135-503: Political Militant [REDACTED] Islam portal Takfir ( Arabic : تَكْفِير , romanized : takfīr ) is an Arabic and Islamic term which denotes excommunication from Islam of one Muslim by another, i.e. accusing another Muslim of being an apostate . The word is found neither in the Quran nor in the ḥadīth literature ; instead, kufr ("unbelief") and kāfir ("unbeliever") and other terms employing
270-716: A kāfir are the scholars of Islam ( Ulama ), which affirm that all the prescribed legal precautions should be taken before declaring takfīr , and that those who profess the Islamic faith should be exempt. Starting in the mid-to-late 20th century, some individuals and organizations in the Muslim world began to apply takfīr accusations not only against those that they perceived as stray deviant and lapsed Muslims, but also governments and in some cases, societies as well. In his widely influential book Milestones , Egyptian Islamist ideologue Sayyid Qutb preached that governments ruling
405-458: A Muslim an unbeliever is himself not an apostate but rather committed minor shirk . In the history of Islam , a sect originating in the 7th century CE known as the Kharijites carried out takfīr against both Sunnī and Shīʿa Muslims , and became the main source of insurrection against the early caliphates for centuries. Traditionally, the only group authorized to declare another Muslim
540-404: A Muslim denying a point of creed may be a hypocrite ( munāfiq ) but not a kāfir; merely corrupt ( fasād ) if their disobedience was not excessive; "errant Muslim sectarians ... astray ( ḍāll ),"; those whose Qurʿānic interpretation ( taʿwīl ) are faulty are in error and not unbelievers because their "citation of Qurʿān, however mistaken, established their faith"; and "according to some", anyone who
675-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
810-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
945-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
1080-439: A hadith were Muhammad is quoted as saying Turning the graves of prophets into places of worship is a "major kufr", and since an act of major kufr qualifies someone to be a kaffir, and since this was showing " iman outwardly" yet committed (major) kufr inwardly, they were guilty of turning their back on their religion for unbelief. Some Muslims (such as Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab , founder of Wahhabism ) believe that one of
1215-611: A halter. Poor-due ( zakat ) is a levy on wealth and, by God, I will fight him who differentiates between the prayer and poor-due." Abu Bakr did not use the word kafir though. The group known as Khawarij takfired and killed the Rashidun caliph Ali (601–661 CE), after he agreed to arbitration with his rival, Muawiyah I , to decide the succession to the Caliphate . They believed that "judgement belongs to God alone", so that for human beings to arbitrate peacefully rather than wage war
1350-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
1485-460: A literalist reading of early Islamic sources, on the other, have laid competing claims to represent the "orthodox" Sunnī Islam. Anglophone Islamic currents of the former type are sometimes referred to as "traditional Islam". Islamic modernism is an offshoot of the Salafi movement that tried to integrate modernism into Islam by being partially influenced by modern-day attempts to revive the ideas of
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#17327660764051620-621: A middle position between Qadariyah and Jabriya. On the other hand, the Mu'tazilah considered the Ash'ariyah as Jabriyah because, in their opinion, they rejected the orthodox doctrine of free will. The Shiites used the term Jabriyah to describe the Ash'ariyah and Hanbalis . Jahmis were the alleged followers of the early Islamic theologian Jahm bin Safwan who associated himself with Al-Harith ibn Surayj . He
1755-514: A middle way between Murjites and Khawarij, whereby who failed to sufficiently perform their obligations were demoted to sinners (fasiq), but not all the way to infidel. On the other hand, "it has been argued" (according to Alam al-Dīn) that, "the general Mu'tazilite conception of īmān is the view that the acts of obedience are essential for belief and whoever neglects these acts is not a Believer". Non-Muslims can also be takfired, according to Fayiz Salhab and Hussam S Timani, at least. An "example being"
1890-652: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] {{main other| ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
2025-586: A number of Muslims and Islamic groups—the Mu'tazila , Shi'a Muslims, Sufis and the Sufi mystic, Ibn Arabi , etc. – he believed to have strayed from true Islam, but he is perhaps best remembered for takfiring the Central Asian Mongols (Tartars) who had invaded the Middle East but also converted to Islam. In a fatwa he declared that Muslims should "combat ... those that place themselves outside
2160-420: A religious leader, an ʿālim must pronounce a fatwa (legal judgement) of takfīr against an individual or group. The medieval Islamic scholar al-Ghazali "is often credited with having persuaded theologians, in his Faysalal-Tafriqa ( The Criterion of Distinction between Islam and Clandestine Unbelief ) that takfīr is not a fruitful path and that utmost caution is to be taken in applying it." In general,
2295-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
2430-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
2565-540: A similar system of interpretation. Sufism is Islam's mystical - ascetic dimension and is represented by schools or orders known as Tasawwuf ī- Ṭarīqah . It is seen as that aspect of Islamic teaching that deals with the purification of inner self. By focusing on the more spiritual aspects of religion, Sufis strive to obtain direct experience of God by making use of "intuitive and emotional faculties" that one must be trained to use. The following list contains some notable Sufi orders: Many slaves brought from Africa to
2700-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for
2835-517: A theological school that was opposed to the Kharijites on questions related to early controversies regarding sin and definitions of what is a true Muslim. As opposed to the Kharijites, Murjites believed revolt against a Muslim ruler could not be justified under any circumstances, and advocated passive resistance. The Mu'tazilites (followed by the Zaidiyyahs ) advocated what they saw as
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#17327660764052970-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
3105-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
3240-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
3375-698: Is Ibadism , which developed out of the 7th century CE. There are currently two geographically separated Ibadi groups—in Oman , where they constitute the majority of the Muslim population in the country , and in North Africa where they constitute significant minorities in Algeria , Tunisia , and Libya . Similarly to another Muslim minority, the Zaydīs , "in modern times" they have "shown a strong tendency" to move towards
3510-436: Is "a person of qiblah " [prays towards the qiblah ] cannot be a kāfir. Compensating for the numerous and potentially fatal possible transgressions mentioned above that had to be avoided were the requirements ("hurdles to jump through") for finding a Muslim guilty of apostasy. While not all Islamic scholars or schools of jurisprudence agree, some Shafi'i fiqh scholars—such as Nawawi and ibn Naqib al-Misri—state that to apply
3645-433: Is a takfīri ("excommunicational"). It is prohibited to do without court and 12 years of islamic studies. Legitimate authority and conditions that permit the issuance of takfīr are major points of contention among Muslim scholars . The declaration of takfīr typically applies to a judgement that an action or statement by the accused Muslim indicates his/her knowing abandonment of Islam. In many cases an Islamic court or
3780-737: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
3915-542: Is a conservative reform branch and/or revivalist movement within Sunnī Islam whose followers do not believe in strictly following one particular madhhab . They include the Wahhabi movement , an Islamic doctrine and religious movement founded by Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab , and the modern Ahle Hadith movement, whose followers call themselves Ahl al-Ḥadīth . In Shīʿa Islam , the major Shīʿīte school of jurisprudence
4050-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
4185-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
Takfir - Misplaced Pages Continue
4320-467: Is accepted in a Muslim community include: Traditionally, Islamic jurists did not formulate general rules for establishing unbelief, instead compiling sometimes lengthy lists of statements and actions which in their view were grounds for a takfir accusation. These could be wide-ranging and seemingly far removed from basic Islamic beliefs. The manuals Reliance of the Traveller , a 14th-century manual of
4455-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
4590-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
4725-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
4860-472: Is itself an act of apostasy, based on the hadith where Muhammad is reported to have said: "If a man says to his brother, 'You are an infidel,' then one of them is right." In contrast to the manuals described above, Charles Adams and A. Kevin Reinhart state that some Islamic theologians maintain that Muslims may be guilty of error and wrongdoing without descending all the way to the level of kafir. For example,
4995-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
5130-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
5265-454: Is said to have been the first scholar to call for the death penalty for "disseminating improprieties about Muḥammad or questioning his authority in all questions of faith and profane life" (according to Tilman Nagel), setting the pace for later scholars like Ibn Taymiyyah and Taj al-Din al-Subki (d.1355). In a study of 60 high-profile takfir cases in Egypt and Syria "tried before the qadis of
5400-443: Is separated into four main schools of jurisprudence, namely Mālikī , Ḥanafī , Shāfiʿī , and Ḥanbalī ; these schools are named after their founders Mālik ibn Anas , Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān , Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī , and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal , respectively. Shīʿa Islam, on the other hand, is separated into three major sects: Twelvers , Ismāʿīlīs , and Zaydīs . The vast majority of Shīʿa Muslims are Twelvers (a 2012 estimate puts
5535-578: Is sometimes used to denote Muslims who refuse to compromise with those with whom they disagree. Sufris were a major sub-sect of Kharijite in the 7th and 8th centuries, and a part of the Kharijites. Nukkari was a sub-sect of Sufris. Harūrīs were an early Muslim sect from the period of the Four Rightly-Guided Caliphs (632–661 CE), named for their first leader, Habīb ibn-Yazīd al-Harūrī. Azariqa , Najdat , and Adjarites were minor sub-sects. The only Kharijite sub-sect extant today
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5670-602: Is that sins generally do not prove that someone is not a Muslim, but denials of fundamental religious principles do. Thus a murderer, for instance, may still be a Muslim, but someone who denies that murder is a sin is a kafir if he is aware that murder is considered a sin in Islam. Ash'ari argued "that it is the belief in the heart that matters the most". The founder of the Ashari school, Imam Al-Ash'ari stated that "presumptuously declaring ... mortal sins, such as fornication or theft or
5805-723: Is the Jaʿfari or Imāmī school, named after Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq , the sixth Shīʿīte Imam . The Jaʿfari jurisprudence is further divided into two branches: the Usuli school, which favors the exercise of ijtihad , and the Akhbari school, which holds the traditions ( aḵbār ) of the Shīʿīte Imams to be the main source of religious knowledge. Minor Shīʿa schools of jurisprudence include the Ismāʿīlī school ( Mustaʿlī - Fāṭimid Ṭayyibi Ismāʿīlīs ) and
5940-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
6075-530: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
6210-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
6345-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
6480-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
6615-483: The Ummah (the Muslim community). An example given of the reluctance of Muslims to takfir is the refusal of authorities at Al-Azhar University to takfir ISIL/ISIS/Daesh in 2015 despite that groups notorious takfir atrocities; and the refusal of "many mainstream Muslims" to takfir the Kharijites , despite this sects being "unanimously regarded as the arch-takfiris" by scholars. Examples of takfir spreading once takfir
6750-591: The Ansaaru Allah Community . They sought to ascribe Islamic heritage to African-Americans, thereby giving much emphasis on racial and ethnic aspects (see black nationalism and black separatism ). These black Muslim movements often differ greatly in matters of doctrine from mainstream Islam. They include: The Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam was founded in British India in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian , who claimed to be
6885-464: The First Fitna , the struggle for political leadership over the Muslim community, following the assassination in 656 of the third caliph Uthman . Kharijites originally supported the caliphate of Ali, but then later on fought against him and eventually succeeded in his martyrdom while he was praying in the mosque of Kufa. While there are few remaining Kharijite or Kharijite-related groups, the term
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#17327660764057020-571: The Mihna inquisition in the Abbasid Caliphate which was instituted by the ruling Mu'tazilites , enemies of the Mu'tazila were considered heretics and disbelievers and were punished. The Mihna lasted from 833 to 851 CE. In 922 al-Husayn ibn Mansour al-Hallaj was killed on account of blasphemy. The celebrated Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) preached against the excessive takfīr among theologians. Maliki scholar Qadi Ayyad (d. 1149)
7155-631: The Muʿtazila school by Islamic scholars such as Muhammad Abduh . Shīʿa Islam is the second-largest denomination of Islam, comprising around 10–15% of the total Muslim population. Although a minority in the Muslim world, Shīʿa Muslims constitute the majority of the Muslim populations in Iran , Iraq , Bahrain , and Azerbaijan , as well as significant minorities in Syria , Turkey , South Asia , Yemen , and Saudi Arabia , Lebanon as well as in other parts of
7290-564: The Persian Gulf . In addition to believing in the supreme authority of the Quran and teachings of Muhammad, Shīʿa Muslims believe that Muhammad's family, the Ahl al-Bayt ("People of the Household"), including his descendants known as Imams , have distinguished spiritual and political authority over the community, and believe that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib , Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law,
7425-453: The Shafi'i school of jurisprudence ( Fiqh ), and Madjma' al-Anhur by Hanafi scholar Shaykhzadeh (d. 1667) include (From Reliance): (Selected characteristics from Madjma' al-anhur ): Other examples from legal treatises devoted exclusively to verbal expressions (but also actions) of disbelief (known as alfaz al-kufr ) included: Al-Ghazali held that apostasy occurs when a Muslim denies
7560-568: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
7695-576: The Zaydī school, both of which have closer affinity to Sunnī jurisprudence. Shīʿīte clergymen and jurists usually carry the title of mujtahid (i.e., someone authorized to issue legal opinions in Shīʿa Islam). The fiqh or jurisprudence of Ibadis is relatively simple. Absolute authority is given to the Quran and ḥadīth literature ; new innovations accepted on the basis of qiyas (analogical reasoning) were rejected as bid'ah (heresy) by
7830-542: The nature of the Quran , the nature of the divine attributes , apparent and esoteric meaning of scripture, and the role of dialectical reasoning in the Islamic doctrine. Including: Kalām is the Islamic philosophy of seeking theological principles through dialectic . In Arabic, the word literally means "speech/words". A scholar of kalām is referred to as a mutakallim (Muslim theologian; plural mutakallimūn ). There are many schools of Kalam,
7965-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
8100-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
8235-1472: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Islamic schools and branches Islamic schools and branches have different understandings of Islam . There are many different sects or denominations, schools of Islamic jurisprudence , and schools of Islamic theology , or ʿaqīdah (creed). Within Islamic groups themselves there may be differences, such as different orders ( tariqa ) within Sufism , and within Sunnī Islam different schools of theology ( Atharī , Ashʿarī , Māturīdī ) and jurisprudence ( Ḥanafī , Mālikī , Shāfiʿī , Ḥanbalī ). Groups in Islam may be numerous ( Sunnīs make up 85-90% of all Muslims), or relatively small in size ( Ibadis , Zaydīs , Ismāʿīlīs ). Differences between
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#17327660764058370-478: The "true" Islam and defeat the attacks on Islam by other religions. There are a wide variety of distinct beliefs and teachings of Ahmadis compared to those of most other Muslims, which include the interpretation of the Quranic title Khatam an-Nabiyyin , interpretation of the Messiah's Second Coming , complete rejection of the abrogation/cancellation of Quranic verses , belief that Jesus survived
8505-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
8640-438: The 20th century ( Nation of Islam ). Still others were influential historically, but are no longer in existence (non-Ibadi Kharijites , Muʿtazila , Murji'ah ). Muslims who do not belong to, do not self-identify with, or cannot be readily classified under one of the identifiable Islamic schools and branches are known as non-denominational Muslims . The original schism between Kharijites , Sunnīs , and Shīʿas among Muslims
8775-571: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
8910-792: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] {{main other|. Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
9045-773: The Ahmadi-Specific laws in the penal code . The followers of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam are divided into two groups: the first being the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community , currently the dominant group, and the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam . The larger group takes a literalist view believing that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was the promised Mahdi and a Ummati Nabi subservient to Muhammad, while
9180-515: The Ashʿarī theology prevails in Sufism and was originally associated with the Ḥanbalī school of Islamic jurisprudence . Māturīdism is a school of theology founded by Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī in the 10th century, which is a close variant of the Ashʿarī school. Māturīdī theology is considered one of the orthodox creeds of Sunni Islam alongside the Ashʿarī theology, and prevails in the Ḥanafī school of Islamic jurisprudence . Points which differ are
9315-487: The Ibadis. That differs from the majority of Sunnīs, but agrees with most Shīʿa schools and with the Ẓāhirī and early Ḥanbalī schools of Sunnism. Aqidah is an Islamic term meaning " creed ", doctrine, or article of faith. There have existed many schools of Islamic theology, not all of which survive to the present day. Major themes of theological controversies in Islam have included predestination and free will,
9450-525: The Islamic sects and groups regard certain others as deviant or not being truly Muslim (for example, Sunnīs frequently discriminate against Ahmadiyya , Alawites , Quranists , and sometimes Shīʿas ). Some Islamic sects and groups date back to the early history of Islam between the 7th and 9th centuries CE ( Kharijites , Sunnīs , Shīʿas ), whereas others have arisen much more recently ( Islamic neo-traditionalism , liberalism and progressivism , Islamic modernism , Salafism and Wahhabism ), or even in
9585-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
9720-615: The Muslim world had fallen into a state of collective apostasy or jahiliyah (a state of pre-Islamic ignorance) several centuries ago, having abandoned the use of sharīʿa law, without which (Qutb held) Islam cannot exist. Qutb affirmed that since Muslim government leaders (along with being cruel and evil) were actually not Muslims but apostates preventing the revival of Islam , the use of " physical force " should be used to remove them. This radical Islamist ideology, called " takfirism ", has been widely held and applied by numerous Islamic extremists , terrorists , and jihadist organizations in
9855-717: The Musta'lī further divided into Ḥāfiẓi and Ṭayyibi . Ṭayyibi Ismāʿīlīs, also known as "Bohras", are split between Dawudi Bohras , Sulaymani Bohras , and Alavi Bohras . Similarly, Kharijites were initially divided into five major branches: Sufris , Azariqa , Najdat , Adjarites , and Ibadis . Of these, Ibadi Muslims are the only surviving branch of Kharijites. In addition to the aforementioned groups, new schools of thought and movements like Ahmadi Muslims , Quranist Muslims , and African-American Muslims later emerged independently. Muslims who do not belong to, do not self-identify with, or cannot be readily classified under one of
9990-690: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
10125-411: The Qur'an were to be interpreted allegorically or literally, and whether sinning believers would have eternal punishment in hell . Murji'ah was a name for an early politico-religious movement which came to refer to all those who identified faith ( iman ) with belief to the exclusion of acts. Originating during the caliphates of Uthman and Ali, Murijites opposed the Kharijites, holding that only God has
10260-634: The Qur'an, the Sunnah, and sayings of the Sahaba, seeing this as the middle path where the attributes of Allah are accepted without questioning their nature ( bi-la kayf ). Ahmad ibn Hanbal is regarded as the leader of the traditionalist school of creed. The modern Salafi movement associates itself with the Atharī creed. Muʿtazilite theology originated in the 8th century in Basra when Wasil ibn Ata left
10395-576: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
10530-544: The Sharia, even though they may utter the Shahaadataayn " (i.e. the two declarations of faith – "There is no god except Allah and Muhammad is his Messenger"). Living in a time when Islamic jurists tended towards docility in the face of injustice, Ibn Taymiyyah urged jihad against tyrants. His fatwa created a precedent "for the declaration of takfir against a leader", (according to researcher Trevor Stanley), and his fatwa
10665-628: The Shīʿas and the Sunnīs during the First Fitna (the first Islamic Civil War); they were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to takfīr (excommunication), whereby they declared both Sunnī and Shīʿa Muslims to be either infidels ( kuffār ) or false Muslims ( munafiqun ), and therefore deemed them worthy of death for their perceived apostasy ( ridda ). In addition, there are several differences within Sunnī and Shīʿa Islam: Sunnī Islam
10800-787: The Sunnī branch of Islam. Islamic schools of jurisprudence, known as madhhab , differ in the methodology they use to derive their rulings from the Quran , ḥadīth literature , the sunnah (accounts of the sayings and living habits attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad during his lifetime), and the tafsīr literature (exegetical commentaries on the Quran). Sunnī Islam contains numerous schools of Islamic jurisprudence ( fiqh ) and schools of Islamic theology ( ʿaqīdah ). In terms of religious jurisprudence ( fiqh ), Sunnism contains several schools of thought ( madhhab ): In terms of religious creed ( ʿaqīdah ), Sunnism contains several schools of theology: The Salafi movement
10935-984: The Western Hemisphere were Muslims , and the early 20th century saw the rise of distinct Islamic religious and political movements within the African-American community in the United States , such as Darul Islam, the Islamic Party of North America, the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood (MIB), the Muslim Alliance in North America, the Moorish Science Temple of America , the Nation of Islam (NOI), and
11070-468: The apostasy code to a Muslim, the accused must: Maliki scholars additionally require that the person in question has publicly engaged in the obligatory practices of the religion. In contrast, Hanafi, Hanbali and Ja'fari fiqh set no such screening requirements; a Muslim's history has no bearing on when and on whom to apply the sharia code for apostasy. Still more requirements for convicting an alleged apostate are listed by other sources, including that
11205-518: The authority to judge who is a true Muslim and who is not, and that Muslims should consider all other Muslims as part of the community. Two major Murijite sub-sects were the Karamiya and Sawbaniyya. Qadariyya is an originally derogatory term designating early Islamic theologians who asserted that humans possess free will, whose exercise makes them responsible for their actions, justifying divine punishment and absolving God of responsibility for evil in
11340-574: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
11475-615: The crime must be explained to them, and they must be given a chance to retract it, and that the accused must have been "aware of the "unilaterally and eternally binding nature" of accepting Islam", and been aware of the punishment for apostasy (or any other hadd crime) at the time of committing the crime of apostasy. (Asmi Wood) Judgement should be left to knowledgeable Muslims (according to Islam Question and Answer) not lay Muslims. There are disputes among different early schools of religious thought as to what constitutes sufficient justification for declaring takfir: The orthodox Sunni position
11610-717: The crucifixion and died of old age in India , conditions of the " Jihad of the Sword" are no longer met , belief that divine revelation (as long as no new sharia is given) will never end, belief in cyclical nature of history until Muhammad, and belief in the implausibility of a contradiction between Islam and science . These perceived deviations from normative Islamic thought have resulted in severe persecution of Ahmadis in various Muslim-majority countries , particularly Pakistan , where they have been branded as Non-Muslims and their Islamic religious practices are punishable by
11745-527: The earliest examples of takfir was alleged to have been practised by the first Caliph , Abu Bakr . In response to the refusal of certain Arab tribes to pay the alms-tax ( zakat ), he is reported to have said: "By God, I will fight anyone who differentiates between the prayer and the zakat. ... Revelation has been discontinued, the Shari'ah has been completed: will the religion be curtailed while I am alive. ... I will fight these tribes even if they refuse to give
11880-587: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
12015-621: The essential dogmas: monotheism, Muhammad's prophecy, and the Last Judgment. He devoted "chapters to dealing with takfir and the reasons for which one can be accused of unbelief," in his work Fayasl al-tafriqa bayn al-Islam wa-l-zandaqa . On the other hand, there are a number of ways a Muslim may avoid being found guilty of apostasy. Giving pause to takfir accusations is the principle of fiqh (in Shafiʿi and other madhhabs ) that accusing or describing another devout Muslim of being an unbeliever
12150-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
12285-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
12420-568: The figure as 85%), to the extent that the term "Shīʿa" frequently refers to Twelvers by default. All mainstream Twelver and Ismāʿīlī Shīʿa Muslims follow the same school of thought, the Jaʽfari jurisprudence , named after Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq , the sixth Shīʿīte Imam . Zaydīs , also known as Fivers, follow the Zaydī school of thought (named after Zayd ibn ʿAlī ). Ismāʿīlīsm is another offshoot of Shīʿa Islam that later split into Nizārī and Musta'lī , and
12555-461: The four Sunni schools of law" during Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). CE), historian Amalia Levanoni found "more than half" led to the execution of the accused. These individuals included Sufis , Rafidi , Shi'a, reverts from Islam, "alleged blasphemers and sorcerers, rebels, political rivals and others, with charges often being trumped up."(Executions became more common and political during times of unrest.) 14th century scholar Ibn Taymiyyah takfired
12690-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
12825-417: The groups may not be well known to Muslims outside of scholarly circles, or may have induced enough passion to have resulted in political and religious violence ( Barelvi , Deobandi , Salafism , Wahhabism ). There are informal movements driven by ideas (such as Islamic modernism and Islamism ), as well as organized groups with governing bodies ( Ahmadiyya , Ismāʿīlism , Nation of Islam ). Some of
12960-431: The help of revelation. The Ashʿarītes affirm that the unaided human mind is unable to know if something is good or evil, lawful or unlawful, without divine revelation. The Atharī school derives its name from the word "tradition" as a translation of the Arabic word hadith or from the Arabic word athar , meaning "narrations". The traditionalist creed is to avoid delving into extensive theological speculation. They rely on
13095-667: The ideas of the medieval Islamic scholars Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Kathir , and those of the modern Islamist ideologues Sayyid Qutb and Abul A'la Maududi . Some Salafi jihadist insurgent organizations such as Takfir wal-Hijra , GIA , Boko Haram , and the Islamic State , have been engaged in radical Takfiri discourse. Their practice of takfīr has been denounced as deviant by the mainstream schools of Islam and various leaders such as Hasan al-Hudaybi (d. 1977) and Yusuf al-Qaradawi . The Arabic terms kufr ("unbelief") and kāfir ("unbeliever"), alongside other terms employing
13230-412: The identifiable Islamic schools and branches are known as non-denominational Muslims . Demographic distribution of the main three Islamic branches: Others In terms of Ihsan : Sunnī Islam , also known as Ahl as-Sunnah waʾl Jamāʾah or simply Ahl as-Sunnah , is by far the largest denomination of Islam, comprising around 85% of the Muslim population in the world. The term Sunnī comes from
13365-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
13500-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
13635-421: The late 20th and early 21st-centuries, to varying degrees. Since the latter half of the 20th century, takfīr has also been used for "sanctioning violence against leaders of Islamic states" who do not enforce sharia or are otherwise "deemed insufficiently religious". Politically motivated arbitrary declarations of takfīr became a "central ideology" of Egyptian-based Jihadist organizations, which were inspired by
13770-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
13905-695: The latter believing that he was only a religious reformer and a prophet only in an allegorical sense. Both Ahmadi groups are active in dawah or Islamic missionary work, and have produced vasts amounts of Islamic literature, including numerous translations of the Quran , translations of the Hadith, Quranic tafsirs , a multitude of sirahs of Muhammad , and works on the subject of comparative religion among others. As such, their international influence far exceeds their number of adherents. Muslims from more Orthodox sects of Islam have adopted many Ahmadi polemics and understandings of other religions, along with
14040-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
14175-431: The like, ... lawful and not acknowledging that it is forbidden," made the one declaring "an infidel". Kharijis or Kharijites "are unanimously regarded as the arch-takfiris" in Islamic history, known for their takfir and assassination of rashidun caliph Ali after he agreed to arbitration with his rival, Muawiyah I , to decide the succession to the Caliphate . (arbitration being a means for people to make decisions, while
14310-567: The main ones being the Ashʿarī and Māturīdī schools in Sunni Islam. Ashʿarīsm is a school of theology founded by Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī in the 10th century. The Ashʿarīte view was that comprehension of the unique nature and characteristics of God were beyond human capability. Ashʿarī theology is considered one of the orthodox creeds of Sunni Islam alongside the Māturīdī theology . Historically,
14445-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
14580-424: The nature of belief and the place of human reason. The Māturīdites state that imān (faith) does not increase nor decrease but remains static; rather it's taqwā (piety) which increases and decreases. The Ashʿarītes affirm that belief does in fact increase and decrease. The Māturīdites affirm that the unaided human mind is able to find out that some of the more major sins such as alcohol or murder are evil without
14715-795: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] {{main other| (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
14850-490: The official Muslim clergy considers that Islam does not sanction excommunication of Muslims who profess their Islamic faith and perform the ritual pillars of Islam . This is due to the fact that takfir that successfully convinces the judges (or Muslim vigilantes) of the accused being an apostate, traditionally leads to punishments of killing, confiscation of their property, and denial of Islamic burial . Ulamas often raise objections by asking rhetorical questions of who holds
14985-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
15120-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
15255-728: The position of caliph may be attained democratically, on gaining a majority of the votes, but after the Rashidun, the position turned into a hereditary dynastic rule because of the divisions started by the Umayyads and others. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, there has never been another caliph as widely recognized in the Muslim world . Followers of the classical Sunnī schools of jurisprudence and kalām (rationalistic theology) on one hand, and Islamists and Salafists such as Wahhabis and Ahle Hadith , who follow
15390-516: The promised Messiah (" Second Coming of Christ "), the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims as well as a "subordinate" prophet to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Ahmadis claim to practice the pristine form of Islam as followed by Muhammad and his earliest followers . They believe that it was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's task to restore the original sharia given to Muhammad by guiding the Ummah back to
15525-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within
15660-449: The religion) and shirk (polytheism), and consequently many self-professed Muslims were actually unbelievers. In the view of ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his followers (aka Wahhabis), Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
15795-411: The right to excommunicate others, on what religious criteria it should be based, and what level of specialized knowledge in Islamic jurisprudence ( fiqh ) is required for the qualification of authority. Some Muslims consider takfīr to be a prerogative only of either Muhammad — who does that through divine revelation and is no longer alive to do it — or of a state which represents the collectivity of
15930-427: The same triliteral root K-F-R appear. Since according to the traditional interpretations of Islamic law ( sharīʿa ) the punishment for apostasy is the death penalty , and potentially a cause of strife and violence within the Muslim community ( Ummah ), an ill-founded takfir accusation was a major forbidden act ( haram ) in Islamic jurisprudence , with one hadith declaring that one who wrongly declares
16065-496: The same triliteral root k-f-r , are found both in the Quran and the ḥadīth literature , but the term takfīr used to declare another Muslim as kāfir is found in neither. "The word takfīr was introduced in the post-Quranic period and was first done by the Khawarij ," according to J. E. Campo. The act which precipitates takfīr is termed mukaffir . A Muslim who declares another Muslim to be an unbeliever or apostate
16200-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
16335-524: The sharia", which the Mongols had done by continuing to follow their traditional Yasa law rather than sharia. The fatwa was important because the Mongols continued to attack after their conversion and the fatwa gave legitimacy to the Mamluk Jihad against them by "rendering the Mongols apostate", not Muslims, and jihad against them obligatory. "It is obligatory to fight them until they comply to all of
16470-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
16605-563: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
16740-475: The teaching lessons of Hasan al-Basri after a theological dispute. He and his followers expanded on the logic and rationalism of Greek philosophy , seeking to combine them with Islamic doctrines and show that the two were inherently compatible. The Muʿtazilites debated philosophical questions such as whether the Qur'an was created or co-eternal with God , whether evil was created by God, the issue of predestination versus free will , whether God's attributes in
16875-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
17010-668: The victor in a battle was determined by God). Kharijites believed that Muslims had the duty to revolt against any ruler who deviated from their interpretation of Islam or failed to manage Muslim's affairs with justice and consultation or committed a major sin. Murjites ( Murjiʾah : "Those Who Postpone") believed that no one who once professed Islam could be takfired, even if they committed mortal sins. Judgment on whether those who committed serious sins were Muslims or kafir should be "postponed" ( irjāʾ ), and left to God alone. This theology promoted tolerance of Umayyads and converts to Islam who appeared half-hearted in their obedience. It emerged as
17145-700: The word sunnah , which means the teachings, actions, and examples of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his companions ( ṣaḥāba ). Sunnīs believe that Muhammad did not specifically appoint a successor to lead the Muslim community (Ummah) before his death in 632 CE, however they approve of the private election of the first companion, Abū Bakr . Sunnī Muslims regard the first four caliphs— Abū Bakr (632–634), ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (Umar І, 634–644), ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (644–656), and ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (656–661)—as al-Khulafāʾ ur-Rāshidūn ("the Rightly-Guided Caliphs"). Sunnīs also believe that
17280-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
17415-528: The world. Some of their doctrines were later adopted by the Mu'tazilis and rejected by the Ash'aris . In direct contrast to the Qadariyyah , Jabriyah was an early Islamic philosophical school based on the belief that humans are controlled by predestination , without having choice or free will. The Jabriya school originated during the Umayyad dynasty in Basra . The first representative of this school
17550-450: Was Al-Ja'd ibn Dirham who was executed in 724. The term is derived from the Arabic root j-b-r, in the sense which gives the meaning of someone who is forced or coerced by destiny. The term Jabriyah was also a derogatory term used by different Islamic groups that they considered wrong, The Ash'ariyah used the term Jabriyah in the first place to describe the followers of, Jahm ibn Safwan who died in 746, in that they regarded their faith as
17685-494: Was an exponent of extreme determinism according to which a man acts only metaphorically in the same way in which the sun acts or does something when it sets. Bāṭiniyyah is a name given to an allegoristic type of scriptural interpretation developed among some Shia groups, stressing the bāṭin (inward, esoteric) meaning of texts. It has been retained by all branches of Isma'ilism and its Druze offshoot. Alevism , Bektashism and folk religion , Hurufis and Alawites practice
17820-620: Was cited by at least one insurgent ( Muhammad abd-al-Salam Faraj ) as justification for killing Muslim leaders who did not follow sharia. Ibn Taymiyyah influenced/impressed Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292–1350 AD) and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792 AD), and all three "quoted frequently" by the media of the contemporary Takfiri group ISIS. 18th century revivalist Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab cited Ibn Taymiyyah in his preaching and his followers slew many Muslims for allegedly kufr practices. Wahhab alleged that many Muslim practices that had become mainstream traditions were bid'a (innovation of
17955-480: Was disputed over the political and religious succession to the guidance of the Muslim community ( Ummah ) after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad . From their essentially political position, the Kharijites developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Sunnī and Shīʿa Muslims. Shīʿas believe ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib is the true successor to Muhammad, while Sunnīs consider Abu Bakr to hold that position. The Kharijites broke away from both
18090-723: Was making a decision rightfully belonging to God. In contrast, the victor of a battle was determined by God. In the wars between the Umayyad Caliphate and the Khawarijs , the latter's practice of takfir became the justification for their indiscriminate attacks on civilian Muslims; the more moderate Sunni view of takfir developed partly in response to this conflict. In the Umayyad and early Abbasid periods (roughly 661–800 CE), authorities "appear" to have defended Islam against apostasy "mostly" with "intellectual debates". During
18225-505: Was the first of these Imams and the rightful successor to Muhammad, and thus reject the legitimacy of the first three Rāshidūn caliphs. Shīʿīte groups and movements who either ascribe divine characteristics to some important figures in the history of Islam (usually members of Muhammad's family, the Ahl al-Bayt ) or hold beliefs deemed deviant by mainstream Shīʿa Muslims were designated as Ghulat . Kharijite (literally, "those who seceded") are an extinct sect who originated during
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