AṢḤĀBU ʾL-KAHF (اصحاب الكهف). “The Companions of the Cave,” i.e. the Seven Sleepers, mentioned in the Sūratu ʾl-kahf, or Chapter xviii. of the Qurʾān. The story, as told by early Christian writers, is given by Gibbon (Rise and Fall, Chapter xxxi.). When the Emperor Decius persecuted the Christians, seven noble youths of Ephesus are said to have concealed themselves in a cave in the side of a mountain, where they were doomed to perish by the tyrant, who gave orders that the entrance should be firmly secured with a pile of huge stones. They immediately fell into a deep slumber, which was miraculously prolonged, without injuring the powers of life, during a period of 187 years. This popular tale, which Muḥammad must have heard when he drove his camels to the fairs of Syria, is introduced into the Qurʾān as a divine revelation.
AṢḤĀBU ʾṢ-ṢUFFAH (اصحاب الصفة). “The sitters on the bench” of the temple at Makkah. They are thus described by Abū ʾl-Fidāʾ: “They were poor strangers, without friends or place of abode, who claimed the promises of the Apostle of God and implored his protection. Thus the porch of the temple became their mansion, and thence they obtained their name. When Muḥammad went to meals, he used to call some of them to partake with him; and he selected others to eat with his companions.”
ʾASHARAH MUBASHSHARAH (عشرة مبشرة). “The ten who received glad tidings.” Ten of the most distinguished of Muḥammad’s followers, whose certain entrance into Paradise he is said to have foretold. They are Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, Us̤mān, ʿAlī, T̤alḥah, az-Zubair, ʿAbdu ʾr-Raḥmān, Saʿd-ibn-Abū-Waqqāṣ, Saʿīd ibn Zaid, Abū ʿUbaidah ibn al-Jarrāḥ. (Mishkāt, book xxiv. c. xx., part ii.) Muḥammad declared it presumption for anyone to count upon an entrance into heaven with absolute certainty, but he made an exception in favour of these ten distinguished persons.
AL-ASHʿARĪYAH (الاشعرية). A sect formed by Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ashʿarī, born A.H. 260 (A.D. 873–4).
They hold that the attributes of God are distinct from His essence, yet in such a way as to forbid any comparison being made between God and His creatures. They say they are not “ʿain nor g͟hair:” not of His essence, nor distinct from it: i.e. they cannot be compared with any other things. They also hold that God has one eternal will, from which proceed all things, the good and the evil, the useful and the hurtful. The destiny of man was written on the eternal table before the world was created. So far they go with the Ṣifātīs, but in order to preserve the moral responsibility of man, they say that he has power to convert will into action. But this power cannot create anything new, for then God’s sovereignty would be impaired; so they say that God in His providence so orders matters that whenever “a man desires to do a certain thing, good or bad, the action corresponding to the desire is, there and then, created by God, and, as it were, fitted on to the desire.” Thus it seems as if it came naturally from the will of the man, whereas it does not. This action is called Kasb (acquisition), because it is acquired by a special creative act of God. It is an act directed to the obtaining of profit or the removing of injury: the term is therefore inapplicable to the Deity. Abū Bakr al-Bakillānī, a disciple of al-Ashʿarī, says: “The essence or substance of the action is the effect of the power of God, but its being a action of obedience, such as prayer, or an action of disobedience, such as fornication, are qualities of the action, which proceed from the power of man.” The Imām Al-Ḥaramain (A.H. 419–478) held “that the actions of men were effected by the power which God has created in man.” Abū Isḥaq al-Isfarāyinī says: “That which maketh impression, or hath influence on action, is a compound of the power of God and the power of man.” They also believe that the word of God is eternal, though they acknowledge that the vocal sounds used in the Qurʾān, which are the manifestation of that word, are created. They say, in short, that the Qurʾān contains (1) the eternal word which existed in the essence of God before time was; and (2) the word which consists of sounds and combinations of letters. This last they call the created word.
Thus Al-Ashʿarī traversed the main positions of the Mutazilites, denying that man can, by the aid of his reason alone, rise to the knowledge of good and evil. He must exercise no judgment, but accept all that is revealed. He has no right to apply the moral laws which affect men to the actions of God. It cannot be asserted by the human reason that the good will be rewarded or the bad punished in a future world. Man must always approach God as a slave, in whom there is no light or knowledge to judge of the actions of the Supreme. Whether God will accept the penitent sinner or not cannot be asserted, for He is an absolute Sovereign, above all law. (Sale, from Ibn K͟haldun; Die Muʿtaziliten oder die Freidenker in Islām, von H. Steiner, 1865; Zur Geschichte Abu ʾl-Ḥasan al-ashʿarīsh, von W. Spitta, 1876; De Strijd over het Dogma in den Islām tot op El-ashʿarī, door Dr. M. Th. Houtsma, Leiden, 1875; and Exposé de la Réforme de l’Islamisme, by M. A. F. Mehren, Leiden, 1878.)
ʿĀSHŪRĀʾ (عاشوراء). Lit. “the tenth.” A voluntary fast day, observed on the tenth of the month of Muḥarram. It is related that Muḥammad observed it, and said it was a day respected by Jews and Christians. (Mishkāt, vii. c. vii. 1.)
It is the only day of Muḥarram observed by the Sunnī Muslims, being the day on which it is said God created Adam and Eve, heaven and hell, the tablet of decree, the pen, life, and death. It is kept by the Sunnīs as a fast. [[MUHARRAM].]
ĀSIYAH (آسية). The wife of Pharaoh. One of the four perfect women (the Virgin Mary, K͟hadījah, and Fāt̤imah, being the other three). See Mishkātu ʾl-Masābīḥ, xxiv. c. 22. She is mentioned in the Qurʾān ([Sūrah lxvi. 11]): “And God striketh out a parable for those who believe: the wife of Pharaoh, when she said, ‘My Lord, build for me a house with Thee in Paradise, and save me from Pharaoh and his works, and save me from the unjust people.’”
AṢL (اصل). Cause, first principle, foundation. Aṣl-wafarʿ, “cause and effect,” “fundamental and derivative principle.”