T̤ĀʿAH (طاعة). Lit. “Obedience.” A word which occurs once in the Qurʾān, Sūrah iv. 83: “They say ‘Obedience!’ ” It is an old Arabic word used for the worship and service of God.
TAʿALLUQ (تعلق). Lit. “That which is suspended.” A division or district. A term applied in India to a district including a number of villages, for which a fixed amount of revenue is paid, and the possession of which is hereditary as long as the revenue is paid. These taʿalluqs, or, as they are commonly called, tāluks, are of two kinds: (1) Huẓūrī (from حضور, “the State”), of which the revenue is paid direct to Government; and (2) Maẕkurī (from مذكور, “specified”), of which the revenue is paid through a chief, who thus farms the revenue. The term was introduced to India by the Muslim conquerors.
T̤AʿĀM (طعام). [FOOD.]
TAʿAWWUẔ (تعوذ). The ejaculation: “I seek refuge from God from the cursed Satan,” which forms part of the Muḥammadan daily prayer. It is called also ʿauẕun bi-ʾllāh. [PRAYER.]
TABARRUK (تبرك). The commutation for an offering incumbent upon a religious mendicant holding some endowment (waqf).
TABAʿU ʾT-TĀBIʿĪN (تبع التابعين). Lit. “The followers of the followers.” Those who conversed with the Tābiʿūn (which term is used for those who conversed with Companions of Muḥammad). Traditions related by them are received, but are of less authority than those related by persons who had seen the Prophet. [TRADITIONS.]
TĀBIʿŪN (تابعون), pl. of Tābiʿ. Those who conversed with the Associates or companions of Muḥammad. The traditions which they related are of high authority and form part of the Sunnah or traditional law. [TRADITIONS.]
TABLES OF THE LAW. Arabic Alwāḥ (الواح), pl. of Lauḥ. The giving of the Law to Moses on tables is mentioned in the Qurʾān, Sūrah vii. 142: “We wrote for him (Moses) upon tables (alwāḥ) a monition concerning every matter.” But Muslim doctors are not agreed as to the number of the tables. The commentators al-Jalālān say that there were either seven or ten. [TEN COMMANDMENTS.]
TABŪK (تبوك). A valley in Arabia, celebrated as the scene of one of Muḥammad’s military expeditions, and as the place where he made a treaty with John the Christian prince of Ailah. [TREATY.]
TĀBŪT (تابوت). (1) The Ark of the Covenant, mentioned in the Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 249: “Verily the sign of his (Saul’s) kingship shall be that the Ark (Tābūt) shall come to you: and in it Sakīnah from your Lord, and the relics left by Moses and Aaron; the angels shall bear it.”
Tābūt is the Hebrew תֵּבָה Tēbāh used for Noah’s Ark, and the Ark of bulrushes, Ex. ii. 3, and not אָרוֹן Ārōn, the word in the Bible for the Ark of the Covenant.
The commentator, al-Baiẓāwī, says the Sakīnah was either the Taurāt, or Books of Moses, or an idol of emeralds or rubies, the head and tail of which was like that of a goat, and the wings of feathers, and which uttered a feeble cry; and when the ark was sent after an enemy, then this was sent. But some say it was a representation of the prophets.
Al-Jalālān say the relics left in the Ark were the fragments of the two tables of the Law, and the rod and robes and shoes of Moses, the mitre of Aaron, and the vase of manna. [ARK OF THE COVENANT, SAKINAH.]
(2) A coffin or bier for the burial of the dead.
(3) The representation of the funeral of al-Ḥusain. [MUHARRAM.]
(4) The box or ark in which the body of the child Moses was placed by his mother for fear of Pharaoh. See Qurʾān, Sūrah xx. 39: “When we spake unto thy mother what was spoken: ‘Cast him into the ark: then cast him on the sea [the river], and the sea shall throw him on the shore: and an enemy to me and an enemy to him shall take him up.’ And I myself have made thee an object of love, That thou mightest be reared in mine eye.”
TADBĪR (تدبير). Post obit manumission of slaves. In its primitive sense it means looking forward to the event of a business. In the language of the law, it means a declaration of a freedom to be established after the master’s death. As when the master says to his slave, “Thou art free after my death.” The slave so freed is called a mudabbir. (Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. i. p. 475.) [SLAVERY.]
TAFAKKUR (تفكر). Lit. “Contemplation or thought.” According to the Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrifāt, it is the lamp of the heart whereby a man sees his own evils or virtues.
TAFSĪR (تفسير). Lit. “Explaining.” A term used for a commentary on any book, but especially for a commentary on the Qurʾān. [COMMENTARIES.]
AT-TAG͟HĀBUN (التغابن). “Mutual deceit.” The title of the 64th Sūrah of the Qurʾān, the IXth verse of which begins thus:
“The day when He shall gather you together for the day of the assembly will be the day of Mutual Deceit.”
That is, when the blessed will deceive or disappoint the damned by taking the places which they would have had in Paradise had they been true believers, and vice versâ.
TAG͟HLIB (تغلب). An Arabian tribe who, on the first spread of Islām, were occupying a province in Mesopotamia and professing the Christian faith. The Banū Tag͟hlib sent an embassy to Muḥammad, formed of sixteen men, some Muslims and some Christians. The latter wore crosses of gold. The Prophet made terms with the Christians, stipulating that they should themselves continue in the profession of their religion, but should not baptize their children into Christian faith. (Sir W. Muir, from Kātibu ʾl-Wāqidī, p. 61.)
T̤ĀG͟HŪT (طاغوت). An idol mentioned in the Qurʾān:—
Sūrah iv. 54: “They believe in Jibt and T̤āg͟hūt.”
Sūrah ii. 257: “Whoso disbelieves in T̤āg͟hūt and believes in God, he has got a firm handle, in which is no breaking off.”
Sūrah ii. 259: “But those who misbelieve their patrons are T̤āg͟hūt, these bring them forth to darkness.”
Jalālu ʾd-dīn says T̤āg͟hūt was an idol of the Quraish, whom certain renegade Jews honoured in order to please the tribe.
Mr. Lane observes that in the Arabian Nights the name is used to express the devil as well as an idol.
T̤Ā HĀ (طه). The title of the XXth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, which begins with these Arabic letters. Their meaning is uncertain. Some fancy the first letter stands for t̤ūbā, “beatitude,” and the second for Hāwiyah, the name of the lowest pit of hell. T̤ah is also, like ṣah, and the English “hush,” an interjection commanding silence, and might be here employed to enjoin a silent and reverential listening to the revelation to follow.
TAḤĀLUF (تحالف). The swearing of both plaintiff and defendant. In a civil suit of both seller and purchaser. In a disagreement, if both should take an oath, the Qāẓī must dissolve the sale, or contract. (Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. iii. p. 85.)
TAḤANNUS̤ (تحنث). Avoiding and abstaining from sin. Worshipping God for a certain period in seclusion. The word is used in the latter sense for the seclusion of Muḥammad on Mount Ḥirāʾ, when he is supposed to have received his first revelation. (Mishkāt, book xxiv. c. v.) [INSPIRATION, QURʾAN].
T̤AHĀRAH (طهارة). “Purification,” including waẓūʾ, tayammum, masaḥ, g͟husl, and miswāk, accounts of which are given under their respective articles. [PURIFICATION.]
T̤ĀHIR (طاهر). A woman in a state of purity. [PURIFICATION.]
TAHLĪL (تهليل). The ejaculation, “Lā ilāha illā ʾllāh!” (لا اله الا الله), “There is no deity but God!” (Mishkāt, book x. ch. ii.)
Abū Hurairah relates that the Prophet said, “That person who recites ‘There is no deity but God,’ one hundred times, shall receive rewards equal to the emancipating of ten slaves, and shall have one hundred good deeds recorded to his account, and one hundred of his sins shall be blotted out, and the words shall be a protection from the devil.” [ZIKR.]
TAḤMĪD (تحميد). The ejaculation, “al-Ḥamdu li-ʾllāh!” (الحمد لله), “God be praised!” (Mishkāt, book x. ch. ii.)
ʿUmar ibn Shuʿaib relates from his forefathers that the Prophet said, “He who recites ‘God be praised,’ a hundred times in the morning and again a hundred times in the evening, shall be like a person who has provided one hundred horsemen for a jihād, or ‘religious war.’ ”
TAḤRĪF (تحريف). The word used by Muḥammadan writers for the supposed corruption of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. [CORRUPTION OF THE SCRIPTURES.]
AT-TAḤRĪM (التحريم). “The Prohibition.” The title of the 66th Sūrah of the Qurʾān, which begins with the words: “Why O Prophet! dost thou forbid that which God hath made lawful to thee, from a desire to please thy wives.” The object of this chapter was to free Muḥammad from his obligation to his wife Ḥafṣah, to whom he had recently sworn to separate entirely from the Coptic slave-girl Māriyah.
TAHẔĪB (تهذيب). A book of traditions received by the Shīʿahs, compiled by Shaik͟h Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad, A.H. 466.
AT-T̤ĀʾIF (الطائف). The name of a town, the capital of a district of the same name in Arabia, which Muḥammad besieged A.H. 8, but the city was surrounded by strong battlements and was provisioned for some months. The siege was, therefore, raised by Muḥammad, after he had cut down and burned its celebrated vineyards. (Muir’s Life of Mahomet, new ed. p. 432.)
T̤AIRAH (طيرة). “Lightness; levity of mind.” Condemned in the Ḥadīs̤.
T̤AIY (طى). An Arabian tribe who emigrated from al-Yaman to the Najd about the third century. Some of them embraced Judaism and some Christianity, while a portion remained pagans and erected a temple to the idol Fuls. The whole tribe eventually embraced Islām, A.D. 632, when ʿAlī was sent to destroy the temple of Fuls.
Ḥātim at̤-T̤āʾīy, a Christian Bedouin Arab, celebrated for his hospitality, is the subject of Eastern poetry. He lived in the “time of ignorance,” viz. before Muḥammad, but his son ʿAdī became a Muslim, and is numbered among the “Companions.” Ḥātim at̤-T̤āʾīy’s most famous act of liberality was that which he showed to an ambassador of the Greek Emperor, sent to demand of him as a present for his master, a horse of very great price. The generous Arab, before he knew the object of this person’s mission, slaughtered his horse to regale him, having nothing at the time in his house to serve in its stead. It is also said that he often caused as many as forty camels to be slaughtered for the entertainment of his guests and the poor Arabs of the desert.
TĀJ (تاج). “A crown; a diadem.” The Muslim K͟halīfahs never wore a crown, the word is therefore not used in Muslim theology, but it is used by the Ṣūfī faqīrs for the cap worn by a leader of a religious order, which is generally of a conical shape. [KULAH.]
AT-TAKĀS̤UR (التكاثر). “Multiplying.” The title of the CIInd Sūrah of the Qurʾān, the opening verses of which are:
“The desire of increasing riches occupieth you
Till you come to the grave.”
TAKBĪR (تكبير). The expression, “Allāhu akbar!” (الله اكبر), “God is very great!” (Mishkāt, book x. ch. ii.)
The ejaculation frequently occurs in the daily liturgy and in the funeral office. [PRAYER.]
TAK͟HĀRUJ (تخارج). An arrangement entered into by some heirs-at-law with others for their share of the inheritance, in consideration of some specific thing which excludes them from inheritance. (Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. iii. p. 201.)
AT-TAKWĪR (التكوير). “The Folding-up.” The title of the LXXXIst Sūrah of the Qurʾān, which opens a solemn announcement of the Judgment Day by the words: “When the sun shall be folded up.”
TAKYAH (تكية). Lit. “A pillow; a place of repose.” Used in all Muḥammadan countries for—
(1) A place in which some celebrated saint has stayed. In Central Asia, these places are often merely marked by a few stones and a flag, but they are held sacred.
(2) A monastery, or religious house, in which faqīrs and ascetics reside, as the Takyahs at Constantinople and Cairo.
(3) A hostel or rest-house, as the Takyah at Damascus, which is a hostel for pilgrims. Dr. Robinson describes it as a large quadrangular enclosure, divided into two courts, in the southern court of which there is a large mosque. Around the wall of the court runs a row of cells, with a portico or gallery of columns in front. This takyah was founded by Sultan Salīm, A.D. 1516. (Researches, vol. iii. p. 459.)
T̤ALĀQ (طلاق). (1) The sentence of divorce. [DIVORCE.] (2) The title of the LXVth Sūrah of the Qurʾān which treats of the subject of divorce.
TALBĪYAH (تلبية). Lit. “Waiting or standing for orders.” The recitation of the following words during the pilgrimage to Makkah: “Labbaika! Allāhummah! Labbaika! Labbaika! Lā Sharīka laka! Labbaika! Inna ʾl-ḥamda wa-niʿamata laka! Wa ʾl-mulka! Lā Sharīka-laka!” “I stand up for Thy service, O God! I stand up! I stand up! There is no partner with Thee! I stand up for Thy service! Verily Thine is the praise, the beneficence, and the kingdom! There is no partner with Thee!”
From the Mishkāt (book xi. ch. ii. pt. 1), it appears that this hymn was in use amongst the idolaters of Arabia before Muḥammad’s time. [HAJJ.]
T̤ALḤAH (طلحة), son of ʿUbaidu ʾllāh, the Quraish, was a grand-nephew of Abū Bakr. He was a distinguished Companion, and was honoured with the position of one of the ʿAsharah Mubashsharah, or “ten patriarchs of the Muslim faith.” He saved the life of Muḥammad at the battle of Uḥud. He was slain in the fight of the Camel, A.H. 36, aged 64, and was buried at al-Baṣrah.
T̤ĀLIB (طالب). Lit. “One who seeks.” An inquirer. A term generally used for a student of divinity, is T̤ālibu ʾl-ʿilm.
TALISMAN. Arabic (طلسم) t̤ilsam; pl. t̤alāsim. The English word is a corruption of the Arabic. A term applied to mystical characters, and also to seals and stones upon which such characters are engraved or inscribed. The characters are astrological, or of some other magical kind. Talismans are used as charms against evil, for the preserving from enchantment or from accident; they are also sometimes buried with a hidden treasure to protect it. [AMULET, EXORCISM.]
TALKING. [CONVERSATION.]
TALMUD. The traditional law of the Jews. From Heb. לָמַד lāmad, “to learn.” The learning of the Rabbis. Mr. Emanuel Deutsch says:—
“It seems as if Muḥammad had breathed from his childhood almost the air of contemporary Judaism, as is found by us crystallized in the Talmud, the Targum and the Midrash.
* * *
“It is not merely parallelisms, reminiscences, allusions, technical terms, and the like of Judaism, its law and dogma and ceremony, its Halacha and its Haggadah (its law and legend), which we find in the Koran; but we think Islām neither more nor less than Judaism as adapted to Arabia—plus the Apostleship of Jesus and Muḥammad.” (Literary Remains, p. 64.)
How much Muḥammad was indebted to the Jewish Talmud for his doctrines, ethics, and ceremonial, is shown in an essay by the Jewish Rabbi, Abraham Geiger, in answer to the question put by the University at Bonn: “Inquiratur in fontes Alcorani seu legis Mohammedicæ eos, qui ex Judæismo derivandi sunt,” of which a German translation has appeared, Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthume aufgenommen? (Bonn, 1833), and is treated of in the present work in the article on JUDAISM.
The Talmud consists of two parts: The Mishna, or the text (what is called in Arabic the Matn), and the Gemara, or Commentary (Arabic Sharḥ). These two form the Talmud.
The Mishna (from Shanah, to “repeat”) or the oral law of the Jews, was not committed to writing until about the year A.D. 190, by Rabbi Judah, although it is said it was first commenced by Rabbi Akibah, A.D. 130.
The Gemara (lit. “that which is perfect”) are two commentaries on the Mishna. The one compiled by Rabbi Jochonam at Jerusalem about the middle of the third century, and the other by Rabbi Ashe at Babylon, about the middle of the sixth.
Canon Farrar (Life of Christ, vol. ii. p. 348), says: “Anything more utterly unhistorical than the Talmud, cannot be conceived. It is probable that no human writings ever confounded names, dates, and facts, with more absolute indifference.”
And doubtless it is this unsatisfactory feature in the Talmud of the Jews which, to a great extent, accounts for the equally unhistorical character of the Qurʾān.
For information on the Talmud, the English reader can consult the following works: The Talmud, by Joseph Barklay, LL.D., Bishop of Jerusalem, 1878; A Talmudic Miscellany, by Paul Isaac Hershon, 1880; Selections from the Talmud, by H. Polono; The Talmud, an article in the Quarterly Review, October, 1867, by Emanuel Deutsch; The Talmud, a chapter in The Home and Synagogue of the Modern Jew (Religious Tract Society). A complete translation of the Talmud is being undertaken by Mr. P. I. Hershon. See Dr. Farrar’s Preface to the Talmudic Miscellany.
TALQĪN (تلقين). Lit. “Instructing.” An exhortation or instruction imparted by a religious teacher. It is specially used for the instruction given at the grave of a departed Muslim, at the close of the burial service, when one of the mourners draws near the middle of the grave, addresses the deceased, and says:—
“O servant of God, and child of a female servant of God.
“O son of such an one, remember the faith you professed on earth to the very last; this is your witness that there is no deity but God, and that certainly Muḥammad is His Apostle, and that Paradise and Hell and the Resurrection from the dead are real; that there will be a Day of Judgment; and say: ‘I confess that God is my Lord, Islām my religion, Muḥammad (on whom be the mercy and peace of God) my Prophet, the Qurʾān my guide, the Kaʿbah my Qiblah, and that Muslims are my brethren.’ O God, keep him (the deceased) firm in his faith, and widen his grave, and make his examination (by Munkar and Nakīr) easy, and exalt him and have mercy on him, O Thou most Merciful!” [BURIAL.]
T̤ĀLŪT (طالوت). [SAUL.]
TAMĪM (تميم). An independent Arab tribe of Makkan origin who occupied the north-eastern desert of Najd. They fought by the side of Muḥammad at Makkah and Ḥunain.
TAMJĪD (تمجيد). The expression, “Lā ḥaula wa lā quwwata illā bi-ʾllāhi ʾl ʿalīyi ʾl-ʿaz̤īm” (لا حول ولا قوة الا بالله العلى العظيم), “There is no power and strength but in God, the High one, the Great.” (Mishkāt, book x. ch. ii.)
Abū Hurairah relates that the Prophet said, “Recite very frequently, ‘There is no power and strength but in God,’ for these words are one of the treasures of Paradise. For there is no escape from God but with God. And God will open for the reciter thereof seventy doors of escape from evil, the least of which is poverty.”
TANĀSUK͟H (تناسخ). (1) In Muḥammadan law, the death of one heir after another before the partition of an inheritance.
(2) At-Tanāsuk͟h. The metempsychosis or Pythagorean system of the transmigration of souls, a doctrine held by the Hindus and Buddhists, but forming no part of the Muḥammadan system.
TANFĪL (تنفيل). “Plundering in religious warfare.” Commended in the Qurʾān, Sūrah viii. 1: “They will question thee about the spoils. Say: The spoils are God’s and the Apostle’s.”
TAQARRUB (تقرب). Lit. “Seeking admittance or striving to draw near.” A term used to express the desire of propitiating the Deity by prayer, almsgiving, or sacrifice.
TAQDĪR (تقدير). Lit. “To measure.” The doctrine of Fate or Predestination, al-Qadr. [PREDESTINATION.]
TAQĪYAH (تقية). Lit. “Guarding oneself.” A Shīʿah doctrine. A pious fraud whereby the Shīʿah Muslim believes he is justified in either smoothing down or in denying the peculiarities of his religious belief, in order to save himself from religious persecution. A Shīʿah can, therefore, pass himself off as a Sunnī to escape persecution.
The Shīʿah traditionists relate that certain persons inquired of the Imām Ṣādiq if the Prophet had ever practised taqīyah, or “religious dissimulation,” and the Imām replied, “Not after this verse was sent down to the Prophet, namely, Sūrah v. 71: ‘O thou Apostle! publish the whole of what has been revealed to thee from thy Lord; if thou do it not, thou hast not preached His message, and God will not defend thee from wicked men; for God guides not the unbelieving people.’ When the Most High became surety for the Prophet against harm, then he no longer dissimulated, although before this revelation appeared he had occasionally done so.” (The Ḥayātu ʾl-Qulūb, Merrick’s ed., p. 96.) [SHIʿAH.]
TAQLĪD (تقليد). Lit. “Winding round.” (1) Putting a wreath round a victim destined to be slain at Makkah. (2) Girding with a sword, as a sign of investiture of a high dignitary. (3) A term used in Muḥammadan law for the following of a religious leader without due inquiry.
TAQWĀ (تقوى). [ABSTINENCE.]
TARĀWĪH (تراويح). The plural of tarwīḥ, “Rest.” The prayers, of usually twenty rakʿahs, recited at night during the month of Ramaẓān; so called because the congregation sit down and rest after every fourth rakʿah and every second “Salām.” [RAMAZAN.]
TARIKAH (تركة). A legacy, a bequest, an inheritance.
AT-T̤ĀRIQ (الطارق). “The night-comer.” The title of the LXXXVIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, beginning thus:
“By the heaven, and by the night-comer!
But what shall teach thee
What the night-comer is?
’Tis the star of piercing radiance.”
According to al-Wāḥidī, these words were revealed when Abū T̤ālib, at the time of the evening meal, was startled by a shooting star. Nöldeke, however, observes that the three verses seem rather to apply to a planet or a fixed star of particular brightness.
T̤ARĪQAH (طريقة). “A path.” A term used by the Sūfīs for the religious life. [SUFI.]
TARWIYAH (تروية). Lit. “Satisfying thirst,” or, according to some, “giving attention.” The eighth day of the pilgrimage; so called either because the pilgrims give their camels water on this day, or because Abraham gave attention (rawwa) to the vision wherein he was instructed to sacrifice his son Ishmael (?) on this day.
TAṢAWWUF (تصوف). A word used to express the doctrines of the Ṣūfīs or Muḥammadan mystics. Ṣūfīism. The word does not occur in the celebrated Arabic Dictionary, the Qāmūs, which was compiled A.H. 817, nor in the Ṣiḥāḥ, A.H. 393. [SUFI.]
TASBĪḤ (تسبيح). (1) The ejaculation, “Subḥāna ʾllāh!” (سبحان الله), “I extol the holiness of God!” or “Holy God!” A most meritorious ejaculation, which, if recited one hundred times, night and morning, is said by the Prophet to atone for man’s sins, however many or great. (Mishkāt, book x. ch. ii.)
TASHAHHUD (تشهد). Lit. “Testimony.” A declaration of the Muslim faith recited during the stated prayers, immediately after the Taḥīyah, in the same attitude, but with the first finger of the right hand extended, as a witness to the Unity of God. It is as follows: “I testify that there is no deity but God, and I testify that Muḥammad is the Messenger of God.” It is also used as an expression of faith upon a person becoming a Muḥammadan. (Mishkāt, book iv. ch. xvi.) [PRAYERS.]
TASHRĪQ (تشريق). Lit. “Drying flesh in the sun.” A name given to three days after the sacrifice at Makkah during the Pilgrimage, either because the flesh of the victim is then dried, or because they are not slain until sunrise. [HAJJ.]
TASLĪM (تسليم). The benediction at the close of the usual form of prayer, “As-salāmu ʿalaikum wa raḥmatu ʿllāh!” (السلام عليكم ورحمة الله), “The peace and mercy of God be with you.” [PRAYERS.]
TASMĪʿ (تسميع). The following ejaculation which is recited by the Imām in the daily prayers: “God hears him who praises Him.” [PRAYERS.]
TASMIYAH (تسمية). Lit. “Giving a name.” (1) A title given to the Bismillāh, or the initial sentence, “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.” This occurs at the commencement of each chapter or Sūrah of the Qurʾān, with the exception of the IXth Sūrah. [QURʾAN.] (2) Also used at the commencement of any religious act (except sacrifice), such as prayer, ablutions, &c. (3) The usual “grace before meat,” amongst Muslims. [BISMILLAH.]
TASNĪM (تسنيم). Lit. “Anything convex and shelving at both sides.” The name of a fountain in Paradise mentioned in the Qurʾān, Sūrah lxxxiii. 28: “Mingled therewith shall be the waters of Tasnīm.”