QABĀLAH, QIBĀLAH (قبالة‎). A deed of conveyance or transfer of right or property. Any contract or bargain or sale signed by a judge. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 569.)

QĀBA QAUSAIN (قاب قوسين‎). Lit. “Two bows’ length.” An expression which occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah liii. 8–10: “Then he drew near and hovered o’er; until he was two bows’ length off or nigher still. Then he revealed to his servant what he revealed him.” Commentators understand this to refer to the angel Gabriel. Mystic writers use the term to express a state of nearness to God. (See ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)

QĀBĪL (قابيل‎). [CAIN.]

AL-QĀBIẒ (القابض‎). “The Restrainer.” One of the ninety-nine attributes of God. But the word does not occur in the Qurʾān.

QABR (قبر‎). A grave. [GRAVE, TOMB.]

QABŪL (قبول‎). “Consent.” A term in the Muḥammadan law of marriage, contracts, &c.

QABẒ WA BAST̤ (قبض و بسط‎). Two terms which are employed to express two opposite states of the heart; qabẓ being a contraction, and bast̤, an expansion, of the spiritual state. (See ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)

QAʿDAH (قعدة‎). The sitting posture in the daily prayer, when the tashahhūd is recited. [TASHAHHUD.]

QADAR (قدر‎). Lit. “Measuring.” (1) The word generally used in the Ḥadīs̤ for fate, or predestination. (2) Al-Qadar, the title of the XCVIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān. [TAQDIR, PREDESTINATION.]

QADARĪYAH (قدرية‎). A sect of Muḥammadans who deny absolute predestination and believe in the power (qadr) of man’s free will. They were the ancient Muʿtazilahs before al-Wāṣil separated from the school of Ḥasan al-Baṣrī.

QADĪM (قديم‎). “Ancient; old.” Al-Qadīm, “The one without beginning.” Qadīmu ʾl-Aiyām, “Ancient of days.” God.

AL-QĀDIR (القادر‎). “The Powerful.” One of the ninety-nine attributes of God. The word occurs in the Qurʾān, at Sūrah ii. 19, “God is mighty over all,” and in many other passages.

QĀDIRĪYAH (قادرية‎). An ascetic order of Faqīrs instituted A.H. 561, by Saiyid ʿAbdu ʾl-Qādir al-Jilānī, surnamed Pīr Dastagīr, whose shrine is at Bag͟hdād. It is the most popular religious order amongst the Sunnīs of Asia. [FAQIR, ZIKR.]

QĀF (قاف‎). (1) The twenty-first letter of the Arabic alphabet. (2) The title of the Lth Sūrah of the Qurʾān. (3) The circle of mountains which Easterns fancy encompass the world. The Muḥammadan belief being that they are inhabited by demons and jinn, and that the mountain range is of emerald which gives an azure hue to the sky. Hence in Persian az qāf tā qāf means the whole world. The name is also used for Mount Caucasus.

AL-QAHHĀR (القهار‎). “The Dominant.” One of the ninety-nine names of God. It occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah xiii. 17: “He is the One, the Dominant.”

QĀʾIF (قائف‎). Lit. “Skilful in knowing footsteps.” One who can judge of character from the outward appearance.

One instance of the kind is related in the Traditions, namely, ʿĀyishah relates, “One day the Prophet came home in high spirits, and said, ‘O ʿĀyishah, verily Mujazziz al-Mudliji came and saw Usāmah and Zaid covered over with a cloth, except their feet; and he said, “Verily, I know from these feet the relationship of father and son.” ’ ” (Mishkāt, book xiii. ch. xv. pt. 1.) This knowledge is called ʿIlmu ʾl-Qiyāfah.

AL-QAIYŪM (القيوم‎). “The Self-Subsisting.” One of the ninety-nine attributes of God. It occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah iii. 1: “There is no deity but God, the living, the self-subsisting.”

QALAM (قلم‎). Lit. “A (reed) pen.” (1) The pen with which God is said to have pre-recorded the actions of men. The Prophet said the first thing which God created was the Pen (qalam), and that it wrote down the quantity of every individual thing to be created, all that was and all that will be to all eternity. (See Mishkāt.) (2) Al-Qalam, the title of the LXVIIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān.

QALANDAR (قلندر‎). A Persian title to an order of faqīrs or darwīshes. An Ascetic.

AL-QAMAR (القمر‎). “The moon.” The title of the LIVth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in the first verse of which the word occurs. “And the moon hath been split in sunder.” [MOON, SHAQQU ʾL-QAMAR.]

QANĀʿAH (قناعة‎). Contentment; resignation.

QĀNIT (قانت‎). Lit. “One who stands in prayer or in the service of God.” Godly, devout, prayerful. The term is used twice in the Qurʾān:—

Sūrah xvi. 121: “Verily, Abraham was a leader in religion and obedient to God.”

Sūrah xxxix. 12: “He who observeth the hours of the night in devotion.”

QĀNŪN (قانون‎). Κάνων. Canon; a rule, a regulation, a law, a statute.

QARĀBAH (قرابة‎). Lit. “Proximity.” A legal term in Muḥammadan law for relationship.

QĀRIʾ (قارى‎), pl. qurrāʾ. “A reader.” A term used for one who reads the Qurʾān correctly, and is acquainted with the ʿIlmu ʾt-Tajwīd, or the science of reading the Qurʾān. In the history of Islām there are seven celebrated Qurrāʾ, or “readers,” who are known as al-Qurrāʾu ʾs-Sabʿah, or “the seven readers.” They are—

1. Imām Ibn Kas̤īr. Died at Makkah, A.H. 120.

2. Imām ʿĀsim of al-Kūfah, who learnt the way of reading the Qurʾān from ʿAbdu ʾr-Raḥmān as-Salāmī, who was taught by the K͟halīfahs ʿUs̤mān and ʿAlī. He died at al-Kūfah, A.H. 127.

3. Imām Abū ʿUmr was born at Makkah, A.H. 70, and died at al-Kūfah, A.H. 154. It is on his authority that the following important statement has been handed down: “When the first copy of the Qurʾān was written out and presented to the K͟halīfah ʿUs̤mān, he said, ‘There are faults of language in it, let the Arabs of the desert rectify them with their tongues.’” The meaning of this is that they should pronounce the words correctly but not alter the written copy.

4. Imām Ḥamzah of al-Kūfah was born A.H. 80, and died A.H. 156.

5. Imām al-Kisāʾī who had a great reputation as a Qāriʾ, but none as a poet. It was a common saying, among the learned in grammar, that there was no one who knew so little poetry as al-Kisāʾī. He is said to have died at T̤ūs about the year A.H. 182.

6. Imām Nāfiʿ, a native of al-Madīnah, who died A.H. 169.

7. Imām Ibn ʿĀmir, who was a native of Syria. His date is uncertain.

AL-QĀRIʿAH (القارعة‎). “The Striking.” The title of the CIst Sūrah of the Qurʾān, which begins with the words, “The Striking! What is the Striking? And what shall make thee understand how terrible the striking will be.”

Jalālu ʾd-dīn says it is one of the epithets given to the last day, because it will strike the hearts of all creatures with terror.

QARĪN (قرين‎). Lit. “The one united.” The demon which is said to be indissolubly united with every man. (See Mishkāt, book xiii. ch. xv.; also Qurʾān, Sūrah xli. 24; Sūrah xliii. 35; Sūrah l. 22.)

QARĪNAH (قرينة‎). The context. A term used in theological and exegetical works.

QĀRŪN (قارون‎). [KORAH.]

QARẒ (قرض‎). Lit. “Cutting.” (1) A word used in the Qurʾān for good deeds done for God, for which a future recompense will be awarded, e.g. Sūrah v. 15: “Lend God a liberal loan and I will surely put away from you your evil deeds, and will cause you to enter gardens through which rivers flow.”

(2) Money advanced as a loan without interest, to be repaid at the pleasure of the borrower.

(3) The word is used in Persian, Urdū, and Pushtoo for money lent at interest, but the legal term for such a debt is ribā.

QASAM (قسم‎). [OATH.]

QASĀMAH (قسامة‎). Lit. “Taking an oath.” An oath under the following circumstances:—

When a person is found slain in a place, and it is not known who was the murderer, and his heirs demand satisfaction for his blood from the inhabitants of the district, then fifty of the inhabitants selected by the next of kin, must be put to their oaths and depose to this effect: “I swear by God that I did not kill him, nor do I know the murderer.”

This custom is founded upon the Mosaic law. See Deut. xxi. 1–9.

AL-QAṢAṢ (القصص‎). “The narrative.” The title of the XXVIIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān. So called because in the 25th verse of this chapter Moses is said to have related the narrative of his adventures to Shuʿaib.

QASM (قسم‎). Lit. “To divide.” A division of conjugal rights, which is enjoined by the Muslim law. (See Mishkāt, book xiii. ch. x.)

AL-QAṢWĀʾ (القصواء‎). Lit. “One whose ears are cropt.” Muḥammad’s celebrated she-camel who conveyed him in the flight from Makkah.

QATL (قتل‎). [MURDER.]

QATTĀT (قتات‎). A slanderer. A tale-bearer, who, according to the Traditions, will not enter the kingdom of heaven; for the Prophet has said, “A tale-bearer shall not enter Paradise.” (Mishkāt, book xxii. ch. x. pt. 1.)

QAT̤ʿU ʾT̤-T̤ARĪQ (قطع الطريق‎). [HIGHWAY ROBBERY.]

QAUL (قول‎). A saying; a promise; a covenant. The word occurs in the Qurʾān frequently in these senses.

QAULU ʾL-ḤAQQ (قول الحق‎). “The Word of Truth.” A title given to Jesus Christ in the Qurʾān, Sūrah xix. 35: “This was Jesus the son of Mary, the word of truth concerning whom they doubt.” By the commentators Ḥusain, al-Kamālān, and ʿAbdu ʾl-Qādir, the words are understood to refer to the statement made, but al-Baiẓāwī says it is a title applied to Jesus the son of Mary. [JESUS CHRIST.]

QAWAD (قود‎). “Retaliation.” Lex talionis. [MURDER, QISAS, RETALIATION.]

AL-QAWĪ (القوى‎). “The Strong.” One of the ninety-nine attributes of God. It occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah xi. 69: “Thy Lord is the Strong, the Mighty.”

QAẒĀʾ (قضاء‎), pl. aqẓiyah. Lit. “Consummating.” (1) The office of a Qāẓī, or judge. (2) The sentence of a Qāẓī. (3) Repeating prayers to make up for having omitted them at the appointed time. (4) Making up for an omission in religious duties, such as fasting, &c. (5) The decree existing in the Divine mind from all eternity, and the execution and declaration of a decree at the appointed time. (6) Sudden death.

QAẔF (قذف‎). Lit. “Throwing at.” Accusing a virtuous man or woman of adultery; the punishment for which is eighty lashes, or, in the case of a slave, forty lashes. This punishment was established by a supposed revelation from heaven, when the Prophet’s favourite wife, ʿĀyishah, was accused of improper intimacy with Ṣafwān Ibnu ʾl-Muʿat̤t̤il. Vide Qurʾān, Sūratu ʾn-Nūr (xxiv.), 4: “But to those who accuse married persons of adultery and produce not four witnesses, them shall ye scourge with four-score stripes.” (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 58.)

QIBLAH (قبلة‎). “Anything opposite.” The direction in which all Muḥammadans must pray, whether in their public or in their private devotions, namely, towards Makkah. It is established by the express injunction of the Qurʾān, contained in the Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah (ii.), 136–145:—

“Fools among men will say, What has turned them from their Qiblah on which they were agreed? Say, God’s is the east and the west, He guides whom He will unto the right path. Thus have we made you a middle nation to be witnesses against men, and that the apostle may be a witness against you. We have not appointed the qiblah on which thou wert agreed, save that we might know who follows the Apostle from him who turns upon his heels, although it is a great thing save to those whom God doth guide. But God will not waste your faith, for verily God with men is kind and merciful. We see thee often turn about thy face in the heavens, but we will surely turn thee to a qiblah thou shalt like. Turn, then, thy face towards the Sacred Mosque, wherever ye be turn your faces towards it, for verily those who have the Book know that it is the truth from their Lord. God is not careless of that which ye do. And if thou shouldst bring to those who have been given the Book every sign, they would not follow your qiblah, nor do some of them follow the qiblah of the others; and if thou followest their lusts after the knowledge that has come to thee, then art thou of the evil-doers. Those whom we have given the Book know him as they know their sons, although a sect of them do surely hide the truth the while they know. The truth (is) from thy Lord, be not therefore one of those who doubt thereof. Every sect has some one side to which they turn (in prayer), but do ye hasten onwards to good works, wherever ye are, God will bring you all together. Verily, God is mighty over all. From whencesoever thou comest forth, there turn thy face towards the Sacred Mosque; for it is surely truth from thy Lord, God is not careless about what ye do. And from whencesoever thou comest forth, there turn thy face towards the Sacred Mosque, and wheresoever ye are, turn your faces towards it, that men may have no argument against you, save only those of them who are unjust, and fear them not, but fear me, and I will fulfil my favour to you; perchance ye may be guided yet.”

In explanation of these verses (which are allowed to be of different periods), and the change of Qiblah, al-Baiẓāwī, the commentator, remarks that when Muḥammad was in Makkah he always worshipped towards the Kaʿbah; but after the flight to al-Madīnah, he was ordered by God to change his Qiblah towards aṣ-Ṣak͟hrah, the rock at Jerusalem on which the Temple was formerly erected, in order to conciliate the Jews, but that, about sixteen months after his arrival in al-Madīnah, Muḥammad longed once more to pray towards Makkah, and he besought the Lord to this effect, and then the instructions were revealed, “Verily we have seen thee turning thy face,” &c., as given above. (See al-Baiẓāwī, in loco.)

This temporary change of the Qiblah to Jerusalem is now regarded as “a trial of faith,” and it is asserted that Makkah was always the true Qiblah. But it is impossible for any non-Muslim not to see in this transaction a piece of worldly wisdom on the part of the Prophet.

Jalālu ʾd-dīn as-Suyūt̤ī admits that the 110th verse of the IInd Sūrah—which reads: “The east and the west is God’s, therefore whichever way ye turn is the face of God”—has been abrogated by a more recent verse, and that at one time in the history of Muḥammad’s mission there was no Qiblah at all.

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.]

QIRĀN (قران‎). Lit. “Conjunction.” (1) The conjunction of two planets. (2) The performance of the Ḥajj and the ʿUmrah at the same time.

QIṢĀṢ (قصاص‎). From qaṣaṣ. Lit. “Tracking the footsteps of an enemy.” The law of retaliation. The lex talionis of the Mosaic law, with the important difference that in the Muslim law the next of kin can accept a money compensation for wilful murder.

The subject of retaliation must be considered, first, as to occasions affecting life, and, secondly, as to retaliation in matters short of life.

(1) In occasions affecting life, retaliation is incurred by wilfully killing a person whose blood is under continual protection, such as a Muslim or a Ẕimmī, in opposition to aliens who have only an occasional or temporary protection. A freeman is to be slain for a freeman, and a slave for a slave; but according to Abū Ḥanīfah, a freeman is to be slain for the murder of a slave if the slave be the property of another. A Muslim is also slain for the murder of a ẕimmī, according to Abū Ḥanīfah, but ash-Shāfiʿī disputes this, because the Prophet said a Muslim is not to be put to death for an infidel. A man is slain for a woman, an adult for an infant, and a sound person for one who is blind, infirm, dismembered, lame, or insane. A father is not to be slain for his child, because the Prophet has said, “Retaliation must not be executed upon the parent for his offspring”; but a child is slain for the murder of his parent. A master is not slain for his slave, and if one of two partners in a slave kill such a slave, retaliation is not incurred. If a person inherit the right of retaliating upon his parent, the retaliation fails. Retaliation is to be executed by the next of kin with some mortal weapon or sharp instrument capable of inflicting a mortal wound.

If a person immerse another, whether an infant or an adult, into water from which it is impossible to escape, retaliation, according to Abū Ḥanīfah, is not incurred, but his two disciples maintain otherwise.

(2) Of retaliation short of life. If a person wilfully strike off the hand of another, his hand is to be struck off in return, because it is said in the Qurʾān (Sūrah v. 49), “There is retaliation in case of wounds.” If a person strike off the foot of another, or cut off the nose, retaliation is inflicted in return. If a person strike another on the eye, so as to force the member, with its vessels, out of the socket, there is no retaliation; it is impossible to preserve a perfect equality in extracting an eye. If, on the contrary, the eye remain in its place, but the faculty of seeing be destroyed, retaliation is to be inflicted, as in this case equality may be effected by extinguishing the sight of the offender’s corresponding eye with a hot iron. If a person strike out the teeth of another, he incurs retaliation; for it is said in the Qurʾān, “A tooth for a tooth.” (Sūrah v. 49.)

Retaliation is not to be inflicted in the case of breaking any bones except teeth, because it is impossible to observe an equality in other fractures. There is no retaliation, in offences short of life, between a man and a woman, a free person and a slave, or one slave and another slave; but ash-Shāfiʿī maintains that retaliation holds in these cases. Retaliation for parts of the body holds between a Muslim and an unbeliever, both being upon an equality between each other with respect to fines for the offences in question.

If the corresponding member of the maimer be defective, nothing more than retaliation on that defective member, or a fine; and if such member be in the meantime lost, nothing whatever is due.

There is no retaliation for the tongue or the virile member.

(3) Retaliation may be commuted for a sum of money. When the heirs of a murdered person enter into a composition with the murderer for a certain sum, retaliation is remitted, and the sum agreed to is due, to whatever amount. This is founded upon an express injunction of the Qurʾān: “Where the heir of the murdered person is offered anything, by way of compensation, out of the property of the murderer, let him take it.” And also in the Traditions, it is related that Muḥammad said (Mishkāt, book xiv.): “The heir of the murdered person is at liberty either to take retaliation, or a fine with the murderer’s consent.” Moreover, it is maintained by Muḥammadan jurists that retaliation is purely a matter which rests with the next of kin, who are at liberty to remit entirely by pardon, and that therefore a compensation can be accepted which is advantageous to the heirs and also to the murderer.

When a person who has incurred retaliation dies, the right to retaliation necessarily ceases, and consequently no fine is due from the murderer’s estate. [MURDER.]

QISSĪS (قسيس‎). Persian kashīsh. A Christian presbyter or priest. The word occurs once in the Qurʾān, Sūrah v. 85: “Thou shalt certainly find those to be nearest in affection to them who say, ‘We are Christians.’ This because some of them are priests (qissīsūn) and monks (ruhbān), and because they are free from pride.”

QIT̤FĪR (قطفير‎). Potiphar. Alluded to in the Qurʾān, Sūrah xii. 21, as “the man from Egypt who had bought him” (Joseph). Al-Baiẓāwī, the commentator, says his name was Qit̤fīr.

QIYĀM (قيام‎). Lit. “Standing.” (1) The standing in the Muḥammadan prayers when the Subḥān, the Taʿawwuẕ, the Tasmiyah, the Fātiḥah, and certain portions of the Qurʾān, are recited. [PRAYER.] (2) Yaumu ʾl-Qiyām, the Day of Judgment.

AL-QIYĀMAH (القيامة‎). Lit. “The Standing up.” (1) The Day of Resurrection. [RESURRECTION.] (2) The title of the LXXVth Sūrah of the Qurʾān. (3) The Ṣūfīs use the term in a spiritual sense for the state of a man who, having counted himself dead to the world, “stands up” in a new life in God. (See ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)

QIYĀS (قياس‎). Lit. “To compare.” The fourth foundation of Islām, that is to say, the analogical reasoning of the learned with regard to the teaching of the Qurʾān, Ḥadīs̤, and Ijmāʿ.

There are four conditions of Qiyās: (1) That the precept or practice upon which it is founded must be of common (ʿāmm) and not of special (k͟hāṣṣ) application; (2) The cause (ʿillah) of the injunction must be known and understood; (3) The decision must be based upon either the Qurʾān, the Ḥadīs̤, or the Ijmāʿ; (4) The decision arrived at must not be contrary to anything declared elsewhere in the Qurʾān and Ḥadīs̤.

Qiyās is of two kinds, Qiyās-i-Jalī, or evident, and Qiyās-i-K͟hafī, or hidden.

An example of Qiyās-i-Jalī is as follows: Wine is forbidden in the Qurʾān under the word k͟hamr, which literally means anything intoxicating; it is, therefore, evident that opium and all intoxicating drugs are also forbidden.

Qiyās-i-K͟hafī is seen in the following example:—In the Ḥadīs̤ it is enjoined that one goat in forty must be given to God. To some poor persons the money may be more acceptable; therefore, the value of the goat may be given instead of the goat.

QUBĀʾ (قباء‎). A place three miles from al-Madīnah, where the Prophet’s she-camel, al-Qaṣwāʾ knelt down as she brought her master on his flight from Makkah, and where Muḥammad laid the foundations of a mosque. This was the first place of public prayer in Islām. Muḥammad laid the first brick with his javelin, and marked out the direction of prayer. It is this mosque which is mentioned in the Qurʾān, Sūrah ix. 109:—“There is a mosque founded from its first day in piety. More worthy is it that thou enter therein: therein are men who aspire to purity, and God loveth the purified.”

It is esteemed the fourth mosque in rank, being next to that of Makkah, al-Madīnah, and Jerusalem, and tradition relates that the Prophet said one prayer in it was equal to a lesser pilgrimage to Makkah. [UMRAH.] Captain Burton says:—

“It was originally a square building of very small size; Osman enlarged it in the direction of the minaret, making it sixty-six cubits each way. It is no longer ‘mean and decayed’ as in Burckhardt’s time. The Sultan Abdel Hamid, father of Mahmud, created a neat structure of cut stone, whose crenelles make it look more like a place of defence than of prayer. It has, however, no pretensions to grandeur. The minaret is of Turkish shape. To the south, a small and narrow Riwak (riwāq), or raised hypo-style, with unpretending columns, looks out northwards upon a little open area simply sanded over; and this is the whole building.”

AL-QUDDŪS (القدوس‎). “The Holy.” One of the ninety-nine names of God. It occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah lix. 23: “He is God beside whom there is no deity, the King, the Holy.”

QUDRAH (قدرة‎). Power. Omnipotence. One of the attributes of God. Al-Qudratu ʾl-ḥalwāʾ, The sweet cake of God, i.e. The manna of Israel. The word Qudrah does not occur in the Qurʾān.

QUNŪTU ʾL-WITR (قنوت الوتر‎). A special supplication said after the Witr prayers, or, according to some, after the morning prayers. It was at such times that the Prophet would pray for the liberation of his friends and for the destruction of his enemies.

For the different forms of supplication, see Mishkāt, book iv. chapters xxxvi. and xxxvii.

The following is the one usually recited: “O God! direct me amongst those to whom Thou hast shown the right road, and keep me in safety from the calamities of this world and the next, and love me amongst those Thou hast befriended. Increase Thy favours on me, and preserve me from ill; for verily Thou canst order at Thy will, and canst not be ordered. Verily none are ruined that Thou befriendest, nor are any made great with whom Thou art at enmity.”