ALIF. The letter Alif (ا) is a monogram frequently placed at the head of letters, prescriptions, &c. It is the initial letter of the word Allāh (الله), “God.”
ALIF LĀM MĪM. The Arabic letters الم, corresponding to A L M, which occur at the commencement of six Sūrahs, namely Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah (II.), Sūratu Ālu ʿImrān (III.), Sūratu ʾl-ʿAnkabūt (XXIX.), Sūratu ʾr-Rūm (XXX.), Sūratu Luqmān (XXXI.), and Sūratu ʾs-Sijdah (XXXII.). Muḥammad never explained the meaning of these mysterious letters, and consequently they are a fruitful source of perplexity to learned commentators. Jalālu ʾd-dīn gives an exhaustive summary of the different views in his Itqān (p. 470). Some suppose they stand for the words Allāh, “God”; Lat̤īf, “gracious”; Majīd, “glorious.” Others say they stand for Ana ʾllāhu aʿlamu, “I am the God who knoweth.” Others maintain that they were not meant to be understood, and that they were inserted by the Divine command without explanation, in order to remind the reader that there were mysteries which his intellect would never fathom.
ĀLU ʿIMRĀN (آل عمرآن). “The family of ʿImrān.” The title of the third chapter of the Qurʾān.
ʿĀLIM (عالم), pl. ʿulamāʾ. A learned man. The term usually includes all religious teachers, such as Imāms, Muftīs, Qāẓīs, and Maulawīs; and in Turkey it denotes the political party led by the religious teachers.
AL-ʿALĪM (العليم). One of the ninety-nine special names of God. It frequently occurs in the Qurʾān, and means “The Wise One.”
ALLĀH (الله). [[GOD].]
ALLĀHU AKBAR (الله اكبر). “God is great,” or “God is most great.” An ejaculation which is called the Takbīr. It occurs frequently in the liturgical forms, and is used when slaying an animal for food. [[TAKBIR].]
ALMSGIVING. The word generally used for alms is Ṣadaqah, or that which manifests righteousness; the word zakāt, or purification, being specially restricted to the legal alms. [[ZAKAT].] Ṣadaqātu ʾl-Fit̤r are the offerings given on the Lesser Festival. The duty of almsgiving is very frequently enjoined in the Qurʾān, e.g. [Sūrah ii. 274–5], “What ye expend of good (i.e. of well-gotten wealth), it shall be paid to you again, and ye shall not be wronged. (Give your alms) unto the poor who are straitened in God’s way and cannot traverse the earth.… Those who expend their wealth by night and by day, secretly and openly, they shall have their hire with their Lord.”
The following are some of the sayings of Muḥammad on the subject of almsgiving, as they occur in the Traditions:—“The upper hand is better than the lower one. The upper hand is the giver of alms, and the lower hand is the poor beggar.” “The best of alms are those given by a man of small means, who gives of that which he has earned by labour, and gives as much as he is able.” “Begin by giving alms to your own relatives.” “Doing justice between two people is alms; assisting a man on his beast is alms; good words are alms.” “A camel lent out for milk is alms; a cup of milk every morning and evening is alms.” “Your smiling in your brother’s face is alms; assisting the blind is alms.” “God says, Be thou liberal, thou child of Adam, that I may be liberal to thee.” (See Mishkāt, Matthew’s edition, vol. i. p. 429.)
ALWĀḤ (الواح), pl. of Lauḥ. “The tables” (of the Law). Mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah vii. 142], “We wrote for him (Moses) upon the Tables (al-Alwāḥ) a monition concerning every matter.”