MUWAḤḤID (موحد‎), pl. muwaḥḥidūn. A believer in one God. A term often used by Muslims to express their belief as Unitarians.

MUWAT̤T̤Aʾ (موطاء‎). Lit. “That which has been compiled.” A title given to the book of traditions compiled by the Imām Mālik (died A.H. 179). It is the earliest compilation of traditions, and is placed by some amongst the Kutubu ʾs-Sittah, or the “six (correct) books.” [[TRADITIONS].]

MUZĀBANAH (مزابنة‎). Lit. “Repelling or pushing back.” Selling without measure, for example, selling green dates upon trees in exchange for dry ones in the house, and the seller saying that the loss or gain rests with him. This kind of sale is forbidden. (Mishkāt, book xii. ch. 5.)

MUZĀRAʿAH (مزارعة‎). Giving over land to the charge of another party on condition of receiving a fixed proportion of its produce.

MUẒĀRABAH (مضاربة‎). In the language of the law, Muẓārabah signifies a contract of copartnership, of which the one party (namely, the proprietor) is entitled to a profit on account of the stock, he being denominated Rabbu ʾl-Māl, or proprietor of the stock (which is termed Rāsu ʾl-Māl), and the other party is entitled to a profit on account of his labour, and this last is denominated the muẓārib (or manager), inasmuch as he derives a benefit from his own labour and endeavours. A contract of muẓārabah, therefore, cannot be established without a participation in the profit, for if the whole of the profit be stipulated to the proprietor of the stock, then it is considered as a biẓāʿah; or, if the whole be stipulated to the immediate manager, it must be considered as a loan.

AL-MUẔILL (المذل‎). “The One who abases.” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God referred to in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah iii. 25]: “Thou honourest whom Thou pleasest and abasest whom Thou pleasest.”

AL-MUZZAMMIL (المزمل‎). Lit. “The Wrapped up.” The title of the LXXIVth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in the first verse of which the word occurs. “O Thou, enwrapped, arise to prayer.” It is said the chapter was revealed to Muḥammad when he was wrapped up in a blanket at night.

MYSTICISM. The word mysticism is of a vague signification, but it is generally applied to all those tendencies in religion which aspire to a direct communication between man and his God, not through the medium of the senses, but through the inward perception of the mind. Consequently the term is applied to the Pantheism of the ancient Hindu, to the Gnosticism of the ancient Greek, to the Quietism of Madame Guyon and Fénelon, to the Pietism of Molinos, to the doctrines of the Illuminati of Germany, to the visions of Swedenborg, as well as to the peculiar manifestations of mystic views amongst some modern Christian sects. It is a form of error which mistakes the operations of a merely human faculty for a divine manifestation, although it is often but a blind protest in behalf of what is highest and best in human nature.

The earliest mystics known are those of India, the best exposition of their system being the Bhāgavad-gītā (see Wilkins’ translation). Sir William Jones says:—“A figurative mode of expressing the fervour of devotion, the ardent love of created spirits, toward their Beneficent Creator, has prevailed from time immemorial in Asia; particularly among the Persian Theists, both ancient Hushangis and modern Sufis, who seem to have borrowed it from the Indian philosophers of the Vedanta School, and their doctrines are also believed to be the source of that sublime but poetical theology which glows and sparkles in the writings of the old Academics. ‘Plato travelled into Italy and Egypt,’ says Blande Fleury, ‘to learn the Theology of the Pagans at its fountain head.’ Its true fountain, however, was neither in Italy nor in Egypt though considerable streams of it had been conducted thither by Pythagoras, and by the family of Misra, but in Persia or India, which the founder of the Italic sect had visited with a similar design.”

Almost the only religion in the world in which we should have concluded, before examination, that the Pantheistic and mystic spirit of Hinduism was impossible, is the stern unbending religious system of Muḥammad and his followers. But even amongst Muslims there have ever been those who seek for divine intuition in individual souls, to the partial or entire rejection of the demands of creeds and ceremonies. These mystics are called Ṣūfīs, and have always included the philosophers, the poets, and the enthusiasts of Islām. For an account of these Muslims, see the article on [SUFIISM].