New Page! Dictionary of Terms

On this new page, I would like to present words commonly used in my posts or in articles I read and come to a common definition for them.  In media today, everything from Arabic to English words are used in a myriad of different, and sometimes conflicting, ways.  Have anything to add to my definitions?  Comment on the bottom and I’ll take it into consideration.  For updates on these words, head to this page!

Ayatollah

In Arabic, it literally means ’sign of God.’

My Definition (From Norton) – a leader in the Shi’i community who is eligible to render ijtihad.

Famous ayatollahs: Khomeini (Leader of Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, in power until death in 1989), Khamenei (successor), Fadlallah

Ba’th

In Arabic, it literally means ‘renaissance.’

It is an Arab Nationalist party, pro-Syria and pro-Iraq.

Famous Ba’th Party members: Saddam Hussein

al-Da’wa

Literally ‘the call.’

it refers to many things in the Muslim World including an Iraqi Shi’i party (Hizb al-Da’wa) founded in 1958 (Norton, 161).

Fatwa

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a fatwa as a legal opinion or decree handed down by an Islamic religious leader. The PWHCE gives credit to this definition, calling a fatwa a religious proclamation.

My Definition: A religious proclamation handed down by an Islamic religious leader.

Hadith

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary (and is My Definition) -  a hadith is: a narrative record of the sayings or customs of Muhammad and his companions and the collective body of traditions relating to Muhammad and his companions.

Ijtihad

My Definition (From Norton) – a religious interpretation by a qualified Shi’i scholar, normally an ayatollah

Imam

In Shi’i Islam, it refers to one of the male successors to the Prophet Muhammed.  The 12th refers to a person in occultation (Norton).

Islamist

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Islamist as: a popular reform movement advocating the reordering of government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam. According to Kepel’s Muslim Extremism in Egypt, “Islamicist (or Islamist as I refer to it) thought was reconstructed after 1954 primarily in the concentration camps” (27) these concentration camps he is speaking of are the prisons of Nasser’s regime. In these prisons, Sayyid Qutb and many members of the Muslim Brotherhood rotted after an attempt on Nasser’s life in Alexandria on October 26, 1954 by a member of the Brotherhood. The shots could be heard by the entire country on the radio (26-27). If Islamicist thought had a bible or Qur’an, Qutb’s Signposts is it.

My Definition – A person who advocates the reform movement calling for the implementation of the shari’ah to rule society.

Popular Islamists: bin Laden, Zawahiri, Sayyid Qutb

Jahiliyya

“The bestial state of ignorance man is believed to have lived before the arrival of Islam” (Atwan, 73). “A state of pre-Islamic ignorance and even barbarism” (Bergen, 18). “Pagan or barbaric period prior to the revelation of Islam in Arabia” (Kepel 2002+, 432). In Kepel’s Muslim Extremism in Egypt, the term is delved into in detail when describing its use in Qutb’s Signposts: “…can be translated into English only through approximations and paraphrases. As it is used in Signposts, it is one of the axes of Sayyid Qutb’s view of the world. Derived from the Arabic root meaning ‘to be ignorant’, this word is used by Muslims to designate the pre-Islamic society of the Arabian Peninsula. This society was ‘ignorant’ of God, until Muhammad’s mission. (The term is) much akin to that of ‘barbarism’ in the Western tradition” (Kepel 1984, 44).

My Definition – a pre-Islamic civilization, referred to as ingorant because they did not follow Islam, and was dissolved after Muhammad’s mission.

Mufti

The PWHCE refers to a mufti as the highest religious scholar and the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as a professional jurist who interprets Muslim law.

My Definition – a religious scholar who interprets Muslim law.

Mujahideen

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines mujahideen as: Islamic guerrilla fighters especially in the Middle East. A literal translation from Arabic is: person who wages jihad.

My Definition – A person who wages jihad, often referred to as the Afghan guerrillas fighting against the Soviets in the 1980s.

Mujtahid

My Definition (From Norton) – a cleric who is qualified to to ijtihad

Shaikh

When you call someone a Shaikh, you are showing them great respect.

Shari’ah

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the Shari’ah as: Islamic law based on the Qur’an. Kepel sheds more light on the term: “Law distilled from the holy texts of Islam and traditional jurisprudence” (Kepel 2002, 433).  These two definitions do the term justice.

My Definition: Islamic law based on the Qur’an and hadiths (the holy texts of Islam) and traditional jurisprudence.