G͟HULĀT (غلاة). Lit. “The Zealots.” A title given to a leading sect of the Shīʿahs who, through their excessive zeal for the Imāms, have raised them above the degree of human beings.
G͟HULŪL (غلول). Defrauding or purloining any part of the lawful plunder in a jihād or religious war. Forbidden in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah iii. 155]: “But he who shall defraud, shall come forth with his defraudings on the day of the resurrection: then shall every soul be paid what it hath merited, and they shall not be treated with injustice.”
G͟HURĀB (غراب). Lit. “A crow.” G͟hurābu ʾl-Bain: “The crow of separation.” A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for a certain state of separation from God. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)
G͟HURRAH (غرة). A fine of five hundred dirhams. A slave of that value. It is the fine for a person striking a woman so as to occasion a miscarriage. (Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 552.)
G͟HUSL (غسل), as distinguished from g͟hasl (washing) is the religious act of bathing the whole body after a legal impurity. It is founded upon the express injunction of the Qurʾān, [Sūrah v. 9]: “If ye are polluted then purify yourselves.” And the Traditions most minutely relate the occasions on which the Prophet performed the ceremony of g͟husl, or bathing. The Muslim teachers of all sects are unanimous in prescribing the washing of the whole body after the following acts, which render the body junub, or impure: (1) Ḥayẓ, menses; (2) nifās, puerperium; (3) jimāʿ, coitus; (4) iḥtilām, pollutio nocturna. It is absolutely necessary that every part of the body should be washed, for ʿAlī relates that the Prophet said, “He who leaves but one hair unwashed on his body, will be punished in hell accordingly.” (Mishkāt, book ii. c. viii.)
G͟HUSL MASNŪN (غسل مسنون). Lit. “Washings which are Sunnah.”
Such washings are founded upon the Sunnah, or precept and practice of Muḥammad, although they are not supposed to be of divine institution. They are four in number: (1) Upon the admission of a convert to Islām; (2) Before the Friday prayers and on the great festivals; (3) After washing the dead; (4) After blood-letting. (See Ṣaḥīḥu ʾl-Buk͟hārī, p. 39, Bābu ʾl-G͟husl.) Akrimah relates that people came from al-ʿIrāq and asked Ibn ʿAbbās if he believed that bathing on Fridays was a divine institution, and Ibn ʿAbbās replied, “No, but bathing is a great purifier, and I will tell you how the custom of bathing began. The people were engaged in daily labour and wore blankets, and the people sweated to such a degree as to cause a bad smell, so the Prophet said, ‘O men! bathe ye on Fridays and put some scent on your clothes.’ ” (Matthew’s Mishkāt, vol i. p. 120, from the Ḥadīs̤ of Abū Dāʾud.)
GIANTS. There is but one allusion to giants in the Qurʾān, namely, to the tribe ʿĀd, who are spoken of as men “with lofty statures” ([Sūrah lxxxix. 6]), and the commentator, Shāh ʿAbdu ʾl-ʿAzīz of Delhi, says they were men of not less than twelve yards in stature. According to a tradition in the Kitābu ʾsh-Shafah by the Qāẓī ʿAyāẓ (p. 65), Adam was sixty yards in height. In the G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah, a giant named ʿŪj is mentioned, who was born in the days of Adam and lived until the time of Moses, a period of 3,500 years, and that he was so high, that the flood in the days of Noah only reached to his waist. There are traditions and stories of giants whose graves exist unto the present day, throughout the whole of Asia. Opposite the Church Mission House at Peshawur is a grave nine yards long, which is held in great reverence by both Muḥammadans and Hindūs. De la Belle, in his Travels in Persia, vol ii. p. 89, mentions several which exist in Persia. Giant graves in Hindūstān are numerous.
GIDEON. In the Qurʾān there is evidently a confusion in one passage between the story of Saul as told therein, and the account of Gideon given in the Old Testament, as the following extracts will show:—
“And when Saul marched forth with his forces, he said, ‘God will test you by a river: He who drinketh of it shall not be of my band; but he who shall not taste it, drinking a drink out of the hand excepted, shall be of my band.’ And, except a few of them, they drank of it. And when they had passed it, he and those who believed with him, the former said, ‘We have no strength this day against Goliath (Jālūt) and his forces:’ But they who held it as certain that they must meet God, said, ‘How oft, by God’s will, hath a small host vanquished a numerous host! and God is with the steadfastly enduring.’ ” ([Sūrah ii. 250].)