Major Osborne remarks in his Islām under the Arabs, p. 58:—
“There have been few incidents more disastrous in their consequences to the human race than this decree of Muhammad, changing the Kibla from Jerusalem to Mekka. Had he remained true to his earlier and better faith, the Arabs would have entered the religious community of the nations as peace-makers, not as enemies and destroyers. To all alike—Jews, Christians, and Muhammadans—there would have been a single centre of holiness and devotion; but the Arab would have brought with him just that element of conviction which was needed to enlarge and vivify the preceding religions. To the Jew he would have been a living witness that the God who spake in times past to his fathers by the prophets still sent messengers to men, though not taken from the chosen seeds—the very testimony which they needed to rise out of the conception of a national deity to that of a God of all men.
“To the Christians, his deep and ardent conviction of God as a present living and working power, would have been a voice recalling them from their petty sectarian squabbles and virtual idolatry, to the presence of the living Christ. By the change of the Kibla, Islam was placed in direct antagonism to Judaism and Christianity. It became a rival faith, possessing an independent centre of existence. It ceased to draw its authenticity from the same wells of inspiration. Jew and Christian could learn nothing from a creed which they knew only as an exterminator; and the Muhammadan was condemned to a moral and intellectual isolation. And so long as he remains true to his creed, he cannot participate in the onward march of men. The keystone of that creed is a black pebble in a heathen temple. All the ordinances of his faith, all the history of it, are so grouped round and connected with this stone, that were the odour of sanctity dispelled which surrounds it, the whole religion would inevitably perish. The farther and the faster men progress elsewhere, the more hopeless becomes the position of the Muslim. He can only hate the knowledge which would gently lead him to the light. Chained to a black stone in a barren wilderness, the heart and reason of the Muhammadan world would seem to have taken the similitude of the objects they reverence; and the refreshing dews and genial sunshines which fertilise all else, seek in vain for anything to quicken there.” (Islam under the Arabs, p. 58.)
QIBT̤Ī (قبطى). Copt. The Christian descendants of the Ancient Egyptians, derived from Coptos, a great city in Upper Egypt now called Gooft. The favourite slave of Muḥammad, Māriyah, was a Copt, and is known in Muslim history as Māriyatu ʾl-Qibt̤īyah. [[MUHAMMAD, WIVES OF].]
For an account of the manners and customs of the Coptic Christians, see Lane’s Modern Egyptians.
QIMĀR (قمار). Dice or any game at chance. It is forbidden by the Muḥammadan religion. (Mishkāt, book xvii. ch. ii. pt. 2.)
QINN (قن). A slave, especially one born in the family and whose father and mother are slaves.
QINT̤ĀR (قنطار). A talent. A sum of money mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah ii. 67]: “And of the people of the Book there are some of them who if thou entrust them with a qint̤ār give it back to you.”
Muḥammad T̤āhir, the author of the Majmaʿu ʾl-Biḥār, p. 173, says a qint̤ār is a very large sum of money. As much gold as will go into the hide of a cow! or, according to others, 4,000 dīnārs. Others say it is an unlimited sum, which implies a considerable amount of money.
QIRĀʾAH (قراءة). Lit. “Reading.” A term given to the different methods of reading the Qurʾān. A science which is termed ʿIlmu ʾt-Tajwīd. [[QURʾAN].]