ZINĀʾ (زناء‎). [ADULTERY.]

ZINDĪQ (زنديق‎). A term now used to express a person in a hopeless state of infidelity. Some say the word is derived from the Persian Zan-dīn, i.e. a woman’s religion. Others assert that it is a term of relation to the word Zand or Zend, which means “explanation,” i.e. the explanation of the book of Zardusht or Zoroaster. (See Lane’s Arabic Dictionary, in loco.)

ZIPPORAH. [SAFURAʾ.]

ZIYĀRAH (زيارة‎), from the root zaur, “to visit,” visitation, particularly of the tomb of the Prophet, and of the grave of any martyr or saint of the Muḥammadan faith. In India and Central Asia, the word, always pronounced ziyārat, is, by way of abbreviation, used for ziyārat-gāh, i.e. for the place of such visitation, or the shrine connected with it.

Although it is held by Wahhābīs and other Muslim puritans that the Prophet forbade the visitation of graves for the purposes of devotion, the custom has become so common, that it may be considered part of the Muḥammadan religion. And, indeed, it is difficult to believe that a religious teacher of Muḥammad’s cast of mind should have in principle opposed a practice which is so natural to the human heart. However much he may have objected to the clamorous wailings and lamentations over the dead, in which the pagan Arabs of the ignorance, especially the women, indulged, he was not likely to be insensible to the solemn lesson which the resting-place of the departed teaches the living, or to stifle in his followers the pious remembrance of beloved friends and kindred who have gone before. We see, therefore, no reason to doubt the genuineness of the following traditions, which we translate from a manuscript of the Mishkāt, belonging to the Library of the India Office (Arabic MSS., No. 2143, New Catalogue, 154), and which the compiler of that work has taken from such authorities as Muslim, Ibn Mājah, at-Tirmiẕī, &c.

Buraidah related, the Apostle of God said: “(Formerly) I forbade you to visit the graves, but you may visit them now.…” (Muslim.) Abū Hurairah related: the Prophet visited the grave of his mother, and he wept and caused those who were around him to weep also. Then he said: “I begged leave from my Lord to ask forgiveness for her, but it was not granted me; then I begged leave to visit her grave, and it was granted me; visit therefore the graves, for they remind you of death.” (Muslim.)

Buraidah related: The Apostle of God used to instruct them, when they issued forth to the burial-places, to pronounce the words: “Peace be upon you, O ye people of these abodes from amongst the Believers and the Resigned; and we, if God please, are surely overtaking you to ask salvation from God for us and you.” (Muslim.)

Ibn ʿAbbās related: The Prophet passed by some graves in al-Madīnah, and he turned his face towards them and said: “Peace be upon you, O ye people of the graves; may God forgive us and you; ye are the van of us and we (following) in your steps.”

ʿĀyishah related that when the turn of her night had come on the Prophet’s part, he used to step out towards the end of the night into al-Baqīʿ (the burial-ground of al-Madīnah) and to say: “Peace be with the abode of a believing people; and the time that has been promised you as your appointed term may come to you on the morrow (speedily); and we, if please God, are overtaking you. O God, grant forgiveness to the people of Baqīʿu ʾl-Garqad.” She asked: “What shall I say, O Apostle of God, to wit, on visiting the graves?” He replied: “Say, Peace be upon the people of these abodes from amongst the Believers and the Resigned, and God have compassion on those of us that go before and those that follow; and we, if please God, are overtaking you.” (Muslim.)

Muḥammad ibn Nuʿām related, the Prophet said: “He who visits the grave of his father and mother, or of either of them, on every Friday, his sins are forgiven, and he is written down as one pious.” (Baihaqī).

Ibn Masʿūd related, the Apostle of God said: “I had forbidden you to visit the graves, but now ye may visit them, for they detach from this world and remind of the world to come.” (Ibn Mājah.)

Abū Hurairah related: “The Apostle of God cursed women visiting the graves.” To this the compiler of the Mishkāt adds: At-Tirmiẕī calls this tradition a well-supported and genuine one, and says: “Some of the learned are of opinion that this happened before the Prophet permitted the visitation of the graves, but that when he did so, both men and women were included in the permission; and some again allege, that he only disapproved of women visiting the graves, because they are but little given to patience and much to fear.”

In the face of these texts we cannot wonder that the practice of visiting the graves forms a marked feature in the religious life of the Muḥammadans, and that the tomb of the founder of Islām and the burial-places of its chief confessors have become the objects of great devotional reverence. Pilgrims to Makkah (except the Wahhābīs) always proceed to al-Madīnah to visit the Prophet’s shrine and to claim an interest in his intercessions, and in all Muḥammadan countries there are ziyārats or “shrines,” which are visited by devotees in order to obtain the intercessions of the departed saint. Such a ziyārat is the grave of K͟hwājah ʿAbdu ʾllāh Anṣārī, who flourished about the time of our King John, A.D. 1200, and who established such a reputation for sanctity that even to this day his tomb, at Gazarghaiah near Herat, is visited by pilgrims from all parts of the province. This tomb is an exceedingly fine piece of Oriental sculpture. Upon its marble slabs are inscribed, in the finest s̤ulus̤ writing, verses from the Qurʾān. But the chief historic interest in the shrine of this saint is found in the fact that Dost Muḥammad K͟hān, the great Afghān Ameer of Cabul (A.D. 1863), requested that his bones should be interred at the feet of K͟hwājah ʿAbdu ʾllāh, in order that his dark deeds of blood may obtain forgiveness through the potent intercession of this ancient saint. Such is one of the many instances of the great importance which Eastern rulers have attached to the sanctity of the very ground in which have been buried the remains of some great teacher or ascetic.

In towns and in great centres of population, the tombs which are visited as ziyārats are usually substantial structures; but in villages they are often the most simple graves, marked by a few flags, and surrounded by a low wall to keep the sacred spot free from defilement. Oftentimes the Eastern traveller will find a ziyārat on the road-side of some desert highway. Probably it is the resting-place of some pilgrim who, returning from Makkah, died of disease or was slain by highway robbers, in either case, according to the doctrines of Islām, suffering a martyr’s death. [MARTYR.] Such a ziyārat will be taken charge of by some poor darwesh or faqīr, who will erect a shed near the sacred spot, and supply the weary traveller with a cup of cold water, as he stops and raises his hands in supplication at the shrine of the martyred saint.

The cures performed at ziyārats are diversified. Some will be celebrated as the place where rheumatism can be cured, others are suitable for small-pox patients, whilst some have even gained a reputation as places of healing for those who are bitten by mad dogs. The grave of K͟hushhal K͟hān K͟hatak the warrior poet of the Afghāns, in the Peshawar valley, is visited by thousands of childless women.

The ziyārats are always visited with the feet uncovered, and when the grave is covered with stones or pebbles, these are used to rub upon the afflicted limbs. Some more substantial monuments are supplied with brushes, which are used for the double purpose of cleaning up the court-yard and for rubbing upon the diseased body of the devotee.

These ziyārats are always lighted up with small lamps on Thursday evening, which is the beginning of the Eastern Friday. But Sunday is held to be a propitious day for visiting shrines.

Adjoining many ziyārats of eminence, there will be mosques supported by large endowments, in which will be found a large number of students. Such is the renowned ziyārat of Kaka Ṣāḥib in the K͟hatak hills on the Afghān frontier. Many ziyārats are very largely endowed by princes and nobles, who have believed that they have obtained assistance from the intercessions of the departed saint. There is, however, no proof that Muḥammad ever encouraged the belief that the prayers of departed saints were of any avail in the presence of the Almighty. Indeed, it is a distinctive teaching of Islām that even the Prophet himself cannot intercede for his own people until the Day of Judgment. [INTERCESSION.]

ZODIAC, The signs of. Arabic mint̤aqatu ʾl-burūj (منطقة الــبــروج‎). “The girdle or zone of towers.” Greek πύργοι. Mentioned three times in the Qurʾān.

Sūrah lxxxv. 1:

“By the heaven with its Towers!” (Burūj.)

Sūrah xxv. 62:

“Blessed be He who hath placed in the Heaven the sign of the Zodiac! who hath placed in it the Lamp of the Sun, and the light-giving Moon!”

Sūrah xv. 16:

“We have set the signs of the zodiac in the Heavens, and adorned and decked them forth for the beholders.

“And We guard them from every stoned Satan,

“Save such as steal a hearing: and him doth a visible flame pursue.”

In explanation of the last verses, commentators tell us that the devils listen at the gate of heaven for scraps of the knowledge of futurity, and when detected by the angels, are pelted with shooting stars (see Sūrah iii. 31: “the pelted devil”; also Sūrah xxxvii. 8: “hurled at from every side”).

So in the Talmud, in Chagiya xvi. 1, the shadeem, or “demons,” are said to learn the secrets of the future by listening behind the pargōd or “veil.”

The names of the signs are:

1. Ḥamal, Ram.

2. S̤aur, Bull.

3. Jauzāʾ, Twins.

4. Sart̤ān, Crab.

5. Asad, Lion.

6. Sumbalah, lit. an “ear of corn,” Virgin.

7. Mīzān, Scales.

8. ʿAqrab, Scorpion.

9. Qaus, Archer.

10. Jadī, He-goat.

11. Dalw, Watering-pot.

12. Ḥūt, Fish.

ZOROASTRIANISM. The ancient religion of Persia is only referred to once in the Qurʾān, Sūrah xxii. 17, as the religion of the Majūs (المجوس‎), the Magians. Most Muḥammadan writers, especially amongst the Shīʿahs, believe them to have formerly possessed a revelation from God which they have since lost. [AL-MAJUS.]

ZUBAIR IBN AL-ʿAUWĀM (زبير بن العوام‎). Cousin german to Muḥammad, and one of the first who embraced his religion. He is one of the ten, called al-ʿAsharah al-Mubashsharah, to whom the Prophet gave certain assurances of Paradise. He was slain by ʿAmr ibn Jurmūz on the day of the battle of the Camel (waqʿatu ʾl-Jamal), A.H. 6.

ẒUḤĀ (ضحى‎). (1) That part of the day about half-way between sunrise and noon.

(2) A period of voluntary prayer. [PRAYER.]

(3) Aẓ-Ẓuḥā, the title of the XCIIIrd Sūrah of the Qurʾān, which begins with the words, “By the noon-day brightness” (ẓuḥā).

ZUHD (زهد‎). Abstinence; a religious life. Exercising oneself in the service of God; especially being abstinent in respect of eating; subduing the passions.

AZ-ZUK͟HRUF (الزخرف‎). “Gilding.” The name of the XLIIIrd Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in the 34th verse of which the word occurs: “And but that men would then have been one nation, we would have made for those who misbelieve in the Merciful, one roof of silver for their houses, and steps up thereto which they might mount; and to their houses doors, and bedsteads on which they might recline; and gilding.”

ZULAIK͟HĀʾ, more correctly ZALĪK͟HĀʾ (زليخاء‎). The wife of Potiphar (Qit̤fīr). Al-Baiẓāwī says she was also called Rāʿīl. An account of her tempting Joseph is found in the XIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, 23–25:—

“And she in whose house he was, conceived a passion for him, and she shut the doors and said, ‘Come hither.’ He said, ‘God keep me! Verily my lord hath given me a good home: verily the injurious shall not prosper.’

“But she longed for him; and he had longed for her had he not seen a token from his Lord (the apparition of his father, who said, ‘Hereafter shall the names of thy brethren, engraven on precious stones, shine on the breast of the High Priest. Shall thine be blotted out?’). Thus we averted evil and defilement from him; verily he was one of our sincere servants.

“And they both made for the door, and she rent his shirt from behind; and at the door they met her lord. ‘What,’ said she, ‘shall be the recompense of him who intended evil to my family, but a prison or a sore punishment?’

“He said, ‘She solicited me to evil.’ And a witness in her own family (an infant in the cradle) witnessed: ‘If his shirt be rent in front, then hath she spoken truth, and he is a liar:

“ ‘But if his shirt be rent from behind, then she hath lied and he is a man of truth.’

“And when his lord saw his shirt torn from behind, he said, ‘This verily is one of your devices! verily your devices are great!

“ ‘Joseph! turn away from this; and thou O wife, ask pardon for thy crime: verily thou hast sinned.’

“And in the city the women said, ‘The wife of the Prince hath solicited her servant: he hath fired her with love: verily we perceive her to be in a manifest error.’

“And when she heard of their cabal, she sent to them and got ready a banquet for them, and gave each one of them a knife, and said, ‘Joseph, come forth to them.’ And when they saw him they extolled him, and cut their hands (instead of their food, through surprise at his beauty), and said, ‘God keep us! This is no man! This is none other than a noble angel!’

“She said, ‘This, then, is he about whom ye blamed me. And I wished him indeed to yield to my desires, but he stood firm. But if he obey not my command, he shall surely be cast into prison, and become one of the contemptible.’

“He said, ‘O my Lord! I prefer the prison to compliance with her bidding: but unless Thou turn away their snares from me, I shall play the youth with them, and become one of the unwise’:

“So his Lord heard him and turned aside their snares from him: verily He is the Hearer, the Knower.

“Then resolved they, even after they had seen the signs of his innocence, to imprison him for a time.”

The explanations put into parentheses are notes of Mr. Rodwell’s, in whose translation the passage is given, and who quotes the corresponding Talmudic legends.

This story of Yūsuf wa Zulaik͟hāʾ has been celebrated in a well-known Persian poem by ʿAbdu ʾr-Raḥmān Jāmī, and hence Joseph has become the Adonis of the East.

ẔŪ ʾL-FIQĀR (ذو الفقار‎). Lit. “The Lord of the Vertebræ of the Back.” The name of the celebrated sword which Muḥammad gave to his son-in-law ʿAlī.

ẔŪ ʾL-ḤIJJAH (ذو الحجة‎). Lit. “The Lord of the Pilgrimage.” The twelfth month of the Muḥammadan year; so called because it is the month appointed for the Makkan pilgrimage.

ẔŪ ʾL-JALĀL (ذو الجلال‎). “Lord of Majesty.” One of the ninety-nine attributes of God. See Qurʾān, Sūrah lv. 78: “Blessed be the name of thy Lord possessed of majesty and glory.”

ẔŪ ʾL-KIFL (ذو الكفل‎). Lit. “Lord of a portion.” A worthy mentioned in the Qurʾān, Sūrah xxi. 85: “And Ishmael, and Idris, and Ẕū ʾl-Kifl, all of these were patient, and we made them enter into our mercy; verily they were among the righteous.” Al-Baiẓāwī says he was so called because he had a portion with God the Most High, and guaranteed his people, or because he had double the work of the prophets of his time, and their reward. According to some writers, he was either Elias, or Joshua, or Zachariah.

The root kafl, having also the meaning of “care,” “support,” other interpreters identify him with the Obadiah of 1 Kings xviii. 4, who supported one hundred prophets in the cave; or Ezekiel, who is called Kāfil by the Arabs. See Niebuhr, Travels, vol. ii. p. 265.

Z̤ULM (ظلم‎). Lit. “Putting a thing not in its proper place.” (Ar-Rag͟hīb, in loco.) Wrong-doing; acting tyrannically. Muḥammad ibn at̤-T̤aiyib, the author of Annotations on the Qāmūs, says z̤ulm is of three kinds: (1) between man and God, (2) between man and man, (3) between man and himself. In the Qurʾān—

Sūrah iii. 50: “God loves not the tyrants (az̤-z̤ālimīna).”

Sūrah iii. 104: “God desires not tyranny (z̤ulman) unto the worlds.”

Sūrah xxxi. 12: “Associating (with God) is a mighty wrong (z̤ulmun ʿaz̤īmun).”

Sūrah ii. 54: “It was themselves they were wronging (kānū anfusa-hum yaz̤limūna).”

Z̤ULMAH (ظلمة‎), pl. z̤ulamāt. “Darkness.” A term used in theology for (1) Ignorance, (2) Belief in a plurality of gods, (3) Transgressions, (4) Afflictions.

Qurʾān, Sūrah xxiv. 40: “Or like darkness (ka-z̤ulumātin) on a deep sea, there covers it a wave above which is a wave, above which is a cloud,—darkness one above another,—when one puts out his hand he can scarcely see it; for he to whom God has given no light, he has no light.”

ẔŪ ʾL-QAʿDAH (ذو القعدة‎). Lit. The “Master of Truce.” The eleventh month of the Muḥammadan year, so called because it was the month in which the ancient Arabs abstained from warfare. [MONTHS.]

ẔŪ ʾL-QARNAIN (ذو القرنين‎). Lit. “He of the two horns.” A celebrated personage mentioned in the 18th chapter of the Qurʾān, who is generally considered to be Alexander the Great, although Muslim writers hold him to have been contemporary with Abraham.

Al-Qast̤alānī, the commentator on al-Buk͟hārī, says: “Ẕū ʾl-qarnain was a king named Sakandar, whose wazīr, or chancellor, was K͟hiẓr [AL-KHIZR], and was contemporary with Abraham, the Friend of God, with whom he visited the Kaʿbah at Makkah. There is some difference of opinion as to his being a prophet, but all learned men are agreed that he was a man of faith and piety.”

Al-Baiẓāwī says: “He was Sakandar ar-Rūmī, King of Persia and Greece.”

Al-Kamālain say: “He was Sakandar ar-Rūmī, but was contemporary with Abraham, and not the Sakandar who lived about three hundred years before Christ, who was an infidel.”

Muḥammad, in his Qurʾān, whilst professing to give an inspired account of Ẕū ʾl-qarnain, supplies us with but a confused description, as follows:—

“They will ask thee of Ẕūʾl-qarnain. Say: I will recite to you an account of him. Verily We (God) established his power upon the earth, and We gave him a means to accomplish every end; so he followed his way, until when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it to set in a miry fount; and hard by he found a people. We (God) said, ‘O Ẕūʾl-qarnain! whether thou chastise or whether thou treat them generously’—‘As for him who is impious,’ he said, ‘we will chastise him;’ then shall he be taken back to his Lord, and He will chastise him with a grievous chastisement. But as to him who believeth, and doeth that which is right, he shall have a generous recompense, and We will lay on them our easy behests. Then followed he a route, until when he reached the rising of the sun, he found it to rise on a people to whom We had given no shelter from it. Thus it was. And We had a full knowledge of the forces that were with him. Then followed he a route, until he came between the two mountains, beneath which he found a people who scarce understood a language. They said, ‘O Ẕūʾl-qarnain! Verily Gog and Magog (i.e. the barbarous people of Eastern Asia) waste this land; shall we then pay thee tribute, so thou build a rampart between us and them?’ He said, ‘Better than your tribute is the might wherewith my Lord hath strengthened me; but help me strenuously, and I will set a barrier between you and them. Bring me blocks of iron’—until when it filled the space between the mountain sides; ‘Blow,’ said he, ‘upon it’—until when he had set it on fire he said, ‘Bring me molten brass that I may pour upon it.’ And Gog and Magog were not able to scale it, neither were they able to dig through it. ‘This,’ said he, ‘is a mercy from my Lord.’ ” (Qurʾān, Sūrah xviii. 82–96.)

There are different opinions as to the reason of the surname, “two-horned.” Some think it was given him because he was King of the East and of the West, or because he had made expeditions to both those extreme parts of the earth; or else because he had two horns on his diadem, or two curls of hair, like horns, on his forehead. Perhaps there is some allusion to the he-goat of Daniel, although he is represented with but one horn. (Dan. viii. 5.)

AZ-ZUMAR (الزمر‎). “Troops.” The title of the XXXIXth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in the 73rd verse of which the word occurs: “But those who fear God shall be driven to Paradise in troops.”

ZUNNĀR (زنار‎). In Persia, the belt worn by Christians and Jews. In India, the Brahmanical thread. A term used amongst the Ṣūfīs for sincerity in the path of religion. (Kashfu ʾl-Iṣt̤ilāḥāt, in loco.)

ẔŪ ʾN-NŪN (ذو النون‎). Lit. “Man of the fish.” A title given to the Prophet Jonah, in Qurʾān, Sūrah xxi. 87. [JONAH.]

ẒURĀḤ (ضراح‎). Lit. “That which is very distant.” A term used by al-Baiẓāwī the commentator for the Baitu ʾl-Maʿmūr, or the model of the Kaʿbah, which is said to be in the fourth heaven, and is referred to in the Qurʾān, Sūrah lii. 4: “By the visited home (i.e. Baitu ʾl-Maʿmūr).” (See al-Baiẓāwī, in loco.)

ẔŪ ʾR-RAḤIM (ذو الرحم‎), pl. ẕawū ʾl-arḥām, or ūlū ʾl-arḥām. Lit. “A possessor of the womb.” A uterine relation. The plural form ūlū ʾl-arḥām occurs twice in the Qurʾān.

Sūrah viii. 76: “And they who have believed and have since fled their country, and fought at your side, these also are of you. Those who are united by ties of blood (ūlū ʾl-arḥām), are the nearest of kin to each other according to the Book of God. Verily God knoweth all things.”

Sūrah xxxiii. 6: “Nearer of kin to the faithful is the Prophet, than they are to their own selves. His wives are their mothers. According to the Book of God, they who are related by blood (ūlū ʾl-arḥām) are nearer the one to the other than other believers, and than those who have fled their country for the cause of God: but whatever kindness ye show to your kindred, shall be noted down in the Book.”