LAZ̤Ā (لظى). “Fire, flame.” A division, or stage in hell, mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah lxx. 15]. Al-Bag͟hawī, the commentator, says it is that portion of hell which is reserved for the Christians who have not believed in Muḥammad. [[HELL].]
LAZARUS. Arabic al-ʿĀzar (العازر). Not mentioned by name in the Qurʾān, but Jalālu ʾd-dīn, in remarking on [Sūrah iii. 43]: “I will bring the dead to life by God’s permission,” says, amongst those whom Jesus raised from the dead was al-ʿĀzar, who was his special friend and companion. The account given by the commentators al-Kamālān of the raising of Lazarus, is very similar to that given in the New Testament.
LEASE. Arabic ijārah (اجارة). [[HIRE].]
LEBANON. Arabic Lubnān (لبنان). Not mentioned in the Qurʾān, but tradition has it that Ishmael collected the stones for the Kaʿbah from five sacred mountains, one of which was Mount Libanus. The followers of Ismāʿīlu ʾd-Darāzī, known as the Druzes, a fanatical sect of Muslims, reside on the southern range of the Lebanon chain. [[DRUZES].]
LEGACY. [[WILLS].]
LEGITIMACY. Waladu ʾl-ḥalāl (ولد الحلال), “a legitimate child”; waladu ʾz-zināʾ (ولد الزناء), “an illegitimate child.”
The Muḥammadan law, unlike the law of England, makes legitimacy depend, not merely upon the fact of the child being born in “lawful wedlock,” but also conceived after lawful marriage.
According to the Sunnīs and Shīʿahs, and according to the teaching of the Qurʾān itself, the shortest period of gestation recognised by law is six months, and consequently a child born any time after six months from the date of marriage has a claim to legitimacy. Amongst the Sunnīs, a simple denial of the paternity of the child so born would not take away its status of legitimacy. But the Shīʿahs hold that if a man get a woman with child and then marry her, and she give birth to the child within six months after marriage, legitimacy is not established.
As to the longest period of pregnancy, there are some strange rulings in Muslim law. The Shīʿahs, upon the basis of a decision pronounced by ʿAlī, recognise ten lunar months as the longest period of gestation, and this is now regarded as the longest legal period by both Shīʿahs and Sunnīs. But Abū Ḥanīfah and his two disciples, upon the authority of a tradition reported by ʿĀyishah, regard two years as the longest period of gestation, and the Imām ash-Shāfiʿī extended it to four, and the Imām Mālik to five and even seven years! It is said these Sunnī doctors based their opinions on the legendary birth of Zuhak Tāzi and others, who were born, so it is related, in the fourth year of conception! But Muslim divines say that the old jurisconsults of the Sunnī school were actuated by a sentiment of humanity, and not by any indifference as to the laws of nature, their chief desire being to prevent an abuse of the provisions of the law regarding divorce and the disavowal of children. The general consensus of Muslim doctors points to ten months as the longest period of pregnancy which can be recognised by any court of justice.
[Under the old Roman law, it was ten months. In the Code Napoleon, article 312, it is three hundred days. Under the Jewish law, the husband had the absolute right of disavowal. See Code Rabbinique, vol. ii. p. 63.]