The Desert of Paran or Wilderness of Paran (also sometimes spelled Pharan or Faran ; Hebrew : מִדְבַּר פָּארָן , Midbar Pa'ran ), is a location mentioned in the Hebrew Bible . It is one of the places where the Israelites spent part of their 40 years of wandering after the Exodus , and was also a home to Ishmael , and a place of refuge for David .
149-561: In Islamic tradition, it has often been equated with an area of the Hejaz . The Wilderness or Desert of Paran is said to be the place where Hagar was sent into exile from Abraham's dwelling in Beersheba . (Hagar was the Egyptian servant girl of Abraham 's wife Sarah /Sarai, at Sarah's suggestion was made Abraham's wife, and had a son Ishmael with him.) She "departed, and strayed in
298-592: A scientific , economic and cultural flourishing . The expansion of the Muslim world involved various states and caliphates as well as extensive trade and religious conversion as a result of Islamic missionary activities ( dawah ), as well as through conquests . The two main Islamic branches are Sunni Islam (85–90%) and Shia Islam (10–15%). While the Shia–Sunni divide initially arose from disagreements over
447-642: A "pre-Samaritan" text type. Samaritans believe that God authored their Pentateuch and gave Moses the first copy along with the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments . They believe that they preserve this divinely composed text uncorrupted to the present day. Samaritans commonly refer to their Pentateuch as ࠒࠅࠔࠈࠄ ( Qušṭā , 'Truth'). Samaritans include only the Pentateuch in their biblical canon. They do not recognize divine authorship or inspiration in any other book in
596-666: A Pre-Islamic Arabic folklore compilation. Ibn Munabbih further suggested an identification for Tal Faran as the 'mound of the Two runaways', a place where the Jurhum tribe found Hagar and Ishmael and thought of them as two runaways. The Arab geographer Al-Maqdisi (d. 991) mentioned in his book that the Red Sea branches into two "at the extremity of al-Hijaz at a place called Faran". The association of Paran in Genesis 21:21 with Ishmael and
745-529: A Samaritan priest who died c. 20 BCE . The Samaritan Targum has a complex textual tradition represented by manuscripts belonging to one of three fundamental text types exhibiting substantial divergences from one another. Affinities that the oldest of these textual traditions share with the Dead Sea Scrolls and Onkelos suggest that the Targum may originate from the same school which finalized
894-899: A canonical authority in that region. Manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch are written in a different script than the one used in the Masoretic Pentateuch, used by Jews. The Samaritan text is written with the Samaritan alphabet, derived from the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet used by the Israelite community prior to the Babylonian captivity. During the exile in Babylon, Jews adopted the Ashuri script , based on
1043-505: A combined 6,236 verses ( āyāt ). The chronologically earlier chapters, revealed at Mecca , are concerned primarily with spiritual topics, while the later Medinan chapters discuss more social and legal issues relevant to the Muslim community. Muslim jurists consult the hadith ('accounts'), or the written record of Muhammad's life, to both supplement the Quran and assist with its interpretation. The science of Quranic commentary and exegesis
1192-445: A continuous length of parchment sewn together from the skins of rams that, according to a Samaritan tradition, were ritually sacrificed. The text is written in gold letters. Rollers tipped with ornamental knobs are attached to both ends of the parchment and the whole is kept in a cylindrical silver case when not in use. Samaritans claim it was penned by Abishua , great-grandson of Aaron ( 1 Chronicles 6:35 ), thirteen years after
1341-741: A crime against humanity by the UN and Amnesty International, while the OHCHR Fact-Finding Mission identified genocide , ethnic cleansing, and other crimes against humanity. Samaritan Pentateuch The Samaritan Pentateuch , also called the Samaritan Torah ( Samaritan Hebrew : ࠕࠦࠅࠓࠡࠄ , Tūrā ), is the sacred scripture of the Samaritans . Written in the Samaritan script , it dates back to one of
1490-647: A fiery law for them." ( Deuteronomy 33:2 ) Both Eusebius (in his Onomasticon , a Bible dictionary) and Jerome reported that Paran was a city in Paran desert, in Arabia Deserta (beyond Arabia Nabataea), southeast of Eilat Pharan. Onomasticon , under Pharan , states: "(Now) a city beyond Arabia adjoining the desert of the Saracens [who wander in the desert] through which the children of Israel went moving (camp) from Sinai. Located (we say) beyond Arabia on
1639-423: A figurehead monarchy. The Sunni Seljuk dynasty campaigned to reassert Sunni Islam by promulgating the scholarly opinions of the time, notably with the construction of educational institutions known as Nezamiyeh , which are associated with Al-Ghazali and Saadi Shirazi . The expansion of the Muslim world continued with religious missions converting Volga Bulgaria to Islam. The Delhi Sultanate reached deep into
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#17327725042361788-631: A god in general. Angels (Arabic: ملك , malak ) are beings described in the Quran and hadith. They are described as created to worship God and also to serve in other specific duties such as communicating revelations from God, recording every person's actions, and taking a person's soul at the time of death. They are described as being created variously from 'light' ( nūr ) or 'fire' ( nār ). Islamic angels are often represented in anthropomorphic forms combined with supernatural images, such as wings, being of great size or wearing heavenly articles. Common characteristics for angels include
1937-537: A human being, rather than God, is central to Muslims' religion. The Islamic creed ( aqidah ) requires belief in six articles : God, angels , revelation, prophets, the Day of Resurrection , and the divine predestination. The central concept of Islam is tawḥīd (Arabic: توحيد ), the oneness of God. It is usually thought of as a precise monotheism , but is also panentheistic in Islamic mystical teachings. God
2086-498: A lack of bodily needs and desires, such as eating and drinking. Some of them, such as Gabriel ( Jibrīl ) and Michael ( Mika'il ), are mentioned by name in the Quran. Angels play a significant role in literature about the Mi'raj , where Muhammad encounters several angels during his journey through the heavens. Further angels have often been featured in Islamic eschatology , theology and philosophy . The pre-eminent holy text of Islam
2235-556: A movement that would evolve into tasawwuf or Sufism . At this time, theological problems, notably on free will, were prominently tackled, with Hasan al Basri holding that although God knows people's actions, good and evil come from abuse of free will and the devil . Greek rationalist philosophy influenced a speculative school of thought known as Muʿtazila , who famously advocated the notion of free-will originated by Wasil ibn Ata . Caliph Mamun al Rashid made it an official creed and unsuccessfully attempted to force this position on
2384-558: A parallel column and sometimes the Aramaic text of the Samaritan Targum in a third. Later Arabic translations also appeared; one featured a further Samaritan revision of Saadia Gaon's translation to bring it into greater conformity with the Samaritan Pentateuch and others were based upon Arabic Pentateuchal translations used by Christians. In April 2013, a complete English translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch comparing it to
2533-534: A particular interest in the study of the Samaritan Pentateuch on account of the antiquity of the text and its frequent agreements with the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate. Some Catholics including Jean Morin , a convert from Calvinism to Catholicism, argued that the Samaritan Pentateuch's correspondences with the Latin Vulgate and Septuagint indicated that it represents a more authentic Hebrew text than
2682-504: A person to hell . However, the Quran makes it clear that God will forgive the sins of those who repent if he wishes. Good deeds, like charity, prayer, and compassion towards animals will be rewarded with entry to heaven. Muslims view heaven as a place of joy and blessings, with Quranic references describing its features. Mystical traditions in Islam place these heavenly delights in the context of an ecstatic awareness of God. Yawm al-Qiyāmah
2831-581: A place of prayer, it is also an important social center for the Muslim community . For example, the Masjid an-Nabawi ("Prophetic Mosque") in Medina, Saudi Arabia , used to also serve as a shelter for the poor. Minarets are towers used to call the adhan , a vocal call to signal the prayer time. Zakat ( Arabic : زكاة , zakāh ), also spelled Zakāt or Zakah , is a type of almsgiving characterized by
2980-838: A place where the Israelites temporarily settled during the Exodus: Then the Israelites set out from the Desert of Sinai and traveled from place to place until the cloud came to rest in the Desert of Paran. ( Numbers 10:12 ; see also Numbers 12:16 ) Paran again features in the opening lines of the Book of Deuteronomy as being located "beyond the Jordan" ( Deuteronomy 1:1 ), in addition: He said: "The LORD came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir; he shone forth from Mount Paran. He came with myriads of holy ones, from his right hand went
3129-669: A preference in the Samaritan version for the Hebrew preposition al where the Masoretic text has el . The most notable substantial differences between both texts are those related to Mount Gerizim , the Samaritans' place of worship. The Samaritan version of the Ten Commandments includes the command that an altar be built on Mount Gerizim on which all sacrifices should be offered. The Samaritan Pentateuch contains
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#17327725042363278-667: A religious group. This has been undertaken by communist forces like the Khmer Rouge , who viewed them as their primary enemy to be exterminated since their religious practice made them stand out from the rest of the population, the Chinese Communist Party in Xinjiang and by nationalist forces such as during the Bosnian genocide . Myanmar military's Tatmadaw targeting of Rohingya Muslims has been labeled as
3427-728: A root that means "to measure" or "calculating". Muslims often express this belief in divine destiny with the phrase "In-sha-Allah" ( Arabic : إن شاء الله ) meaning "if God wills" when speaking on future events. There are five acts of worship that are considered duties –the Shahada (declaration of faith), the five daily prayers, Zakat (almsgiving), fasting during Ramadan , and the Hajj pilgrimage–collectively known as "The Pillars of Islam" ( Arkān al-Islām ). In addition, Muslims also perform other optional supererogatory acts that are encouraged but not considered to be duties. The shahadah
3576-535: A trust from God's bounty, and is seen as a purification of one's excess wealth. The total annual value contributed due to zakat is 15 times greater than global humanitarian aid donations, using conservative estimates. Sadaqah , as opposed to Zakat, is a much-encouraged optional charity. A waqf is a perpetual charitable trust , which finances hospitals and schools in Muslim societies. In Islam, fasting ( Arabic : صوم , ṣawm ) precludes food and drink, as well as other forms of consumption, such as smoking , and
3725-398: Is Sahih al-Bukhari , often considered by Sunnis to be one of the most authentic sources after the Quran. Another well-known source of hadiths is known as The Four Books , which Shias consider as the most authentic hadith reference. Belief in the "Day of Resurrection" or Yawm al-Qiyāmah (Arabic: يوم القيامة ) is also crucial for Muslims. It is believed that the time of Qiyāmah
3874-456: Is also identified in the Quran as Yawm ad-Dīn ( يوم الدين "Day of Religion"); as-Sāʿah ( الساعة "the Last Hour"); and al-Qāriʿah ( القارعة "The Clatterer"). The concept of divine predestination in Islam ( Arabic : القضاء والقدر , al-qadāʾ wa l-qadar ) means that every matter, good or bad, is believed to have been decreed by God. Al-qadar , meaning "power", derives from
4023-403: Is an oath declaring belief in Islam. The expanded statement is " ʾašhadu ʾal-lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu wa ʾašhadu ʾanna muħammadan rasūlu-llāh " ( أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمداً رسول الله ), or, "I testify that there is no deity except God and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God." Islam is sometimes argued to have a very simple creed with the shahada being the premise for
4172-424: Is divided into 904 paragraphs. Divisions between sections of text are marked with various combinations of lines, dots or an asterisk; a dot is used to indicate the separation between words. The London Polyglot lists six thousand instances where the Samaritan Pentateuch differs from the Masoretic (Jewish) text. As different printed editions of the Samaritan Pentateuch are based upon different sets of manuscripts,
4321-581: Is known as tafsir . In addition to its religious significance, the Quran is widely regarded as the finest work in Arabic literature , and has influenced art and the Arabic language. Islam also holds that God has sent revelations, called wahy , to different prophets numerous times throughout history. However, Islam teaches that parts of the previously revealed scriptures, such as the Tawrat ( Torah ) and
4470-582: Is often associated with Mount Sinai in Egypt , and there is some evidence that it may originally have referred to the southern portion of the Sinai Peninsula . in 1989, Professor Haseeb Shehada , in his translation of the Samaritan Torah , suggested an identification of the wilderness of Paran with the desert of Western Arabia, which is known today as the Hijaz. More recently, Uzi Avner has argued that
4619-407: Is optional and can be undertaken at any time of the year. Other sites of Islamic pilgrimage are Medina , where Muhammad died, as well as Jerusalem , a city of many Islamic prophets and the site of Al-Aqsa , which was the direction of prayer before Mecca. Muslims recite and memorize the whole or parts of the Quran as acts of virtue. Tajwid refers to the set of rules for the proper elocution of
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4768-422: Is performed from dawn to sunset. During the month of Ramadan , it is considered a duty for Muslims to fast. The fast is to encourage a feeling of nearness to God by restraining oneself for God's sake from what is otherwise permissible and to think of the needy. In addition, there are other days, such as the Day of Arafah , when fasting is optional. The Islamic pilgrimage , called the " ḥajj " (Arabic: حج ),
4917-766: Is preordained by God, but unknown to man. The Quran and the hadith, as well as the commentaries of scholars , describe the trials and tribulations preceding and during the Qiyāmah . The Quran emphasizes bodily resurrection , a break from the pre-Islamic Arabian understanding of death. On Yawm al-Qiyāmah, Muslims believe all humankind will be judged by their good and bad deeds and consigned to Jannah (paradise) or Jahannam (hell). The Quran in Surat al-Zalzalah describes this as: "So whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it. And whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it." The Quran lists several sins that can condemn
5066-488: Is seen as incomparable and without multiplicity of persons such as in the Christian Trinity , and associating multiplicity to God or attributing God's attributes to others is seen as idolatory , called shirk . God is described as Al Ghayb so is beyond comprehension. Thus, Muslims are not iconodules and do not attribute forms to God. God is instead described and referred to by several names or attributes ,
5215-525: Is that of Mecca, near the mountains of Paran. The "Desert of Paran" is also interpreted as Hijaz in an old Arabic translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch . When it was translated into English in 1851, it was found to include a footnote making this interpretation. The name 'Paran' or 'Faran' has often been used to refer specifically to the wilderness and mountains near where Mecca is situated. Al-Hamdani (d. 947) in his book Geography of
5364-559: Is that the event happened somewhere around 432 BCE, when Manasseh, the son-in-law of Sanballat, went off to found a community in Samaria, as related in the Book of Nehemiah 13:28 and Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus . Josephus himself, however, dates this event and the building of the temple at Shechem to the time of Alexander the Great . Others believe that the real schism between
5513-484: Is the Quran . Muslims believe that the verses of the Quran were revealed to Muhammad by God, through the archangel Gabriel, on multiple occasions between 610 CE and 632, the year Muhammad died. While Muhammad was alive, these revelations were written down by his companions , although the primary method of transmission was orally through memorization . The Quran is divided into 114 chapters ( sūrah ) which contain
5662-403: Is the verbal noun of Form IV originating from the verb سلم ( salama ), from the triliteral root س-ل-م ( S-L-M ), which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of submission, safeness, and peace. In a religious context, it refers to the total surrender to the will of God . A Muslim ( مُسْلِم ), the word for a follower of Islam, is the active participle of
5811-528: Is to be done at least once a lifetime by every Muslim with the means to do so during the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah . Rituals of the Hajj mostly imitate the story of the family of Abraham . In Mecca , pilgrims walk seven times around the Kaaba , which Muslims believe Abraham built as a place of worship, and they walk seven times between Mount Safa and Marwa , recounting the steps of Abraham's wife, Hagar , who
5960-401: Is to worship God. He is viewed as a personal god and there are no intermediaries, such as clergy , to contact God. Consciousness and awareness of God is referred to as Taqwa . Allāh is a term with no plural or gender being ascribed to it and is also used by Muslims and Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews in reference to God, whereas ʾilāh ( إله ) is a term used for a deity or
6109-818: Is when Muhammad received his first revelation . By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam . Muslim rule expanded outside Arabia under the Rashidun Caliphate and the subsequent Umayyad Caliphate ruled from the Iberian Peninsula to the Indus Valley . In the Islamic Golden Age , specifically during the reign of the Abbasid Caliphate , most of the Muslim world experienced
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6258-803: The Hijra ("emigration") in 622 to the city of Yathrib (current-day Medina). There, with the Medinan converts (the Ansar ) and the Meccan migrants (the Muhajirun ), Muhammad in Medina established his political and religious authority . The Constitution of Medina was signed by all the tribes of Medina. This established religious freedoms and freedom to use their own laws among the Muslim and non-Muslim communities as well as an agreement to defend Medina from external threats. Meccan forces and their allies lost against
6407-532: The Injil ( Gospel ), have become distorted —either in interpretation, in text, or both, while the Quran (lit. 'Recitation') is viewed as the final, verbatim and unaltered word of God. Prophets (Arabic: أنبياء , anbiyāʾ ) are believed to have been chosen by God to preach a divine message. Some of these prophets additionally deliver a new book and are called "messengers" ( رسول , rasūl ). Muslims believe prophets are human and not divine. All of
6556-707: The Arab Spring , Jamaat-e-Islami in South Asia and the AK Party , which has democratically been in power in Turkey for decades. In Iran , revolution replaced a secular monarchy with an Islamic state . Others such as Sayyid Rashid Rida broke away from Islamic modernists and pushed against embracing what he saw as Western influence. The group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant would even attempt to recreate
6705-593: The Battle of Nahrawan but a Kharijite assassin later killed Ali. Ali's son, Hasan ibn Ali, was elected Caliph and signed a peace treaty to avoid further fighting, abdicating to Mu'awiya in return for Mu'awiya not appointing a successor. Mu'awiya began the Umayyad dynasty with the appointment of his son Yazid I as successor, sparking the Second Civil War . During the Battle of Karbala , Husayn ibn Ali
6854-684: The Deobandi movement. In response to the Deobandi movement, the Barelwi movement was founded as a mass movement, defending popular Sufism and reforming its practices. The Muslim world was generally in political decline starting the 1800s, especially compared to non-Muslim European powers. Earlier, in the 15th century, the Reconquista succeeded in ending the Muslim presence in Iberia . By
7003-788: The House of Wisdom employed Christian and Persian scholars to both translate works into Arabic and to develop new knowledge. Soldiers broke away from the Abbasid empire and established their own dynasties, such as the Tulunids in 868 in Egypt and the Ghaznavid dynasty in 977 in Central Asia. In this fragmentation came the Shi'a Century , roughly between 945 and 1055, which saw the rise of
7152-502: The Indian Subcontinent and many converted to Islam, in particular low-caste Hindus whose descendants make up the vast majority of Indian Muslims. Trade brought many Muslims to China , where they virtually dominated the import and export industry of the Song dynasty . Muslims were recruited as a governing minority class in the Yuan dynasty . Through Muslim trade networks and the activity of Sufi orders, Islam spread into new areas and Muslims assimilated into new cultures. Under
7301-448: The Koine Greek Septuagint and some are shared with the Latin Vulgate . Throughout their history, Samaritans have used translations of the Samaritan Pentateuch into Aramaic , Greek, and Arabic , as well as liturgical and exegetical works based upon it. It first became known to the Western world in 1631, proving the first example of the Samaritan alphabet and sparking an intense theological debate regarding its relative age versus
7450-510: The Maghreb , the Iberian Peninsula , Narbonnese Gaul and Sindh . The Umayyads struggled with a lack of legitimacy and relied on a heavily patronized military. Since the jizya tax was a tax paid by non-Muslims which exempted them from military service, the Umayyads denied recognizing the conversion of non-Arabs, as it reduced revenue. While the Rashidun Caliphate emphasized austerity, with Umar even requiring an inventory of each official's possessions, Umayyad luxury bred dissatisfaction among
7599-418: The Middle Ages . The scroll contains a cryptogram, dubbed the tashqil by scholars, which Samaritans consider to be Abishua's ancient colophon: I am Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the Priest , unto them be accorded the grace of YHWH and His glory—I wrote this holy book at the entrance of the tabernacle on Mount Gerizim, in the year thirteen of the Israelites' possession of
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#17327725042367748-432: The Muslim population in Latin America . The resulting urbanization and increase in trade in sub-Saharan Africa brought Muslims to settle in new areas and spread their faith, likely doubling its Muslim population between 1869 and 1914. Forerunners of Islamic modernism influenced Islamist political movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and related parties in the Arab world, which performed well in elections following
7897-540: The Ottoman Empire , Islam spread to Southeast Europe . Conversion to Islam often involved a degree of syncretism , as illustrated by Muhammad's appearance in Hindu folklore. Muslim Turks incorporated elements of Turkish Shamanism beliefs to Islam. Muslims in Ming Dynasty China who were descended from earlier immigrants were assimilated, sometimes through laws mandating assimilation, by adopting Chinese names and culture while Nanjing became an important center of Islamic study. Cultural shifts were evident with
8046-529: The Quran and the teachings of the Islamic Prophet and messenger Muhammad , the religion's founder. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims , who are estimated to number approximately 1.9 billion worldwide and are the world's second-largest religious population after Christians . Muslims believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed many times through earlier prophets and messengers , including Adam , Noah , Abraham , Moses , and Jesus . Muslims consider
8195-485: The Ridda wars . Local populations of Jews and indigenous Christians, persecuted as religious minorities and heretics and taxed heavily, often helped Muslims take over their lands, resulting in rapid expansion of the caliphate into the Persian and Byzantine empires. Uthman was elected in 644 and his assassination by rebels led to Ali being elected the next Caliph. In the First Civil War , Muhammad's widow, Aisha , raised an army against Ali, attempting to avenge
8344-441: The Sunnah , documented in accounts called the hadith , provide a constitutional model for Muslims. Islam is based on the belief in oneness and uniqueness of the God ( tawhid ), and belief in an afterlife ( akhirah ) with the Last Judgment —wherein the righteous will be rewarded in paradise ( jannah ) and the unrighteous will be punished in hell ( jahannam ). The Five Pillars —considered obligatory acts of worship—are
8493-402: The mathematical model that was later argued to be adopted by Copernicus unrevised in his heliocentric model, and Jamshīd al-Kāshī 's estimate of pi would not be surpassed for 180 years. After the introduction of gunpowder weapons, large and centralized Muslim states consolidated around gunpowder empires , these had been previously splintered amongst various territories. The caliphate
8642-400: The millennialist Isma'ili Shi'a missionary movement. One Isma'ili group, the Fatimid dynasty , took control of North Africa in the 10th century and another Isma'ili group, the Qarmatians , sacked Mecca and stole the Black Stone , a rock placed within the Kaaba, in their unsuccessful rebellion. Yet another Isma'ili group, the Buyid dynasty , conquered Baghdad and turned the Abbasids into
8791-447: The succession to Muhammad , they grew to cover a broader dimension, both theologically and juridically . The Sunni canonical hadith collection consists of six books , while the Shia canonical hadith collection consists of four books . Muslims make up a majority of the population in 49 countries. Approximately 12% of the world's Muslims live in Indonesia , the most populous Muslim-majority country; 31% live in South Asia ; 20% live in
8940-476: The " Night of Power " ( Laylat al-Qadr ) and is considered a significant event in Islamic history. During the next 22 years of his life, from age 40 onwards, Muhammad continued to receive revelations from God, becoming the last or seal of the prophets sent to mankind. During this time, while in Mecca, Muhammad preached first in secret and then in public, imploring his listeners to abandon polytheism and worship one God. Many early converts to Islam were women,
9089-437: The "land of Moreh" (Hebrew: מוראה ), while the Jewish Pentateuch has "land of Moriah " (Hebrew: מריה ). The Samaritan "Moreh" describes the region around Shechem and modern-day Nablus , where the Samaritans' holy Mount Gerizim is situated, while Jews claim the land is the same as Mount Moriah , in Jerusalem. The Vulgate translates this phrase as in terram visionis ('in the land of vision') which implies that Jerome
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#17327725042369238-421: The "world's first true scientist", in particular regarding his work in optics . In engineering, the Banū Mūsā brothers' automatic flute player is considered to have been the first programmable machine . In mathematics , the concept of the algorithm is named after Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi , who is considered a founder of algebra , which is named after his book al-jabr , while others developed
9387-423: The 19th century such as Sailaifengye in China after returning from Mecca but were eventually persecuted and forced into hiding by Sufi groups. Other groups sought to reform Sufism rather than reject it, with the Senusiyya and Muhammad Ahmad both waging war and establishing states in Libya and Sudan respectively. In India, Shah Waliullah Dehlawi attempted a more conciliatory style against Sufism and influenced
9536-563: The 19th century, the British East India Company had formally annexed the Mughal dynasty in India. As a response to Western Imperialism , many intellectuals sought to reform Islam . Islamic modernism , initially labelled by Western scholars as Salafiyya , embraced modern values and institutions such as democracy while being scripture oriented. Notable forerunners in the movement include Muhammad 'Abduh and Jamal al-Din al-Afghani . Abul A'la Maududi helped influence modern political Islam . Similar to contemporary codification , sharia
9685-458: The Arabic Peninsula says that the Paran mountains around Mecca were named after Paran son of Amalek . Sam'ni in his Book of Surnames also says that the surname Farani is derived from the Faran mountains near Mecca in Hijaz Haggai Mazuz asserts that Muslim polemicists' (like the Jewish convert Samawʾal al-Maghribī , 1125–1175 CE) appropriation of Deut. 33:2 has antecedence in Jewish tradition itself, as some Midrashim and Targumim , before
9834-402: The Arabic language and performed in the direction of the Kaaba . The act also requires a state of ritual purity achieved by means of either a routine wudu ritual wash or, in certain circumstances, a ghusl full body ritual wash. A mosque is a place of worship for Muslims, who often refer to it by its Arabic name masjid . Although the primary purpose of the mosque is to serve as
9983-403: The Babylonian Jewish community. His explanation accounts for the Samaritan and the Septuagint sharing variants not found in the Masoretic and their differences reflecting the period of their independent development as distinct local text traditions. On the basis of archaizing and pseudo-archaic forms, Cross dates the emergence of the Samaritan Pentateuch as a uniquely Samaritan textual tradition to
10132-492: The Babylonians' Aramaic alphabet , which was developed into the modern Hebrew alphabet . Originally, all manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch consisted of unvocalized text written using only the letters of the Samaritan alphabet. Beginning in the 12th century, some manuscripts show a partial vocalization resembling the Jewish Tiberian vocalization used in Masoretic manuscripts. More recently, manuscripts have been produced with full vocalization. The Samaritan Pentateuchal text
10281-435: The Ishmaelites is affirmed by the Muslim geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1229) who writes "Faran, an arabized Hebrew word, one of the names of Mecca mentioned in the Torah." Islamic and Arabic traditions hold that the wilderness of Paran is, broadly speaking, the Hejaz, the northern half of Tihamah , stretching along the east side of the Red Sea starting from Jordan and Sinai, and that the specific site where Ishmael settled
10430-642: The Islamic oath and creed ( shahada ), daily prayers ( salah ), almsgiving ( zakat ), fasting ( sawm ) in the month of Ramadan , and a pilgrimage ( hajj ) to Mecca . Islamic law, sharia , touches on virtually every aspect of life, from banking and finance and welfare to men's and women's roles and the environment . The two main religious festivals are Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha . The three holiest sites in Islam are Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Prophet's Mosque in Medina , and al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem . The religion of Islam originated in Mecca in 610 CE . Muslims believe this
10579-401: The Israelites in the Promised Land, should be built on Mount Gerizim. A few verses afterwards, both the Jewish and the Samaritan texts contain instructions for the Israelites to perform two ceremonies upon entering the Promised Land : one of blessings, to be held on Mount Gerizim, and one of cursings, to take place on Mount Ebal. In 1946, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, which include
10728-640: The Jewish Tanakh . A Samaritan Book of Joshua partly based upon the Tanakh's Book of Joshua exists, but Samaritans regard it as a non-canonical secular historical chronicle. According to a view based on the biblical Book of Ezra (Ezra 4:11), the Samaritans are the people of Samaria who parted ways with the people of Judah (the Judahites) in the Persian period . The Samaritans believe that it
10877-566: The Jewish version and the Jewish commentaries suggest that the word used was Kushi , meaning 'black woman' or ' Cushite woman'. For the Samaritans, therefore, Moses had only one wife, Zipporah , throughout his whole life, while Jewish sources generally understand that Moses had two wives, Zipporah and a second, unnamed Cushite woman. Several other differences are found. The Samaritan Pentateuch uses less anthropomorphic language in descriptions of God, with intermediaries performing actions that
11026-429: The Jewish version attributes directly to God. Where the Jewish text describes Yahweh as a "man of war" (Exodus 15:3), the Samaritan has "hero of war", a phrase applied to spiritual beings. In Numbers 23:4, the Samaritan text reads "The Angel of God found Balaam ", in contrast with the Jewish text, which reads "And God met Balaam." In Genesis 50:23, the Jewish text says that Joseph 's grandchildren were born "upon
11175-542: The Masoretic Text. Although the text was modified to suit the Samaritan community, it still retained many unaltered Jewish readings. By the 11th or 12th century, a new Arabic translation directly based upon the Samaritan Pentateuch had appeared in Nablus . Manuscripts containing this translation are notable for their bilingual or trilingual character; the Arabic text is accompanied by the original Samaritan Hebrew in
11324-545: The Masoretic Text. This first published copy, much later labelled as Codex B by August von Gall [ de ] , became the source of most Western critical editions of the Samaritan Pentateuch until the latter half of the 20th century; today the codex is held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France . Some Pentateuchal manuscripts discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls have been identified as bearing
11473-507: The Masoretic version was published. Several biblical commentaries and other theological texts based upon the Samaritan Pentateuch have been composed by members of the Samaritan community from the fourth century CE onwards. Samaritans also employ liturgical texts containing catenae extracted from their Pentateuch. Samaritans attach special importance to the Abisha Scroll used in the Samaritan synagogue of Nablus. It consists of
11622-456: The Masoretic. Several Protestants replied with a defense of the Masoretic text's authority and argued that the Samaritan text is a late and unreliable derivation from the Masoretic. The 18th-century Protestant Hebrew scholar Benjamin Kennicott 's analysis of the Samaritan Pentateuch stands as a notable exception to the general trend of early Protestant research on the text. He questioned
11771-527: The Middle East–North Africa ; and 15% live in sub-Saharan Africa . Muslim communities are also present in the Americas , China , and Europe . Muslims are the world's fastest-growing major religious group, due primarily to a higher fertility rate and younger age structure compared to other major religions. In Arabic, Islam ( Arabic : إسلام , lit. 'submission [to God]')
11920-583: The Muslims at the Battle of Badr in 624 and then fought an inconclusive battle in the Battle of Uhud before unsuccessfully besieging Medina in the Battle of the Trench (March–April 627). In 628, the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah was signed between Mecca and the Muslims, but it was broken by Mecca two years later. As more tribes converted to Islam, Meccan trade routes were cut off by the Muslims. By 629 Muhammad
12069-785: The Ottomans from the beginning. The Mevlevi Order and Bektashi Order had a close relation to the sultans, as Sufi-mystical as well as heterodox and syncretic approaches to Islam flourished. The often forceful Safavid conversion of Iran to the Twelver Shia Islam of the Safavid Empire ensured the final dominance of the Twelver sect within Shia Islam. Persian migrants to South Asia, as influential bureaucrats and landholders, helped spread Shia Islam, forming some of
12218-609: The Quran to be the verbatim word of God and the unaltered, final revelation. Alongside the Quran, Muslims also believe in previous revelations , such as the Tawrat (the Torah ), the Zabur ( Psalms ), and the Injil ( Gospel ). They believe that Muhammad is the main and final Islamic prophet , through whom the religion was completed. The teachings and normative examples of Muhammad, called
12367-733: The Quran. Many Muslims recite the whole Quran during the month of Ramadan. One who has memorized the whole Quran is called a hafiz ("memorizer"), and hadiths mention that these individuals will be able to intercede for others on Judgment Day. Supplication to God, called in Arabic duʿāʾ ( Arabic : دعاء IPA: [dʊˈʕæːʔ] ) has its own etiquette such as raising hands as if begging. Remembrance of God ( ذكر , Dhikr' ) refers to phrases repeated referencing God. Commonly, this includes Tahmid, declaring praise be due to God ( الحمد لله , al-Ḥamdu lillāh ) during prayer or when feeling thankful, Tasbih , declaring glory to God during prayer or when in awe of something and saying ' in
12516-588: The Quranic accounts are collected and explored in the Qisas al-Anbiya (Stories of the Prophets). Muslims believe that God sent Muhammad as the final prophet (" Seal of the prophets ") to convey the completed message of Islam. In Islam, the "normative" example of Muhammad's life is called the sunnah (literally "trodden path"). Muslims are encouraged to emulate Muhammad's moral behaviors in their daily lives, and
12665-511: The Samaritan Pentateuch as having emerged from a manuscript tradition local to the Land of Israel . The Hebrew texts that form the underlying basis for the Septuagint branched out from the Israelite tradition as Israelites emigrated to Egypt and took copies of the Pentateuch with them. Cross states that the Samaritan and the Septuagint share a nearer common ancestor than either does with the Masoretic, which he suggested developed from local texts used by
12814-426: The Samaritan Pentateuch itself. Others have placed the origin of the Targum around the beginning of the third century or even later. Extant manuscripts of the Targum are "extremely difficult to use" on account of scribal errors caused by a faulty understanding of Hebrew on the part of the Targum's translators and a faulty understanding of Aramaic on the part of later copyists. Scholia of Origen 's Hexapla and
12963-399: The Samaritan Pentateuch preserves "many genuine old readings and an ancient form of the Pentateuch." Support for Kahle's thesis was bolstered by the discovery of biblical manuscripts among the Dead Sea Scrolls , which contain a text similar to the Samaritan Pentateuch. The Dead Sea Scroll texts have demonstrated that a Pentateuchal text type resembling the Samaritan Pentateuch goes back to
13112-518: The Samaritan Pentateuch useful for textual criticism . Cyril of Alexandria , Procopius of Gaza , and others spoke of certain words missing from the Hebrew Text, but present in the Samaritan Pentateuch. Eusebius wrote that the "Greek translation [of the Bible] also differs from the Hebrew, though not so much from the Samaritan" and noted that the Septuagint agrees with the Samaritan Pentateuch in
13261-630: The Samaritan Pentateuch: The scroll shares all the major typological features with the SP, including all the major expansions of that tradition where it is extant (twelve), with the single exception of the new tenth commandment inserted in Exodus 20 from Deuteronomy 11 and 27 regarding the altar on Mount Gerizim. Frank Moore Cross has described the origin of the Samaritan Pentateuch within the context of his local texts hypothesis. He views
13410-438: The Samaritan Targum. It may have been composed for the use of a Greek-speaking Samaritan community residing in Egypt. With the displacement of Samaritan Aramaic by Arabic as the language of the Samaritan community in the centuries following the Muslim conquest of the Levant , they employed several Arabic translations of the Pentateuch. The oldest was an adaptation of Saadia Gaon 's mid-900s Tafsir Rasag or Arabic targum of
13559-421: The Samaritan version in approximately 1,900 of the 6,000 instances in which it differs from the Masoretic (Jewish) text. Many of these agreements reflect inconsequential grammatical details, but some are significant. For example, Exodus 12:40 in both the Samaritan and the Septuagint reads: Now the sojourning of the children of Israel and of their fathers which they had dwelt in the land of Canaan and in Egypt
13708-472: The actual wording, called matn . There are various methodologies to classify the authenticity of hadiths, with the commonly used grading grading scale being "authentic" or "correct" ( صحيح , ṣaḥīḥ ); "good" ( حسن , ḥasan ); or "weak" ( ضعيف , ḍaʻīf ), among others. The Kutub al-Sittah are a collection of six books, regarded as the most authentic reports in Sunni Islam . Among them
13857-404: The altar to the L ORD God of you. Altar of stones. Not you shall wave on them iron. With whole stones you shall build the altar to L ORD God of you. And you bring on it ascend offerings to L ORD God of you, and you sacrifice peace offerings, and you eat there and you rejoice before the face of the L ORD God of you. The mountain this is across the Jordan behind the way of the rising of the sun, in
14006-711: The ancient versions of the Torah that existed during the Second Temple period . It constitutes the entire biblical canon in Samaritanism . Some six thousand differences exist between the Samaritan and the Jewish Masoretic Text . Most are minor variations in the spelling of words or grammatical constructions , but others involve significant semantic changes, such as the uniquely Samaritan commandment to construct an altar on Mount Gerizim . Nearly two thousand of these textual variations agree with
14155-838: The beginning of the compilation of the Quran. The Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz set up the committee, The Seven Fuqaha of Medina , and Malik ibn Anas wrote one of the earliest books on Islamic jurisprudence, the Muwatta , as a consensus of the opinion of those jurists. The Kharijites believed there was no compromised middle ground between good and evil, and any Muslim who committed a grave sin would become an unbeliever. The term "kharijites" would also be used to refer to later groups such as ISIS . The Murji'ah taught that people's righteousness could be judged by God alone. Therefore, wrongdoers might be considered misguided, but not denounced as unbelievers. This attitude came to prevail into mainstream Islamic beliefs. The Umayyad dynasty conquered
14304-533: The biblical Desert of Paran was located in the southern mountain region of the Sinai Peninsula , encompassing the Wadi Feiran . Avner argues that inscriptions from the Nabatean period bearing the first or surname "Paran" indicate that the local population has preserved the biblical geographical name of this area for centuries. Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centered on
14453-465: The concept of a function . The government paid scientists the equivalent salary of professional athletes today. Guinness World Records recognizes the University of Al Karaouine , founded in 859, as the world's oldest degree-granting university. Many non-Muslims, such as Christians , Jews and Sabians , contributed to the Islamic civilization in various fields, and the institution known as
14602-464: The corruption on either side. Kennicott also states that the reading Gerizim may actually be the original reading, since that is the mountain for proclaiming blessings, and that it is very green and rich of vegetation (as opposed to Mt. Ebal, which is barren and the mountain for proclaiming curses) amongst other arguments. German scholar Wilhelm Gesenius published a study of the Samaritan Pentateuch in 1815 which biblical scholars widely embraced during
14751-526: The death of Uthman, but was defeated at the Battle of the Camel . Ali attempted to remove the governor of Syria, Mu'awiya , who was seen as corrupt. Mu'awiya then declared war on Ali and was defeated in the Battle of Siffin . Ali's decision to arbitrate angered the Kharijites , an extremist sect, who felt that by not fighting a sinner, Ali became a sinner as well. The Kharijites rebelled and were defeated in
14900-751: The decrease in Arab influence after the Mongol destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Muslim Mongol Khanates in Iran and Central Asia benefited from increased cross-cultural access to East Asia under Mongol rule and thus flourished and developed more distinctively from Arab influence, such as the Timurid Renaissance under the Timurid dynasty . Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201–1274) proposed
15049-470: The early Abbasid era, scholars such as Muhammad al-Bukhari and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj compiled the major Sunni hadith collections while scholars like Al-Kulayni and Ibn Babawayh compiled major Shia hadith collections. The four Sunni Madh'habs , the Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki, and Shafi'i, were established around the teachings of Abū Ḥanīfa , Ahmad ibn Hanbal , Malik ibn Anas and al-Shafi'i . In contrast,
15198-443: The entry into the land of Israel under the leadership of Joshua , son of Nun, although contemporary scholars describe it as a composite of several fragmentary scrolls each penned between the 12th and 14th centuries CE. Other manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch consist of vellum or cotton paper written upon with black ink. Numerous manuscripts of the text exist, but none written in the original Hebrew or in translation predates
15347-497: The following paragraph, which is absent from the Jewish version: And when it so happens that L ORD God brings you to the land of Canaan, which you are coming to possess, you shall set up there for you great stones and plaster them with plaster and you write on the stones all words of this law. And it becomes for you that across the Jordan you shall raise these stones, which I command you today, in mountain Gerizim. And you build there
15496-511: The gates of itjihad rather than blind imitation of scholars. He called for a jihad against those he deemed heretics, but his writings only played a marginal role during his lifetime. During the 18th century in Arabia, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab , influenced by the works of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim , founded a movement called Wahhabi to return to what he saw as unadultered Islam. He condemned many local Islamic customs, such as visiting
15645-399: The giving of a fixed portion (2.5% annually) of accumulated wealth by those who can afford it to help the poor or needy, such as for freeing captives, those in debt , or for (stranded) travellers, and for those employed to collect zakat. It acts as a form of welfare in Muslim societies. It is considered a religious obligation that the well-off owe the needy because their wealth is seen as
15794-476: The grave of Muhammad or saints, as later innovations and sinful and destroyed sacred rocks and trees, Sufi shrines, the tombs of Muhammad and his companions and the tomb of Husayn at Karbala, a major Shia pilgrimage site. He formed an alliance with the Saud family , which, by the 1920s, completed their conquest of the area that would become Saudi Arabia . Ma Wanfu and Ma Debao promoted salafist movements in
15943-538: The knees of Joseph", while the Samaritan text says they were born "in the days of Joseph". In about thirty-four instances, the Samaritan Pentateuch has repetitions in one section of text that was also found in other parts of the Pentateuch. Such repetitions are also implied or presupposed in the Jewish text, but not explicitly recorded in it. For example, the Samaritan text in the Book of Exodus on multiple occasions records Moses repeating to Pharaoh exactly what God had previously instructed Moses to tell him, which makes
16092-646: The land of Canaan who is dwelling in the desert before the Galgal , beside Alvin-Mara, before Sechem . Another important difference between the Samaritan Torah and the Jewish (Masoretic) Torah is in Deuteronomy 27:4. According to the Jewish text, the Israelites were told to enter the Promised Land and build an altar on Mount Ebal , while the Samaritan text says that such altar, the first built by
16241-512: The largest Shia populations outside Iran. Nader Shah , who overthrew the Safavids, attempted to improve relations with Sunnis by propagating the integration of Twelverism into Sunni Islam as a fifth madhhab , called Ja'farism, which failed to gain recognition from the Ottomans. Earlier in the 14th century, Ibn Taymiyya promoted a puritanical form of Islam, rejecting philosophical approaches in favor of simpler theology, and called to open
16390-652: The majority. Caliph Al-Mu'tasim carried out inquisitions , with the traditionalist Ahmad ibn Hanbal notably refusing to conform to the Muʿtazila idea that the Quran was created rather than being eternal , which resulted in him being tortured and kept in an unlit prison cell for nearly thirty months. However, other schools of speculative theology – Māturīdism founded by Abu Mansur al-Maturidi and Ash'ari founded by Al-Ash'ari – were more successful in being widely adopted. Philosophers such as Al-Farabi , Avicenna and Averroes sought to harmonize Aristotle's ideas with
16539-484: The modern gold dinar as their monetary system. While some of those who broke away were quietist , others believed in violence against those opposing them, even against other Muslims. In opposition to Islamic political movements, in 20th century Turkey, the military carried out coups to oust Islamist governments, and headscarves were legally restricted, as also happened in Tunisia. In other places, religious authority
16688-554: The moral decline and idolatry prevalent in Mecca and seeking seclusion and spiritual contemplation, Muhammad retreated to the Cave of Hira in the mountain Jabal al-Nour , near Mecca. It was during his time in the cave that he is said to have received the first revelation of the Quran from the angel Gabriel . The event of Muhammad's retreat to the cave and subsequent revelation is known as
16837-399: The most common being Ar-Rahmān ( الرحمان ) meaning "The Entirely Merciful", and Ar-Rahīm ( الرحيم ) meaning "The Especially Merciful" which are invoked at the beginning of most chapters of the Quran. Islam teaches that the creation of everything in the universe was brought into being by God's command as expressed by the wording, " Be, and it is ," and that the purpose of existence
16986-469: The name of God ' ( بسملة , basmalah ) before starting an act such as eating. According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad was born in Mecca in 570 CE and was orphaned early in life. Growing up as a trader, he became known as the " trusted one " ( Arabic : الامين ) and was sought after as an impartial arbitrator. He later married his employer, the businesswoman Khadija . In the year 610 CE, troubled by
17135-550: The next century. He argued that the Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch share a common source in a family of Hebrew manuscripts which he named the "Alexandrino-Samaritanus". In contrast to the proto-Masoretic "Judean" manuscripts carefully preserved and copied in Jerusalem , he regarded the Alexandrino-Samaritanus as having been carelessly handled by scribal copyists who popularized, simplified, and expanded
17284-487: The number of years elapsed from Noah's Flood to Abraham . Christian interest in the Samaritan Pentateuch fell into neglect during the Middle Ages . The publication of a manuscript of the Samaritan Pentateuch in 17th-century Europe reawakened interest in the text and fueled a controversy between Protestants and Roman Catholics over which Old Testament textual traditions are authoritative. Roman Catholics showed
17433-478: The oldest known versions of the Torah . In Deuteronomy 27:4–7, the Dead Sea scroll fragments bring "Gerizim" instead of "Ebal", indicating that the Samaritan version was likely the original reading. Other differences between the Samaritan and the Masoretic (Jewish) texts include: In Numbers 12:1, the Samaritan Pentateuch refers to Moses ' wife as kaashet , which translates as 'the beautiful woman', while
17582-526: The peoples did not take place until Hasmonean times, when the Temple on Mount Gerizim was destroyed in 128 BCE by John Hyrcanus . The script of the Samaritan Pentateuch, its close connections at many points with the Septuagint , and its even closer agreements with the present Masoretic Text , all suggest a date about 122 BCE. Excavation work undertaken since 1982 by Yitzhak Magen has firmly dated
17731-711: The pious. The Kharijites led the Berber Revolt , leading to the first Muslim states independent of the Caliphate. In the Abbasid Revolution , non-Arab converts ( mawali ), Arab clans pushed aside by the Umayyad clan, and some Shi'a rallied and overthrew the Umayyads, inaugurating the more cosmopolitan Abbasid dynasty in 750. Al-Shafi'i codified a method to determine the reliability of hadith. During
17880-570: The poor, foreigners, and slaves like the first muezzin Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi . The Meccan elite felt Muhammad was destabilizing their social order by preaching about one God and giving questionable ideas to the poor and slaves because they profited from the pilgrimages to the idols of the Kaaba. After 12 years of the persecution of Muslims by the Meccans , Muhammad and his companions performed
18029-423: The post- Maccabean age. The Samaritan Targum , composed in the Samaritan variety of Western Aramaic , is the earliest translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch. Its creation was motivated by the same need to translate the Pentateuch into the Aramaic language spoken by the community which led to the creation of Jewish Targums such as Targum Onkelos . Samaritans have traditionally ascribed the Targum to Nathanael,
18178-502: The precise number varies significantly from one edition to another. Only a minority of such differences are significant. Most are simply spelling differences, usually concerning Hebrew letters of similar appearance; the use of more matres lectionis (symbols indicating vowels) in the Samaritan Pentateuch, compared with the Masoretic; different placement of words in a sentence; and the replacement of some verbal constructions with equivalent ones. A comparison between both versions shows
18327-406: The prophets are said to have preached the same basic message of Islam – submission to the will of God – to various nations in the past, and this is said to account for many similarities among religions. The Quran recounts the names of numerous figures considered prophets in Islam , including Adam , Noah , Abraham , Moses and Jesus , among others. The stories associated with the prophets beyond
18476-602: The region of Sodom and Gomorrah , they smote "the Horites in their mount Seir , unto El-paran , which is by the wilderness". (KJV) Sebeos , the Armenian Bishop and historian, describing the Arab conquest of his time, wrote that the Arabs "assembled and came out from Paran". According to Wahb ibn Munabbih , there was a Tal Faran ("Hill of Faran") on the outskirts of Mecca, mentioned in his book Kitab al-Tijan ,
18625-429: The rest of the religion. Non-Muslims wishing to convert to Islam are required to recite the shahada in front of witnesses. Prayer in Islam, called as-salah or aṣ-ṣalāt (Arabic: الصلاة ), is seen as a personal communication with God and consists of repeating units called rakat that include bowing and prostrating to God. There are five timed prayers each day that are considered duties. The prayers are recited in
18774-529: The rise of Islam itself, posed a connection between Paran and Ishmael-Arabs. For instance, commentating on the Sifrei Debarīm , a halakhic midrash on Deuteronomy, dated from the 3rd to the 5th century CE, he says: the link between Paran and the Arabs (actually the Arabic language), who are also called Ishmaelites after Ishmael (among other names), is very early although somewhat vague. The wilderness of Paran
18923-530: The same verb form, and means "submitter (to God)" or "one who surrenders (to God)". In the Hadith of Gabriel , Islam is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān (faith), and ihsān (excellence). Islam itself was historically called Mohammedanism in the English-speaking world . This term has fallen out of use and is sometimes said to be offensive , as it suggests that
19072-455: The second century BCE and perhaps even earlier. These discoveries have demonstrated that manuscripts bearing a "pre-Samaritan" text of at least some portions of the Pentateuch such as Exodus and Numbers circulated alongside other manuscripts with a "pre-Masoretic" text. One Dead Sea Scroll copy of the Book of Exodus, conventionally named 4QpaleoExod , shows a particularly close relation to
19221-545: The south, three days journey to the east of Aila (in the desert Pharan) where Scripture affirms Ismael dwelled, whence the Ishmaelites. It is said (we read) also that (king) Chodollagomor cut to pieces those in 'Pharan which is in the desert'." Eusebius' mention of Chodollagomor refers to a possible earlier mention of Paran in Genesis 14:6 , which states that as he and the other kings allied with him were campaigning in
19370-408: The sunnah is seen as crucial to guiding interpretation of the Quran. This example is preserved in traditions known as hadith , which are accounts of his words, actions, and personal characteristics. Hadith Qudsi is a sub-category of hadith, regarded as God's verbatim words quoted by Muhammad that are not part of the Quran. A hadith involves two elements: a chain of narrators, called sanad , and
19519-605: The teachings of Ja'far al-Sadiq formed the Ja'fari jurisprudence . In the 9th century, Al-Tabari completed the first commentary of the Quran, the Tafsir al-Tabari , which became one of the most cited commentaries in Sunni Islam. Some Muslims began questioning the piety of indulgence in worldly life and emphasized poverty, humility, and avoidance of sin based on renunciation of bodily desires. Ascetics such as Hasan al-Basri inspired
19668-666: The teachings of Islam, similar to later scholasticism within Christianity in Europe and Maimonides ' work within Judaism, while others like Al-Ghazali argued against such syncretism and ultimately prevailed. This era is sometimes called the " Islamic Golden Age ". Islamic scientific achievements spanned a wide range of subject areas including medicine , mathematics , astronomy , and agriculture as well as physics , economics , engineering and optics . Avicenna
19817-589: The temple structures on Gerizim to the middle of the fifth century BCE, built by Sanballat the Horonite , a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah, who lived more than one hundred years before the Sanballat mentioned by Josephus. The adoption of the Pentateuch as the sacred text of the Samaritans before their final schism with the Judean Jewish community provides evidence that it was already widely accepted as
19966-471: The text look repetitious, in comparison with the Jewish text. In other occasions, the Samaritan Pentateuch has subjects , prepositions, particles , appositives , including the repetition of words and phrases within a single passage, that are absent from the Jewish text. The Samaritan Torah contains frequent agreements with the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate . The Septuagint text agrees with
20115-582: The text. Gesenius concluded that the Samaritan text contained only four valid variants when compared to the Masoretic text. In 1915, Paul Kahle published a paper which compared passages from the Samaritan text to Pentateuchal quotations in the New Testament and pseudepigraphal texts including the Book of Jubilees , the First Book of Enoch and the Assumption of Moses . He concluded that
20264-426: The underlying assumption that the Masoretic text must be more authentic simply because it has been more widely accepted as the authoritative Hebrew version of the Pentateuch: We see then that as the evidence of one text destroys the evidence of the other and as there is in fact the authority of versions to oppose to the authority of versions no certain argument or rather no argument at all can be drawn from hence to fix
20413-406: The wilderness of Beer-sheba": Then God opened her [Hagar's] eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt. ( Genesis 21:19–22 ) Paran is later mentioned in the Book of Numbers as
20562-400: The writings of some church fathers contain references to "the Samareitikon " ( Ancient Greek : το Σαμαρειτικόν ), a work that is no longer extant. Despite earlier suggestions that it was merely a series of Greek scholia translated from the Samaritan Pentateuch, scholars now concur that it was a complete Greek translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch either directly translated from it or via
20711-428: Was a pioneer in experimental medicine , and his The Canon of Medicine was used as a standard medicinal text in the Islamic world and Europe for centuries. Rhazes was the first to identify the diseases smallpox and measles . Public hospitals of the time issued the first medical diplomas to license doctors. Ibn al-Haytham is regarded as the father of the modern scientific method and often referred to as
20860-515: Was claimed by the Ottoman dynasty of the Ottoman Empire and its claims were strengthened in 1517 as Selim I became the ruler of Mecca and Medina . The Shia Safavid dynasty rose to power in 1501 and later conquered all of Iran. In South Asia, Babur founded the Mughal Empire . The religion of the centralized states of the gunpowder empires influenced the religious practice of their constituent populations. A symbiosis between Ottoman rulers and Sufism strongly influenced Islamic reign by
21009-484: Was co-opted and is now often seen as puppets of the state. For example, in Saudi Arabia, the state monopolized religious scholarship and, in Egypt, the state nationalized Al-Azhar University , previously an independent voice checking state power. Salafism was funded in the Middle East for its quietism. Saudi Arabia campaigned against revolutionary Islamist movements in the Middle East, in opposition to Iran. Muslim minorities of various ethnicities have been persecuted as
21158-404: Was established in 1969 after the burning of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem . Contact with industrialized nations brought Muslim populations to new areas through economic migration. Many Muslims migrated as indentured servants (mostly from India and Indonesia) to the Caribbean, forming the largest Muslim populations by percentage in the Americas. Migration from Syria and Lebanon contributed to
21307-489: Was familiar with the reading 'Moreh', a Hebrew word whose triliteral root suggests 'vision.' The earliest recorded assessments of the Samaritan Pentateuch are found in rabbinic literature and the writings of the early Christian Church Fathers of the first millennium. The Talmud records Eleazar ben Simeon , a Rabbinic Jew , condemning the Samaritan scribes: "You have falsified your Pentateuch... and you have not profited aught by it." Some early Christian writers found
21456-511: Was for the first time partially codified into law in 1869 in the Ottoman Empire's Mecelle code. The Ottoman Empire dissolved after World War I , the Ottoman Caliphate was abolished in 1924 and the subsequent Sharifian Caliphate fell quickly, thus leaving Islam without a Caliph . Pan-Islamists attempted to unify Muslims and competed with growing nationalist forces, such as pan-Arabism . The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), consisting of Muslim-majority countries ,
21605-427: Was four hundred and thirty years. In the Masoretic (Jewish) text, the passage reads: Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. Passages in the Latin Vulgate also show agreements with the Samaritan version, in contrast with the Masoretic (Jewish) version. For instance, in Genesis 22:2, the Samaritan Pentateuch places the binding and near-sacrifice of Isaac in
21754-412: Was killed by Yazid's forces; the event has been annually commemorated by Shias ever since. Sunnis, led by Ibn al-Zubayr and opposed to a dynastic caliphate, were defeated in the siege of Mecca . These disputes over leadership would give rise to the Sunni - Shia schism, with the Shia believing leadership belongs to Muhammad's family through Ali, called the ahl al-bayt . Abu Bakr's leadership oversaw
21903-476: Was looking for water for her baby Ishmael in the desert before Mecca developed into a settlement. The pilgrimage also involves spending a day praying and worshipping in the plain of Mount Arafat as well as symbolically stoning the Devil . All Muslim men wear only two simple white unstitched pieces of cloth called ihram , intended to bring continuity through generations and uniformity among pilgrims despite class or origin. Another form of pilgrimage, Umrah ,
22052-413: Was not they, but the Jews, who separated from the authentic stream of the Israelite tradition and law, around the time of Eli , in the 11th century BCE. Modern scholarship connects the formation of the Samaritan community with events which followed the Babylonian captivity . One view is that the Samaritans are the people of the Kingdom of Israel who separated from the Kingdom of Judah . Another view
22201-548: Was victorious in the nearly bloodless conquest of Mecca , and by the time of his death in 632 (at age 62) he had united the tribes of Arabia into a single religious polity . Muhammad died in 632 and the first successors, called Caliphs – Abu Bakr , Umar , Uthman ibn al-Affan , Ali ibn Abi Talib and sometimes Hasan ibn Ali – are known in Sunni Islam as al-khulafā' ar-rāshidūn (" Rightly Guided Caliphs "). Some tribes left Islam and rebelled under leaders who declared themselves new prophets but were crushed by Abu Bakr in
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