PRE-EMPTION. Arabic Shufʿah (شفعة). Lit. “Adjunction.” The right of pre-emption is a power of possessing property which is for sale, and is established upon the teaching of Muḥammad. It applies not to movable property but to immovable property (ʿaqār). This right of pre-emption appertains in the first place to the co-sharer or partner in the property; secondly, to a sharer in the immunities and appendages of the property, such as the right to water, or to roads; and thirdly, to the neighbour. (Hidāyah, vol. iii. p. 594.)
PRE-EXISTENCE OF SOULS is taught both in the Qurʾān and the Traditions.
ʿĀyishah relates that Muḥammad said, “Souls before they became united with bodies were like assembled armies, and afterwards they were dispersed and sent into the bodies of mankind.” (Mishkāt, book xxii. ch. xvi.)
There is said to be a reference to this doctrine in the Qurʾān:—
[Sūrah vii. 171]: “And when the Lord drew forth their posterity from the loins of the sons of Adam.…”
The commentator, al-Baiẓāwī, says, “God stroked Adam’s back and extracted from his loins his whole posterity, which should come into the world until the Resurrection, one generation after another; and that these souls were all assembled together like small ants, and after they had in the presence of the angels confessed their dependence upon God, they were again caused to return into the loins of Adam.” (See Tafsīru ʾl-Baiẓāwī, in loco.)
PRESERVED TABLET. According to the teaching of Muḥammad, both the actions of men and the Qurʾān were recorded before creation upon a preserved tablet called Lauḥ Maḥfuz̤ (لوح محفوظ), [Sūrah xxxv. 22]: “And if they treat thee as a liar, so did those who were before them treat their Apostles who came to them with the proofs of their mission, and with the Scriptures and with the clear Book”; and Imām Mubīn (امام مبين), [Sūrah xxxvi. 11]: “Verily, it is We who will quicken the dead, and write down the works which they have sent on before them, and the traces which they shall have left behind them: and everything have we set down in the clear Book of our decrees.” [[PREDESTINATION], [QURʾAN].]
PRIDE, Arabic kibr (كبر), is forbidden in the Qurʾān, see [Sūrah xvii. 39]: “Walk not proudly on the earth; truly thou canst by no means cleave the earth, neither canst thou reach the mountains in height: all this is evil with thy Lord and odious.”
PRIEST. There is no sacerdotal class of ministers in the Muḥammadan religion. The leader of the daily prayers is called an Imām. [[IMAM].]
PRIVACY OF DWELLINGS is established by the teaching of Muḥammad, and it is therefore unlawful to enter the house without Istiʾẕān, or “asking permission.” The injunction is given in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xxiv. 27–29]:—