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Introduction to Islam
Midterm I Terms
79
Religious Studies
Undergraduate 2
03/09/2013

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Term
Abu Bakr
Definition
First Caliph
Term
Umar (b. al-Kattab)
Definition
Second Caliph
Term
Uthman (b. Affan)
Definition
Third Caliph
Term
Ali (b. Abi Talib)
Definition
Fourth Caliph, member of Banu Hashim clan, cousin and son-in-law to Muhammad, son of Abu Talib (leader of Banu Hashim, uncle of Muhammad)
Term
Battle of the Camel
Definition
Battle between Ali and Aisha (widow of Muhammad, who wanted revenge for Uthman's assassination). Ali's forces attack hers, which defend her as she sits atop a camel. Ali forgives Aisha at the end.
Term
Ijma
Definition
Unanimous consensus across the entirety fo the jurist population. An accepted source of law.
Term
Qiyas
Definition
Determining law based on analogy between something in our modern world and something that is mentioned int eh Qur'an (think crack and wine).
Term
Mu'awiyah
Definition
Started the Umayyad dynasty
Term
Umayyads
Definition
First Muslim empire. Came to power under Uthman (3rd caliph). Came from Mecca. Capital in Damascus. Shari'ah developed in opposition to them.
Term
Abbasids
Definition
Overthrew Umayyad dynasty. Capital in Baghdad.
Term
Shari'ah
Definition
God's will as it exists in the divine mind. (Literally means path to the watering hole).
Term
Fiqh
Definition
Human attempt to understand the divine will. Known with shari'ah, collectively, as Muslim law. Different schools of law can have different Fiqh, but to them it is Shari'ah (otherwise they wouldn't believe it to be their Fiqh).
Term
Caliph
Definition
The chief administrator of the community. Word derives from "successor."
Term
Battle of Siffin
Definition
Between Ali and Mu'awiyah over the caliphate. From this battle, we get the emergence of the Kharijites. Dynastic rule changed with Ali’s death. We see political and theological divisions. Also see changes in the way Quran and Sunna are understood.
Term
Kasb
Definition
"Acquisition." You have a choice but the power comes from God to follow through on it.
Term
Rightly Guided Caliphs
Definition
The first four
Term
kalam
Definition
rationalist "regime of reasoning"
Term
Hadith
Definition
written "reports" of the words and deeds of Muhammad. The form under which the Sunna can be classified.
Term
Sunna
Definition
What the Prophet wanted to establish as normative practice (i.e. when and how to pray). Normative practices defined by the Prophet's words, deeds, tacit approvals, and interpretations of the Qur'an.
Term
Isnad
Definition
Chain of transmission, used to find out how legitimate a hadith might be.
Term
Canonical Collections of Sunni Hadith
Definition
Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan al-Sughra, Sunan Abu Dawood, jamri al-Tirmidhi, Sunan ibn Majah
Term
sound/good/weak
Definition
the categorizations of hadith. Shahih/Hassan/Da'if
Term
Five Legal Statuses
Definition
Forbidden, Discouraged, Neutral, Recommended, and Obligatory
Term
Mutawatir
Definition
The means by which you can be sure that the Qur'an and Sunna are true. Diffuse congruence (the same story came out of many locations and from many sources)
Term
Ahadi
Definition
Singularly isolated (authoritative sources that are limited in scope). Could be falsifiable.
Term
Five Pillars
Definition
1. Shahadah (there is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet) 2. Prayer (5 times per day in the direction of Mecca) 3. Alms (on surplus income; for wealthy to charitably assist poor) 4. Fasting (month of Ramadan; no food drink, intimate activities) 5. Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in lifetime unless it is impossible to afford)
Term
Ibn al-Rawandi
Definition
Rejection of revealed religion (not necessarily atheist). Rejected Prophethood. Believed in dualist system.
Term
Articles of Faith (iman)
Definition
shahadah/testimony to faith, books angels, belief in prophets, the hereafter, and predestination
Term
Abû Bakr Muhammad b. Zakariya al-Râzî
Definition
Arabicized Persian who argued that God is likely a demiurge.
God did not create fundamental matter. He simply fashions the things that we know in existence out of that matter. Not necessarily an atheist (demiurge), but rejects Prophethood and religion.
Term
Mu'tazilism
Definition
Divine goodness/justice defining characteristic. Humans must have free will. Without that, God would be implicated in the evil deeds of human beings. That cannot be. Free will must have choice and the power to translate that choice into action. We have all the power I’ll ever need to carry out any choice I’ll ever make (we have a power pack that allows us that). Say I can know good and evil via reason, independent of God.
Term
Ash'arites
Definition
The most influential school of rationalism. Defining character of God is Power. They exhibit occasionalism…assumes that the linkage between both cause and effect and mental and bodily events results from God's continuous intervention. I do not have the independent power to translate those things into actuality. That power comes from God on the occasion of my choosing.
Term
Maturidites
Definition
Primary attribute of God is hikmah, or reason. God takes the long view.
Term
The Incoherence of the Philosophers
Definition
Ghazali condemned them as Unbelievers/Kafir. The connections to Aristotle and others were too non-Muslim for him.
Term
The Incoherence of the Incoherence
Definition
Ibn Rushd attempts a refutation of Ghazali's work. Ultimately fails.
Term
Mihnah
Definition
Inquisition. The Qur’an for the Mu’tazilites had to be created. On the one hand, God actually speaks the Qur’an. On the other, God simply creates it. In this case, it becomes fundamentally separate from God. They went to the Abbasid rulers and asked the question of “Is the Qur’an created?” or “is the Qur’an uncreated?” Only those who were willing to concede that the Qur’an was uncreated were left unmolested.
Term
Fitra
Definition
Primordial disposition (innate tendency); claim of the traditionalists (use rather than the system of reasoning).
Term
Ahmad Ibn hanbal
Definition
patron saint of traditionalism and founder of the Hanbali school of law. Weathered the Mihnah.
Term
Ibn Taymîyah
Definition
Traditionalist theologian, probably the most famous after Ibn Hanbal
Term
Al-Ghazali
Definition
Asharite theologian, possibly most famous after Muhammad. Wrote the Incoherence of the Philosophers
Term
Mu'tazlilite 5 Principles
Definition
Monotheism, Divine Justice, Promise and Threat (in afterlife), Status between the two statuses (for a believer in grave sin if dead), command good/forbid evil
Term
Rationalist Proof of God
Definition
Uncaused cause.
Term
Falsafah
Definition
Islamicized philosophy
Term
Neoplatonism
Definition
Hellenistic thought, emanationism, the basis for falsafah.
All things are derived from the first reality or perfect God by steps of degradation to lesser degrees of the first reality or God, and at every step the emanating beings are less pure, less perfect, less divine
Term
Ibn Sina
Definition
He is the most influential philosopher in the history of Islam.
Prophethood was just a perfection of realization that humans can attain. People who rose to the level of receiving knowledge from the Ancient Intellect. Very different notion of prophethood. This makes the Sunna unreliable.
Term
Ibn Rushd
Definition
Wrote the Incoherence of the Incoherence
Term
Afterlife (orthodox)
Definition
Bodily resurrection. Physical heaven/hell.
Term
Afterlife (falasifah)
Definition
Spiritual or Intellectual return to the One. Hell is attempting to detach but being unable to do so. Annihilation is the ignorance of the one and not even trying to detach.
Term
Four Sunni Madhabs
Definition
HaMaSH. Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali.
Term
Taqlid
Definition
following precedent set forth by a mujtahid (scholar who interprets Sharia)
Term
Ijtihad
Definition
Independent reasoning/interpretation of the sources of the law (there is nothing standing between the individual and the sources)
Term
Four Agreed-Upon Sources of Islamic Law
Definition
Qur'an, Sunna, Qiyas, and Ijma
Term
Kufr/Kafir
Definition
A Kafir is one who rejects the prophethood of Muhammad (esp. the implications that go along with acknowledging God). Kufr literally means “cover-up” (the night was also called Kufir). The presumption is you reject the implications of that submission (unwilling to give up what God said you must).
Term
Shirk/Mu'shirk
Definition
Polytheism/Polytheism
Term
Islam/Iman/Ihsan
Definition
Do the 5 pillars/Believe the Tenets of Faith/Have the right intentions behind your actions (act as if Allah is watching)
Term
Qur'an vs. mushaf
Definition
The recitation vs. the actual text.
Term
570 CE
Definition
Birth of the Propeht
Term
610 CE
Definition
Wahy
Term
622 CE
Definition
Hidjra (flight to medina from Mecca)
Term
632 CE
Definition
Death/Ascension of Muhammad
Term
ayah
Definition
verse of Qur'an
Term
surah
Definition
Chapter of Qur'an
Term
'ismah
Definition
Muhammad's (which then gets passed on to the community of jurists) infallibility in interpreting the Qur'an
Term
ta'wil
Definition
Figurative interpretation of Qur'an as espoused by the Rationalists
Term
Tawhid
Definition
Oneness of Rabb/ilah or Creator/Object of Devotion
Term
Emanationism
Definition
Neoplatonic system inherited from the Greeks that said the universe was not so much created as emanated from God's intellects' contemplation of each other.
Term
Agent Intellect
Definition
According to al-Farabi, The Agent Intellect has a special relationship over the Sublunary world and can give special illumination (primary first principles, universals: geometry, ethics (behavior) metaphysics (science of being)) if they have risen to rational state.
Term
al-Farabi
Definition
one of the Falsafah. Put Neoplatonism/emanationism on the map.
Term
al-Kindi
Definition
another Philosopher, though not quite as into Neoplatonism. With al-Farabi and Ibn Sina, the main proponent of Falsafah.
Term
Emigrants
Definition
People who left Mecca to go to medina with the Prophet.
Term
Helpers
Definition
Native Medinese who accepted.
Term
Quraysh
Definition
tribe of the Prophet
Term
Banu Hashim
Definition
clan of the Prophet
Term
Tribe vs. clan
Definition
Tribe is the larger scale group that forms when clans become too larger.
Term
Jahilyah
Definition
Pre-Islamic Arabia (the age of Ignorance)
Term
Testimony of Faith
Definition
There is no God but God and Muhammad is his Prophet
Term
Istihsan
Definition
Equity. The standard law may be deviated from in times of hardship and absolute necessity. This is not only disputed in method, but different jurists could claim things were different in terms of what is a hardship
Term
Maslahah
Definition
Public Utility. Trying to preserved the fundamental/broader aims/objectives/interests of the law. Where the law-giver is vague or silent, but the issue at hand touches on some of these broader aims, the community must create laws to protect the priorities. Think speed limits (we need a law to preserve life)
Term
'Urf
Definition
Custom. Where law is silent on specifics (think must provide a house for a wife, but what kind?), custom of the land around the Muslim must prevail so long as it does not conflict with law.
Term
Dalil
Definition
Proof (for every claim made regarding the rightness/justice of a law, presumably from the Sunna or Qur'an).
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