LIBERALITY. Arabic sak͟hāwah (سخاوة), “hospitality”; infāq (انفاق), “general liberality in everything.”
Liberality is specially commended by Muḥammad in the Traditions:—
“The liberal man is near to God, near to Paradise, near to men, and distant from hell. The miser is far from God, far from Paradise, far from man, and near the fire. Truly an ignorant but liberal man is more beloved by God, than a miser who is a worshipper of God.”
“Three people will not enter Paradise: a deceiver, a miser, and one who reproaches others with obligation after giving.”
“Every morning God sends two angels, and one of them says, ‘O God, give to the liberal man something in lieu of that which he has given away!’ and the other says, ‘O God, ruin the property of the miser!’ ”
“The miser and the liberal man are like two men dressed in coats of mail, their arms glued to their breasts and collar bones, on account of the tightness of the coats of mail. The liberal man stands up when giving alms, and the coat of mail expands for him. The miser stands up when intending alms; the coat of mail becomes tight, and every ring of it sticks fast to its place.”
LIḤYAH (لحية). [[BEARD].]
LISĀNU ʾL-ḤAQQ (لسان الحق). Lit. “The language of truth.” The Insānu ʾl-Kāmil, or “perfect man,” in which the secret influences of al-Mutakallim, “the Speaker” (i.e. God), are evident.
LITERATURE, MUSLIM. Arabic ʿIlmu ʾl-Adab (علم الادب). The oldest specimens of Arabic literature now extant were composed in the century which preceded the birth of Muḥammad. They consist of short extemporaneous elegies, afterwards committed to writing, or narratives of combats of hostile tribes written in rhythmical prose, similar to that which we find in the Qurʾān.
Baron De Slane says the Ḥamāsah, the Kitābu ʾl-Ag͟hānī, and the Amālī of Abū ʿAlīyu ʾl-Kālī, furnish a copious supply of examples, which prove that the art of composing in rhythmical prose not only existed before Muḥammad’s time, but was even then generally practised, and had been brought to a high degree of perfection. The variety of its inflections, the regularity of its syntax, and the harmony of its prosody, furnish in themselves a proof of the high degree of culture which the language of the pre-Islamic Arabians had attained. The annual meetings of the poets at the fair of ʿUkāz̤ encouraged literature, and tended to give regularity of formation and elegance of style to these early poetic effusions.