Makkah was the seat of government during the reigns of the first five K͟halīfahs.
(For an account of the sacred temple, see the article on [MASJIDU ʾL-HARAM].)
MAKKAH. (From Stanley Lane-Poole’s edition of Lane’s “Selections.”)
MAKRŪH (مكروه). Lit. “That which is hateful and unbecoming.” A term used in the religious, civil, and ceremonial law of Islām, for an act the unlawfulness of which is not absolutely certain, but which is considered improper and unbecoming.
The author of the Hidāyah remarks that the doctors of the Ḥanafī sect have disagreed as to the extent to which the term can be received.
The Imām Muḥammad is of opinion that makrūh is unlawful, but as he could not draw any convincing argument in favour of his opinion from either the Qurʾān or Traditions, he renounced the general application of “unlawfulness” with respect to such things or acts, and classed them under those which are merely improper.
The Imāms Abū Ḥanīfah and Abū Yūsuf hold that the term applies to that which in its qualities nearly approaches to unlawful, without it being actually so. (Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 86.)
In the Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrifāt, that which is makrūh is divided into makrūh taḥrīmī, “that which is nearly unlawful”; and makrūh tanzīhī, “that which approaches the lawful.”
In all works on Muḥammadan law, a section is devoted to the consideration of things which are held to be makrūh.