H.
HABĀʾ (هباء). “Dust,” especially the finer particles which fly about and are only conspicuous in the sun’s rays.
A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for those portions of matter (hayūla) which God has distributed in creation. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)
HABĪB AN-NAJJĀR (حبيب النجار). “Ḥabīb the Carpenter,” whose story is told in the Qurʾān ([Sūrah xxxvi. 12]), as follows:—
“Set forth to them the instance of the people of the city (i.e. of Antioch) when the Sent Ones came to it.
“When we sent two (i.e. John and Jude) unto them and they charged them both with imposture—therefore with a third (i.e. Simon Peter) we strengthened them: and they said, ‘Verily we are the Sent unto you of God.’
“They said, ‘Ye are only men like us: Nought hath the God of Mercy sent down. Ye do nothing but lie.’
“They said, ‘Our Lord knoweth that we are surely sent unto you;
“ ‘To proclaim a clear message is our only duty.’
“They said, ‘Of a truth we augur ill from you: if ye desist not we will surely stone you, and a grievous punishment will surely befall you from us.’
“They said, ‘Your augury of ill is with yourselves. Will ye be warned? Nay, ye are an erring people.’
“Then from the end of the city a man (i.e. Ḥabīb, the carpenter) came running: He said, ‘O my people! follow the Sent Ones;
“ ‘Follow those who ask not of you a recompence, and who are rightly guided.
“ ‘And why should I not worship Him who made me, and to whom ye shall be brought back?
“ ‘Shall I take gods beside Him? If the God of mercy be pleased to afflict me, their intercession will not avert from me aught, nor will they deliver:
“ ‘Truly then should I be in a manifest error.
“ ‘Verily, in your Lord have I believed; therefore hear me.’
“—It was said to him, ‘Enter thou into Paradise’ (i.e. after they had stoned him to death). And he said, ‘Oh that my people knew
“ ‘How gracious God hath been to me, and that He hath made me one of His honoured ones.’
“But no army sent we down out of heaven after his death, nor were we then sending down our angels—
“There was but one shout from Gabriel, and lo! they were extinct.
“Oh! the misery that rests upon my servants! No apostle cometh to them but they laugh him to scorn.”
Al-Baiẓāwī, the commentator, says the people of the City of Antioch were idolaters, and that Jesus sent two of his disciples, Yaḥyā and Yūnas (John and Jude) to preach to them. And when they arrived, they met Ḥabīb, the carpenter, to whom they made known their mission. Ḥabīb said, “What signs can ye show that ye are sent of God?” And the disciples replied, “We can heal the sick and give sight to those who are born blind, and cure the leprosy.” Then Ḥabīb brought his sick son to them, and they laid their hands upon him and he was healed. And Ḥabīb believed in Jesus, and he made known the gospel to the people of the city. Many of the people then came to the disciples and were also healed. The news then reached the ear of the governor of the city, and he sent for the two disciples and they preached to him. He replied, “Is your God different from our God?” They said, “Yes. He it is who made thee and thy gods.” The governor then sent them away and put them in prison. When they were in prison, Jesus sent Shamʿūn (Simon Peter), and he came secretly and made friends with the servants of the governor, and in time gained access to the governor’s presence, and performed a miracle in the presence of the governor by raising a child who had been dead seven days. The child when raised from the dead, said he had seen Jesus Christ in heaven, and that he had interceded for the three disciples in prison. The governor believed and many others with him. Those who did not believe raised a disturbance in the city, and Ḥabīb the carpenter exhorted them to believe. For this he was stoned, and, having died, entered into Paradise.
Ḥabīb’s tomb is still seen at Antioch, and is visited by Muḥammadans as a shrine.
HABĪL (هبيل). [[ABEL].]
ḤABWAH (حبوة). The posture of sitting with the legs and thighs contracted towards the belly, the back bent forwards, and supported in that position by the arms crossed over the knees. Muslims are forbidden to sit in this posture during the recital of the K͟hut̤bah on Fridays (Mishkāt, book iv. p. 45, pt. 2) as it inclines to drowsiness.
ḤADAS̤. (حدث). State of an unclean person, of one who has not performed the usual ablutions before prayer.
ḤADD (حد), pl. ḥudūd. In its primitive sense ḥadd signifies “obstruction,” whence a porter or gate-keeper is called ḥaddād, or “obstructer,” from his office of prohibiting people from entering. In law it expresses the punishments, the limits of which have been defined by Muḥammad either in the Qurʾān or in the Ḥadīs̤. These punishments are (1) For adultery, stoning; (2) For fornication, a hundred stripes; (3) For the false accusation of a married person with adultery (or Qaẕf), eighty stripes; (4) For apostasy, death; (5) For drinking wine, eighty stripes; (6) For theft, the cutting off of the right hand; (7) For highway robbery: for simple robbery on the highway, the loss of hands and feet; for robbery with murder, death, either by the sword or by crucifixion. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 1.) [[PUNISHMENT].]
AL-ḤADĪD (الحديد). “Iron.” The title of the LVIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in which the word occurs (verse 25): “We sent down iron in which are both keen violence and advantages to men.”
ḤĀDIS̤ (حادث). What happens for the first time; new, fresh. That which is born in time as opposed to qadīm, or that which is without a beginning, as God.
ḤADĪS̤ (حديث), pl. aḥādīs̤. [[TRADITION].]
ḤADĪS̤ QUDSĪ (حديث قدسى). A divine saying. A term used for a ḥadīs̤ which relates a revelation from God in the language of the Prophet. An example is found in the Mishkāt (book i. c. i. pt. 1): “Abū Hurairah said, ‘The Prophet of God related these words of God, “The sons of Adam vex me, and abuse the age, whereas I am The AGE itself: In my hands are all events: I have made the day and night.” ’ ”
HADĪYAH (هدية). A present or offering made to persons of consequence, kings or rulers.
HADY (هدى). Cattle sacrificed at Makkah during the Pilgrimage, as distinguished from animals sacrificed on the Great Festival, which are called uẓḥīyah. These animals are branded and sent off with strings round their necks, as offerings to the sacred temple. They may be bullocks, or camels, or sheep, or goats. (Mishkāt, book xi. c. viii.)
ḤĀFIZ̤ (حافظ). Lit. “A guardian” or protector. (1) One of the names of God, al-Ḥāfiz̤. (2) A governor, e.g. Ḥāfiz̤u ʾl-Bait; the guardian of the Makkan temple. (3) One who has committed the whole of the Qurʾān to memory.
ʿUs̤mān relates that the Prophet said: “The best person amongst you is he who has learnt the Qurʾān and teaches it. (Mishkāt, book vii. c. i.) In the east it is usual for blind men to commit the Qurʾān to memory, and to thus obtain the honourable distinction of Ḥāfiz̤.
ḤAFṢAH (حفصة). One of Muḥammad’s wives. She was the daughter of ʿUmar, and the widow of K͟hunais, an early convert to Islām. She married Muḥammad about six months after her former husband’s death. During the lifetime of the Prophet she was a person of considerable influence in his counsels, being the daughter of ʿUmar. She survived Muḥammad some years, and has recorded several traditions of his sayings.
HAGAR. Arabic Hājar (هاجر). The slave wife of Abraham and the mother of Ishmael. Al-Baiẓāwī says that Hājar was the slave girl of Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and she admitted her to Abraham, and from her was born Ishmael. Sarah became jealous of Hājar (because she had a son), and she demanded of Abraham that he should put both the mother and child away, and he sent them away in the direction of Makkah, and at Makkah God produced for them the spring Zamzam [[ZAMZAM]]. When the tribe of Jurhum saw that there was water in that place, they said to Hājar, “If you will share with us the water of this spring, we will share with you the milk of our herds,” and from that time Makkah became a place of importance. (Tafsīru ʾl-Baiẓāwī, p. 424.)
HAIR. Arabic shaʿr, shaʿar (شعر). Heb. שֵׂעָר.
The sale of human hair is unlawful in the same manner as the use of it for any purpose is unlawful. Being a part of the human body, it is necessary to preserve it from disgrace, to which an exposure of it to sale necessarily subjects it. It is related in the traditions that God has cursed women who use false hair. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 439.) [[HEAD].]
ḤĀʾIT̤ĪYAH (حائطية). A sect of Muslims founded by Aḥmad ibn Ḥāʾit̤, who said there were two Gods, one whose existence is from eternity (qadīm), i.e. Allāh, and the other who is created in time (muḥaddas̤), i.e. al-Masīḥ (Christ), and that it is he who will judge the world in the last day. And he maintained that this is the meaning of the words which occur in the traditions: “God created man in his own image.” (Kitābu ʾl-Taʿrīfāt, in loco.)
ḤAIWĀN (حيوان). The animal creation; which is divided into ḥaiwān nāt̤iq, or rational beings; and ḥaiwān sākit, or irrational beings. [[ANIMALS], [BEINGS].]
AL-ḤAIY (الحى); Heb. חַי. “The Living One.” One of the ninety-nine attributes of God. The term frequently occurs in the Qurʾān.
ḤĀʾIẒAH (حائضة). A menstruous woman. [[MENSTRUATION].]
HĀJAR (هاجر). [[HAGAR].]
AL-ḤAJARU ʾL-ASWAD (الحجر الاسود). Lit. “The Black Stone.” The famous black stone which forms part of the sharp angle of the Kaʿbah in the temple at Makkah. Mr. Burkhardt says, “It is an irregular oval, about seven inches in diameter, with an undulating surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined together with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly well smoothed; it looks as if the whole had been broken into as many pieces by a violent blow, and then united again. It is very difficult to determine accurately the quality of this stone, which has been worn to its present surface by the millions of touches and kisses it has received. It appeared to me like a lava, containing several small extraneous particles of a whitish and of a yellow substance. Its colour is now a deep reddish brown approaching to black. It is surrounded on all sides by a border composed of a substance which I took to be a close cement of pitch and gravel of a similar, but not quite the same, brownish colour. This border serves to support its detached pieces; it is two or three inches in breadth, and rises a little above the surface of the stone. Both the border and the stone itself are encircled by a silver band, broader below than above, and on the two sides, with a considerable swelling below, as if a part of the stone were hidden under it. The lower part of the border is studded with silver nails.”
Captain Burton remarks, “The colour appeared to me black and metallic, and the centre of the stone was sunk about two inches below the metallic circle. Round the sides was a reddish brown cement, almost level with the metal, and sloping down to the middle of the stone. The band is now a massive arch of gold or silver gilt. I found the aperture in which the stone is, one span and three fingers broad.”
According to Ibn ʿAbbās, Muḥammad said the black stone came down from Paradise, and at the time of its descent it was whiter than milk, but that the sins of the children of Adam have caused it to be black, by their touching it. That on the Day of Resurrection, when it will have two eyes, by which it will see and know all those who touched it and kissed it, and when it will have a tongue to speak, it will give evidence in favour of those who touched and kissed it.
Maximus Tyrius, who wrote in the second century, says, “The Arabians pay homage to I know not what god, which they represent by a quadrangular stone,” alluding to the Kaʿbah or temple which contains the black stone. The Guebars or Ancient Persians, assert that the Black Stone was amongst the images and relics left by Mahabad and his successors in the Kaʿbah, and that it was an emblem of Saturn. It is probably an aërolite, and owes its reputation, like many others, to its fall from the sky. Its existence as an object of adoration in an iconoclastic religious system, can only be accounted for by Muḥammad’s attempt to conciliate the idolaters of Arabia.
A complete list of the falls of aërolites and meteoric stones through the atmosphere, is published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, from a work by Chladni in German, in which the subject is ably and fully treated.
THE HAJARU ʾL-ASWAD. (Burton.)
ḤAJB (حجب). A legal term in the Muḥammadan law of inheritance, signifying the cutting off of an heir from his portion.
ḤĀJĪ (حاجى), also ḥājj. A person who has performed the ḥajj, or pilgrimage to Makkah. It is retained as a title of honour by those who have performed the pilgrimage, e.g. Ḥājī Qāsim, i.e. “Qāsim the Pilgrim.” [[HAJJ].]
ḤAJJ (حج). Lit. “setting out,” “tending towards.” The pilgrimage to Makkah performed in the month of Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah, or the twelfth month of the Muḥammadan year. It is the fifth pillar of Muḥammadan practical religion, and an incumbent religious duty, founded upon express injunctions in the Qurʾān. According to Muḥammad it is a divine institution, and has the following authority in the Qurʾān for its due observance:—
(It is noticeable that all the verses in the Qurʾān with regard to the pilgrimage are in the later Sūrahs, when they are arranged in their chronological order.)
“And proclaim to the peoples a PILGRIMAGE (ḥajj). Let them come to thee on foot and on every fleet camel, arriving by every deep defile:
“That they may bear witness of its benefits to them, and may make mention of God’s name on the appointed days (i.e. the ten first days of Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah), over the brute beasts with which He hath supplied them for sustenance: Therefore eat thereof yourselves, and feed the needy, the poor:
“Then let them bring the neglect of their persons to a close, and let them pay their vows, and circuit the ancient House.
“This do. And he that respecteth the sacred ordinances of God, this will be best for him with his Lord.”
“Verily, as-Ṣafā and al-Marwah are among the signs of God: whoever then maketh a pilgrimage (ḥajj) to the temple, or visiteth it, shall not be to blame if he go round about them both. And as for him who of his own accord doeth what is good—God is Grateful, Knowing.”
“Accomplish the pilgrimage (ḥajj), and the visitation (ʿumrah) for God: and if ye be hemmed in by foes, send whatever sacrifice shall be the easiest, and shave not your heads until the offering reach the place of sacrifice. But whoever among you is sick or has an ailment of the head, must expiate by fasting, alms, or an offering.
“And when ye are safe from foes, he who contents himself with the visitation (ʿumrah) until the pilgrimage (ḥajj), shall bring whatever offering shall be the easiest. But he who findeth nothing to offer, shall fast three days in the pilgrimage itself, and seven days when ye return: they shall be ten days in all. This is binding on him whose family shall not be present at the sacred Mosque (al-Masjidu ʾl-ḥarām). And fear God, and know that God is terrible in punishing.
“Let the pilgrimage be made in the months already known (i.e. Shawwāl, Ẕū ʾl-Qaʿdah, and Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah): whoever therefore undertaketh the pilgrimage therein, let him not know a woman, nor transgress, nor wrangle in the pilgrimage. The good which ye do, God knoweth it. And provide for your journey; but the best provision is the fear of God: fear me, then, O men of understanding!
“It shall be no crime in you if ye seek an increase from your Lord (i.e. to trade); and when ye pass swiftly on from ʿArafāt, then remember God near the holy temple (al-Masjidu ʾl-ḥarām); and remember Him, because He hath guided you who before this were of those who went astray:
“Then pass on quickly where the people quickly pass (i.e. from ʿArafāt), and ask pardon of God, for God is Forgiving, Merciful.
“And when ye have finished your holy rites, remember God as ye remember your own fathers, or with a yet more intense remembrance! Some men there are who say, ‘O our Lord! give us our portion in this world:’ but such shall have no portion in the next life:
“And some say, ‘O our Lord! give us good in this world and good in the next, and keep us from the torment of the fire.’
“They shall have the lot which they have merited: and God is swift to reckon.
“Bear God in mind during the stated days: but if any haste away in two days (i.e. after the ḥajj), it shall be no fault in him: And if any tarry longer, it shall be no fault in him, if he fear God. Fear God, then, and know that to Him shall ye be gathered.”
“The first temple that was founded for mankind, was that in Bakkah (i.e. Makkah)—Blessed, and a guidance to human beings.
“In it are evident signs, even the standing-place of Abraham (Maqāmu Ibrāhīm): and he who entereth it is safe. And the pilgrimage to the temple, is a service due to God from those who are able to journey thither.”
“O Believers! violate neither the rites of God, nor the sacred month, nor the offering, nor its ornaments, (i.e. on the necks of animals), nor those who press on to the sacred house (al-Baitu ʾl-Ḥarām), seeking favour from their Lord and his good pleasure in them.”
The performance of the pilgrimage is incumbent upon every Muslim, once in his lifetime, if he be an adult, free, sane, well in health, and has sufficient money for the expenses of the journey and for the support of his family during his absence.
If a woman perform the pilgrimage she must do it in company with her husband, or a near relative (maḥram). If she can obtain the protection of a near relative and has the necessary expenses for the journey, it is not lawful for her husband to prevent her performing the pilgrimage. This maḥram is a near relative whom it is not lawful for her to marry.
The Imām ash-Shāfiʿī denies the necessity of such attendance, stating that the Qurʾān makes no such restriction. His objection is, however, met by a Tradition. “A certain man came to the Prophet and said: ‘My wife is about to make the ḥajj, but I am called to go on a warlike expedition.’ The Prophet said: ‘Turn away from the war and accompany thy wife in the ḥajj.’ ”
For a lawful ḥajj there are three actions which are farẓ, and five which are wājib; all the rest are sunnah or mustaḥabb. The farẓ are: to wear no other garment except the iḥrām; to stand in ʿArafāt; to make the t̤awāf, or circuit round the Kaʿbah.
The wājib duties are: to stay in al-Muzdalifah; to run between Mount aṣ-Ṣafā and Mount al-Marwah; to perform the Ramyu ʾr-Rijām, or the casting of the pebbles; if the pilgrims are non-Meccans, to make an extra t̤awāf; to shave the head after the pilgrimage is over.
The ḥajj must be made at the appointed season. [Sūrah ii. 193]: “Let the pilgrimage be made in the months already known.” These months are Shawwāl, Ẕū ʾl-Qaʿdah, and the first ten days of Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah. The actual ḥajj must be in the month Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah, but the preparations for, and the nīyah, or intention of the ḥajj can be made in the two preceding months. The ʿumrah, or ordinary visitation [[ʿUMRAH]], can be done at any time of the year except on the ninth and four succeeding days of Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah. On each of the various roads leading to Makkah, there are at a distance of about five or six miles from the city stages called Mīqāt. The following are the names. On the Madīnah road, the stage is called Ẕū ʾl-Ḥalīfah; on the ʿIrāq road, Ẕātu ʿArq; on the Syrian road, Hujfah; on the Najd road, Qarn; on the Yaman road, Yalamlam.
THE PILGRIM.
The following is the orthodox way of performing the pilgrimage, founded upon the example of the Prophet himself. (See Ṣaḥīḥu ʾl-Buk͟hārī, Kitābu ʾl-Manāsik, p. 205.)
Upon the pilgrim’s arrival at the last stage near Makkah, he bathes himself, and performs two rakʿah prayers, and then divesting himself of his clothes, he assumes the pilgrim’s sacred robe, which is called iḥrām. This garment consists of two seamless wrappers, one being wrapped round the waist, and the other thrown loosely over the shoulder, the head being left uncovered. Sandals may also be worn, but not shoes or boots. After he has assumed the pilgrim’s garb, he must not anoint his head, shave any part of his body, pare his nails, nor wear any other garment than the iḥrām. The pilgrim having now entered upon the ḥajj, faces Makkah, and makes the nīyah (intention), and says: “O God, I purpose to make the ḥajj; make this service easy to me and accept it from me.” He then proceeds on his journey to the sacred city and on his way, as well as at different periods in the pilgrimage, he recites, or sings with a loud voice, the pilgrim’s song, called the Talbiyah (a word signifying waiting or standing for orders). In Arabic it runs thus (as given in the Ṣaḥīḥu ʾl-Buk͟hārī, p. 210):—
“Labbaika! Allāhumma! Labbaika!
Labbaika! Lā Shārika laka! Labbaika!
Inna ʾl-ḥamda wa ʾn-niʿmata laka, wa ʾl-mulku laka!
Lā shārika laka!”
Which, following the Persian commentator, ʿAbdu ʾl-Ḥaqq, may be translated as follows:—
“I stand up for Thy service, O God! I stand up!
I stand up! There is no partner with Thee! I stand up!
Verily Thine is the Praise, the Blessing and the Kingdom!
There is no partner with Thee!”
Immediately on his arrival at Makkah he performs legal ablutions in the Masjidu ʾl-ḥarām, and then kisses the black stone (al-Ḥajaru ʾl-aswad). He then encompasses the Kaʿbah seven times; three times at a quick step or run, and four times at a slow pace. These acts are called the t̤awāf and are performed by commencing on the right and leaving the Kaʿbah on the left. Each time as the pilgrim passes round the Kaʿbah, he touches the Ruknu ʾl-Yamānī, or the Yamānī corner, and kisses the sacred black stone. He then proceeds to the Maqāmu Ibrāhīm (the place of Abraham), where he recites the [119th verse] of the IInd Sūrah of the Qurʾān, “Take ye the station of Abraham for a place of prayer,” and performs two rakʿah prayers, after which he returns to the black stone and kisses it. He then goes to the gate of the temple leading to Mount aṣ-Ṣafā, and from it ascends the hill, reciting the [153rd verse] of the IInd Sūrah of the Qurʾān, “Verily aṣ-Ṣafā and al-Marwah are the signs of God.” Having arrived at the summit of the mount, turning towards the Kaʿbah, he recites the following:—
“There is no deity but only God! God is great! There is no deity but God alone! He hath performed His promise, and hath aided His servant and hath put to flight the hosts of infidels by Himself alone!”
These words are recited thrice. He then runs from the top of Mount aṣ-Ṣafā to the summit of Mount al-Marwah seven times, repeating the aforesaid prayers on the top of each hill. This is the sixth day, the evening of which is spent at Makkah, where he again encompasses the Kaʿbah.
Upon the seventh day he listens to the k͟hut̤bah, or oration, in the great mosque, in which are set forth the excellences of the pilgrimage and the necessary duties required of all true Muslims on the following days.
On the eighth day, which is called Tarwiyah, he proceeds with his fellow pilgrims to Mina, where he stays and performs the usual services of the Muslim ritual, and remains the night.
The next day (the ninth), after morning prayer, he proceeds to Mount ʿArafāt, where he recites the usual prayers and listens to another k͟hut̤bah. He then leaves for al-Muzdalifah, a place midway between Mina and ʿArafāt, where he should arrive for the sunset prayer.
The next day, the tenth, is the Yaumu ʾn-Naḥr, or the “Day of Sacrifice,” known all through the Muslim world and celebrated as the ʿĪdu ʾl-Aẓḥā. Early in the morning, the pilgrims having said their prayers at Muzdalifah, then proceed in a body to three pillars in Mina, the first of which is called the Shait̤ānu ʾl-Kabīr, or “Great Devil.” The pilgrim casts seven stones at each of these pillars, the ceremony being called the Ramyu ʾr-Rijām, or casting of stones. Holding the rajm, or pebble between the thumb and fore-finger of the right hand, the pilgrim throws it at a distance of not less than fifteen feet, and says—“In the name of God, the Almighty, I do this, and in hatred of the devil and his shame.” The remaining six stones are thrown in the same way. It is said that this ceremony has been performed ever since the days of Abraham. The pilgrim then returns to Mina and performs the sacrifice of the ʿĪdu ʾl-Aẓḥā. The victim may be a sheep, or a goat, or a cow, or a camel, according to the means of the pilgrim.
Placing its head towards the Kaʿbah, its fore-legs being bandaged together, the pilgrim stands on the right side of his victim and plunges the knife into its throat with great force, and cries with a loud voice, “Allāhu Akbar!” “God is great! O God, accept this sacrifice from me!”
This ceremony concludes the pilgrimage, and the ḥājī or pilgrim then gets himself shaved and his nails pared, and the iḥrām or pilgrim garment is removed. Although the pilgrimage is over, he should still rest at Makkah the three following days, which are known as the Ayyāmu ʾt-Tashrīq, or the days of drying up of the blood of the sacrifice. Three well-earned days of rest after the peripatetic performance of the last four days.
Before he leaves Makkah he should once more perform the circuits round the Kaʿbah and throw stones at the Satanic pillars at Mina, seven times. He should also drink of the water of the zamzam well.
Most Muslims then go to al-Madīnah, and make their salutations at the shrine of Muḥammad. This is regarded as an incumbent duty by all except the Wahhābīs, who hold that to make the visitation of the Prophet’s tomb a religious ceremony is shirk, or associating the creature with God.
From the time the pilgrim has assumed the iḥrām until he takes it off, he must abstain from worldly affairs and devote himself entirely to the duties of the ḥajj. He is not allowed to hunt, though he may catch fish if he can. “O Believers, kill no game while ye are on pilgrimage.” ([Sūrah v. 96].) The Prophet also said: “He who shows the place where game is to be found is equally as bad as the man who kills it.” The ḥājī must not scratch himself, lest vermin be destroyed, or a hair be uprooted. Should he feel uncomfortable, he must rub himself with the open palm of his hand. The face and head must be left uncovered, the hair on the head and beard unwashed and uncut. “Shave not your heads until the offering reach the place of sacrifice.” ([Sūrah ii. 192].) On arriving at an elevated place, on descending a valley, on meeting any one, on entering the city of Makkah or the sacred temple, the ḥājī should continually repeat the word “Labbaika, Labbaika”; and whenever he sees the Kaʿbah he should recite the Takbīr, “God is great!” and the Taʾlīh “There is no deity but God!”
The pilgrimage known as the ḥajj, as has been already stated, can only be made on the appointed days of the month of Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah. A visit at any other time is called the ʿUmrah. [[ʿUMRAH].] If the pilgrim arrives as late as the ninth day, and is in time to spend that day, he can still perform the pilgrimage legally.
The pilgrimage cannot be performed by proxy by Sunnī Muslims, but is allowed by the Shīʿahs, and it is by both considered a meritorious act to pay the expenses of one who cannot afford to perform it. But if a Muḥammadan on his death-bed bequeath a sum of money to be paid to a certain person to perform the pilgrimage, it is considered to satisfy the claims of the Muslim law. If a Muslim have the means of performing the pilgrimage, and omit to do so, its omission is equal to a kabīrah, or mortal sin.
According to the saying of the Prophet (Mishkāt, book xi. ch. 1), the merits of a pilgrimage to Makkah are very great:—
“He who makes a pilgrimage for God’s sake, and does not talk loosely, nor act wickedly, shall return as pure from sin as the day on which he was born.” “Verily, they (the ḥajj and the ʿumrah) put away poverty and sin like the fires of a forge removes dross. The reward of a pilgrimage is paradise.” “When you see a pilgrim, salute and embrace him, and request him to ask pardon of God for you, for his own sins have been forgiven and his supplications will be accepted.”
For a philological and technical explanation of the following terms which occur in this account of the ḥajj, refer to the words as they occur in this dictionary: [ʿARAFAH], [AYYAMU ʾT-TASHRIQ], [HAJARU ʾL-ASWAD], [HAJI], [IHRAM], [MARWAH], [MASJIDU ʾL-HARAM], [MAQAMU IBRAHIM], [MAHRAM], [MIQAT], MUZDALIFAH, [TAWAF], [ʿUMRAH], [RAMYU ʾL-JIMAR], [ZAMZAM], [TALBIYAH], [RUKNU ʾL-YAMANI], [TARWIYAH], [KHUTBAH], [ʿIDU ʾL-AZHA], [SAFA].
The Muslim who has performed the pilgrimage is called a ḥājī, which title he retains, e.g. Ḥājī Qāsim, the Pilgrim Qāsim.
Only five Englishmen are known to have visited Makkah, and to have witnessed the ceremonies of the pilgrimage:—Joseph Pitts, of Exeter, A.D. 1678; John Lewis Burckhardt, A.D. 1814; Lieutenant Richard Burton, of the Bombay Army, A.D. 1853; Mr. H. Bicknell, A.D. 1862; Mr. T. F. Keane, 1880. The narratives of each of these “pilgrims” have been published. The first account in English of the visit of a European to Makkah, is that of Lodovico Bartema, a gentleman of Rome, who visited Makkah in 1503. His narrative was published in Willes and Eden’s Decades, A.D. 1555.
Professor Palmer (“Introduction” to the Qurʾān, p. liii.) says:—“The ceremonies of the pilgrimage could not be entirely done away with. The universal reverence of the Arab for the Kaabah was too favourable and obvious a means for uniting all the tribes into one confederation with one common purpose in view. The traditions of Abraham the father of their race, and the founder of Muhammad’s own religion, as he always declared it to be, no doubt gave the ancient temple a peculiar sanctity in the Prophet’s eyes, and although he first settled upon Jerusalem as his qiblah, he afterwards reverted to the Kaabah itself. Here, then, Muhammad found a shrine, to which, as well as at which, devotion had been paid from time immemorial; it was one thing which the scattered Arabian nation had in common—the one thing which gave them even the shadow of a national feeling; and to have dreamed of abolishing it, or even of diminishing the honours paid to it, would have been madness and ruin to his enterprise. He therefore did the next best thing, he cleared it of idols and dedicated it to the service of God.”
Mr. Stanley Lane Poole (Introduction to Lane’s Selections, p. lxxxiv.) remarks:—
“This same pilgrimage is often urged as a sign of Moḥammad’s tendency to superstition and even idolatry. It is asked how the destroyer of idols could have reconciled his conscience to the circuits of the Kaʿbah and the veneration of the black stone covered with adoring kisses. The rites of the pilgrimage cannot certainly be defended against the charge of superstition; but it is easy to see why Moḥammad enjoined them. They were hallowed to him by the memories of his ancestors, who had been the guardians of the sacred temple, and by the traditional reverence of all his people; and besides this tie of association, which in itself was enough to make it impossible for him to do away with the rites, Moḥammad perceived that the worship in the Kaʿbah would prove of real value to his religion. He swept away the more idolatrous and immoral part of the ceremonies, but he retained the pilgrimage to Mekka and the old veneration of the temple for reasons of which it is impossible to dispute the wisdom. He well knew the consolidating effect of forming a centre to which his followers should gather; and hence he reasserted the sanctity of the black stone that ‘came down from heaven’; he ordained that everywhere throughout the world the Muslim should pray looking towards the Kaʿbah, and he enjoined him to make the pilgrimage thither. Mekka is to the Muslim what Jerusalem is to the Jew. It bears with it all the influence of centuries of associations. It carries the Muslim back to the cradle of his faith, the childhood of his prophet; it reminds him of the struggle between the old faith and the new, of the overthrow of the idols, and the establishment of the worship of the One God. And, most of all, it bids him remember that all his brother Muslims are worshipping towards the same sacred spot; that he is one of a great company of believers, united by one faith, filled with the same hopes, reverencing the same thing, worshipping the same God. Moḥammad showed his knowledge of the religious emotions in man when he preserved the sanctity of the temple of Islām.”
The Makkan pilgrimage admits of no other explanation than this, that the Prophet of Arabia found it expedient to compromise with Arabian idolatry. And hence we find the superstition and silly customs of the Ḥajj grafted on to a religion which professes to be both monotheistic in its principle, and iconoclastic in its practices.
A careful and critical study of Islām will, we think, convince any candid mind that at first Muḥammad intended to construct his religion on the lines of the Old Testament. Abraham, the true Muslim, was his prototype, Moses his law-giver, and Jerusalem his Qiblah. But circumstances were ever wont to change not only the Prophet’s revelations, but also his moral standards. Makkah became the Qiblah; and the spectacle of the Muslim world bowing in the direction of a black stone, whilst they worship the one God, marks Islām, with its Makkan pilgrimage, as a religion of compromise.
Apologists of Islām have endeavoured to shield Muḥammad from the solemn charge of having “forged the name of God,” but we know of nothing which can justify the act of giving the stupid and unmeaning ceremonies of the pilgrimage all the force and solemnity of a divine enactment.
The Wahhābīs, the Puritans of Islām, regard the circumambulation of the Prophet’s tomb as superstitious (as shirk, or associating something with God, in fact), but how can they justify the foolish ceremonies of the ḥajj? If reverence for the Prophet’s tomb is shirk, what are the runnings at aṣ-Ṣafā and al-Marwah, the stonings of the pillars, and the kissings of the black stone? No Muslim has ever yet attempted to give a spiritual explanation of the ceremonies of the Makkan pilgrimage, for in attempting to do so he would be charged with the heresy of shirk!
Mr. W. S. Blunt in his Future of Islām, has given some interesting statistics regarding the pilgrimage to Makkah in the year 1880, which he obtained during a residence at Cairo, Damascus, and Jiddah. The figures, he says, are taken principally from an official record kept for some years past at Jiddah, and checked as far as European subjects are concerned, by reference to the consular agents residing there.
Table of the Mecca Pilgrimage of 1880.
| Nationality of Pilgrims. | Arriving by Sea. | Arriving by Land. | Total of Mussulman population represented. |
| Ottoman subjects including pilgrims from Syria and Irak, but not from Egypt or Arabiaproper | 8,500 | 1,000 | 22,000,000 |
| Egyptians | 5,000 | 1,000 | 5,000,000 |
| Mogrebbins (“people of the West”), that is to say, Arabic-speaking Mussalmans fromthe Barbary States, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco. These are always classedtogether and are not easily distinguishable from each other | 6,000 | — | 18,000,000 |
| Arabs from Yemen | 3,000 | — | 2,500,000 |
| Arabs,, from,, Oman and Hadramaut | 3,000 | — | 3,000,000 |
| Arabs,, from,, Nejd, Assir, and Hasa, most of them Wahhabites | — | 5,000 | 4,000,000 |
| Arabs,, from,, Hejaz, of these perhaps 10.000 Meccans | — | 22,000 | 2,000,000 |
| Negroes from Soudan | 2,000 | — | 10,000,000(?) |
| Negroes,, from,, Zanzibar | 1,000 | — | 1,500,000 |
| Malabari from the Cape of Good Hope | 150 | — | |
| Persians | 6,000 | 2,500 | 8,000,000 |
| Indians (British subjects) | 15,000 | — | 40,000,000 |
| Malays, chiefly from Java and Dutch subjects | 12,000 | — | 30,000,000 |
| Chinese | 100 | — | 15,000,000 |
| Mongols from the Khanates, included in the Ottoman Haj | — | — | 6,000,000 |
| Lazis, Circassians, Tartars, &c. (Russian subjects), included in the Ottoman Haj | — | — | 5,000,000 |
| Independent Afghans and Beluchis, included in the Indian and Persian Hajs | — | — | 3,000,000 |
| |||
| Total of pilgrims present at Arafat | 93,250. | ||
| Total Census of Islam | 175,000,000 | ||
ḤAJJATU ʾL-WADĀʿ (حجة الوداع). The last or farewell pilgrimage performed by Muḥammad, and which is taken as the model of an orthodox ḥajj. It is called the Ḥajju ʾl-Akbar, or Greater Pilgrimage, in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah ix. 3]. (See Mishkāt, book xi. ch. iii., and Muir’s Life of Mahomet.) It is supposed to have commenced February 23, A.D. 632.
ḤAJJ MABRŪR (حج مبرور). An approved or accepted pilgrimage (Mishkāt, book xi. ch. i. pt. 2). A pilgrimage to Makkah performed according to the conditions of Muslim law.
ḤAKAM (حكم). An arbitrator appointed by a qāẓī to settle disputes. It is not lawful to appoint either a slave or an unbeliever, or a slanderer, or an infant, as an arbitrator. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 638.)
According to the Qurʾān, [Sūrah iv. 39], domestic quarrels should be settled by an arbitrator:—“If ye fear a breach between the two (i.e. husband and wife) then appoint an arbitrator from his people, and an arbitrator from her people.”
Al-Ḥakam, the Arbitrator, is one of the ninety-nine attributes of God, although it is not so employed in the Qurʾān.
ḤĀKIM (حاكم). “A just ruler.” The term Aḥkamu ʾl-Ḥākimīn, “the Most Just of Rulers,” is used for God, Qurʾān, [Sūrah xcv. 8]; also, K͟hairu ʾl-Ḥākimīn, i.e. “Best of Rulers,” [Sūrah vii. 85].
ḤAKĪM (حكيم), pl. ḥukamāʾ; Heb. חָכָם. Lit. “A wise person.” (1) A philosopher. (2) A doctor of medicine. (3) Al-Ḥakīm, “The Wise One.” One of the ninety-nine attributes of God. It frequently occurs in the Qurʾān, e.g. [Sūrah ii. 123]: “Thou art the Mighty and the Wise!”
ḤĀL (حال). A state, or condition. A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for those thoughts and conditions which come upon the heart of man without his intention or desire, such as sorrow, or fear, or pleasure, or desire, or lust. If these conditions are stable and intransient, they are called malkah or maqām; but if they are transient and fleeting, they are called ḥāl. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dictionary of Ṣūfī Terms.)
A state of ecstasy induced by continued contemplation of God. It is considered a divine gift and a sure prognostication of speedily arriving at “The Truth.”
Professor Palmer says (Oriental Mysticism, p. 66), “This assiduous contemplation of startling metaphysical theories is exceedingly attractive to an Oriental mind, and not unfrequently produces a state of mental excitement akin to the phenomena observed during the recent religious revivals. Such ecstatic state is considered a sure prognostication of direct illumination of the heart by God, and constitutes the fifth stage (in the mystic journey) called ḥāl or ecstasy.”
ḤALĀL (حلال). Lit. “That which is untied or loosed.” That which is lawful, as distinguished from ḥarām, or that which is unlawful.
AL-ḤALĪM (الحليم). “The Clement.” One of the ninety-nine attributes of God. It occurs in the Qurʾān, e.g. [Sūrah ii. 225]: “God is forgiving and clement.”
ḤAMĀʾIL (حمائل). Lit. “Things suspended.” An amulet or charm. [[AMULET].]
ḤAMĀLAH (حـمالة). Compensation for manslaughter or murder, called also diyah. [[DIYAH].]
ḤAMALATU ʾL-ʿARSH (حـمـلـة العرش). Lit. “Those who bear the throne.” Certain angels mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xl. 7]: “Those who bear the throne (i.e. the Ḥamalatu ʾl-ʿArsh) and those around it (i.e. the Karūbīn) celebrate the praise of their Lord, and believe in Him, and ask pardon for those who believe.”
Al-Bag͟hawī, the commentator, says they are eight angels of the highest rank. They are so tall that their feet stand on the lowest strata of the earth and their heads reach the highest heavens, the universe does not reach up to their navels, and it is a journey of seven hundred years from their ears to their shoulders! (Al-Bag͟hawī, Bombay edition, vol. ii. p. 23.)
HĀMĀN (هـامـان). The prime minister of Pharaoh. Mentioned in the Qurʾān in three different chapters.
[Sūrah xxviii. 7]: “For sinners were Pharaoh and Hāmān.”
[Sūrah xxix. 38]: “Korah (Qārūn) and Pharaoh and Hāmān! with proofs of his mission did Moses come to them and they behaved proudly on the earth.”
“And Pharaoh said, ‘O Hāmān, build for me a tower that I may reach the avenues,
“ ‘The avenues of the heavens, and may mount to the God of Moses, for I verily deem him a liar.’ ”
Some European critics think that Muḥammad has here made Hāmān the favourite of Ahasuerus and the enemy of the Jews, the vizier of Pharaoh. The Rabbins make this vizier to have been Korah, Jethro, or Balaam. (Midr. Jalkut on Ex. ch. 1, Sect. 162–168.)
In the Mishkāt (book iv. ch. i. pt. 3), there is a tradition that Muḥammad said he who neglects prayers will be in hell with Korah, Pharaoh, Hāmān, and Ubaiy ibn K͟half (an infidel whom Muḥammad slew with his own hand at the battle of Uḥud.)
AL-ḤAMD (الحمد), the “Praise.” A title of the first chapter of the Qurʾān. According to Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrifāt, “praise” (ḥamd) of God is of three kinds:—
(1) Al-ḥamdu ʾl-Qaulī, the praise of God with the tongue, with those attributes with which He has made known Himself. (2) Al-ḥamdu ʾl-Fiʿlī, the praise of God with the body according to the will of God. (3) Al-ḥamdu ʾl-Ḥālī, the praise of God with the heart and spirit.
AL-ḤAMĪD (الحميد). “The Laudable.” The One worthy of praise. One of the ninety-nine attributes of God. It frequently occurs in the Qurʾān, e.g. [Sūrah xi. 76], “Verily He is to be praised.”
ḤĀ MĪM (حا ميم). Seven Sūrahs of the Qurʾān begin with the letters ح ḥ, م m, and are called al-Ḥawāmīm. They are the XL, XLI, XLII, XLIII, XLIV, XLV, and XLVI. Various opinions are held by Muḥammadan commentators as to the meaning of these mysterious letters. Jalālu ʾd-dīn as-Suyūt̤ī in his Itqān, says these letters are simply initial letters, the meaning of which is known only to God, but Ibn ʿAbbās says the letters ح ḥ, and م m, stand for الرحمان ar-Raḥmān, “the Merciful,” one of the attributes of God.
Mr. Rodwell, in his Introduction to the Ḳorân, says, “Possibly the letters Hā, Mīm, which are prefixed to numerous successive Suras were private marks, or initial letters, attached by their proprietor to the copies furnished to Said when effecting his recension of the text under Othman. In the same way, the letters prefixed to other Suras may be monograms, or abbreviations, or initial letters of the names of the persons to whom the copies of the respective Suras belonged.”
ḤAMRĀU ʾL-ĀSĀD (حمرا الاساد). A village or small town, the scene of one of Muḥammad’s expeditions against the Quraish. Having reached this spot he kindled five hundred fires to make the Quraish believe that the pursuing force was very large, and, contenting himself with this demonstration, he returned to al-Madīnah, from which it was about 60 miles. According to Burton, it is the modern Wasitah.
“At Hamrâ al Asād, Mahomet made prisoner one of the enemy, the poet Abu Ozza, who had loitered behind the rest. He had been taken prisoner at Bedr, and, having five daughters dependent on him, had been freely released, on the promise that he would not again bear arms in the war against the Prophet. He now sought for mercy: ‘O Mahomet!’ he prayed, ‘forgive me of thy grace.’ ‘Nay, verily,’ said the Prophet, ‘a believer may not be twice bitten from the same hole. Thou shalt never return to Mecca, stroke thy beard and say, I have again deceived Mahomet. Lead him forth to execution!’ So saying, he motioned to a bystander, who with his sword struck off the captive’s head.” (Muir’s Life of Mahomet, new ed. p. 276.)
ḤAMZAH (حمزة). Muḥammad’s uncle, who embraced Islām and became one of its bravest champions. He was at the battle of Uḥud and slew ʿUs̤mān, one of the leaders of the Quraish, but was soon afterwards himself killed by a wild negro named Waḥshī, and his dead body shamefully mutilated. At his death Muḥammad is recorded to have said that Ḥamzah was “the lion of God and of His Apostle.” The warlike deeds of Ḥamzah are recorded in Persian poetry, in which he is celebrated as Amīr Ḥamzah.
ḤAMZĪYAH (حمزية). A sect of Muslims founded by Ḥamzah ibn Adrak, who say that the children (infants) of infidels will be consigned to the Fire of Hell, the general belief of Muḥammadans being that they will have a special place in al-Aʿrāf. (Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrīfāt, in loco.)
ḤANAFĪ (حنفى), ḤANĪFĪ (حنيفى). A member of the sect of Sunnīs founded by the Imām Abū Ḥanīfah. [[ABU HANIFAH].]
ḤANBAL. [[IBN HANBAL].]
ḤANBALĪ (حنبلى). A member of the Ḥanbalī sect of Sunnī Muslims. [[IBN HANBAL].]
HAND. Arabic yad (يـد), pl. ayādī. Heb. יָד.
(1) It is a rule with Muslims to honour the right hand above the left; to use the right hand for all honourable purposes, and the left for actions which, though necessary, are unclean. The hands must be washed before prayers [[ABLUTIONS]] and before meals.
(2) The expression yadu ʾllāh, the “hand of God,” occurs in the Qurʾān:—
[Sūrah v. 69]: “The Jews say, ‘God’s hand is fettered’; their hands are fettered, for they are cursed.”
[Sūrah xlviii. 10]: “God’s hand is above their hands.”
There is a controversy between the orthodox Sunnīs and the Wahhābīs regarding the expression, “God’s hand.” The former maintaining that it is a figurative expression for the power of God, the latter holding that it is literal; but that it is impossible to say in what sense or manner God has a hand; for as the essence of God is not known, how can the manner of His existence be understood?
HANDKERCHIEFS. The custom of keeping a handkerchief in the hand, as is frequently practised, is said to be abominable (makrūh). Many, however, hold that it is allowable, if done from motives of necessity. This, says Abū Ḥanīfah, is approved; for the practice is abominable only when it is done ostentatiously. (Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 95.)
ḤANĪF (حنيف), pl. Ḥunafāʾ. Lit. “One who is inclined.” (1) Anyone sincere in his inclination to Islām. (2) One orthodox in the faith. (3) One who is of the religion of Abraham. (See Majmaʿu ʾl-Biḥār, in loco.)
The word occurs ten times in the Qurʾān.
I.—Six times for the religion of Abraham:—
[Sūrah ii. 129]: “They say, ‘Be ye Jews or Christians so shall ye be guided!’ Say: ‘Not so!’ but the faith of Abraham, the Ḥanīf, he was not of the idolaters.”
[Sūrah iii. 60]: “Abraham was not a Jew nor yet a Christian, but he was a Ḥanīf resigned, and not of the idolaters.”
[Idem, 89]: “Follow the faith of Abraham, a Ḥanīf, who was not of the idolaters.”
[Sūrah vi. 162]: “The faith of Abraham, the Ḥanīf, he was not of the idolaters.”
[Sūrah xvi. 121]: “Verily Abraham was an Imām, a Ḥanīf, and was not of the idolaters.”
[Sūrah vi. 79]: (Abraham said) “I have turned my face to Him who originated the heaven and the earth as a Ḥanīf, and I am not of the idolaters.”
II.—Four times for one sound in the faith:—
[Sūrah x. 105]: “Make steadfast thy face to the religion as a Ḥanīf, and be not an idolater.”
[Sūrah xxii. 32]: “Avoid speaking falsely being Ḥanīfs to God, not associating aught with Him.”
[Sūrah xcviii. 4]: “Being sincere in religion unto Him, as Ḥanīfs, and to be steadfast in prayer.”
[Sūrah xxx. 29]: “Set thy face steadfast towards the religion as a Ḥanīf.”
III.—The term was also applied in the early stages of Islām, and before Muḥammad claimed the position of an inspired prophet, to those who had endeavoured to search for the truth among the mass of conflicting dogmas and superstitions of the religions that existed in Arabia. Amongst these Ḥanīfs were Waraqah, the Prophet’s cousin, and Zaid ibn ʿAmr, surnamed the Enquirer. They were known as Ḥanīfs, a word which originally meant “inclining one’s steps toward anything,” and therefore signified either a convert or a pervert. Muḥammad appears from the above verses (when chronologically arranged), to have first used it for the religion of Abraham, but afterwards for any sincere professor of Islām.
ḤAQĪQAH (حقيقة). “Truth; sincerity.”
(1) The essence of a thing as meaning that by being which a thing is what it is. As when we say that a rational animal is the ḥaqīqah of a human being. (See Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrifāt.)
(2) A word or phrase used in its proper or original sense, as opposed to that which is figurative. A speech without trope or figure.
(3) The sixth stage in the mystic journey of the Ṣūfī, when he is supposed to receive a revelation of the true nature of the Godhead, and to have arrived at “the Truth.”
AL-ḤAQĪQATU ʾL-MUḤAMMADĪYAH (الحقيقة المحمدية). The original essence of Muḥammad, the Nūr-i-Muḥammadīyah, or the Light of Muḥammad, which is believed to have been created before all things. (Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrifāt, in loco.)
The Wahhābīs do not believe in the pre-existence of their Prophet, and the doctrine is most probably an invention of the Ṣūfī mystics in the early stages of Islām.
According to the Imām Qast̤alānī (Muwahib-i-laduniya, vol. i. p. 12), it is related by Jābir ibn ʿAbdi ʾllāh al-Anṣārī that the Prophet said, “The first thing created was the light of your Prophet, which was created from the light of God. This light of mine roamed about wherever God willed, and when the Almighty resolved to make the world, he divided this light of Muḥammad into four portions; from the first he created the Pen (qalam); from the second, the Tablet (lauḥ); from the third, the highest heaven and the throne of God (ʿarsh); the fourth portion was divided into four sections: from the first were created the Hamalatu ʾl-ʿArsh, or the eight angels who support the throne of God; from the second, the kursī, or lower throne of God; from the third, the angels; and the fourth, being divided into four subdivisions, from it were created (1) the firmaments or seven heavens, (2) the earth, (3) the seven paradises and seven hells, (4) and again from a fourth section were created (1) the light of the eyes, (2) the light of the mind, (3) the light of the love of the Unity of God, (4) the remaining portion of creation.”
The author of the Ḥayātu ʾl-Qulūb, a Shīʿah book of traditions (See Merrick’s translation, p. 4), says the traditions respecting the creations from this Light of Muḥammad are numerous and discordant, but that the discrepancies may possibly be reconciled by referring the diverse dates to different eras in the process of creation. “The holy light of Muḥammad,” he says, “dwelt under the empyrean seventy-three thousand years, and then resided seventy thousand years in Paradise. Afterwards it rested another period of seventy thousand years under the celestial tree called Sidratu ʾl-Muntahā, and, emigrating from heaven to heaven, arrived at length in the lowest of these celestial mansions, where it remained until the Most High willed the creation of Adam.”
(A very curious account of the absurd belief of the Shīʿahs on this subject will be found in Mr. Merrick’s edition of the Ḥayātu ʾl-Qulūb; Boston, 1850.)
ḤAQĪQĪ (حقيقى). “Literal,” as opposed to that which is majāzī, or figurative.
ḤAQQ (حق). “Truth, justice.” A term used in theology for that which is true, e.g. The word of God; religion. In law it implies that which is due. A thing decreed; a claim. By the Ṣūfī mystics it is always used for the Divine Essence; God.
Al-Ḥaqq, “The Truth.” One of the ninety-nine attributes of God.
AL-ḤĀQQAH (الحاقة). Lit. “The surely Impending.” The title of the LXIXth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in which the word occurs in the opening verse: “The inevitable! (al-Ḥāqqatu!). What is the inevitable?” The word is understood by all commentators to mean the Day of Resurrection and Judgment. It does not occur in any other portion of the Qurʾān.
ḤAQQU ʾL-ʿABD (حق العبد). “The right of the slave (of God).” In law the right of an injured individual to demand redress and justice.
ḤAQQU ʾLLĀH (حق الله). “The right of God.” In law, the retributive chastisement which it is the duty of a magistrate to inflict for crime and offences against morality and religion. In theology it means prayer, alms, fasting, pilgrimage, and other religious duties.
ḤAQQU ʾL-YAQĪN (حق اليقين). “A conviction of the truth.” A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for a state in which the seeker after truth has in thought and reflection a positive evidence of his extinction and of his being incorporated in the Essence of God. [[YAQIN].]
ḤAQQU ʾN-NĀS (حق الناس). “The right of men.” A term in law implying the same as Ḥaqqu ʾl-ʿAbd.
ḤARAM (حرم), pl. Ḥuram. “That which is sacred.” (1) Al-Ḥaram, the sacred precincts of Makkah or al-Madīnah. (2) Ḥaram, the apartments of women in a Muḥammadan household. [[HARIM].] (3) Ḥuram, wives.
ḤARĀM (حرام). Lit. “prohibited.” That which is unlawful. The word is used in both a good and a bad sense, e.g. Baitu ʾl-ḥarām, the sacred house; and Mālu ʾl-ḥarām, unlawful possessions. Ibnu ʾl-ḥarām, an illegitimate son; Shahru ʾl-ḥarām, a sacred month.
A thing is said to be ḥarām when it is forbidden, as opposed to that which is ḥalāl, or lawful. A pilgrim is said to be ḥarām as soon as he has put on the pilgrim’s garb.
Ḥarāmu ʾllāh lā afʿalu is a form of oath that a man will not do a thing.
ḤARAMU ʾL-MADĪNAH (حـرم المدينة). The sacred boundary of al-Madīnah within which certain acts are unlawful which are lawful elsewhere. The Imām Abū Ḥanīfah says that although it is respectful to the position of the sacred city, as the birth-place of the Prophet, not to bear arms, or kill, or cut grass, &c., still it is not, as in the case of Makkah, an incumbent religious duty. According to a tradition by ʿAlī ibn Abī T̤ālib (Mishkāt, book xi. ch. xvi.), the Ḥudūdu ʾl-Ḥaram, or sacred limits of al-Madīnah are from Jabal ʿAir to S̤aur. According to Burton, the diameter of the Ḥaram is from ten to twelve miles. (El Medinah and Meccah, vol. i. p. 362.)
ḤARAMU MAKKAH (حرم مكة). The sacred boundary of Makkah within which certain acts are unlawful which are lawful elsewhere. It is not lawful to carry arms, or to fight within its limits. Its thorns must not be broken, nor its game molested, nor must anything be taken up which has fallen on the ground, unless it is done to restore it to its owner. Its fresh grass or even its dry grass must not be cut; except the bog rush (iẕk͟hir), because it is used for blacksmith’s fires and for thatching houses. (A tradition by Ibn ʿAbbās, Mishkāt, book xi. ch. xv. pt. 1). ʿAbdu ʾl-Ḥaqq says that when Abraham, “the friend of God,” placed the black stone at the time of the building of the Kaʿbah, its east, west, north, and south quarters became bright with light, and that wherever the brightness extended itself became the Ḥudūdu ʾl-Ḥaram, or the limits of the sacred city. These limits are marked by manārs or pillars on all sides, except on the Jiddah and Jairānah roads, regarding which there is some dispute as to the exact distance.
HAREEM. [[HARIM].]
HARES. Arabic arnab, pl. arānib. Heb. אַרְנֶבֶת. The flesh of the hare is lawful, for the Prophet ate it, and commanded his companions to do so (Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 75). A difference of opinion has in all ages existed as to the value of the hare as an article of food. The Greeks and Romans ate it in spite of an opinion that prevailed that it was not wholesome. In the law of Moses, it is specified amongst the unclean animals ([Lev. xi. 6]; [Deut. xiv. 7]). The Parsees do not eat hare’s flesh, nor do the Armenians.
ḤARF (حرف). (1) An extremity, verge, or border. (2) A letter of the alphabet. (3) A particle in grammar. (4) A dialect of Arabia, or a mode of expression peculiar to certain Arabs. The Qurʾān is said to have been revealed in seven dialects (sabʿat aḥruf). [[QURʾAN].] (5) A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for the particle of any true essence.
ḤARĪM, or HAREEM (حريم). A word used especially in Turkey, Egypt, and Syria, for the female apartments of a Muḥammadan household. In Persia, Afghanistan, and India, the terms ḥaramgah, maḥall-sarāi and zanānah are used for the same place.
The seclusion of women being enjoined in the Qurʾān ([Sūrah xxxiii. 55]), in all Muḥammadan countries it is the rule for respectable women to remain secluded at home, and not to travel abroad unveiled, nor to associate with men other than their husbands or such male relatives as are forbidden in marriage by reason of consanguinity. In consequence of these injunctions, which have all the force of a divine enactment, the female portion of a Muḥammadan family always resides in apartments which are in an inclosed court-yard and excluded from public view. This inclosure is called the ḥarīm, and sometimes ḥaram, or in Persian zanānah, from zan, a “woman”. Mr. Lane in his Modern Egyptians, has given a full account of the Egyptian ḥarīm. We are indebted to Mrs. Meer Ali for the following very graphic and interesting description of a Muḥammadan zanānah or ḥarīm in Lucknow.
Mrs. Meer Ali was an English lady who married a Muḥammadan gentleman, and resided amongst the people of Lucknow for twelve years. Upon the death of her husband, she returned to England, and published her Observations on the Musalmans of India, which was dedicated, with permission, to Queen Adelaide.
“The habitable buildings of a native Muḥammadan home are raised a few steps from the court; a line of pillars forms the front of the building, which has no upper rooms; the roof is flat, and the sides and back without windows, or any aperture through which air can be received. The sides and back are merely high walls, forming an enclosure, and the only air is admitted from the fronts of the dwelling-place facing the court-yard. The apartments are divided into long halls, the extreme corners having small rooms or dark closets purposely built for the repository of valuables or stores; doors are fixed to these closets, which are the only places I have seen with them in a zanānah or maḥall (house or palace occupied by females); the floor is either of beaten earth, bricks, or stones; boarded floors are not yet introduced. As they have neither doors nor windows to the halls, warmth or privacy is secured by means of thick wadded curtains, made to fit each opening between the pillars. Some zanānahs have two rows of pillars in the halls with wadded curtains to each, thus forming two distinct halls, as occasion may serve, or greater warmth be required; this is a convenient arrangement where the establishment of servants, slaves, &c. is extensive.
“The wadded curtains are called pardahs; these are sometimes made of woollen cloth, but more generally of coarse calico, of two colours, in patchwork style, striped, vandyked, or in some other ingeniously contrived and ornamented way, according to their individual taste.
“Besides the pardahs, the openings between the pillars have blinds neatly made of fine bamboo strips, woven together with coloured cords; these are called chicks. Many of them are painted green; others are more gaudy, both in colour and variety of patterns. These blinds constitute a real comfort to everyone in India, as they admit air when let down, and at the same time shut out flies and other annoying insects; besides which, the extreme glare is shaded by them—a desirable object to foreigners in particular.
“The floors of the halls are first matted with the coarse date-leaf matting of the country, over which are spread shat̤ranjīs (thick cotton carpets, peculiarly the manufacture of the Upper Provinces of India, woven in stripes of blue and white, or shades of blue); a white calico carpet covers the shat̤ranjī on which the females take their seat.
“The bedsteads of the family are placed, during the day, in lines at the back of the halls, to be moved at pleasure to any chosen spot for the night’s repose; often into the open court-yard, for the benefit of the pure air. They are all formed on one principle, differing only in size and quality; they stand about half a yard from the floor, the legs round and broad at bottom, narrowing as they rise towards the frame, which is laced over with a thick cotton tape, made for the purpose, and plaited in chequers, and thus rendered soft, or rather elastic, and very pleasant to recline upon. The legs of these bedsteads are in some instances gold and silver gilt, or pure silver; others have enamel paintings on fine wood; the inferior grades have them merely of wood painted plain and varnished. The servants’ bedsteads are of the common mango-wood without ornament, the lacing of these for the sacking being of elastic string manufactured from the fibre of the cocoa-nut.
“Such are the bedsteads of every class of people. They seldom have mattresses: a white quilt is spread on the lacing, over which a calico sheet, tied at each corner of the bedstead with cords and tassels; several thin flat pillows of beaten cotton for the head; a muslin sheet for warm weather, and a well wadded razāi (coverlid) for winter is all these children of Nature deem essential to their comfort in the way of sleeping. They have no idea of night-dresses; the same suit that adorns a lady, is retained both night and day, until a change be needed. The single article exchanged at night is the ḍupaṭṭa (a small shawl for the head), and that only when it happens to be of silver tissue or embroidery, for which a muslin or calico sheet is substituted.
“The very highest circles have the same habits in common with the meanest, but those who can afford shawls of Cashmere, prefer them for sleeping in, when the cold weather renders them bearable. Blankets are never used except by the poorest peasantry, who wear them in lieu of better garments night and day in the winter season; they are always black, the natural colour of the wool. The quilts of the higher orders are generally made of silk of the brightest hues, well wadded, and lined with dyed muslin of assimilating colour; they are usually bound with broad silver ribands, and sometimes bordered with gold brocaded trimmings. The middling classes have fine chintz quilts, and the servants and slaves coarse ones of the same material; but all are on the same plan, whether for a queen or the meanest of her slaves, differing only in the quality of the material. The mistress of the house is easily distinguished by her seat of honour in the hall of a zanānah, a masnad not being allowed to any other person but the lady of the mansion. The masnad carpet is spread on the floor, if possible near to a pillar about the centre of the hall, and is made of many varieties of fabric—gold cloth, quilted silk, brocaded silk, velvet, fine chintz, or whatever may suit the lady’s taste, circumstances, or convenience. It is about two yards square, and generally bordered or fringed, on which is placed the all-important masnad. This article may be understood by those who have seen a lace-maker’s pillow in England, excepting only that the masnad is about twenty times the size of that useful little article in the hands of our industrious villagers. The masnad is covered with gold cloth, silk, velvet, or calico, with square pillows to correspond, for the elbows, the knees, &c. This is the seat of honour, to be invited to share which, with the lady-owner, is a mark of favour to an equal or inferior: when a superior pays a visit of honour, the prided seat is usually surrendered to her, and the lady of the house takes her place most humbly on the very edge of her own carpet. Looking-glasses or ornamental furniture are very rarely to be seen in the zanānah, even of the very richest females. Chairs and sofas are produced when English visitors are expected; but the ladies of Hīndustān prefer the usual mode of sitting and lounging on the carpet; and as for tables, I suppose not one gentlewoman of the whole country has ever been seated at one; and very few, perhaps, have any idea of their useful purposes, all their meals being served on the floor, where dastark͟hwans (table-cloths we should call them) are spread, but neither knives, forks, spoons, glasses, nor napkins, so essential to the comfortable enjoyment of a meal amongst Europeans. But those who never knew such comforts have no desire for the indulgence, nor taste to appreciate them.
“On the several occasions, amongst native society, of assembling in large parties, as at births and marriages, the halls, although extensive, would be inadequate to accommodate the whole party. They then have awnings of white calico, neatly flounced with muslin, supported on poles fixed in the court-yard, and connecting the open space with the great hall, by wooden platforms which are brought to a line with the building, and covered with shat̤ranjī, and white carpets to correspond with the floor-furniture of the hall; and here the ladies sit by day and sleep by night very comfortably, without feeling any great inconvenience from the absence of their bedsteads, which could never be arranged for the accommodation of so large an assemblage—nor is it ever expected.
“The usually barren look of these almost unfurnished halls, is on such occasions quite changed, when the ladies are assembled in their various dresses; the brilliant display of jewels, the glittering drapery of their dress, the various expressions of countenance, and different figures, the multitude of female attendants and slaves, the children of all ages and sizes in their variously ornamental dresses, are subjects to attract both the eye and the mind of an observing visitor; and the hall, which when empty appeared desolate and comfortless, thus filled, leaves nothing wanting to render the scene attractive.
“The buzz of human voices, the happy playfulness of the children, the chaste singing of the ḍomnīs fill up the animated picture. I have sometimes passed an hour or two in witnessing their innocent amusements, without any feeling of regret for the brief sacrifice of time I had made. I am free to confess, however, that I have returned to my tranquil home with increased delight after having witnessed the bustle of a zanānah assembly. At first I pitied the apparent monotony of their lives; but this feeling has worn away by intimacy with the people, who are thus precluded from mixing generally with the world. They are happy in their confinement; and never having felt the sweets of liberty, would not know how to use the boon if it were to be granted them. As the bird from the nest immured in a cage is both cheerful and contented, so are these females. They have not, it is true, many intellectual resources, but they have naturally good understandings, and having learned their duty they strive to fulfil it. So far as I have had any opportunity of making personal observations on their general character, they appear to me obedient wives, dutiful daughters, affectionate mothers, kind mistresses, sincere friends, and liberal benefactresses to the distressed poor. These are their moral qualifications, and in their religious duties, they are zealous in performing the several ordinances which they have been instructed by their parents or husbands to observe. If there be any merit in obeying the injunctions of their law-giver, those whom I have known most intimately, deserve praise since ‘they are faithful in that they profess.’
“To ladies accustomed from infancy to confinement, this kind of life is by no means irksome; they have their employments and their amusements, and though these are not exactly to our taste, nor suited to our mode of education, they are not the less relished by those for whom they were invented. They perhaps wonder equally at some of our modes of dissipating time, and fancy we might spend it more profitably. Be that as it may, the Muslim ladies, with whom I have been long intimate, appear to me always happy, contented, and satisfied with the seclusion to which they were born; they desire no other, and I have ceased to regret they cannot be made partakers of that freedom of intercourse with the world we deem so essential to our happiness, since their health suffers nothing from that confinement, by which they are preserved from a variety of snares and temptations; besides which, they would deem it disgraceful in the highest degree to mix indiscriminately with men who are not relations. They are educated from infancy for retirement, and they can have no wish that the custom should be changed, which keeps them apart from the society of men who are not very nearly related to them. Female society is unlimited, and that they enjoy without restraint.
“Those females who rank above peasants or inferior servants, are disposed from principle to keep themselves strictly from observation; all who have any regard for the character or the honour of their house, seclude themselves from the eye of strangers, carefully instructing their young daughters to a rigid observance of their own prudent example. Little girls, when four years old, are kept strictly behind the pardah (lit. “curtain”), and when they move abroad it is always in covered conveyances, and under the guardianship of a faithful female domestic, who is equally tenacious as the mother to preserve the young lady’s reputation unblemished by concealing her from the gaze of men.
“The ladies of zanānah life are not restricted from the society of their own sex; they are, as I have before remarked, extravagantly fond of company, and equally as hospitable when entertained. To be alone is a trial to which they are seldom exposed, every lady having companions amongst her dependants; and according to her means the number in her establishment is regulated. Some ladies of rank have from two to ten companions, independent of slaves and domestics; and there are some of the royal family at Lucknow who entertain in their service two or three hundred female dependants, of all classes. A well-filled zanānah is a mark of gentility; and even the poorest lady in the country will retain a number of slaves and domestics, if she cannot afford companions; besides which they are miserable without society, the habit of associating with numbers having grown up with infancy to maturity: ‘to be alone,’ is considered, with women thus situated, a real calamity.
“On occasions of assembling in large parties, each lady takes with her a companion besides two or three slaves to attend upon her, no one expecting to be served by the servants of the house at which they are visiting. This swells the numbers to be provided for; and as the visit is always for three days and three nights (except on ʿĪds, when the visit is confined to one day), some forethought must be exercised by the lady of the house, that all may be accommodated in such a manner as may secure to her the reputation of hospitality.
“The kitchen and offices to the zanānah, I have remarked, occupy one side of the quadrangle; they face the great or centre hall appropriated to the assembly. These kitchens, however, are sufficiently distant to prevent any great annoyance from the smoke—I say smoke, because chimneys have not yet been introduced into the kitchens of the natives.
“The fire-places are all on the ground, something resembling stoves, each admitting one saucepan, the Asiatic style of cooking requiring no other contrivance. Roast or boiled joints are never seen at the dinner of a native; a leg of mutton or sirloin of beef would place the hostess under all sorts of difficulties, where knives and forks are not understood to be amongst the useful appendages of a meal. The varieties of their dishes are countless, but stews and curries are the chief; all the others are mere varieties. The only thing in the shape of roast meats are small lean cutlets bruised, seasoned and cemented with pounded poppy seed. Several being fastened together on skewers, they are grilled or roasted over a charcoal fire spread on the ground, and then called kabāb, which word implies roast meat.
“The kitchen of a zanānah would be inadequate to the business of cooking for a large assembly; the most choice dishes only (for the highly-favoured guests), are cooked by the servants of the establishment. The needed abundance required in entertaining a large party is provided by a regular bāzār cook, several of whom establish themselves in native cities, or wherever there is a Muslim population. Orders being previously given, the morning and evening dinners are punctually forwarded at the appointed hours in covered trays, each tray having portions of the several good things ordered, so that there is no confusion in serving out the feast on its arrival at the mansion. The food thus prepared by the bāzār cook (nānbai, he is called), is plain boiled rice, sweet rice, k͟hīr (rice-milk), mutanjan (rice sweetened with the addition of preserved fruits, raisins, &c., coloured with saffron), salans (curries) of many varieties, some cooked with vegetables, others with unripe fruits with or without meat; pulāos of many sorts, kabābs, preserves, pickles, chatnīs, and many other things too tedious to admit of detail.
“The bread in general use amongst natives is chiefly unleavened: nothing in the likeness of English bread is to be seen at their meals; and many object to its being fermented with the intoxicating toddy (extracted from a tree). Most of the native bread is baked on iron plates over a charcoal fire. They have many varieties, both plain and rich, and some of the latter resembles our pastry, both in quality and flavour.
“The dinners, I have said, are brought into the zanānah, ready dished in the native earthenware, on trays; and as they neither use spoons nor forks, there is no great delay in setting out the meal where nothing is required for display or effect, beyond the excellent quality of the food and its being well cooked. In a large assembly all cannot dine at the dastark͟hwān of the lady hostess, even if privileged by their rank; they are, therefore, accommodated in groups of ten, fifteen, or more, as may be convenient; each lady having her companion at the meal, and her slaves to brush off the intruding flies with a chaurī, to hand water, or to fetch or carry any article of delicacy from or to a neighbouring group. The slaves and servants dine in parties after their ladies have finished, in any retired corner of the court-yard—always avoiding as much as possible the presence of their superiors.
“Before anyone touches the meal, water is carried round for each lady to wash the hand and rinse the mouth. It is deemed unclean to eat without this form of ablution, and the person neglecting it would be held unholy. This done, the lady turns to her meal, saying, “Bismillāh!” (In the name or to the praise of God!), and with the right hand conveys the food to her mouth (the left hand is never used at meals); and although they partake of every variety of food placed before them with no other aid than their fingers, yet the mechanical habit is so perfect, that they neither drop a grain of rice, soil the dress, nor retain any of the food on their fingers. The custom must always be offensive to a foreign eye, and the habit none would wish to copy; yet everyone who witnesses must admire the neat way in which eating is accomplished by these really ‘Children of Nature.’
“The repast concluded, the lota (vessel with water), and the laggan (to receive the water in after rinsing the hands and mouth), are passed round. To every person who, having announced by the ‘Ash-Shukru liʾllāh!’ (All thanks to God!) that she has finished, the attendants present first the powdered peas, called besan,—which answers the purpose of soap in removing grease, &c. from the fingers—and then the water in due course. Soap has not even yet been brought into fashion by the natives, except by the washermen; I have often been surprised that they have not found the use of soap a necessary article in the nursery, where the only substitute I have seen is the powdered pea.
“Lotas and laggans are articles in use with all classes of people; they must be poor indeed who do not boast of one, at least, in their family. They are always of metal, either brass, or copper lacquered over, or zinc; in some cases, as with the nobility, silver and even gold are converted into these useful articles of native comfort.
“China or glass is comparatively but little used; water is their only beverage, and this is preferred, in the absence of metal basins, out of the common red earthen katora (cup shaped like a vase).
“China dishes, bowls, and basins, are used for serving many of the savoury articles of food in; but it is as common in the privacy of the palace, as well as in the huts of the peasantry, to see many choice things introduced at meals served up in the rude red earthen platter; many of the delicacies of Asiatic cookery being esteemed more palatable from the earthen flavour of the new vessel in which it is served.
“China tea-sets are very rarely found in the zanānah, tea being used by the natives more as a medicine than a refreshment, except by such gentlemen as have frequent intercourse with the “Ṣāḥib Log” (English gentry), among whom they acquire a taste for this delightful beverage. The ladies, however, must have a severe cold to induce them to partake of the beverage even as a remedy, but by no means as a luxury. I imagined that the inhabitants of a zanānah were sadly deficient in actual comforts, when I found, upon my first arrival in India, that there were no preparations for breakfast going forward; everyone seemed engaged in pān-eating, and smoking the ḥuqqah, but no breakfast after the morning namāz. I was, however, soon satisfied that they felt no sort of privation, as the early meal so common in Europe has never been introduced in Eastern circles. Their first meal is a good substantial dinner, at ten, eleven, or twelve o’clock, after which follows pān and the ḥuqqah; to this succeeds a sleep of two or three hours, providing it does not impede the duty of prayer—the pious, I ought to remark, would give up every indulgence which would prevent the discharge of this duty. The second meal follows in twelve hours from the first, and consists of the same substantial fare; after which they usually sleep again until the dawn of day is near at hand.
“The ḥuqqah (pipe) is almost in general use with females. It is a common practice with the lady of the house to present the ḥuqqah she is smoking to her favoured guest. This mark of attention is always to be duly appreciated; but such is the deference paid to parents, that a son can rarely be persuaded by an indulgent father or mother to smoke a ḥuqqah in their revered presence; this praiseworthy feeling originates not in fear, but real genuine respect. The parents entertain for their son the most tender regard; and the father makes him both his companion and his friend; yet the most familiar endearments do not lessen the feeling of reverence a good son entertains for his father. This is one among the many samples of patriarchal life, and which I can never witness in real life, without feeling respect for the persons who follow up the patterns I have been taught to venerate in our Holy Scripture.
“The ḥuqqah (pipe) as an indulgence or a privilege, is a great definer of etiquette. In the presence of the king or reigning nawāb, no subject, however high he may rank in blood or royal favour, can presume to smoke. In native courts, on state occasions, ḥuqqahs are presented only to the Governor-General, the Commander-in-Chief, or the Resident at his court, who are considered equal in rank, and therefore entitled to the privilege of smoking with him; and they cannot consistently resist the intended honour. Should they dislike smoking, a hint is readily understood by the ḥuqqah bardār to bring the ḥuqqah, charged with the materials, without the addition of fire. Applications of the munhnāl (mouthpiece) to the mouth, indicates a sense of the honour conferred.” (Observations on the Musalmāns of India, vol. i. p. 304.)
ḤĀRIS̤ (حارث). A surname which frequently occurs amongst “the Companions.” In the Taqrību ʾt-Tahẕīb, there are not fewer than sixty-five persons of this name, of whom short biographical notes are given.
Ḥāris̤ ibn Naufal ibn al-Ḥāris̤ ibn ʿAbdi ʾl-Mut̤t̤alib, was a Companion of some consequence; he lived close to the house of the Prophet, and had frequently to make room as the Prophet’s Ḥarīm extended itself. [[HOUSES].]
Ḥāris̤ ibn Hishām ibn al-Mug͟hīrah, is another Companion, who lived at Makkah.
Ḥāris̤ son of Suwaid ibn S̤āmit, the poet, was executed at Uḥud.
ḤĀRIS̤ĪYAH (حارثية). A sect of Muslims founded by Abū ʾl-Ḥāris̤, who in opposition to the sect Abāz̤īyah, said it was not correct to say the acts of men were not the acts of God. (Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrīfāt, in loco.)
HĀRŪN (هارون). [[AARON].]
HĀRŪT WA MĀRŪT (هاروت و ماروت). Two angels mentioned in the Qurʾān. They are said to be two angels who, in consequence of their compassion for the frailties of mankind, were sent down to earth to be tempted. They both sinned, and being permitted to choose whether they would be punished now or hereafter, chose the former, and are still suspended by the feet at Babel in a rocky pit, where they are great teachers of magic.
The account of these two angels in the Qurʾān, is given in [Sūrah ii. 96]:—
“They (the Jews) followed what the devils taught in the reign of Solomon: not that Solomon was unbelieving, but the devils were unbelieving. Sorcery did they teach to men, and what had been revealed to the two angels, Hārūt and Mārūt, at Babel. Yet no man did these two teach until they had said, ‘We are only a temptation. Be not then an unbeliever.’ From these two did men learn how to cause division between man and wife: but unless by leave of God, no man did they harm thereby. They learned, indeed, what would harm and not profit them; and yet they knew that he who bought that art should have no part in the life to come! And vile the price for which they have sold themselves,—if they had but known it!”
ḤASAD (حسد). “Envy, malevolence, malice.” It occurs twice in the Qurʾān.
[Sūrah ii. 103]: “Many of the people of the Book (i.e. Jews and Christians) desire to bring you back to unbelief after ye have believed, out of selfish envy, even after the truth hath been clearly shewn them.”
[Sūrah cxiii. 5]: “I seek refuge … from the envy of the envious when he envies.”
AL-ḤASAN (الحـسـن). The fifth K͟halīfah. The eldest son of Fāt̤imah, the daughter of Muḥammad, by her husband the K͟halīfah ʿAlī. Born A.H. 3. Died A.H. 49. He succeeded his father ʿAlī as K͟halīfah A.H. 41, and reigned about six months. He resigned the Caliphate in favour of Muʿāwiyah, and was eventually poisoned by his wife Jaʿdah, who was suborned to commit the deed by Yazīd, the son of Muʿāwiyah, by a promise of marrying her, which promise he did not keep. Al-Ḥasan had twenty children, fifteen sons and five daughters, from whom are descended one section of the great family of Saiyids, or Lords, the descendants of the Prophet. The history of al-Ḥasan, together with the tragical death of his brother al-Ḥusain, form the plot of the miracle play of the Muḥarram. [[HUSAIN], [MUHARRAM], [SAIYID].]
HĀSHIM (هاشم). The great grandfather of Muḥammad. Born, according to M. C. de Perceval, A.D. 464. Sprenger places his birth in A.D. 442. He married Salmah, by whom he had a son, ʿAbdu ʾl-Mut̤t̤alib, the father of ʿAbdu ʾllāh, who was the father of Muḥammad. The author of the Qāmūs says Hāshim’s original name was ʿAmr, but he was surnamed Hāshim on account of his hospitality in distributing bread (hashm, to break bread) to the pilgrims at Makkah.
ḤASHR (حشر). Lit. “Going forth from one place, and assembling in another.” Hence the word is used in the Qurʾān in two senses, viz. an emigration and an assembly, e.g. [Sūrah lix. 2]: “It was He who drove forth from their homes those people of the book (i.e. Jews) who misbelieved, at the first emigration.” (Hence al-Ḥashr is the title of the LIXth Sūrah of the Qurʾān.) [Sūrah xxvii. 17]: “And his hosts of the jinn and men and birds were assembled for Solomon.”
The term Yaumu ʾl-Ḥashr is therefore used for the Day of Resurrection, or the day when the dead shall migrate from their graves and assemble for judgment. It occurs in this sense in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah l. 42]:—
“Verily we cause to live, and we cause to die. To us shall all return.
“On the day when the earth shall swiftly cleave asunder over the dead, will this gathering be easy to Us.
AL-ḤASĪB (الـحـسـيـب). “The Reckoner,” in the Day of Judgment. One of the ninety-nine attributes of God. The title occurs in the Qurʾān three times.
[Sūrah iv. 7]: “God sufficeth for taking account.”
[Idem, 88]: “God of all things takes an account.”
[Sūrah xxxiii. 39]: “God is good enough at reckoning up.”
ḤASSĀN (حـسـان). The son of S̤ābit. A celebrated poet in the time of Muḥammad, who embraced Islām. He is said to have lived 120 years, 60 of which were passed in idolatry and 60 in Islām.
It is related in the Traditions that the Prophet on the day of battle with the Banū Quraiz̤ah, cried out, “O Ḥassān ibn S̤ābit, abuse the infidels in your verse, for verily Gabriel helps you!” (Mishkāt, book xxii. ch. ix. pt. 1.) [[POETRY].]
ḤĀT̤IB IBN ʿAMR (حاطب بن عمرو). An early convert to Islām, and one of the most trusted of Muḥammad’s followers. He distinguished himself at the taking of Makkah.
ḤAULĀNU ʾL-ḤAUL (حولان الحول). “A complete year.” A term used in Muḥammadan law for the period property must be in possession before zakāt is required of it. (Hidāyah, vol. i. p. 2.)
ḤAUẒU ʾL-KAUS̤AR (حوض الكوثر). A pond or river in Paradise. According to Muḥammad’s sayings in the Traditions (Mishkāt, book xxiii. ch. xii.), it is more than a month’s journey in circumference, its waters are whiter than snow and sweeter than honey mixed with milk, and those who drink of it shall never thirst. The word kaus̤ar occurs once in the Qurʾān, namely in [Sūrah cviii]., which derives therefrom its title, and where its translation and meaning is doubtful. “Verily, we have given thee al-Kaus̤ar.” Al-Baiẓāwī, the commentator, says it either means that which is good or abundant; or the pond al-Kaus̤ar which is mentioned in the Traditions.
HAWĀ (هـوا). “Desire, love; hankering after.” A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for lust, or unholy desire. Hawā-i-Nafṣānī, “the lust of the flesh”; Ahl-i-Hawā, “a sceptic, an unbeliever.”
HAWĀJIM (هـواجـم). Lit. “Assaults, shocks.” A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for those thoughts of the heart which enter it without desire or intention. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)
HAWĀJIS (هواجس). “Thoughts.” A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for the worldly thoughts of the heart. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)
ḤAWĀLAH (حوالة). A legal term signifying the removal or transfer of a debt by way of security or corroboration from that of the original debtor to that person to whom it is transferred. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 606.)
ḤAWĀMĪM (حواميم). A title given to the seven chapters of the Qurʾān which begin with the letters ح Ḥā م Mīm, namely, XL, Sūratu ʾl-Muʾmin; XLI, Sūratu Fuṣṣilat; XLII, Sūratu ʾsh-Shūrā; XLIII, Sūratu ʾl-Zuk͟hruf; XLIV, Sūratu ʾd-Duk͟hān; XLV, Sūratu ʾl-Jās̤īyah; XLVI, Sūratu ʾl-Aḥqāf.
For an explanation of the letters Ḥ M at the commencement of these Sūrahs, see [ḤĀ MĪM].
It is related in the Traditions that a man said to the Prophet, “I am old, and my memory is imperfect, and my tongue is stiff;” and the Prophet replied, “Then repeat three of the Sūrahs beginning with Ḥā Mīm.” (Mishkāt, book viii. ch. i. pt. 3.)
ḤAWĀRĪ (حوارى). The word used in the Qurʾān ([Sūrahs iii. 45]; [lxi. 14]) for the Apostles of Jesus. Al-Baiẓāwī, the Muḥammadan commentator, says it is derived from ḥawar, “to be white,” and was given to the disciples of Jesus, either on account of their purity of life and sincerity; or because they were respectable men and wore white garments. In the Traditions (Mishkāt, book i. ch. vi. pt. 1) it is used for the followers of all the Prophets. The word may be derived from the Æthiopic hawryra, “to go, to be sent.”
AL-ḤAWĀSSU ʾL-K͟HAMSAH (الحواس الخمسة). [[FIVE SENSES].]
HAWĀZIN (هوازن). A great and warlike tribe of Arabia in the days of Muḥammad, who dwelt between Makkah and at̤-T̤āʾif. Muḥammad defeated them at the battle of Ḥunain, A.H. 8, a victory which in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah ix. 26], is ascribed to angelic aid. (See Muir’s Life of Mahomet, new ed. p. 432.)
HĀWIYAH (هاوية). A division of hell. The bottomless pit for the hypocrites. Qurʾān, [Sūrah ci. 6], “But as for him whose balance is light, his dwelling shall be Hāwiyah.”
HAWK, The. Arabic baʾz (باز), ṣaqr (صقر). It is lawful to hunt with hawks provided they are trained. A hawk is held to be trained when she obeys the voice of her master. [[HUNTING].]
ḤAYĀʾ (حياء). “Shame, pudency, modesty.” The word does not occur in the Qurʾān, but in the Traditions it is said, “Allāhu ḥayīyun,” i.e. “God acts with modesty.” By which is understood that God hates that which is immodest or shameless. Muḥammad is related to have said, “Modesty (ḥayāʾ) brings nothing but good.” (Mishkāt, book xxii. ch. xix.)
ḤAYĀT (حيوة). “Life.” The word frequently occurs in the Qurʾān, e.g. [Sūrah xviii. 44], “Wealth and children are an adornment of the life of this world.” [Sūrah ii. 25], “For you in retaliation is there life, O ye possessors of mind!”
Al-Ḥayātu ʾd-dunyā, “the worldly life,” is a term used in the Qurʾān for those things in this world which prevent from attaining to the eternal life of the next world.
[Sūrah ii. 80]: “Those who have bought this worldly life with the future, the torment shall not be lightened from them nor shall they be helped.”
HAYŪLĀ (هـيـولى). “Matter.” The first principle of everything material. It does not occur in either the Qurʾān or the Ḥadīs̤.
ḤAYẒ (حـيـض). Menses. [[MENSTRUATION].]
ḤAẔAR (حذر). According to Arabic lexicons, the word means vigilance or a cautious fear, but it only occurs twice in the Qurʾān, and in both instances it implies terror.
[Sūrah ii. 18]: “They put their fingers in their ears at the thunder-clap for fear of death.” (Ḥaẕaru ʾl-Maut.) [Idem, 244]: “Dost thou not look at those who left their homes by thousands for fear of death.”
AL-ḤAẒARĀTU ʾL-K͟HAMS (الحضرات الخمس). According to the Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrifāt, al-ḥaẓarātu ʾl-K͟hamsu ʾl-Ilāhīyah, or “the five divine existences,” is a term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for the following:—
1. Ḥaẓratu ʾl-g͟haibi ʾl-mut̤laq, That existence which is absolutely unknown, i.e. God.
2. Ḥaẓratu ʾsh-shahādati ʾl-mut̤laqah, Those celestial (ajrām) and terrestrial (ajsām) existences which are evident to the senses.
3. Ḥaẓratu ʿālami ʾl-arwāḥ, That existence which consists of the spiritual world of angels and spirits.
4. Ḥaẓratu ʿālami ʾl-mis̤āl, That existence, which is the unseen world, where there is the true likeness of everything which exists on the earth.
5. Ḥaẓratu ʾl-jāmīʿah, The collective existence of the four already mentioned.
ḤĀẒIR ẒĀMINĪ (حاضر ضامنى). Bail for the person, which, according to the Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, is lawful. Bail for property is called māl ẓāminī.
ḤAẒRAH (حضرة). Lit. “Presence.” This title of respect has no equivalent in English, as it is employed in a variety of acceptations. Applied to an officer of rank, it would mean “your honour”; to a clergyman, “your reverence”; to a king, “your majesty.” When applied to the names of prophets, apostles, or saints, it expresses the sacredness of his office and character, i.e. our Saviour is called Ḥaẓratu ʿĪsā, and the Virgin Mary, Ḥaẓratu Maryam. The word is much used in Persian theological works. It is seldom used in this sense in Arabic books. Ḥaẓratu ʾllāh, “the presence of God,” is an Arabic term in prayer.
HEAD. Arabic raʾs, rās (راس). Heb. רֹאשׁ. The author of the Raddu ʾl-Muḥtār, vol. i. p. 670, says: “It is abominable (makrūh) to say the prayers with the head uncovered, if it be done from laziness, but it is of no consequence if a Muslim say his prayers with his head uncovered from a sense of humility and unworthiness. But still it is better not to uncover the head, for humility is a matter connected with the heart.”
Amongst Muḥammadans it is considered a sign of disrespect to receive a visitor with the head uncovered; consequently on the approach of a visitor the turban or cap is immediately placed on the head.
There is no general custom as to shaving the head or otherwise. In Afghanistan, Muḥammadans generally shave the head, but the Baluchīs and many other Muslim tribes wear long hair.
The Egyptians shave all the rest of the hair, or leave only a small tuft (called shūshah) upon the crown of the head. Mr. Lane says: This last custom (which is almost universal among them) is said to have originated in the fear that if the Muslim should fall into the hands of an infidel, and be slain, the latter might cut off the head of his victim, and finding no hair by which to hold it, put his impure hand into the mouth, in order to carry it, for the beard might not be sufficiently long; but was probably adopted from the Turks, for it is generally neglected by the Badawīs, and the custom of shaving the head is of late origin among the Arabs in general, and practised for the sake of cleanliness.
HEAVEN. Arabic Samāʾ (سماء); Persian Asmān (اسمان); Heb. שָׁמַיִם, which expresses the firmament as distinguished from Firdaus, or Paradise, the abodes of bliss. [[PARADISE].] In the Qurʾān it is stated that there are seven paths, or stages, in heaven. [Sūrah xxiii. 17]: “And we have created above you seven paths, nor are we heedless of the creation.” By which the commentators understand that they are paths of the angels and of the celestial bodies. The creation of the heaven is declared to be for God’s glory and not for His pastime. [Sūrah xxi. 16]: “We created not the heaven and the earth, and that which is between them, by way of sport.”
It is the general belief that at the last day the heavens will fall, but that they are now upheld by God’s power. [Sūrah xxii. 64]: “He holds up the heaven from falling on the earth save at His bidding.”
According to the traditions (Mishkāt, book xxiv. ch. vii.), Muḥammad during the miʿrāj, or night journey, passed through these seven heavens, and they are stated to be as follows: (1) That which is of pure virgin silver and which is Adam’s residence; (2) of pure gold, which is John the Baptist’s and Jesus’; (3) of pearls, which is Joseph’s; (4) of white gold, which is Enoch’s; (5) of silver which is Aaron’s; (6) of ruby and garnet, which is Moses’; (7) which is Abraham’s. These accounts are, however, most confused; for in some books and according to popular tradition, the fourth and not the second heaven is assigned to Jesus.
This view is in harmony with the seven spheres of Ptolemy, the first of which is that of the moon, the second Mercury, the third Venus, the fourth the Sun, the fifth Mars, the sixth Jupiter, the seventh Saturn; each of which orbs was supposed by the ancients to revolve round the earth in its proper sphere. Muḥammad said the distance between each heavenly region is five hundred years’ journey. (Mishkāt, book xxiv. ch. i. pt. 3).
The Rabbis spoke of two heavens (cf. [Deut. x. 14]), “The heaven and the heaven of heavens,” or seven (ἑπτὰ οὐρανοὺς οὕς τινες ἀριθμοῦσι κατ’ ἐπανάβασιν, Clem. Alex. Strom., iv. 7, 636). “Resch Lakisch dixit septem esse cœlos, quorum nomina sunt, 1. velum; 2. expansum; 3. nubes; 4. habitaculum; 5. habitatio; 6. sedes fixa; 7. Araboth. (See Wetstein, ad. [2 Cor. xii. 2]). St. Paul’s expression, “ἕως τριτοῦ οὐρανοῦ,” [2 Cor. xii. 2], has led to some discussion, for Grotius says the Jews divided the heaven into three parts, (1) Nubiferum, the atmosphere; (2) Astriferum, the firmament; and (3) Empyreum, the abode of God. But the statement, however, does not seem to be supported by any known Rabbinic authority.
HEBER. [[HUD].]
HEGIRA. [[HIJRAH].]
HEIRS. Arabic wāris̤ (وارث), pl. waras̤ah. [[INHERITANCE].]
HELL. The place of torment is most frequently spoken of in the Qurʾān and Traditions as an-Nār, “the fire,” but the word Jahannam occurs about thirty times. It is said to have seven portals or divisions. [Sūrah xv. 44]: “Verily, hell (jahannam) is promised to all together (who follow Satan). It has seven portals, and at every door there is a separate party of them.”
The Persian word used for hell in books of theology is dozak͟h.
The seven divisions of hell are given by Muslim commentators as follows:—
1. Jahannam (جهنم), γεέννα, the purgatorial hell for all Muḥammadans. For according to the Qurʾān, all Muslims will pass through the regions of hell. [Sūrah xix. 72]: “There is not one of you who will not go down to it (hell), that is settled and decided by thy Lord.”
2. Laz̤ā (لظى). [Sūrah xcvii. 5]: “For Laz̤ā, dragging by the scalp, shall claim him who turned his back and went away, and amassed and hoarded.”
3. Al-Ḥut̤amah (الحطمة). [Sūrah civ. 4]:—
“Nay! for verily he shall be flung into al-Ḥut̤amah;
“And who shall teach thee what al-Ḥut̤amah is?
“It is God’s kindled fire,
“Which shall mount above the hearts of the damned;
“It shall verily rise over them like a vault,
“On outstretched columns.”
4. Saʿīr (سعير). [Sūrah iv. 11]: “Those who devour the property of orphans unjustly, only devour into their bellies fire, and they broil in saʿīr.”
(The word occurs in fourteen other places.)
5. Saqar (سقر). [Sūrah liv. 47]: “The sinners are in error and excitement. On the day when they shall be dragged into the fire on their faces! Taste ye the touch of saqar!”
[Sūrah lxxiv. 44]: “What drove you into saqar?”
6. Al-Jaḥīm (الجحيم). [Sūrah ii. 113]: “Thou shalt not be questioned as to the fellows of al-Jaḥīm” (Aṣḥābu ʾl-Jaḥīm).
(The word occurs in twenty other places).
7. Hāwiyah (هاوية). [Sūrah ci. 8]: “As for him whose balance is light, his dwelling shall be Hāwiyah.”
The Muḥammadan commentators, with that utter recklessness which so characterizes their writings, distribute these seven stations as follows (see al-Bag͟hawī, al-Baiẓāwī, and others): (1) Jahannam, the purgatorial hell for Muslims. (2) Laz̤ā, a blazing fire for Christians. (3) Al-Ḥut̤amah, an intense fire for the Jews. (4) Saʿīr, a flaming fire for the Sabians. (5) Saqar, a scorching fire for the Magi. (6) Al-Jaḥīm, a huge hot fire for idolaters. (7) Hāwiyah, bottomless pit for the hypocrites. A reference to the Qurʾān will prove that there is not the least reason for assigning these regions to their respective tenants beyond the sentence already quoted: “At each portal a separate party.”
The teaching of the Qurʾān (which is chiefly confined to those Sūrahs which, chronologically arranged, are the earliest), is as follows:—
[Sūrah lxxiv. 26–34] (generally held to be the second Sūrah composed by Muḥammad, and relating to al-Walīd ibn al-Mug͟hīrah, a person of note amongst the unbelieving Makkans):—
“We will surely cast him into Saqar.
“And who shall teach thee what Saqar is?
“It leaveth nought, it spareth nought,
“Blackening the skin.
“Over it are nineteen angels.
“None but angels have we made guardians of the fire (aṣḥābu ʾn-nār): nor have we made this to be their number but to perplex the unbelievers, and that they who possess the Scriptures may be certain of the Truth, and that they who believe may increase their faith;
“And that they to whom the Scriptures have been given, and the believers, may not doubt;
“And that the infirm of heart and the unbelievers may say, What meaneth God by this parable?
“Thus God misleadeth whom He will, and whom He will He doth guide aright: and none knoweth the armies of thy Lord but Himself: and this is no other than a warning to mankind.”
“Hath the tidings of the day that shall overshadow reached thee?
“Downcast on that day shall be the countenances of some,
“Travailing and worn,
“Burnt at the scorching fire,
“Made to drink from a fountain fiercely boiling.
“No food shall they have but the fruit of ẓarīʿ (a bitter thorn),
“Which shall not fatten nor appease their hunger.”
“Hell (Jahannam) truly shall be a place of snares,
“The home of transgressors,
“To abide therein ages;
“No coolness shall they taste therein nor any drink,
“Save boiling water and running sores;
“Meet recompence!
“For they looked not forward to their account;
“And they gave the lie to our signs, charging them with falsehood;
“But we noted and wrote down all:
“ ‘Taste this then: and we will give you increase of nought but torment.’ ”
The above are all Madīnah Sūrahs composed in the earlier stage of Muḥammad’s mission. The allusions to hell in the Makkan Sūrahs are brief and are in every case directed against unbelievers in the Prophet’s mission, and not against sin; e.g. [Sūrah ix. 69], “God hath promised to the hypocrites (i.e. dissemblers as far as Islām was concerned), men and women, and unto the unbelievers, hell-fire to dwell therein for ever.”
The teaching of Muḥammad in the Traditions is much more specific, but it is impossible to assign a date for these traditions, even assuming them to be authentic. They are given on the authority of al-Buk͟hārī and Muslim (Mishkāt, book xxiii. ch. xv.):—
“ ‘The fire of the world is one part of seventy parts of hell fire.’ It was said, ‘O Prophet of God! verily the fire of the world would be sufficient for punishing.’ The Prophet replied, ‘Hell-fire has been made more than the fire of the world by sixty-nine parts, every part of which is like the fire of the world.’ ”
“Verily, the easiest of the infernals in punishment, is he who shall have both his shoes and thongs of them of fire, by which the brains of his head boil, like the boiling of a copper furnace; and he will not suppose that anyone is more severely punished than himself; whilst verily, he is the least so.”
“On the Day of Resurrection, the most luxurious of the world will be brought, and dipped once into the fire; after that it will be said, ‘O child of Adam, did you ever see any good, or did comfort ever pass by you in the world?’ He will say, ‘I swear by God I never saw any good, nor did comfort ever come near me.’ And a man of the severest distresses and troubles in the world will be brought into paradise; and it will be said to him, ‘O son of Adam, did you ever see any trouble, and did distress ever come to you in the world?’ And he will say, ‘I swear by God, O my Lord, I never suffered troubles in the world, nor did I ever see hardship.’ ”
“There are some of the infernals that will be taken by the fire up to their ankles, and some up to their knees, and some up to their waist, and some up to their necks.”
“Hell-fire burnt a thousand years so that it became red, and burnt another thousand years till it became white; after that it burnt a thousand years till it became black; then hell fire is black and dark, and never has any light.”
“Verily, hot water will be poured upon the heads of the infernals, and will penetrate into their bellies, and will cut to pieces everything within them; so that they will come out at their feet; and this is the meaning of the word of God, ‘Boiling water shall be poured on their heads, and everything in their bellies shall be dissolved thereby,’ after that, they will be made as they were.”
“The infernals shall be drenched with yellow water, draught after draught, and it will be brought to their mouths and they will be disgusted at it; and when very near, it will scorch their faces, and when they drink it it will tear their entrails to pieces. God says, ‘They who must dwell for ever in hell-fire, will have the boiling water given them to drink which shall burst their bowels’; and God will say, ‘If the infidels complain of thirst, they shall be assisted with water like molten copper, which will fry their faces; it will be a shocking beverage.’ ”
For most of these circumstances relating to hell and the state of the damned, Muḥammad was in all probability indebted to the Jews and, in part, to the Magians, both of whom agree in making seven distinct apartments in hell. (Nishmat hayim, f. 32; Gemar. Arubin, f. 19; Zohar. ad. [Exod. xxvi. 2], &c. and Hyde, de Rel. Vet. Pers., p. 245), though they vary in other particulars.
The former place an angel as a guard over each of these infernal apartments, and suppose he will intercede for the miserable wretches there imprisoned, who will openly acknowledge the justice of God in their condemnation. (Midrash, Yalkut Shemuni, pt. 11, f. 116.) They also teach that the wicked will suffer a diversity of punishments, and that by intolerable cold (Zohar. ad. [Exod. xix].) as well as heat, and that their faces shall become black (Yalkut Shemuni, ubi sup. f. 86); and believe those of their own religion shall also be punished in hell hereafter according to their crimes (for they hold that few or none will be found exactly righteous as to deserve no punishment at all), but will soon be delivered thence, when they shall be sufficiently purged from their sins by their father Abraham, or at the intercession of him or some other of the prophets. (Nishmat hayim, f. 82; Gemar. Arubin, f. 19.)
The Magians allow but one angel to preside over all the seven hells, who is named by them Vanānd Yezād, and, as they teach, assigns punishments proportionate to each person’s crimes, restraining also the tyranny and excessive cruelty of the devil, who would, if left to himself, torment the damned beyond their sentence. (Hyde, de Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 182.) Those of this religion do also mention and describe various kinds of torments wherewith the wicked will be punished in the next life; among which, though they reckon extreme cold to be one, yet they do not admit fire, out of respect, as it seems, to that element, which they take to be the representation of the divine nature, and therefore they rather choose to describe the damned souls as suffering by other kinds of punishment, such as an intolerable stink, the stinging and biting of serpents and wild beasts, the cutting and tearing of the flesh by the devils, excessive hunger and thirst, and the like. (See Eundem, ibid., p. 399; Sale’s Pre. Dis.)
The author of the Sharḥu ʾl-Muwāqif, p. 586, also says: “It is agreed amongst all orthodox Muslims that all unbelievers, without exception, will be consigned to the fire for ever, and that they will never be free from torment.” “But,” he adds, “there are certain heretics, who call themselves Muslims, who deny the eternity of the torments of the fire. For, they say, it is an essential property of all things fleshly that they come to an end. And, moreover, it is not possible for a thing to exist which goes on burning for ever. But to this we reply that God is all powerful and can do as He likes.”
The sect called as-Samāmīyah, founded by Samāmah ibn Ashras an-Numairī, say: “The Jews, and Christians, and Majūsī, and Zanādiqah, will, after the Day of Judgment, return to dust, just as the animals and the little children of unbelievers do.” (Sharḥu ʾl-Muwāqif, p. 633.)
The same writer says (p. 687): “Besides those who are unbelievers, all those (Muslims) who are sinners and have committed great sins (kabāʾir), will go to hell; but they will not remain there always, for it has been said in the Qurʾān ([Sūrah xcix. 7]), “He who does an atom of good shall see its reward.”
With reference to the verse in the Qurʾān, which distinctly states that all Muslims shall enter hell ([Sūrah xix. 73], “There is not one of you that shall not go down to it”), al-Kamālān, the commentators, say, that according to extant traditions, all Muslims will enter hell, but it will be cool and pleasant to those who have not committed great sins; or, according to some writers, they will simply pass along the bridge Ṣirāt̤, which is over the infernal regions.
HELPERS, The. [[ANSAR].]
HERACLIUS. Arabic Hiraql (هرقل). The Roman Emperor to whom Muḥammad sent an embassy with a letter inviting him to Islām, A.H. 7, A.D. 628.
“In the autumn of this year (A.D. 628), Heraclius fulfilled his vow of thanksgiving for the wonderful success which had crowned his arms (in Persia); he performed on foot the pilgrimage from Edessa to Jerusalem, where the ‘true cross,’ recovered from the Persians, was with solemnity and pomp restored to the Holy Sepulchre. While preparing for this journey, or during the journey itself, an uncouth despatch in the Arabic character was laid before Heraclius. It was forwarded by the Governor of Bostra, into whose hands it had been delivered by an Arab chief. The epistle was addressed to the Emperor himself, from ‘Mahomet the Apostle of God,’ the rude impression of whose seal could be deciphered at the foot. In strange and simple accents like those of the Prophets of old, it summoned Heraclius to acknowledge the mission of Mahomet, to cast aside the idolatrous worship of Jesus and his Mother, and to return to the Catholic faith of the one only God. The letter was probably cast aside, or preserved, it may be, as a strange curiosity, the effusion of some harmless fanatic.” (Muir’s Life of Mahomet, new ed. p. 383.)
Tradition, of course, has another story. “Now the Emperor was at this time at Hims, performing a pedestrian journey, in fulfilment of the vow which he had made, that, if the Romans overcame the Persians, he would travel on foot from Constantinople to Aelia (Jerusalem). So having read the letter, he commanded his chief men to meet him in the royal camp at Hims. And thus he addressed them:—‘Ye chiefs of Rome! Do you desire safety and guidance, so that your kingdom shall be firmly established, and that ye may follow the commands of Jesus, Son of Mary?’ ‘And what, O King! shall secure us this?’ ‘Even that ye follow the Arabian Prophet,’ said Heraclius. Whereupon they all started aside like wild asses of the desert, each raising his cross and waving it aloft in the air. Whereupon Heraclius, despairing of their conversion, and unwilling to lose his kingdom, desisted, saying that he had only wished to test their constancy and faith, and that he was now satisfied by this display of firmness and devotion. The courtiers bowed their heads, and so the Prophet’s despatch was rejected.” (Kātibu ʾl-Wāqidī, p. 50, quoted by Muir, in a note to the above passage.)
The letter written by Muḥammad to Heraclius is, according to a tradition by Ibn ʿAbbās, as follows:—
“In the name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate. This letter is from Muḥammad the Messenger of God, to Hiraql, chief of ar-Rūm. Peace be upon whosoever has gone on the straight road! After this, I say, verily I call thee to Islām. Embrace Islām that ye may obtain peace. Embrace Islām and God will give thee a double reward. If ye reject Islām, then on thee shall rest the sins of thy subjects and followers. O ye people of the Book (i.e. Christians) come to a creed which is laid down plainly between us and you, that we will not serve other than God, nor associate aught with Him, nor take each other for lords rather than God. But if they turn back, then say, ‘Bear witness that we are Muslims.’ ” (Qurʾān, iii. 57.) (See Ṣaḥīḥu Muslim, p. 98.)
The Shīʿah traditions give the above letter almost verbatim. (See Merrick’s Ḥayātu ʾl-Qulūb, p. 89.)
“Not long after, another despatch, bearing the same seal, and couched in similar terms, reached the court of Heraclius. It was addressed to Hârith VII., Prince of the Bani Ghassân, who forwarded it to the Emperor, with an address from himself, soliciting permission to chastise the audacious impostor. But Heraclius regarding the ominous voice from Arabia beneath his notice, forbade the expedition, and desired that Hârith should be in attendance at Jerusalem, to swell the imperial train at the approaching visitation of the temple. Little did the Emperor imagine that the kingdom which, unperceived by the world, this obscure Pretender was founding in Arabia, would in a few short years wrest from his grasp that Holy City and the fair provinces which, with so much toil and so much glory, he had just recovered from the Persians!” (Muir’s Life of Mahomet, p. 384.)
(For the Shīʿah account of the embassy to Heraclius, see Merrick’s Ḥayātu ʾl-Qulūb, p. 88.)
HERMAPHRODITE (Arabic خنثى, K͟huns̤ā) is a person who is possessed of the organs of generation of both man and woman, and for whose spiritual existence the Muḥammadan law legislates (vide Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 559). For example, it is a rule, with respect to equivocal hermaphrodites, that they are required to observe all the more comprehensive points of the spiritual law, but not those concerning the propriety of which, in regard to them, any doubt exists. In public prayer they must take their station between the men and the women, but in other respects observe the customs of women. (Idem, p. 561.)
HIBAH (هبة). A legal term in Muḥammadan law, which signifies a deed of gift, a transfer of property, made immediately and without any exchange. [[GIFTS].]
ḤIDĀD (حـداد). “Mourning.” The state of a widow who abstains from scents, ornaments, &c., on account of the death of her husband. Ḥidād must be observed for a period of four months and ten days. (Hidāyah, vol. i. p. 370.)
HIDĀYAH (هداية). Lit. “Guidance.” The title of a well known book on Sunnī law, and frequently quoted in the present work. There are many Muḥammadan works entitled al-Hidāyah, but this is called Hidāyah fīʾl-furūʿ, or “a guidance in particular points.” It was composed by the Shaik͟h Burhānu ʾd-dīn ʿAlī, who was born at Marg͟hīnān in Transoxania about A.H. 530 (A.D. 1135), and died A.H. 593.
There is an English translation of the Hidāyah (omitting the chapters on Prayer and Purification), by Charles Hamilton, four vols., London, A.D. 1791.
ḤIFZ̤U ʾL-ʿAHD (حفظ العهد). Lit. “The guarding of the covenant.” A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for remaining firm in that state in which God has brought them. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)
HIGHWAY ROBBERY. Arabic qat̤ʿu ʾt̤-t̤arīq (قطعو الطريق). Persian rahzani. Highway robbery is a very heinous offence according to Muḥammadan law, the punishment of which has been fixed by the Qurʾān ([Sūrah v. 37]): “The recompense of those who war against God and His apostle, and go about to enact violence on the earth, is that they be slain or crucified, or have their alternate hands and feet cut off, or be banished the land.” According to the Hidāyah, highway robbers are of four kinds, viz. (1) Those who are seized before they have robbed or murdered any person, or put any person in fear. These are to be imprisoned by the magistrate until their repentance is evident. (2) Those who have robbed but have not murdered. These are to have their right hand and left foot struck off. (3) Those who have committed murder but have not robbed. These are punished with death. (4) Those who have committed both robbery and murder. These are punished according to the option of the magistrate. If he please, he can first cut off a hand and foot, and then put them to death by the sword, or by crucifixion; or he may kill them at once without inflicting amputation. If any one among a band of robbers be guilty of murder, the punishment of death must be inflicted upon the whole band.
ḤIJĀB (حجاب). A partition or curtain. Veiling or concealing.
(1) A term used for the seclusion of women enjoined in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xxxiii. 53]: “And when ye ask them (the Prophet’s wives) for an article, ask them from behind a curtain; that is purer for your hearts and for theirs.”
(2) A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for that which obscures the light of God in the soul of man. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)
ḤIJĀZ (حجاز). Lit. “A barrier or anything similar by which two things are separated.” The name al-Ḥijāz is given to that tract of country which separates Najd from Tahāmah, and is an irregular parallelogram about 250 miles long and 150 miles wide. It may be considered the holy land of the Muḥammadans, for within its limits are the sacred cities of al-Madīnah and Makkah, and most of its places are someway connected with the history of Muḥammad. It is a barren district consisting of sandy plains towards the shore and rocky hills in the interior; and so destitute of provisions as to depend, even for the necessaries of life, on the supplies of other countries. Among its fertile spots is Wādī Fāt̤imah, which is well watered, and produces grain and vegetables. Sajrah abounds in date trees. At̤-T̤āʾif, seventy-two miles from Makkah, is celebrated for its gardens, and the neighbourhood of al-Madīnah has cultivated fields. The towns on the coast are Jiddah and Yambuʿ, the former being considered the port of Makkah, from which it is distant about fifty-five miles, and the latter that of al-Madīnah. Al-Ḥijāz is bounded eastward by a lofty range of mountains, which, near At̤-T̤āʾif, take the name of Jabalu ʾl-Qura. The scenery there is occasionally beautiful and picturesque; the small rivulets that descend from the rocks afford nourishment to the plains below, which are clothed with verdure and shady trees. The vicinity of Makkah is bleak and bare; for several miles it is surrounded with thousands of hills all nearly of one height; their dark and naked peaks rise one behind another, appearing at a distance like cocks of hay. The most celebrated of these are aṣ-Ṣafā, ʿArafah and al-Marwah, which have always been connected with the religious rites of the Muḥammadan pilgrimage.
ḤIJR (حجر). In its primitive sense means interdiction or prevention.
(1) In the language of the law it signifies an interdiction of action with respect to a particular person, who is either an infant, an idiot, or a slave. (Hidāyah, vol. iii. p. 468.)
(2) Al-Ḥijr is a territory in the province of al-Ḥijāz between al-Madīnah and Syria, where the tribe of S̤amūd dwelt. It is the title of the XVth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in the 80th verse of which the word occurs: “The inhabitants of al-Ḥijr likewise accused the messenger of God of imposture.”
HIJRAH (هجرة). Lit. “migration.” (1) The departure of Muḥammad from Makkah. (2) The Muslim era. (3) The act of a Muslim leaving a country under infidel rule. (4) Fleeing from sin.
The date of Muḥammad’s flight from Makkah was the fourth day of the first month of Rabīʿ, which by the calculation of M. Caussin de Perceval was June 20th, A.D. 622. The Hijrah, or the era of the “Hegira,” was instituted seventeen years later by the K͟halīfah ʿUmar, which dates from the first day of the first lunar month of the year, viz. Muḥarram, which day in the year when the era was established fell on Thursday the 15th of July A.D. 622. But although ʿUmar instituted the official era, according to at̤-T̤abarī, the custom of referring to events as happening before or after the Hijrah originated with Muḥammad himself.
Professor H. H. Wilson in his Glossary of Terms gives the following method of ascertaining the Muḥammadan and Christian years:—
Multiply the Hijrah year by 2,977, the difference between 100 solar and as many lunar Muḥammadan years; divide the product by 100, and deduct the quotient from the Hijrah year; add to the result 621,569 (the decimal being the equivalent of the 15th July, plus 12 days for the change of the Kalendar); and the quotient will be the Christian year from the date at which the Muḥammadan year begins; thus, Hij. 1269 × 2·977 = 3777·8, which divided by 100 = 37·778 and 1269 - 37·778 = 1231·222; this + 621·569 = 1852·791, the decimals corresponding to 9 months and 15 days, i.e. the 15th of October, which is the commencement of the Hij. year 1269. The reverse formula for finding the corresponding Hijrah year to a given Christian year, is thus laid down: Subtract 622 from the current year; multiply the result by 1·0307; cut off two decimals and add ·46; the sum will be the year, which, when it has a surplus decimal, requires the addition of 1: thus, 1852 - 622 = 1230; 1230 × 1·0307 = 1267·761; 1267·76 + ·46 = 1268·22; add therefore 1, and we have the equivalent Hijrah year 1269.
The Persian era of Yezdegird commenced on June 16th, A.D. 632, or ten years later than the Hijrah.
ḤIKMAH (حـكـمـة). Al-ḥikmah, “the wisdom,” is a term used by the Ṣūfī mystics to express a knowledge of the essence, attributes, specialities, and results of things as they exist and are seen, with the study of their cause, effects, and uses. This is said to be the wisdom mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah ii. 272]: “He (God) bringeth the wisdom (al-ḥikmah) unto whom He willeth.”
The Ṣūfīs say there are four kinds of wisdom expressed in the term al-ḥikmah:—
(1) Al-ḥikmatu ʾl-Mant̤ūqah, “spoken wisdom,” which is made known in the Qurʾān, or in the T̤arīqah, “the Path” (i.e. the Ṣūfī path).
(2) Al-ḥikmatu ʾl-maskūtah, “unspoken wisdom.” Such as understood only by Ṣūfī mystics, and not by the natural man.
(3) Al-ḥikmatu ʾl-majhūlah, “unknown wisdom,” or those acts of the Creator the wisdom of which is unknown to the creature, such as the infliction of pain upon the creatures of God, the death of infants, or the eternal fire of hell. Things which we believe, but which we do not understand.
(4) Al-ḥikmatu ʾl-jāmiʿah, “collective wisdom,” or the knowledge of the truth (ḥaqq), and acting upon it, and the perception of error (bāt̤il) and the rejection of it (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)
HILĀL (هلال). The new moon. A term used for the first three days of the month.
ḤILF (حلف). An oath; a vow. An affidavit. Ḥilf nāmah, a written solemn declaration. Ḥālif, one who takes an oath.
ḤILFU ʾL-FUẒŪL (حلف الفضول). A confederacy formed by the descendants of Hāshim, Zuhrah, and Taim, in the house of ʿAbdu ʾllāh ibn Judʿān at Makkah, for the suppression of violence and injustice at the restoration of peace after the Sacrilegious war. Muḥammad was then a youth, and Sir William Muir says this confederacy “aroused an enthusiasm in the mind of Mahomet, which the exploits of the sacrilegious war failed to kindle.”
ḤILM (حلم). Being mild, gentle, clement. Restraining oneself at a time when the spirit is roused to anger. Delaying in punishing a tyrant. (Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrīfāt.) Hence al-Ḥalīm, the Clement, is one of the attributes of God.
ḤIMA (حمى). Lit. “guarded, forbidden.” A portion of land reserved by the ruler of a country as a grazing ground. (See Mishkāt, book xii. ch. i. pt. i.) “Know ye that every prince has a grazing ground which is forbidden to the people, and know ye the grazing place (ḥima) is the thing forbidden by Him to men.”
HIMMAH (همة). “Resolution, strength, ability.” A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for a determination of the heart to incline itself entirely to God. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)
ḤINNAʾ (حناء). The Lawsonia inermis, or Eastern privet, used for dyeing the hands and feet on festive occasions. [[MARRIAGE].] Muḥammad enjoined the use of ḥinnāʾ, and approved of women staining their hands and feet with it. He also dyed his own beard with it, and recommended its use for this purpose. (Mishkāt, book xx. c. 4.) It has therefore become a religious custom, and is sunnah.
ḤIQQAH (حقة). A female camel turned three years. The proper age for a camel to be given in zakāt, or legal alms, for camels from forty-six to sixty in number.
ḤIRĀʾ (حراء). The name of a mountain near Makkah, said to have been the scene of the first revelation given to Muḥammad. [[MUHAMMAD].]
HIRAQL (هرقل). Heraclius the Roman Emperor, to whom Muḥammad sent an embassy, A.H. 7, A.D. 628. [[HERACLIUS].]
HIRE. The Arabic term ijārah (اجارة), which means the use and enjoyment of property for a time, includes hire, rental, and lease. The hirer is termed ājir, or muʾjir. The person who receives the rent is the mustaʾjir.
The following are some of the chief points in the Sunnī law with regard to ijārah, and for further particulars the reader must refer in English to Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. iii. p. 312, or in Arabic to such works as the Durru ʾl-Muk͟htār, Fatāwā-i-ʿĀlamgīrī, and the Raddu ʾl-Muḥtār, in which works it is treated in the Bābu ʾl-Ijārah.
A contract of hire, or rental, or lease, is not valid unless both the usufruct and the hire be particularly known and specified, because there is a traditional saying of the Prophet, “If a person hire another let him first inform him of the wages he is to receive.”
A workman is not entitled to anything until his work is finished, but the article wrought upon may be detained until the workman be paid his full wages, and the workman is not responsible for any loss or damage in the article during such detention. If a person hire another to carry a letter to al-Baṣrah and bring back an answer, and he accordingly go to al-Baṣrah and there find the person dead to whom the letter was addressed, and come back, and return the letter, he is not entitled to any wages whatever! This strange ruling is according to Abū Ḥanīfah and two of his disciples, but the Imām Muḥammad says the messenger ought to be paid.
It is lawful to hire a house or shop for the purpose of residence, although no mention be made of the business to be followed in it, and the lessee is at liberty to carry on any business he pleases, unless it be injurious to the building. For example, a blacksmith or a fuller must not reside in the house, unless it is previously so agreed, since the exercise of those trades would shake the building.
It is lawful to hire or lease land for the purposes of cultivation, and in this case the hirer is entitled to the use of the road leading to the land, and likewise the water (i.e. his turn of water) although no mention of these be made in the contract.
A lease of land is not valid unless mention is made of the article to be raised on it, not only with a view to cultivation, but also for other purposes, such as building, and so forth. Or the lessor of the land may make declaration to the effect:—“I let the land on this occasion, that the lessee shall raise on it whatever he pleases.”
If a person hire unoccupied land for the purposes of building or planting, it is lawful, but on the term of the lease expiring it is incumbent on the lessee to remove his buildings and trees, and to restore the land to the lessor in such a state as may leave him no claim upon it, because houses or trees have no specific limit of existence, and if they were left on the land it might be injurious to the proprietor. But it is otherwise when the land is hired or leased for the purpose of tillage, and the term of the lease expires at a time when the grain is yet unripe. In this case, the grain must be suffered to remain upon the ground at a proportionate rent, until it is fit for reaping.
The hire of an animal is lawful, either for carriage, or for riding, or for any use to which animals are applied. And if a person hire an animal to carry a burden, and the person who lets it to hire specify the nature and quantity of the article with which the hirer is to load the animal, the hirer is at liberty to load the animal with an equal quantity of any article not more troublesome or prejudicial in the carriage than wheat, such as barley, &c. The hirer is not at liberty to load the animal with a more prejudicial article than wheat (unless stipulated beforehand), such as salt or iron. For a hired animal perishing from ill-usage, the hirer is responsible.
(For the sayings of Muḥammad on the subject of hire and leases, refer to the Mishkāt, Bābu ʾl-Ijārah.)
ḤIRṢ (حرص). “Avarice, greed, eagerness.” Derivatives of the word occur three times in the Qurʾān. [Sūrah ii. 90]: “Thou wilt find them (the Jews) the greediest of men for life.” [Sūrah iv. 128]: “And ye may not have it at all in your power to treat your wives with equal justice, even though you be anxious to do so.” [Sūrah xii. 104]: “And yet most men, though thou ardently desire it, will not believe.”
ḤISS (حس). “Understanding, sense.” Ḥiss bātin, internal sense; ḥiss z̤āhir, external sense; ḥiss mushtarik, common sense.
ḤIẒĀNAH (حضانة). Al-ḥiẓānah is the right of a mother to the custody of her children. “The mother is of all persons the best entitled to the custody of her infant children during the connubial relationship as well as after its dissolution.” (Fatāwā-i-ʿĀlamgīrī, vol. i. p. 728.)
When the children are no longer dependent on the mother’s care, the father has a right to educate and take charge of them, and is entitled to the guardianship of their person in preference to the mother. Among the Ḥanafīs, the mother is entitled to the custody of her daughter until she arrives at puberty; but according to the other three Sunnī sects, the custody continues until she is married.
There is difference of opinion as to the extent of the period of the mother’s custody over her male children. The Ḥanafīs limit it to the child’s seventh year, but the Shāfiʿīs and Malakīs allow the boy the option of remaining under his mother’s guardianship until he has arrived at puberty. Among the Shīʿahs, the mother is entitled to the custody of her children until they are weaned, a period limited to two years. After the child is weaned, its custody, if a male, devolves on the father, if a female, on the mother. The mother’s custody of the girl continues to the seventh year.
The right of ḥiẓānah is lost by the mother if she is married to a stranger, or if she misconducts herself, or if she changes her domicile so as to prevent the father or tutor from exercising the necessary supervision over the child.
Apostasy is also a bar to the exercise of the right of ḥiẓānah. A woman, consequently, who apostatizes from Islām, whether before or after the right vests in her, is disentitled from exercising or claiming the right of ḥiẓānah in respect to a Muslim child.
The custody of illegitimate children appertains exclusively to the mother and her relations. (Personal Law of Muḥammadans, by Syud Amīr Ali, p. 214.) [[GUARDIANSHIP].]
HOLY SPIRIT. Arabic Ruḥu ʾl-Quds (روح القدس). The Holy Spirit is mentioned three times in the Qurʾān. In the Sūratu ʾn-Naḥl (XVIth, 104), as the inspiring agent of the Qurʾān: “Say, The Holy Spirit brought it down from thy Lord in truth.” And twice in the Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah (IInd, 81 and 254), as the divine power which aided the Lord Jesus: “and We strengthened him by the Holy Spirit” (in both verses).
The Jalālān, al-Baiẓāwī, and the Muslim commentators in general, say this Holy Spirit was the angel Gabriel who sanctified Jesus, and constantly aided Him, and who also brought the Qurʾān down from heaven and revealed it to Muḥammad.
For a further consideration of the subject, see [SPIRIT].
HOMICIDE. [[MURDER].]
HONEY. Arabic ʿasal (عسل). In the Qurʾān it is specially mentioned as the gift of God. [Sūrah xvi. 70]: “Thy Lord inspired the bee. ‘Take to houses in the mountains, and in the trees, and in the hives they build. Then eat from every fruit and walk in the beaten paths of thy Lord.’ There cometh forth from her body a draught varying in hue, in which is a cure for man.”
HORSES. Arabic faras (فرس), k͟hail (خيل), pl. k͟huyūl. Muḥammad’s affection for horses was very great, as was natural to an Arabian. Anas says there was nothing the Prophet was so fond of as women and horses. Abū Qatādah relates that Muḥammad said: “The best horses are black with white foreheads and having a white upper lip.” But Abū Wahhāb says the Prophet considered a bay horse with white forehead, white fore and hind legs the best. An instance of the way in which the traditionists sometimes contradict each other! (Mishkāt, book xvii. c. ii.)
In the Hidāyah (Arabic edition, vol. ii. p. 432) it is said that horses are of four kinds: (1) Birẕaun, Burẕūn, a heavy draught horse brought from foreign countries. (2) ʿAtīq, a first blood horse of Arabia. (3) Hajīn, a half-bred horse whose mother is an Arab and father a foreigner. (4) A half-bred horse whose father is an Arab and whose mother is a foreigner.
In taking a share of plunder, a horseman is entitled to a double share, but he is not entitled to any more if he keep more horses than one.
HOSPITALITY. Arabic ẓiyāfah (ضيافة). It is related that Muḥammad said:—
“Whoever believes in God and in the Day of Resurrection must respect his guest.”
“If a Muslim be the guest of a people and he spends the whole night without being entertained, it shall be lawful for every Muslim present to take money and grain necessary for the entertainment of the man.”
“It is according to my practice that the host shall come out with his guest to the door of his house.” (Mishkāt, book xix. ch. ii.)
Hospitality is enjoined in the Qurʾān. [Sūrah iv. 40]: “Show kindness to your parents, and to your kindred, and to orphans, and to the poor, and to your neighbour who is akin and to your neighbour who is a stranger, and the companion who is strange, and to the son of the road.”
HOUR, The. Arabic as-Sāʿah (الساعة). A term frequently used in the Qurʾān for the Day of Judgment.
[Sūrah vi. 31]: “When the hour comes suddenly upon them.”
[Sūrah vii. 186]: “They will ask you about the hour for what time it is fixed.”
[Sūrah xv. 85]: “Verily the hour is surely coming.”
[Sūrah xvi. 79]: “Nor is the matter of the hour aught but as the twinkling of an eye, or nigher still.”
[Sūrah xxii. 1]: “Verily the earthquake of the hour is a mighty thing.”
[Sūrah liv. 46]: “Nay the hour is their promised time! and the hour is most severe and bitter.”
HOURS OF PRAYER. The terms “Hours of Prayer” and “Canonical Hours,” being used in the Christian Church (see Johnson’s Engl. Canons and Canons of Cuthbert, ch. 15), we shall consider under this title the stated periods of Muḥammadan prayer. [[PRAYER].] They are five: (1) Fajr (فجر), daybreak; (2) Z̤uhr (ظهر), when the sun begins to decline at midday; (3) ʿAṣr (عصر), midway between z̤uhr and mag͟hrib; (4) Mag͟hrib (مغرب), evening; (5) ʿIshāʾ (عشاء), when the night has closed in. According to the Traditions (Mishkāt, book xxiv. ch. vii. pt. 1), Muḥammad professed to have received his instructions to say prayer five times a day during the Miʿrāj, or the celebrated night journey to heaven. He said, God first ordered him to pray fifty times a day, but that Moses advised him to get the Almighty to reduce the number of canonical hours to five, he himself having tried fifty times for his own people with very ill success!
It is remarkable that there is but one passage in the Qurʾān, in which the stated hours of prayer are enjoined, and that it mentions only four and not five periods. Sūratu ʾr-Rūm, xxx. 16, 17: “Glorify God when it is evening (masāʾ), and at morning (ṣubḥ),—and to Him be praise in the heavens and in the earth,—and at afternoon (ʿashī), and at noon-tide (z̤uhr).” But al-Jalālān, the commentators, say all are agreed that the term, “when it is masāʾ” (evening or night), includes both sunset and after sunset, and therefore both the mag͟hrib and ʿishāʾ prayers are included.
Three hours of prayer were observed by the Jews. David says, “Evening, morning, and at noon will I pray.” ([Ps. lv. 17].) Daniel “kneeled upon his knees three times a day.” These three hours of the Jews seem to have been continued by the Apostles (see [Acts iii. 1]), and were transmitted to the early church in succeeding ages, for Tertullian speaks of “those common hours which mark the divisions of the day, the third, sixth, and ninth, which we observe in scripture to be more solemn than the rest.” (De Orat., c. 25.) And Clement of Alexandria says, “If some fix stated hours of prayer, as the third, sixth, and ninth, the man of knowledge prays to God throughout his whole life.” (Stom. l. vii. c. 7, sect. 40.) Jerome says, “There are three times in which the knees are bent to God. Tradition assigns the third, the sixth, and the ninth hour.” (Com. in Dan., c. vi. 10.)
In the third century there seems to have been five stated periods of prayer, for Basil of Cappadocia speaks of five hours as suitable for monks, namely, the morning, the third hour, the sixth, the ninth, and the evening. (Regulæ fusius Tract. Resp. ad Qu., 37, sections 3–5.)
It is therefore probable that Muḥammad obtained his idea of five stated periods of prayer during his two journeys to Syria. But he changed the time, as will be seen from the table annexed, which was drawn up by Mr. Lane at Cairo, and shows the times of Muḥammadan prayer with the apparent European time of sunset, in or near the latitude of Cairo at the commencement of each zodiacal month:—
| Mag͟hrib or Sunset. | ʿIshāʾ or Night. | Fajr or Daybreak. | Z̤uhr or Noon. | ʿAṣr or Afternoon. | |||
| Muslim Time. | European Time. | Muslim Time. | Muslim Time. | Muslim Time. | Muslim Time. | ||
| June 21 | Sunset, or 12 o’clock Muslim Time. | 7 4 P.M. | 1 34 | 8 6 | 4 56 | 8 13 | |
| July 22 | May 21 | 6 53 P.M,, . | 1 30 | 8 30 | 5 7 | 8 43 | |
| Aug. 23 | Apl. 20 | 6 31 P.M,, . | 1 22 | 9 24 | 5 29 | 9 4 | |
| Sept. 23 | Mar. 20 | 6 4 P.M,, . | 1 18 | 10 24 | 5 56 | 9 24 | |
| Oct. 23 | Feb. 18 | 5 37 P.M,, . | 1 18 | 11 18 | 6 23 | 9 35 | |
| Nov. 22 | Jan. 20 | 5 15 P.M,, . | 1 22 | 11 59 | 6 45 | 9 41 | |
| Dec. 21 | 5 4 P.M,, . | 1 24 | 12 15 | 6 56 | 9 43 | ||
N.B.—The time of noon, according to Muḥammadan reckoning, on any particular day, subtracted from twelve, gives the apparent time of sunset on that day according to European reckoning.
HOUSES. Arabic bait (بيت), pl. buyūt; dār (دار), pl. diyār, dūr; Heb. בַּיִת. In the time of Muḥammad the houses of the Arabs were made of a framework of jarīd, or palm-sticks, covered over with a cloth of camel’s hair, or a curtain of a similar stuff, forming the door. Those of the better class were made of walls of unbaked bricks, and date-leaf roofs plastered over with mud and clay. Of this description were the abodes of Muḥammad’s family. (Burton, vol. i. p. 433.)
Sir William Muir, translating from the account given by the secretary of al-Wāqidī (Life of Mahomet, new ed., p. 546), says:—
“Abdallah ibn Yazîd relates, that he saw the house in which the wives of the Prophet dwelt at the time when Omar ibn (ʿAbd) al-Azîz, then governor of Medîna (about A.H. 100) demolished them. They were built of unburnt bricks, and had separate apartments made of palm branches, daubed (or built up) with mud; he counted nine houses, each having separate apartments in the space from the house of Ayesha, and the gate of Mahomet to the house of Asma, daughter of Hosein. Observing the dwelling-place of Omm Salma, he questioned her grandson concerning it; and he told him that when the Prophet was absent on the expedition to Dûma, Omm Salma built up an addition to her house with a wall of unburnt bricks. When Mahomet returned, he went in to her, and asked what new building this was. She replied, ‘I purposed, O Prophet, to shut out the glances of men thereby!’ Mahomet answered, ‘O Omm Salma! verily the most unprofitable thing that eateth up the wealth of a believer is building.’ A citizen of Medîna present at the time, confirmed this account, and added that the curtains (Anglo-Indice, purdas) of the doors were of black hair-cloth. He was present, he said, when the despatch of the Caliph Abd al Malîk (A.H. 86–88) was read aloud, commanding that these houses should be brought within the area of the Mosque, and he never witnessed sorer weeping than there was amongst the people that day. One exclaimed, ‘I wish, by the Lord! that they would leave these houses alone thus as they are; then would those that spring up hereafter in Medîna, and strangers from the ends of the earth, come and see what kind of building sufficed for the Prophet’s own abode, and the sight thereof would deter men from extravagance and pride.
THE USUAL PLAN OF AN ORDINARY HOUSE IN CENTRAL ASIA.
“There were four houses of unburnt bricks, the apartments being of palm-branches; and five houses made of palm-branches built up with mud and without any separate apartments. Each was three Arabian yards in length. Some say that they had leather curtains for the doors. One could reach the roof with the hand. The house of Hâritha was next to that of Mahomet. Now, whenever Mahomet took to himself a new wife, he added another house to the row, and Hâritha was obliged successively to remove his house and build on the space beyond. At last this was repeated so often, that the Prophet said to those about him, ‘Verily, it shameth me to turn Hâritha over and over again out of his house.’ ”
A MUḤAMMADAN HOUSE IN PESHAWUR.
The houses of the rural poor in all parts of Islām, in Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Persia, Afg͟hānistān, and India, are usually built either of mud or of unburnt bricks. In mountainous parts of Afg͟hānistān they are built of stones (collected from the beds of rivers) and mud. They are generally one storey high, and of one apartment in which the cattle are also housed. The roofs are flat and are formed of mud and straw laid upon branches of trees and rafters. The windows are small apertures, high up in the walls, and sometimes grated with wood. There are no chimneys, but in the centre of the roof there is an opening to emit the smoke, the fire being lighted on the ground in the centre of the room. In front of the house there is an inclosure, either of thorns or a mud wall, which secures privacy to the dwelling. A separate building, called in Asia a ḥujrah, or guest chamber, is provided for male visitors or guests; this chamber being common property of the section of the village, except in the case of chiefs or wealthy land-owners, who keep ḥujrahs of their own. In towns the houses of the inferior kind do not differ much from those in the villages, except that there is sometimes an upper storey. In some parts of Afg͟hānistān and Persia, it becomes necessary for each householder to protect his dwelling, in which case a watch tower, of mud, is erected close to the house.
A MUḤAMMADAN HOUSE IN CAIRO.
(Lane.)
The injunctions of Muḥammad regarding the seclusion of women have very greatly influenced the plan and arrangement of Muḥammadan dwelling-houses of the better class throughout the world, all respectable houses being so constructed as to seclude the female apartments from public view. In cities such as Cairo, Damascus, Delhi, Peshawur, and Cabul, the prevailing plan of dwelling-houses is an entrance through a blank wall, whose mean appearance is usually relieved by a handsome door-way and a few latticed windows. A respectable house usually consists of two courts, the first being that used by the male visitors and guests, and the inner court is the ḥarīm or zanānah reserved for the female members of the family. Facing the outer court will be an upper chamber, or bālā k͟hānah as it is called in Persian, the ὑπερῷον or upper room of the New Testament, in which there will be a dīwān, or raised seat or sofa, upon which the inmates can sit, eat, or sleep. This is the usual reception room. In Asia, this bālā k͟hānah seems to take the place of the more elaborate qāʿah described by Mr. Lane in his Modern Egyptians, vol. i. p. 39, which is either on the ground or upper floor. Within the first enclosure will be the stables for horses and cattle, and in its centre a raised dais as seats for servants and attendants. It should be noticed that there are no special bed-rooms in Eastern houses. Male visitors and friends will sleep in the verandahs of the outer court, or on the dīwān in the upper court.
INTERIOR OF A MUḤAMMADAN HOUSE IN CAIRO. (Lane.)
The ḥarīm or women’s apartments in the inner court is entered by a small door. It is a quadrangle with verandahs on each of the four sides, formed by a row of pillars, the apertures of which are usually closed by sliding shutters. The back of the rooms being without windows, the only air being admitted from the front of the dwelling-place. The apartments are divided into long rooms, usually four, the extreme corners having small closets purposely built as store-rooms. On festive occasions these verandah rooms will be spread with handsome carpets, carpets and pillows being almost the only furniture of an Eastern dwelling, chairs being a modern invention. The roofs of these rooms are flat, and as the top is fenced in with a barrier some four feet high, the female members of the household sleep on the top of the house in the hot weather. [[HARIM].]
In no point do Oriental habits differ more from European than in the use of the roof. Its flat surface, in fine weather the usual place of resort, is made useful for various household purposes, as drying corn, hanging up linen, and drying fruit.
In the centre of the inner court or ḥarīm, there is usually a well, so that the female domestics are not obliged to leave the seclusion of the ḥarīm for water-carrying. In a large court, of a wealthy person, there is usually a raised dais of either stone or wood, on which carpets are spread, and on which the ladies sit or recline. In the better class of dwellings, there are numerous courtyards, and special ones are devoted to winter and summer uses. In Peshawur, most respectable houses have an underground room, called a taḥ k͟hānah, where the inmates in the hot weather sleep at mid-day. These rooms are exceedingly cool and pleasant on hot sultry days.
Over the entrance door of a Muḥammadan dwelling it is usual to put an inscription, either of the Kalimah, or Creed, or of some verse of the Qurʾān.
We have only attempted to describe, briefly, the ordinary dwelling-houses of Muḥammadans, which are common to all parts of the Eastern world; but in large wealthy cities, such as Damascus, Cairo, Delhi, and Lucknow, there are very handsome houses, which would require a longer description than our space admits of. For Mrs. Meer Ali’s account of a Muḥammadan ḥarīm or zanānah, see [HARIM].
HOUSES, Permission to enter. Arabic istiʾẕān (استئذان). To enter suddenly or abruptly into any person’s house or apartments, is reckoned a great incivility in the East, and the law on this subject is very distinctly laid down in both the Qurʾān and the Traditions.
“O ye who believe! enter not into other houses than your own, until ye have asked leave, and have saluted its inmates. This will be best for you: haply ye will bear this in mind.
“And if ye find no one therein, then enter it not till leave be given you; and if it be said to you, ‘Go ye back,’ then go ye back. This will be more blameless in you, and God knoweth what ye do.
“There shall be no harm in your entering houses in which no one dwelleth, for the supply of your needs: and God knoweth what ye do openly and what ye hide.”
The traditionists record numerous injunctions of Muḥammad on the subject. A man asked the Prophet, “Must I ask leave to go in to see my mother?” He said, “Yes.” Then the man said, “But I stay in the same house with her!” The Prophet said: “But you must ask permission even if you stay in the same house.” Then the man said, “But I wait upon her!” The Prophet said: “What! would you like to see her naked? You must ask permission.”
The K͟halīfah ʿUmar said it was according to the teaching of the Prophet that if you salam three times and get no reply, you must then go away from the house.
Abū Hurairah says that the Prophet said: “When anyone sends to call you then you can return with the messenger and enter the house without permission.” (Mishkāt, book xxii. ch. ii. pt. 2.)
HU, HUWA (هو). The personal pronoun of the third person, singular, masculine, HE, i.e. God, or He is. It occurs in the Qurʾān in this sense, e.g. [Sūrah iii. 1], الاه لا اله الا هو Allāhu lā ilāha illā Huwa, “God, there is no god but HE,” which sentence is called the nafy wa is̤bāt (or that which is rejected), “there is no god,” and that which is affirmed, “but He.” The word is often used by Ṣūfī mystics in this form: يا هو يا هو يا من لا يعلم ما هو الا هو yā hū, yā hū, yā man lā yaʿlamu mā hū illā hū, “O He (who is), O He (who is), O He whom no one knows what He Himself is but Himself.” Some commentators have supposed the word Hū to stand for the exalted name of God, the Ismu ʾl-aʿz̤am, which Muslim doctors say is only known to God. [[JEHOVAH], [ISMU ʾL-AʿZAM].]
HUBAL or HOBAL (هبل). The great image which stood over the well or hollow within the Kaʿbah. In the cavity beneath were preserved the offerings and other treasures of the temple. (At̤-T̤abarī, p. 6, quoted by Muir.) The idol was destroyed by Muḥammad at his final conquest of Makkah, A.H. 8, A.D. 630. “Mounted on (his camel) Al Caswa, he proceeded to the Káabah, reverently saluted with his staff the sacred stone and made the seven circuits of the temple. Then pointing with the staff one by one to the numerous idols placed around, he commanded that they should be hewn down. The great image of Hobal, reared as the tutelary deity of Mecca, in front of the Káabah, shared the common fate. ‘Truth hath come,’ exclaimed Mahomet, in words of the Corân, as it fell with a crash to the ground, ‘and falsehood hath vanished; for falsehood is evanescent.’ ” ([Sūrah xvii. 83]). See Muir, Life of Mahomet, new ed. p. 422. It is remarkable that there is no distinct allusion to the idol in the whole of the Qurʾān.
ḤUBS (حبس). Any bequest for pious purposes. A term used in Shīʿah law for waqf. Anything devoted to the service of God. (See Baillie’s Imāmeea Code, p. 227.)
HŪD (هود). A prophet said to have been sent to the tribe of ʿĀd. Al-Baiẓāwī says he was, according to some, the son of ʿAbdu ʾllāh, the son of Rabāḥ, the son of K͟halūd, the son of ʿĀd, the son of ʿAuṣ, the son of Iram, the son of Sām, son of Noah, or, according to others, Hūd was the son of Shālaḥ, son of Arfak͟hshad, son of Sām, son of Noah. D’Herbelot thinks he must be the Heber of the Bible ([Judges iv. 1].)
The following are the accounts given of him in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah vii. 63–70]:—
“And to ʿĀd we sent their brother Hūd. ‘O my people, said he, worship God: ye have no other God than Him: will ye not then fear Him?’ Said the unbelieving chiefs among his people, ‘We certainly perceive that thou art unsound of mind, and verily we deem thee an impostor.’ He replied, ‘O my people! there is no unsoundness of mind in me, but I am an apostle from the Lord of the worlds. The messages of my Lord do I announce to you, and I am your faithful counsellor. Marvel ye that a warning hath come to you from your Lord through one of yourselves that He may warn you? But remember when He made you the successors of the people of Noah, and increased you in tallness of stature. Remember then the favours of God; happily it shall be well with you.’ They said, ‘Art thou come to us in order that we may worship one God only, and desert what our fathers worshipped? Then bring that upon us with which thou threatenest us, if thou be a man of truth.’ He replied, ‘Vengeance and wrath shall suddenly light on you from your Lord. Do ye dispute with me about names that you and your fathers have given those idols, and for which God hath sent you down no warranty? Wait ye then, and I too will wait with you.’ And We delivered him and those who were on his side by our mercy, and we cut off to the last man those who had treated our signs as lies and who were not believers.”
“And unto ʿĀd We sent their brother Hūd. He said, ‘O my people, worship God. Ye have no God beside Him. Lo, ye are only devisers of a lie, O my people! I ask of you no recompense for this; verily my recompense is with Him only who hath made me. Will ye not then understand? And O my people! ask pardon of your Lord; then turn unto Him with penitence! He will send down the heavens upon you with copious rains. And with strength in addition to your strength will He increase you; but turn not back with deeds of evil.’ They replied, ‘O Hūd, thou hast not brought us proofs of thy mission, and we are not the persons to abandon our gods at thy word, and we believe thee not. We can only say that some of our gods have smitten thee with evil.’ He said, ‘Now take I God to witness, and do ye also witness, that I am innocent of that which ye associate (in worship with God) beside himself. Conspire then against me altogether and delay me not; Lo, I trust in God, my Lord and yours. No moving creature is there which He holdeth not by its forelock. Right, truly, is the way in which my Lord goeth. So if ye turn back, then I have already declared to you that wherewith I was sent to you, and my Lord will put another people in your place, nor shall ye at all injure Him; verily, my Lord keepeth watch over all things.’ And when our doom came to be inflicted, We rescued Hūd and those who had like faith with him, by our special mercy; and We rescued them from the rigorous chastisement. And these men of ʿĀd gainsaid the signs of their Lord, and rebelled against His messengers and followed the bidding of every proud contumacious person; followed therefore were they in this world by a curse; and in the day of the Resurrection it shall be said to them, ‘Did not, verily, the people of ʿĀd disbelieve their Lord?’ Was it not said, ‘Away with ʿĀd, the people of Hūd?’ ”
“The people of ʿĀd treated the Sent Ones as liars. When their brother Hūd said to them, ‘Will ye not fear God? I truly am your apostle, worthy of all credit; fear God then and obey me. I ask of you no reward for this, for my reward is of the Lord of the worlds alone. Build ye a landmark on every height, in pastime? And raise ye structures to be your lasting abodes? And when ye put forth your power, do ye put it forth with harshness? Fear ye God, then, and obey me; and fear ye Him who hath plenteously bestowed on you, ye well know what? Plenteously bestowed on you flocks and children, and gardens and fountains. Indeed, I fear for you the punishment of a great day.’ They said, ‘It is the same to us whether thou warn or warn us not; verily this is but a creation [tale] of the ancients, and we are not they who shall be punished.’ So they charged him with imposture and We destroyed them. Verily in this was a sign: yet most of them believed not.”
AL-ḤUDAIBIYAH (الحديبية). Al-Ḥudaibiyah, a well on an open space on the verge of the Ḥaram or sacred territory, which encircles Makkah. Celebrated as the scene of a truce between Muḥammad and the Quraish known as the truce of al-Ḥudaibiyah, when the Prophet agreed not to enter Makkah that year, but to defer his visit until the next, when they should not enter it with any weapons save those of the traveller, namely, to each a sheathed sword. (Muir, from Kātibu ʾl-Wāqidī.)
The treaty is referred to in the Qurʾān as “a victory,” in the XLVIIIth Sūrah, 1st verse: “We have given thee an obvious victory.” A chapter which is said to have been revealed on this occasion and to have foretold the final taking of Makkah, which happened two years afterwards. (See al-Baiẓāwī, in loco.)
ḤUJJAH (حجة). “An argument; a proof.” The word occurs in the Qurʾān.
[Sūrah ii. 145]: “Turn your faces towards it (the Kaʿbah) that men may have no argument against you, save only those of them who are unjust.”
[Sūrah vi. 84]: “These are our arguments which we gave to Abraham against his people.”
[Sūrah vi. 150]: “God’s is the perfect argument (ḥujjatu ʾl-bālig͟hah).”
ḤUJJATU ʾL-ḤAQQI ʿALA ʾL-K͟HALQ (حجة الحق على الخلق). Lit. “The demonstration of truth upon the creature.” A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for the Insānu ʾl-kāmil, or the “perfect man,” as Adam was when he proceeded from the hand of his Maker, and when he became a demonstration of God’s wisdom and power before the angels of heaven. As is stated in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah ii. 29]: “Thy Lord said I am about to place a vicegerent (k͟halīfah) in the earth.” (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)
ḤUJRAH (حجرة). The “chamber” in which Muḥammad died and was buried, which was originally the apartment allotted to ʿĀyishah, the Prophet’s favourite wife. It is situated behind the Masjidu ʾn-Nabī, or Prophet’s mosque, at al-Madīnah, and is an irregular square of fifty-five feet, separated from the mosque by a passage of about 26 feet. Inside the Ḥujrah are supposed to be the three tombs of Muḥammad, Abū Bakr, and ʿUmar, facing the south, surrounded by stone walls, without any aperture, or, as others say, by strong planking. Whatever this material may be, it is hung outside with a curtain, somewhat like a four-post bed. The outer railing is separated by a darker passage from the inner, and is of iron filagree, painted green and gold. This fence, which connects the columns, forbids passage to all men. It has four gates, the Bābu ʾl-Muwājihah (the Front Gate), the Bābu Fāt̤imah (the Gate of Fāt̤imah), the Bābu ʾsh-Shām (the Syrian Gate), and the Bābu ʾt-Taubah (the Gate of Repentance). The Syrian Gate is the only one which is not kept closed, and is the passage which admits the officers in charge of the place. On the southern side of the fence there are three small windows about a foot square, which are said to be about three cubits from the head of the Prophet’s tomb. Above the Ḥujrah is the green dome, surmounted by a large gilt crescent, springing from a series of globes. Within the building are the tombs of Muḥammad, Abū Bakr, and ʿUmar, with a space reserved for the grave of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom Muslims say will again visit the earth, and die and be buried at al-Madīnah. The grave of Fāt̤imah, the Prophet’s daughter, is supposed to be in a separate part of the building, although some say she was buried in Baqīʿ. The Prophet’s body is said to be stretched full length on the right side, with the right palm supporting the right cheek, the face fronting Makkah. Close behind him is placed Abū Bakr, whose face fronts Muḥammad’s shoulder, and then ʿUmar, who occupies the same position with respect to his predecessor. Amongst Christian historians there was a popular story to the effect that Muḥammadans believed the coffin of their Prophet to be suspended in the air, which has no foundation whatever in Muslim literature, and Niebuhr thinks the story must have arisen from the rude pictures sold to strangers. Captain Burton gives the annexed plan of the building.
| 1. | Muḥammad. |
| 2. | Abū Bakr. |
| 3. | ʿUmar. |
| 4. | The space for the tomb of Jesus. |
| 5. | Fāt̤imah. |
It is related that Muḥammad prayed that God would not allow his followers to make his tomb an object of idolatrous adoration, and consequently the adoration paid to the tomb at al-Madīnah has been condemned by the Wahhābīs and other Muslim reformers.
In A.D. 1804, when al-Madīnah was taken by the Wahhābīs, their chief, Saʿūd, stripped the tomb of all its valuables, and proclaimed that all prayers and exclamations addressed to it were idolatrous. (See Burton’s Pilgrimage, vol. ii.; Burckhardt’s Arabia and Wahhābīs.)
The garden annexed to the tomb is called ar-Rauẓah, which is a title also given by some writers to the tomb itself.
Abū Dāʾud relates that al-Qāsim the grandson of Abū Bakr came to ʿĀyishah and said, “O Mother, lift up the curtain of the Prophet’s tomb and of his two friends, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar,” and she uncovered the graves, which were neither high nor low, but about one span in height, and were covered with red gravel. (Mishkāt, book v. ch. vi. pt. 2.)
AL-ḤUJURĀT (الـحـجـرات). “Chambers.” The title of the XLIXth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in which the word occurs.
ḤUKM (حكم), pl. aḥkām. “Order; command; rule; sentence; judgment, of God, or of the prophets, or of a ruler or judge.” It occurs in different senses in the Qurʾān, e.g.:—
[Sūrah iii. 73]: “It beseemeth not a man, that God should give him the Scriptures and the Judgment and the Prophecy, and that then he should say to his followers, ‘Be ye worshippers of me, as well as of God’; but rather, ‘Be ye perfect in things pertaining to God, since ye know the Scriptures and have studied deep.’ ”
(Both Sale and Rodwell translate the word al-ḥukm, “the wisdom,” but Palmer renders it more correctly, “the judgment.”)
[Sūrah xii. 40]: “Judgment is God’s alone: He bids you worship only Him.”
[Sūrah xxi. 79]: “To each (David and Solomon) we gave judgment and knowledge.”
Al-ḥukmu ʾsh-Sharʿī, “the injunction of the law,” is a term used for a command of God, which relates to the life and conduct of an adult Muslim. (Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrīfāt, in loco.)
ḤULŪL (حلول). Lit. “descending; alighting; transmigration.” A Ṣūfī term for the indwelling light in the soul of man.
HUMAN SACRIFICES. There is no trace in the Qurʾān or Traditions of the immolation of human beings to the Deity as a religious rite. But M. C. de Perceval (vol. ii. p. 101) mentions a G͟hassānide prince who was sacrificed to Venus by Munẕir, King of Ḥirāʾ. Infanticide was common in ancient Arabia, but it seems to have been done either, as amongst the Rajputs of India, from a feeling of disappointment at the birth of female children, or to avoid the expense and trouble of rearing them. The latter seems to have been the ordinary reason; for we read in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xvii. 33]: “Kill not your children for fear of poverty.” [[INFANTICIDE].]
AL-HUMAZAH (الهمزة). “The slanderer.” The title of the CIVth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, so called because it commences with the words: “Woe unto every slanderer.” The passage is said to have been revealed against al-Ak͟hnas ibn Sharīq, who had been guilty of slandering the Prophet.
ḤUNAIN (حنين). The name of a valley about three miles to the north-east of Makkah, where in the eighth year of the Ḥijrah a battle took place between Muḥammad and the Banū Hawāzin, when the latter were defeated. In the Qurʾān, the victory of Ḥunain is ascribed to angelic assistance.
[Sūrah ix. 25]: “Verily God hath assisted you in many battle-fields and on the day of Ḥunain.”
HUNTING. Arabic ṣaid (صيد); Heb. צַיִד. There are special rules laid down in Muslim law with regard to hunting. (See Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 170.)
It is lawful to hunt with a trained dog, or a panther (Arabic fahd, Persian yūz, which is an animal of the lynx species, hooded and trained like a hawk), or a hawk, or a falcon.
The sign of a dog being trained is his catching game three times without eating it. A hawk is trained when she attends to the call of her master. If the dog or panther eat any part of the game it is unlawful, but if a hawk eat of it, it is lawful; but if the dog merely eat the blood and not the flesh, it is lawful. If a hunter take game alive which his dog has wounded, he must slay it according to the law of Ẕabḥ, namely, by cutting its throat, with the head turned Makkah-wards, and reciting, “In the name of the Great God!” The law is the same with respect to game shot by an arrow.
If a sportsman let fly an arrow (or fire a gun) at game, he must repeat the invocation, “In the name of the Great God!”
And then the flesh becomes lawful if the game is killed by the shot. But if only wounded, the animal must be slain with the invocation. Game hit by an arrow which has not a sharp point is unlawful, and so is that killed by throwing pebbles.
Game killed by a Magian, or an apostate, or a worshipper of images is not lawful, because they are not allowed to perform ẕabḥ. But that slain by a Christian or a Jew is lawful.
Hunting is not allowed on the pilgrimage nor within the limits of the sacred cities of Makkah and al-Madīnah.
ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim (Mishkāt, book xviii. ch. i.) gives the following tradition on the subject of hunting:—
“The Prophet said to me, ‘When you send your dog in pursuit of game, repeat the name of God, as at slaying an animal; then if your dog holds the game for you, and you find it alive, then slay it; but if you find your dog has killed it, and not eaten of it, then eat it; but if the dog has eaten any of it, do not you eat it, for then the dog has kept it for himself. Then if you find another dog along with yours, and the game is killed, do not eat of it; for verily you cannot know which of the dogs killed it; and if the other dog killed it, it might so be that when he was let loose after the game, the name of God might not have been repeated. And when you shoot an arrow at game, repeat the name of God, the same as in slaying an animal; then if you lose sight of the game, and on finding it perceive nothing but the impression of your own arrow, then eat it if you wish; but if you find the game drowned, do not eat of it, although the mark of your arrow should be in it.’ ”
ḤUR (حور), the plural of ḥaura. The women of Paradise described in the Qurʾān, e.g. [Sūrah lv. 56–78]:—
“Therein shall be the damsels with retiring glances, whom nor man nor djinn hath touched before them:
“Which then of the bounties of your Lord will ye twain deny?
“Like jacynths and pearls:
“Which, &c.
“Shall the reward of good be aught but good?
“And beside these shall be two other gardens:
“Which, &c.
“Of a dark green:
“Which, &c.
“With gushing fountains in each:
“Which, &c.
“In each fruits and the palm and the pomegranate:
“Which, &c.
“In each, the fair, the beauteous ones:
“Which, &c.
“With large dark eyeballs, kept close in their pavilions:
“Which, &c.
“Whom man hath never touched, nor any djinn:
“Which, &c.
“Their spouses on soft green cushions and on beautiful carpets shall recline:
“Which, &c.
“Blessed be the name of thy Lord, full of majesty and glory.”
AL-ḤUSAIN (الحسين). The second son of Fāt̤imah, the daughter of Muḥammad, by her husband ʿAlī, the fourth K͟halīfah. A brother to al-Ḥasan, the fifth K͟halīfah. According to the Shīʿahs, he was the third K͟halīfah. He was born A.H. 4, and died at Karbalā A.H. 61, being cruelly slain in his conflict with Yazīd, the seventh K͟halīfah, according to the Sunnīs.
The martyrdom of al-Ḥusain is celebrated by the Shīʿahs every year during the first ten days of the Muḥarram [[MUHARRAM]]; an account of his tragic death is therefore necessary for understanding the intensity of feeling with which the scenes and incidents of the last days of the “Imām Ḥusain” are enacted in the “Miracle Play,” a translation of which has been given in English by Sir Lewis Pelly. The following account is taken from the Preface to this work, p. xi. seqq.:—
“Shortly after the accession of Yezid (Yazīd), Ḥusain received at Mecca secret messages from the people of Cufa (al-Kūfah), entreating him to place himself at the head of the army of the faithful in Babylonia. Yezid, however, had full intimation of the intended revolt, and long before Ḥusain could reach Cufa, the too easy governor of that city had been replaced by Obaidallah (ʿUbaidu ʾllāh ibn Ziyād), the resolute ruler of Bussorah (al-Baṣrah), who by his rapid measures disconcerted the plans of the conspirators, and drove them to a premature outbreak, and the surrender of their leader Muslim. The latter foresaw the ruin which he had brought on Ḥusain, and shed bitter tears on that account when captured. His head was struck off and sent to Yezid. On Ḥusain arriving at the confines of Babylonia, he was met by Harro (al-Ḥurr), who had been sent out by Obaidallah with a body of horsemen to intercept his approach. Ḥusain, addressing them, asserted his title to the Califate, and invited them to submit to him. Harro replied, ‘We are commanded as soon as we meet you to bring you directly to Cufa into the presence of Obaidallah, the son of Ziyad.’ Ḥusain answered, ‘I would sooner die than submit to that,’ and gave the word to his men to ride on; but Harro wheeled about and intercepted them. At the same time, Harro said, ‘I have no commission to fight with you, but I am commanded not to part with you until I have conducted you into Cufa’; but he bade Ḥusain to choose any road into that city ‘that did not go directly back to Mecca,’ and ‘do you,’ said he, ‘write to Yezid or Obaidallah, and I will write to Obaidallah, and perhaps it may please God I may meet with something that may bring me off without my being forced to an extremity on your account.’ Then he retreated his force a little to allow Ḥusain to lead the way towards Cufa, and Ḥusain took the road that leads by Adib and Cadisia. This was on Thursday the 1st of Mohurrum (Muḥarram), A.H. 61 (A.D. 680). When night came on, he still continued his march all through the night. As he rode on he nodded a little, and waking again, said, ‘Men travel by night, and the destinies travel toward them; this I know to be a message of death.’
“In the morning, after prayers were over, he mended his pace, and as he rode on there came up a horseman, who took no notice of him, but saluted Harro, and delivered to him a letter, giving orders from Obaidallah to lead Ḥusain and his men into a place where was neither town nor fortifications, and there leave them till the Syrian forces should surround them.
“This was on Friday the 2nd of Mohurrum. The day after, Amer (ʿUmar ibn Saʿīd) came upon them with four thousand men, who were on their march to Dailam. They had been encamped without the walls of Cufa, and when Obaidallah heard of Ḥusain’s coming, he commanded Amer to defer his march to Dailam and go against Ḥusain. But one and all dissuaded him. ‘Beware that you go not against Ḥusain, and rebel against your Lord, and cut off mercy from you, for you had better be deprived of the dominion of the whole world than meet your Lord with the blood of Ḥusain upon you.’ Amer was fain to acquiesce, but upon Obaidallah renewing his command with threats, he marched against Ḥusain, and came up with him, as aforesaid, on Saturday the 3rd of Mohurrum.
“On Amer sending to inquire of Ḥusain what brought him thither, the latter replied, ‘The Cufans wrote to me; but since they reject me, I am willing to return to Mecca.’ Amer was glad when he heard it, and said, ‘I hope to God I may be excused from fighting against him.’ Then he wrote to this purpose to Obaidallah; but Obaidallah sternly replied, ‘Get between him and the river,’ and Amer did so; and the name of the place where he cut Ḥusain off from the Euphrates was called Kerbela (Karbalā): ‘Kerb (anguish) and belā (vexation), Trouble and affliction,’ said Ḥusain when he heard it.
“Then Ḥusain sought a conference with Amer, in which he proposed either to go to Yezid, to return to Mecca, or, as some add, but others deny, to fight against the Turks. Obaidallah was at first inclined to accede to these conditions, until Shamer stood up and swore that no terms should be made with Ḥusain, adding significantly that he had been informed of a long conference between Ḥusain and Amer.
“Then Obaidallah sent Shamer with orders to Amer, that if Ḥusain would surrender unconditionally, he would be received; if not, Amer was to fall upon him and his men, and trample them under his feet. Should he refuse to do so, Shamer was to strike off Amer’s head, and himself command the attack against Ḥusain.
“Thus passed Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th of Mohurrum. On the evening of the 9th, Amer drew up his forces close to Ḥusain’s camp, and himself rode up to Ḥusain as he was sitting in the door of his tent just after the evening prayer, and told him of the conditions offered by Obaidallah. Ḥusain desired Amer to give him time until the next morning, when he would make his answer.
“In the night his sister came weeping to his bedside, and, awaking him, exclaimed, ‘Alas for the desolation of my family! my mother Fatima is dead and my father Ali, and my brother Ḥasan. Alas for the destruction that is past! and alas for the destruction that is to come!’ ‘Sister,’ Ḥusain replied, ‘put your trust in God, and know that man is born to die, and that the heavens shall not remain; everything shall pass away but the presence of God, who created all things by His power, and shall make them by His power to pass away, and they shall return to Him alone. My father was better than me, and my mother was better than me; and my brother was better than me; and they and we and all Muslims have an example in the Apostle of God.’ Then he told his men that Obaidallah wanted nobody but him, and that they should go away to their homes. But they said, ‘God forbid that we should ever see the day wherein we survive you!’ Then he commanded them to cord their tents close together, and make a line of them, so as to keep out the enemy’s horse. And he digged a trench behind his camp, which he filled with wood to be set on fire, so that he could only be attacked in front. The rest of the night he spent in prayer and supplication, while the enemy’s guard patrolled all night long round and round his camp.
“The next morning both sides prepared for the slaughter. Ḥusain first washed and anointed himself with musk, and several of his chief men did the like; and one asking them what it meant, Ḥusain replied pleasantly, ‘Alas! there is nothing between us and the black-eyed girls of Paradise but that these troopers come down upon us and slay us!’ Then he mounted his horse, and set the Coran before him, crying, ‘O God, Thou art my confidence in every trouble and my hope in every adversity!’ and submitted himself to the judgment of his companions before the opened pages of the sacred volume. At this his sisters and daughters began to weep, when he cried out in bitter anguish self-reproachfully, ‘God reward the son of Abbas,’ in allusion to advice which his cousin, Abdullah ibn Abbas, had given him, to leave the women behind in Mecca. At this moment a party of the enemy’s horse wheeled about and came up to Ḥusain, who expected to be attacked by them. But it was Harro, who had quitted the ranks of the Syrian army, and had now come to die with Ḥusain, and testify his repentance before men and God. As Harro rode into the doomed camp, he shouted back to Amer, ‘Alas for you!’ Whereupon Amer commanded his men to ‘bring up the colours.’ As soon as they were set in front of the troops, Shamer shot an arrow into the camp, saying, ‘Bear witness that I shot the first arrow,’ and so the fight began on both sides. It raged, chiefly in a series of single combats, until noon-day, when both sides retired to prayer, Ḥusain adding to the usual office the ‘Prayer of Fear,’ never used but in cases of extremity. When shortly afterwards the fight was renewed, Ḥusain was struck on the head by a sword. Faint with the loss of blood, he sat down by his tent and took upon his lap his little son Abdullah, who was at once killed by a flying arrow. He placed the little corpse upon the ground, crying out, ‘We come from God and we return to Him. O God, give me strength to bear these misfortunes.’ Growing thirsty, he ran toward the Euphrates, where, as he stooped to drink, an arrow struck him in the mouth. Raising his hands, all besmeared and dripping with blood, to heaven, he stood for awhile and prayed earnestly. His little nephew, a beautiful child, who went up to kiss him, had his hand cut off with a sword, on which Ḥusain again wept, saying, ‘Thy reward, dear child, is with thy forefathers in the realms of bliss.’ Hounded on by Shamer, the Syrian troops now surrounded him; but Ḥusain, nothing daunted, charged them right and left. In the midst of the fighting, his sister came between him and his slayers, crying out to Amer, how he could stand by and see Ḥusain slain. Whereupon, with tears trickling down his beard, Amer turned his face away; but Shamer, with threats and curses, set on his soldiers again, and at last one wounded Ḥusain upon the hand, and a second gashed him on the neck, and a third thrust him through the body with a spear. No sooner had he fallen to the ground than Shamer rode a troop of horsemen over his corpse, backwards and forwards, over and over again, until it was trampled into the very ground, a scarcely recognisable mass of mangled flesh and mud.
“Thus, twelve years after the death of his brother Ḥasan, Ḥusain, the second son of Ali, met his own death on the bloody plain of Kerbela on Saturday the 10th day of Mohurrum, A.H. 61 (A.D. 680).”
From al-Ḥusain and his brother al-Ḥasan are derived the descendants of the Prophet known throughout Islām as Saiyids. [[SAIYID], [HASAN], [MUHARRAM].]
HUSBAND. Arabic zauj (زوج). A husband is not guardian over his wife any further than respects the rights of marriage, nor does the provision for her rest upon him any further than with respect to food, clothing, and lodging (Hidāyah, vol. i. p. 63), but he may be imprisoned for the maintenance of his wife (Ibidem, vol. ii. p. 628). The evidence of a husband concerning his wife is not accepted by the Sunnīs, but it is allowed in Shīʿah law (Ib., vol. ii. p. 685). The Muḥammadan law demands that a Muslim husband shall reside equally with each of his wives, unless one wife bestow her right upon another wife. (Ib., vol. i. p. 184.)
ḤUSNU ʾL-K͟HULQ (حسن الخلق). “A good disposition.” Abū Hurairah relates that one of the Companions once asked Muḥammad, “What is the best thing that has been given to man?” and Muḥammad replied, “A good disposition.” Muḥammad is also related to have said that the “heaviest thing which will be put in the scales of a Muslim in the Day of Judgment is a good disposition.” (Mishkāt, book xxii. ch. xix. pt. 2.)
AL-ḤUT̤AMAH (الحطمة). A division of Hell, mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah civ].:—
“Woe to every backbiter,
“Who amasseth wealth and storeth it against the future!
“He thinketh surely that his wealth shall be with him for ever.
“Nay! for verily he shall be flung into al-ḥut̤amah.
“And who shall teach thee what al-ḥut̤amah is?
“It is God’s kindled fire,
“Which shall mount above the hearts of the damned;
“It shall verily rise over them like a vault,
“On outstretched columns.”
The Imām al-Bag͟hawī says it is the division of Hell specially reserved for the Jews.
ḤUWAIRIS̤ (حويرث). One of the citizens of Makkah, who was excluded from the general amnesty on the taking of Makkah, in consequence of his having pursued Zainab, Muḥammad’s daughter, while endeavouring to effect her escape from Makkah. He was afterwards seized and slain by ʿAlī.
ḤUẔAIFAH (حذيفة). The son of al-Yamān. He was a “sworn companion” of the Prophet, one of the most eminent of the Aṣḥāb, and it is recorded by Muslim the Traditionist, that he was specially instructed by the Prophet. His father, al-Yamān, also called Ḥisl or Ḥusail, was likewise a companion, who fell at Uḥud. Ḥuẕaifah died in the time of ʿAlī’s K͟halīfate, A.H. 36. (See Taqrību ʾt-Tahẕīb, p. 51.) Sir William Muir says he was the Companion who first suggested to ʿUs̤mān the necessity of the recension of the Qurʾān, A.H. 33. (Life of Mahomet, new ed. p. 556.)
“Hodzeifa, who had warred both in Armenia and Adzerbâijan, and had observed the different readings of the Syrians, and of the men of Irâc, was alarmed at the number and extent of the variations, and warned Othmân to interpose and ‘stop the people before they should differ regarding their scriptures, as did the Jews and Christians.’ ”
HUẔAIL (هذيل). The ancestor of the Banū Huẕail, a tribe distinguished in the annals of war and poetry, and, as we learn from Burckhardt, still occupying under the same name the environs of Makkah. (Travels in Arabia, vol. i. pp. 63, 66.)
HYPOCRISY. Arabic riyā (رياء), nifāq (نفاق), makr (مكر), mudāhanat (مداهنة). When there is an allusion to hypocrisy in the Qurʾān, it refers to that class of people known as al-Munāfiqūn, or the hypocrites of al-Madīnah, who in the days of the Prophet professed to follow him, whilst secretly they opposed him [[MUNAFIQUN]], vide [Sūrahs ii. 7]; [xxxiii. 47]; [lvii. 13]. But in the Traditions we have the following with reference to this sin, Mishkāt, book i. ch. iii. pt. 3:—
“The signs of hypocrisy are three: speaking falsely, promising and not performing, and being perfidious when trusted.”
“There are four qualities, which being possessed by anyone, constitute a complete hypocrite; and whoever has one of the four has one hypocritical quality till he discards it: perfidy when trusted, the breaking of agreements, speaking falsely, and prosecuting hostility by treachery.”
HYPOCRITES. Arabic munāfiqūn (منافقون). A term applied by Muḥammad to those residents of al-Madīnah who during his first stay in that city ostensibly joined Islām, but in secret were disaffected.