhæb], pl. مذاهب [mæðæːhıb]; transliterated Urdu: mazhab) is an Islamic school of law, or fiqh (religious jurisprudence). In the first 150 years of Islam, there were many such "schools" - in fact, several of the Sahābah, or contemporary "companions" of Muhammad, are credited with founding their own. The prominent Islamic jurisprudence schools of Damascus in Syria (often named Awza'iyya), Kufa and Basra in Iraq, and Medina in Arabia survived as the Maliki madhhab, while the other Iraqi schools were consolidated into the Hanafi madhhab. The Shafi'i, Hanbali, Zahiri and Jariri schools were established later, though the latter two schools eventually died out.


QIYAS (Analogical Reasoning)

In Sunni Islamic jurisprudence,the qiyas (Arabic قياس) is the process of analogical reasoning in which the teachings of the Quran are compared and contrasted with those of the Hadith, i.e., in order to make an analogy with a known injunction (nass) to a new injunction. As a result of this method, the ruling of the Sunnah and the Qur'an may be used as a means to solve or provide a response to a new problem that may arise. This, however, is only the case providing that the set precedent or paradigm and the new problem that has come about will share operative causes (illah)[1]. The illah is the specific set of circumstances that trigger a certain law into action. Both Sunni Islam and Shi'a Islam share Qur'anic interpretation, the Sunnah, and Ijma' (consensus) as sources of Islamic law, although the two sects differ significantly with regards to the manner in which they use these sources. The sects also differ on the fourth source. Sunni Islam uses qiyas as the fourth source, whereas Shi'a Islam uses 'aql (intellect). Other methods of deducing the law, such as mafhm al-nass (the clear implication of the text), tamthil (similarity or likeness), istihsan (juristic preference), or istislah (consideration of public interest), either explicitly rely on qiyas or use methods of analysis that are similar in their understanding of qiyaas.


URF

Urf العرف is an Arabic Islamic term referring to the custom, or 'knowledge', of a given society, leading to change in the fiqh فقه (Islamic jurisprudence).
`Urf is a source of Shariah rulings where there aren't explicit primary texts of the Qur'an and Sunnah specifying the ruling. `Urf can also specify something generally established in the primary texts.
In some countries such as Egypt, marriage, the Urfi way, means to get married without official papers issued by the state (Zawag Urfi:زواج عرفي). This type of marriage is valid and recognized. (See: common law marriage)


BIDAH

Bid‘ah (Arabic: بدعة‎) is any type of innovation in Islam. Though innovations in worldly matters, such as science, medicine and technology are acceptable and encouraged, Bid`ah within the religion is seen as a sin or innuendo, and the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, stated as such:
“Whosoever originates an innovation in this matter of ours [i.e., Islam] that is not a part of it, will have it rejected.” [1][2] In addition, the Qur'an (which Muslims believe is the word of God) states:
" ..This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion."[3]
Similar statements are found in other verses of the Qur'an and other Hadith as well.


MADRASAH

Madrasah (Arabic: مدرسة‎, madrasa pl. مدارس, madāris) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious (of any religion). It is variously transliterated as madrasah, madarasaa, medresa, madrassa, madraza, madarsa, etc.
• Madrasah aamah (Arabic: مدرسة عامة‎) translates as "public school".
• Madrasah khāṣah (Arabic: مدرسة خاصة‎) translates as "private school".
• Madrasah dīniyyah (Arabic: مدرسة دينية‎) translates as "religious school".
• Madrasah Islamiyyah (Arabic: مدرسة إسلامية‎) translates as "Islamic school".
• Madrasah Jami'ah translates as "university".


IJAZAH

An ijazah ( الإِجازَهْ ) is a certificate used primarily by Muslims to indicate that one has been authorized by a higher authority to transmit a certain subject or text of Islamic knowledge. This usually implies that the student has learned this knowledge through face-to-face interactions "at the feet" of the teacher.
In a paper titled Traditionalism in Islam: An Essay in Interpretation,[1] Harvard professor William A. Graham explains the ijazah system as follows:
The basic system of "the journey in search of knowledge" that developed early in Hadith scholarship, involved travelling to specific authorities (shaykhs), especially the oldest and most renowned of the day, to hear from their own mouths their hadiths and to obtain their authorization or "permission" (ijazah) to transmit those in their names. This ijazah system of personal rather than institutional certification has served not only for Hadith, but also for transmission of texts of any kind, from history, law, or philology to literature, mysticism, or theology. The isnad of a long manuscript as well as that of a short hadith ideally should reflect the oral, face-to-face, teacher-to-student transmission of the text by the teacher's ijazah, which validates the written text. In a formal, written ijazah, the teacher granting the certificate typically includes an isnad containing his or her scholarly lineage of teachers back to the Prophet through Companions, a later venerable shaykh, or the author of a specific book.

Ahkam
• Halal (legal)
• Wajib/Fard (obligatory, duty)
• Mustahabb (favoured)
• Mubah (neutral)
• Makruh (disliked, abominable)
• Haraam (illegal, prohibited)
• Baatil (void, incorrect)
• Fasiq (corrupt)


HALAL

Halal (حلال, ḥalāl, Halaal) is an Arabic term designating any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. It is the opposite of haraam. The term is widely used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law (Sharia) - ( (الشريعة الإسلامية). It is estimated that 70% of Muslims worldwide follow halal food standards[1] and that the global halal market is currently a $580 (U.S.) billion industry[2].


FARD

Fard (Arabic: الفرض‎) also farida (Arabic: الفريضة‎) is an Islamic term which denotes a religious duty. The word is also used in Persian, Turkish, and Urdu (spelled farz) in the same meaning.
Fard or its synonym wajib is one of the five types of Ahkam into which Fiqh categorizes acts of every Muslim. Hanafites however makes a distinction between Wajib and Fard, the latter being more obligatory than the former.[1][2]. In Indonesian, wajib also means obligatory, since the word is derived from Arabic.


MUSTAHABB

Mustahabb (Arabic مستحبّ, literally "recommended") is an Islamic term referring to recommended, favored or virtuous actions.

Definition
Mustahabb actions are those whose status of approval in Islamic law (ahkam) falls between mubah (neutral) and wajib (actions which must be performed). One definition is "duties recommended, but not essential; fulfilment of which is rewarded, though they may be neglected without punishment" (Reuben Levy, The Social Structure of Islam, p. 202). Synonyms of mustahabb can be masnun or mandub. The opposite of mustahabb is makruh.
Examples
• As-Salamu Alaykum , Greeting
• Sadaqah
• Umrah