MUʿĀNAQAH (معانقة). Embracing, or throwing oneself on the neck of one’s friend. A custom especially enjoined by Muḥammad. (Mishkāt, book xxii. ch. iii. pt. 2.)
AL-MUʿAQQIBĀT (المعقبات). Lit. “The succeeding ones.” A title given to the recording angels. [[KIRAMU ʾL-KATIBIN].]
MUʿĀWIYAH (معاوية). The sixth K͟halīfah, and the founder of the Umaiyah dynasty (the Ommiades). He was the son of Abū Sufyān, one of the leading Companions of Muḥammad, and became K͟halīfah on the death of al-Ḥasan, and is regarded with great hatred by the Shīʿahs. He died A.H. 60. He was the first K͟halīfah who made the K͟halīfate hereditary.
AL-MUʿAWWIẔĀT (المعوذات). Lit. “The seekers of refuge.” The two last chapters of the Qurʾān.
Sūratu ʾl-Falaq (cxiii.), beginning with, “Say: I flee for refuge to the Lord of the Daybreak.”
Sūratu ʾn-Nās (cxiv.), beginning, “Say: I flee for refuge to the Lord of men.”
These chapters were ordered by Muḥammad to be recited after each stated prayer. (Mishkāt, book iv. ch. xix. pt. 2.)
MUʿĀẔ IBN JABAL (معاذ بن جبل). One of the most famous of the “Companions.” He was of the Banū K͟hazraj, and was only twenty years of age at the battle of Badr. Being well skilled in the Qurʾān, he was left at Makkah to instruct the people in the principles of Islām. He was also sent as the head of a band of collectors of taxes to south Arabia, and became Qāẓī of al-Yaman. After Muḥammad’s death, he became a leading person in the counsels of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, and was placed in charge of Syria by the latter K͟halīfah. He died at T̤āʿūn ʿAmawās.
MUʾAẔẔIN (موذن). The caller of the aẕān, or “summons to prayer.” In small mosques, the aẕān is given by the Imām, but in the larger ones, an official is specially appointed for the purpose. When the mosque has a minaret, he calls from the top of it, but in smaller places of worship, from the side of the mosque. The first muʾaẕẕin was Bilāl, the son of an Abyssinian slave-girl, and Muḥammad is related to have said, “The callers to prayer may expect Paradise, and whoever serves in the office for seven years shall be saved from hell fire.” (Mishkāt, book iv. ch. vi.) [[AZAN].]
MUBĀḤ (مباح). Lit. “Allowed.” A term used in the religious and ceremonial law of Islām for an action which a person may do or let alone, being attended with neither praise nor blame.