AL-MUSABBIḤĀT (المسبحات). “The Praisers.” A title given to those Sūrahs of the Qurʾān, which begin with Subḥāna (Glory to), or Sabbaḥa (he glorified), or Yusabbiḥu (he glorifies), or Sabbiḥ (glorify thou), viz. [Sūrahs xvii]., [lvii]., [lix]., [lxi]., [lxii]., [lxiv]., [lxxxvii].
ʿIrbāẓ ibn Sāriyah relates that Muḥammad used to repeat the Musabbiḥāt before going to sleep, and that he said, “In them there is a verse which is better than a thousand.” Most writers say this verse is concealed like the Lailatu ʾl-Qadr (the night of power), or the Sāʿatu ʾl-Jumʿah (the hour on Friday), but ʿAbdu ʾl-Ḥaqq says it is most probably either the last verse of the Sūratu ʾl-Ḥashr (lix.), “He is God, the Pardoner, the Maker, the Fashioner! To him are ascribed excellent titles,” &c. Or, the first verse of the Sūratu ʾl-Ḥadīd (lvii.), “All that is in the Heavens and in the Earth praiseth God.” (See Majmaʿu ʾl-Biḥār, p. 86; Mishkāt, book viii. ch. i.)
MUṢADDIQ (مصدق). The collector of the zakāt and ṣadaqah, or legal alms. In Muḥammadan states he is appointed by the state. This officer does not now exist in Hindustan under British rule.
MUṢĀFAḤAH (مصافحة). Taking the hand. Joining or shaking hands. A custom expressly enjoined by Muḥammad, who said, “If two Muslims meet and join hands (i.e. shake hands), their sins will be forgiven before they separate.” (Mishkāt, book xxii. ch. iii. pt. 2.)
MUSAILAMAH (مسيلمة). An impostor who appeared in the time of Muḥammad, and claimed the Prophetic office, surnamed Musailamatu ʾl-Kaẕẕāb, or, “Musailamah the Liar.” He headed an embassy sent by his tribe to Muḥammad in the ninth year of the Hijrah, and professed himself a Muslim; but on his return home, considering that he might possibly share with Muḥammad in his power, the next year he set up for a prophet also, pretending to join with him in the commission to recall mankind from idolatry to the worship of the true God; and he published written revelations, in imitation of the Qurʾān, of which Abū ʾl-Faraj has preserved the following passage, viz. “Now hath God been gracious unto her that was with child, and hath brought forth from her the soul which runneth between the peritonœum and the bowels.”
Musailamah, having formed a considerable party, began to think himself upon equal terms with Muḥammad, and sent him a letter, offering to go halves with him, in these words: “From Musailamah, the Apostle of God, to Muḥammad, the Apostle of God. Now let the earth be half mine and half thine.” But Muḥammad, thinking himself too well established to need a partner, wrote him this answer: “From Muḥammad, the Apostle of God, to Musailamah, the Liar. The earth is God’s; He giveth the same for inheritance unto such of His servants as He pleaseth; and the happy issue shall attend those who fear Him.”
During the few months which Muḥammad lived after this revolt, Musailamah rather gained than lost ground, and grew very formidable; but Abū Bakr, in the eleventh year of the Hijrah, sent a great army against him, under the command of that consummate general K͟hālid ibn al-Walīd, who engaged Musailamah in a bloody battle, wherein the false prophet happening to be slain by Waḥshī, the negro slave who had killed Ḥamzah at Uḥud, and by the same lance, the Muslims gained an entire victory, ten thousand of the apostates being left dead on the spot, and the rest returning to Muḥammadanism.
MUṢALLĀ (مصلا). The small mat, cloth, or carpet on which a Muslim prays. The term sajjādah is used in Egypt. In Persia Jai-namaz.
A MUSALLA.