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| From the Arabic khalifah ( one who represents or acts on behalf of another). Prophets's successor as head of Muslim community. |
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| 'Remembering' God's name; chanted in Sufi devotional exercises, sometimes while devotees dance in a circle |
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| 'Protected people': non-Muslim religious minorities (specifically Jews and Christians, as 'People of the Book') |
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| A Sufi ascetic, from the Arabic word for 'poor' |
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| The short opening surah of the Qur'an, recited at least 17 times every day |
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| A ruling issued by a traditional religio-legal authority |
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| The body of texts reporting Muhammad's words and example, taken by Muslims as a foundation for conduct and doctrine |
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| Jurisprudence, or the theoretical principles underpinning the specific regulations contained in the Shari'ah |
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| The annual pilgrimage to Mecca |
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| Ritually acceptable; most often used in the context of the slaughter of animals for meat; also refers generally to Muslim dietary regulations |
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| 'Pious ones'; a group of pre-Islamic Arabs who shared the ethical monotheism of Jews and Christians |
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| 'Forbidden', used especially in reference to actions; similar in its connotations to 'taboo' |
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| A woman's veil or head convering |
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| The Prophet's migration from Mecca to establish a community in Medina in 622ce. |
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| The holiday celebrating the end of the Ramadan fast; the festival traditionally begins following the sighting of the new moon |
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| The consensus of religio-legal scholars; one of the two secondary principles used in jurisprudence; some legal schools give it more weight than others |
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| Personal reasoning applied to the development of legal opinions |
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| Shi'is who recognize twelve imams as legitimate heirs to the Prophet's authority, the last, in occultation since 874, is expected to return some day as the Mahdi |
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| Shi'is who recognize only seven imams; named after the last of them, Isma'il, whose lineage continues to the present in the Agha Khan |
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| The pedigree of chain of transmission of a hadith, with which the individual unit begins |
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| Struggle in defense of the faith; some are military, waged in response to threats to the community's security or welfare; others are spiritual, waged to improve moral conduct in society |
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| Rejecting belief; implies lack of gratitude for God's grace |
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| The Shi'i twelfth imam, understood in his role as the 'rightly guided one' who will emerge from hiding at some unspecified future date to restore righteousness and order to the world |
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| The Prophet's miraculous journey to heaven |
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| The person who calls people to prayer |
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| The direction of prayer, marked in mosques by a niche inside the wall nearest Mecca |
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| The month throughout which Muslims fast during daylight hours |
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| Alms given voluntarily, in addition to the required zakat |
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| The prescribed daily prayers, said five times during the day |
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| The Muslim profession of faith in God as the only god, and in Muhammad as God's prophet |
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| The specific regulations of Islamic law |
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| The Arabic term for a senior master, especially in the context of Sufism |
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| Muslims who trace succession to the Prophet's authority through imams in the lineage of 'Ali; the smaller of the two main divisions in Islam, accounting for about one-sixth of all Muslims today |
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| The 'life-example' of Muhammad's words and deeds, based mainly on the Hadith literature; the primary source of guidance for Muslims |
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| Muslims who trace succession to the Prophet's authority through the caliphate, which lasted until the twentieth century; the larger of the two main divisions of Islam |
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| A chapter of the Qur'an; there are 114 in all, arranged mainly in decreasing order of length except for the first |
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| following the ijtihad or legal opinion of a particular jurist |
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| The prescribed welfare tax; 2.5 per cent of each Muslim's accumulated wealth, collected by central treasuries in earlier times but now donated to charities independently of state governments |
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