AN-NAẒĪR (النضير). A Jewish tribe residing in the vicinity of al-Madīnah, and known as the Banū ʾn-Naẓīr, or Nadhīr. They are celebrated in Muḥammadan history, as having accepted the Prophet’s mission after the battle of Badr, but when he met with reverses at Uḥud they forsook him, but they were afterwards defeated by the Prophet and exiled, some to K͟haibar, and some to Ḥirāʾ. They were the occasion of the LIXth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, known as the Sūratu ʾl-Ḥashr, or “Chapter of Emigration.” (See al-Baiẓāwī in loco.)
NAẔR WA NIYĀZ (نذر و نياز). “Vows and oblations.” These are given in the name of God, or in the name of the Prophet, or in the name of some Muslim saint. [[VOWS].]
NEBUCHADNEZZAR. [[BUKHT NASSAR].]
NECKLACE. Arabic qilādah (قلادة). The wearing of necklaces (among men) is forbidden in the Ḥadīs̤ (Mishkāt, Arabic edition, vol. ii. 5), although it is a custom very common amongst the Musalmāns of India.
NEGUS. [[NAJASHI].]
NEHEMIAH. Not mentioned in the Qurʾān or in Muslim commentaries. But the following legend given in the Qurʾān [Sūrah ii. 261], seems to have its origin in the circuit made by Nehemiah ([Neh. ii. 13]):—
“Hast thou considered him who passed by a city which had been laid in ruins. ‘How,’ said he, ‘shall God give life to this city, after she hath been dead?’ And God caused him to die for an hundred years, and then raised him to life. And God said, ‘How long hast thou waited?’ He said, ‘I have waited a day or part of a day.’ He said, ‘Nay, thou hast waited an hundred years. Look on thy food and thy drink; they are not corrupted; and look on thine ass; we would make thee a sign unto men: And look on the bones of thine ass, how we will raise them, then clothe them with flesh.’ And when this was shown to him, he said, ‘I acknowledge that God hath power to do all things.’ ”
The commentators, al-Kamālān, say it was either Jeremiah, or K͟hiẓr, or Ezekiel.
NEIGHBOURS. Arabic jār (جار), pl. jīrān. The Sunnīs hold that neighbours are those who worship in the same mosque, but some Shīʿah doctors say that a neighbour is anyone whose house is within forty cubits, whilst others maintain that the term extends to all the occupants of forty houses on either side. (Baillie’s Digest, Sunni Code, p. 579; Im. Code, p. 216.)
A neighbour has the next right of preemption to a partner in the sale and purchase of houses and lands. (Hidāyah, vol. iii. p. 562.)