G͟HAMARĀT (غمرات), plural of g͟hamrah, “abyss.” A word used to express the agonies of death. It occurs in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah vi. 93]: “But couldst thou see when the ungodly are in the floods of death (g͟hamarātu ʾl-maut), and the angels reach forth their hands, saying, ‘Yield up your souls:—this day shall ye be recompensed with a humiliating punishment.’ ”
AL-G͟HANĪ (الغنى). “The Independent One.” One of the ninety-nine special names or attributes of God, expressing the superiority of the Almighty over the necessities and requirements of mankind. The word occurs in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah lx. 6], and is translated by Palmer, “He is rich.”
G͟HAṢB (غصب). “Using by force; usurpation.”
G͟haṣb, in its literal sense, means the forcibly taking a thing from another. In the language of the law it signifies the taking of the property of another which is valuable and sacred, without the consent of the proprietor, in such a manner as to destroy the proprietor’s possession of it, whence it is that usurpation is established by exacting service from the slave of another, or by putting a burden upon the quadruped of another, but not by sitting upon the carpet of another; because by the use of the slave of another, and by loading the quadruped of another, the possession of the proprietor is destroyed, whereas by sitting upon the carpet of another the possession of the proprietor is not destroyed. It is to be observed that if any person knowingly and wilfully usurp the property of another, he is held in law to be an offender, and becomes responsible for a compensation. If, on the contrary, he should not have made the usurpation knowingly and wilfully (as where a person destroys property on the supposition of its belonging to himself, and it afterwards proves the right of another), he is in that case also liable for a compensation, because a compensation is the right of men; but he is not an offender, as his erroneous offence is cancelled. (Hidāyah, vol. iii. p. 522.)
AL-G͟HĀSHIYAH (الغاشية). “The Covering, Overwhelming.” A name given to the LXXXVIIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, the word occurring in the first verse for the Day of Judgment: “Has there come to thee the story of the overwhelming?”
G͟HĀSIL (غاسل). “A washer of the dead.” An official is generally appointed for this purpose by the Imām of the parish.
G͟HASSĀN (غسان). A tribe of Arabs inhabiting the western side of the Syrian desert in the time of Muḥammad. (See Muir’s Life of Mahomet, vol. i. p. clxxxiii.)
G͟HAT̤AFĀN (غطفان). An Arabian tribe descended from Qais.
G͟HAUS̤ (غوث). Lit. “One to whom we can cry for help.” A mediator. A title given to a Muḥammadan saint. Some hold it to be the highest order of sanctity, whilst others regard it as second in rank to that of Qut̤b. According to the G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah it is an inferior rank of sanctity to that of Qut̤b.