ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN. An illegitimate child, Arabic waladu ʾz-zināʾ (ولد الزناء), has legally no father, and a putative father is, therefore, excluded from the custody of such a child. The child only inherits from its mother and the mother’s relations, who in return inherit from him. (Tagore Law Lectures, 1873, pp. 123, 488.)
ʿILLĪYŪN (عليون). The seventh stage of celestial bliss. Also the register in which the good deeds of Muslims are said to be written. See Sūratu ʾt-Tat̤fīf, [lxxxiii. 18]: “The register of the righteous is in ʿIllīyūn.” See also Mishkāt, book v. ch. iii. pt. 3: “The angels follow it (the soul) through each heaven, and the angels of one region pass it on to the next until it reaches the seventh heaven, when God says, ‘Write the name of my servant in ʿIllīyūn, and return him to the earth, that is, to his body which is buried in the earth.’”
ʿILM (علم). Lit. “To know; knowledge.” In Muslim theology, the word ʿIlm is always used for religious knowledge. ʿAbdu ʾl-Ḥaqq says it is the knowledge of religion as expressed in “the Book” (Qurʾān) and the “Sunnah” (Traditions), and is of two kinds, ʿIlmu ʾl-Mabādī, elementary knowledge, or that relating to the words and sentences of the Qurʾān and Ḥadīs̤; and ʿIlmu ʾl-Maqāṣīd, perfected knowledge, or that relating to faith and works, as taught in the Qurʾān and Ḥadīs̤. There is also ʿIlmu ʾl-Mukāshafah, revealed knowledge, or that secret knowledge, or light, which shines into the heart of the pious Muslim, whereby he becomes enlightened as to the truths of religion. This spiritual knowledge is also called ʿIlmu ʾl-Ḥaqīqah, or the knowledge of the truth. It is related (Mishkāt, book ii. ch. i. Arabic ed.) that the Prophet said ʿIlm is of three kinds, viz. Āyātu ʾl-Muḥkam, Sunnatu ʾl-Qāʾim, and Farīẓatu ʾl-ʿAdil, and that whatever is beyond these three is not necessary. The learned doctors explain these terms as follows: Āyātu ʾl-Muḥkam, the established text or verses of the Qurʾān; Sunnatu ʾl-Qāʾim, the correct Aḥādīs̤ or Traditions; and Farīẓatu ʾl-ʿAdil, the lawful interpretation of the Qurʾān and the Traditions.
The acquisition and the imparting of religious knowledge is very highly commended by Muḥammad (see Mishkātu ʾl-Maṣābiḥ, in loco):—
“The desire of knowledge is a divine commandment for every Muslim, and to instruct in knowledge those who are unworthy of it, is like putting pearls, jewels, and gold on the necks of swine.”
“Whoever is asked about the knowledge which he hath, and concealeth it, will be reined with a bridle of fire on the Day of Resurrection.”
“There are two avaricious persons that are never satisfied: one of them in knowledge, the more he attains the more he desires; the other of the world, with the things of which he is never satisfied.”
“That person who will pursue the road of knowledge, God will direct him to the road of Paradise; and verily the angels spread their arms to receive him that seeketh after knowledge; and everything in heaven and earth will ask grace for him. Verily the superiority of a learned man over a worshipper is like that of the full moon over all the stars.”
ʿILMU ʾL-ADAB (علم الادب). The science of Philology. In Ḥājjī K͟halfah, Lexicon, vol. i. p. 215, quoted by Lane, it is “the science by which one guards against error in the language of the Arabs, with respect to words and with respect to writing.”
The science of polite writing is classed under twelve heads: 1, lug͟hah, lexicology; 2, ṣarf, accidence; 3, ishtiqāq, derivation; 4, naḥw, syntax; 5, maʿānī, sense or meaning; 6, bayān, eloquence; 7, ʿarūẓ, prosody; 8, qāfīyah, rhyme; 9, rasmu ʾl-k͟hat̤t̤, calligraphy; 10, qarẓ-ush-shiʿr, versification; 11, inshāʾu ʾn-nas̤r, prose composition; 12, muḥāẓarah, dictation. These sections are regarded as distinct sciences.