Ibn ʿUmar says: “I met Ibn Ṣaiyād when he had swollen eyes, and I said, ‘How long has this been?’ He said, ‘I do not know.’ I said, ‘Do not know, now that your eyes are in your head?’ He said, ‘If God pleased He could create eyes in your limbs, and they would not know anything about it; in this manner also, man is so employed as to be insensible to pains.’ Then Ibn Ṣaiyād made a noise from his nose, louder than the braying of an ass.” (Mishkāt, book xxiii. ch. v.)
IBN ʿUMAR (ابن عمر). Abū ʿAbdi ʾr-Raḥmān ʿAbdu ʾllāh, son of ʿUmar the celebrated K͟halīfah, was one of the most eminent of the “companions” of Muḥammad. He embraced Islām with his father when he was only eight years old. For a period of sixty years he occupied the leading position as a traditionist, and al-Buk͟hārī, the collector of traditions, says the most authentic are those given on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar. He died at Makkah A.H. 73 (A.D. 692), aged 84 years.
IBRĀHĪM (ابراهيم). The patriarch Abraham. [[ABRAHAM].]
IBRĀHĪM (ابراهيم). The infant son of Muḥammad by his slave girl, Mary the Copt. Born A.H. 8, died A.H. 10 (A.D. 631).
ʿĪD (عيد). [[FESTIVAL].]
ʿĪDĀN (عيدان). The Dual of ʿĪd, a festival. The two festivals, the ʿĪdu ʾl-Fit̤r, and the ʿĪdu ʾl-Aẓḥā.
ʿIDDAH (عدة). Lit. “Number.” The term of probation incumbent upon a woman in consequence of a dissolution of marriage, either by divorce or the death of her husband. After a divorce the period is three months, and after the death of her husband, four months and ten days, both periods being enjoined by the Qurʾān ([Sūrah lxv. 4]; [ii. 234].)
ʿĪDGĀH (عيدگاه). Lit. “A place of festival.” A Persian term for the muṣallā, or praying-place, set apart for the public prayers said on the two chief festivals, viz. ʿĪdu ʾl-Fit̤r, and ʿĪdu ʾl-Aẓḥā. [[ʿIDAN].]
IDIOTS. Arabic majnūn (مجنون), pl. majānīn. Mr. Lane, in his Modern Egyptians, vol. i. p. 288, says:—
“An idiot or a fool is vulgarly regarded by them as a being whose mind is in heaven, while his grosser part mingles among ordinary mortals; consequently he is considered an especial favourite of heaven. Whatever enormities a reputed saint may commit (and there are many who are constantly infringing precepts of their religion), such acts do not affect his fame for sanctity; for they are considered as the results of the abstraction of his mind from worldly things; his soul, or reasoning faculties, being wholly absorbed in devotion, so that his passions are left without control. Lunatics who are dangerous to society are kept in confinement; but those who are harmless are generally regarded as saints. Most of the reputed saints of Egypt are either lunatics, or idiots, or impostors.”