Which compare with [Judges vii. 5]:—
“So they brought down the people unto the water; and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.… The Lord said, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand.”
GIFTS. Arabic hibah (هبة), pl. hibāt. A deed of gift. The term hibah in the language of Muslim law means a transfer of property made immediately and without exchange. He who makes the gift is called the wāhib, or donor; the thing given, mauhūb; and the person to whom it is given is mauhūb lahu.
Muḥammad sanctioned the retraction of a gift when he said, “A donor preserves his right to his gift, so long as he does not obtain a return for it.” Although there is another tradition which says: “Let not a donor retract his gift; but let a father if he pleases retract his gift to his son.” Ash-Shāfiʿī maintains that it is not lawful to retract a gift, except it be from a father to a son. All the doctors are agreed that to retract a gift is an abomination, for Muḥammad said: “The retraction of a gift is like eating one’s spittle.” The general opinion is that a gift to a stranger may be retracted, but not a gift to a kinsman. A retracted gift, by the mutual consent of the parties, should be effected by a decree of the Qāẓī, or judge. (Hidāyah, vol. iii. p. 290.)
GIRDLE. Arabic nit̤āq (نطاق). Amongst the Bak͟htāshīs and several other orders of faqīrs, investiture with a girdle is the sign of incorporation into the order. The Bak͟htāshīs say that Adam was the first to wear the girdle worn by them, and after him fifteen other prophets wore it in succession, viz. Seth, Noah, Shuʿaib, Job, Joseph, Abraham, Hushaʿ, Yūshaʿ, Jirjis, Jonas, Ṣāliḥ, Zakariah, al-K͟hiẓr, Ilyās, and Jesus. (Brown’s Dervishes, p. 145.)
GNOSTICS. “The singular correspondence between the allusions to the crucifixion in the Corân, and the wild speculations of the early heretics, have led to the conjecture that Mahomet acquired his notions of Christianity from a Gnostic source. But Gnosticism had disappeared from Egypt before the sixth century, and there is no reason for supposing that it had at any time gained footing in Arabia. Besides, there is no affinity between the supernaturalism of the Gnostics and Docetæ, and the rationalism of the Corân. According to the former, the Deity must be removed far from the gross contact of evil matter; and the Æon Christ, which alighted upon Jesus at His baptism, must ascend to its native regions before the crucifixion. With Mahomet, on the contrary, Jesus Christ was a mere man—wonderfully born, indeed—but still an ordinary man, a servant of the Almighty, as others had been before him. But although there is no ground for believing that Gnostic doctrines were taught to Mahomet, yet some of the strange fancies of those heretics, preserved in Syrian tradition, may have come to the ears of his informants (the chief of whom, even on Christian topics, seem to have been Jews, unable probably to distinguish heretical fable from Christian doctrine), and have been by them adopted as a likely and convenient mode of explaining away that which formed the great barrier between Jews and Christians.” (Muir’s Life of Mahomet, new ed. p. 161.)
GOD. The name of the Creator of the Universe in the Qurʾān is Allāh, which is the title given to the Supreme Being by Muḥammadans of every race and language.
Allāh is supposed to be derived from ilāh, a deity or god, with the addition of the definite article al—Al-ilāh, “the God”—or, according to some authorities, it is from lāh, i.e. Al-lāh, “the secret one.” But Abū Ḥanīfah says that just as the essence of God is unchangeable, so is His name, and that Allāh has ever been the name of the Eternal Being. (See G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah.)
Allāh may be an Arabic rendering of the Hebrew אֵל el, and the unused root אוּל ūl, “to be strong,” or from אֱלוֹהַּ, the singular form of אֱלֹהִים. It is expressed in Persian and Hindustani by the word K͟hudā, derived from the Persian k͟hud, self; the self-existing one.
Another word very frequently used for the Almighty in the Qurʾān is Rabb, which is generally translated in English versions of the Qurʾān, “Lord.” It seems to stand in the relative position of the Jehovah of the Old Testament and the Κύριος of the New Testament. The word is understood by Muslims to mean “the sustainer,” but it is probably derived from the Hebrew רַבָּה rabbah, “a stronghold,” or from its root rab, which, according to Gesenius, means “a multitude,” or anything of size or importance.