CELIBACY (Arabic ʿUzūbah), although not absolutely condemned by Muḥammad, is held to be a lower form of life to that of marriage. It is related that ʿUs̤mān ibn Maz̤ʿūn wished to lead a celibate life, and the Prophet forbade him, for, said he, “When a Muslim marries he perfects his religion.” (Mishkāt, book xii. c. xx.)
CEYLON. Arabic Sarandīb. The Commentators say that when Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise, Adam fell on the island of Ceylon, and Eve near Jiddah in Arabia, and that after a separation of 200 years, Adam was, on his repentance, conducted by the angel Gabriel to a mountain near Makkah, where he found and knew his wife, the mountain being named ʿArafah; and that afterwards he retired with her to Ceylon, when they continued to propagate their species. (D’Herbelot, Bibl. Orient., p. 55.)
CHASTITY. “Neither their (the Muslims’) tenets nor their practice will in any respect bear to come into competition with Christian, or even with Jewish morality.… For instance, we call the Muslims chaste because they abstained from indiscriminate profligacy, and kept carefully within the bounds prescribed as licit by their Prophet. But those bounds, besides the utmost freedom of divorce and change of wives, admitted an illimitable licence of cohabitation with ‘all that the right hand of the believer might possess,’ or, in other words, with any possible number of damsels he might choose to purchase, or receive in gift, or take captive in war.” (Muir’s Life of Mahomet, vol. i. 272.) [[CONCUBINAGE], [SLAVES], [MUTʿAH], [DIVORCE], [MARRIAGE].]
CHARITY, as it implies tenderness and affection, is expressed by ḥubb, or maḥabbah; as it denotes almsgiving, it is ṣadaqah. He who is liberal and charitable to the poor is called muḥibbu ʾl-fuqarāʾ.
CHERUBIM. Arabic Karūbī, pl. Karūbīn; Lit. “Those who are near.” Heb. כְּרוּבִים. The word karūbīn is used by the commentator al-Baiẓāwī, for the angels mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xl. 70]: “Those around it (the throne of God) celebrate the praise of their Lord, and believe in Him, and ask pardon for those who believe.” Al-Baiẓāwī says the Karūbīn are the highest rank, and the first created angels. Ḥusain says there are 70,000 ranks of them round the throne of God. (Tafsīru ʾl-Baiẓāwī, Tafsīru Ḥusain, in loco.)
CHESS. Arabic Shat̤ranj. According to the Hidāyah, “It is an abomination to play at chess, dice, or any other game, for if anything be staked it is gambling (maisir), which is expressly forbidden in the Qurʾān; or if, on the other hand, nothing be hazarded, it is useless and vain. Besides, the Prophet has declared all the entertainments of a Muslim to be vain except three: the breaking in of his horse, the drawing of his bow, and playing and amusing himself with his wives. Several of the learned, however, deem the game at chess lawful as having a tendency to quicken the understanding. This is the opinion of ash-Shāfiʿī. If a man play at chess for a stake, it destroys the integrity of his character, but if he do not play for a stake, the integrity of his character is not affected.” (Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 122.)
CHILDREN. Arabic Aulād. There are no special injunctions in the Qurʾān regarding the customs to be observed at the birth of an infant (circumcision not being even once mentioned in that book), nor with reference to the training and instruction of the young; but the subject is frequently referred to in the Traditions and in Muḥammadan books on Ethics. Muḥammadans have so largely incorporated the customs of the Hindus in India with their own, especially those observed at the births of children, that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish those which are special characteristics of Islām; many of the customs recorded in Herklots’ Musalmans, for example, being merely those common to Hindus as well as Muḥammadans. We shall, however, endeavour to describe those which are generally admitted to have some authority in the precepts of the Muslim religion.
(1.) At the birth of a child, after he has been properly washed with water and bound in swaddling clothes, he is carried by the midwife to the assembly of male relatives and friends, who have met on the occasion, when the chief Maulawī, or some person present, recites the Aẕān, or summons to prayer [[AZAN]], in the infant’s right ear, and the Iqāmah, which is the Aẕān with the addition of the words, “We are standing up for prayers” [[IQAMAH]], in the left ear; a custom which is founded on the example of the Prophet, who is related to have done so at the birth of his grandson Ḥasan (Mishkāt, book xviii. c. iv. 2). The Maulawī then chews a little date fruit and inserts it into the infant’s mouth, a custom also founded upon the example of Muḥammad. (Mishkāt, book xviii. c. iv. 1.) This ceremony being over, alms are distributed, and fātiḥahs are recited for the health and prosperity of the child. According to the traditions, the amount of silver given in alms should be of the same weight as the hair on the infant’s head—the child’s head being shaved for this purpose. (Mishkāt, ibid., part 2.) The friends and neighbours then visit the home, and bring presents, and pay congratulatory compliments on the joyful occasion.
(2.) The naming of the child should, according to the Traditions (Mishkāt, ibid.), be given on the seventh day; the child being either named after some member of the family, or after some saint venerated by the family, or some name suggested by the auspicious hour, the planet, or the sign of the zodiac. [[EXORCISM].]
(3.) On this, the seventh day, is observed also the ceremony of ʿAqīqah, established by Muḥammad himself (Bābu ʾl-ʿAqīqah in Arabic Ed. Ṣaḥīḥ of Abū Dāūd, vol. ii. p. 36). It consists of a sacrifice to God, in the name of the child, of two he-goats for a boy, and one he-goat for a girl. The goats must be not above a year old, and without spot or blemish. The animal is dressed and cooked, and whilst the friends eat of it they offer the following prayer:—“O God! I offer to thee instead of my own offspring, life for life, blood for blood, head for head, bone for bone, hair for hair, skin for skin. In the name of the great God, I do sacrifice this goat!”