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Islam
"Submission" to God; surrendering to the will God
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Muslim
One who submists to God
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Allah
The Arabic term for God
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Greater Jihad
Internal struggle one experiences everyday to obtain state of piety.
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Lesser Jihad
Struggle for social justice, human rights that at times might require fighting
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Imam
In Shia Islam, descendents of the Prophet through Ali and Fatima who inherit the religious authority of Muhammad. In Sunni Islam, imam is the term for the worship leader in a mosque.
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Ummah
Term used in the Qur'an to refer to Muhammad's followers. May have meant "community" "nation" or "people" . Some scholars suggests it is derived from the word for "mother"
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5 Pillars of Islam
Constitute the principal ritual activities of the Muslim faith; they are a summary not just of what is required to be a member of the Ummah, but also what it means to be a Muslim.
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Sawm
Fasting during the month of Ramadan from sunrise until sunset
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Sharia
Literally, the way to the water hole. The way to life; Islamic Law.
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Muhammad
(570-632) "Seal of te Prophets" the founder Islam. Considered to be the final prophet and messenger, who received the Qur'an from God through the angel Gabriel.
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Qur'an
The supreme authority and the central text of Islam. Considered to be words of God given to Muhammad.
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Hadith
A saying or act ascribed to Muhammad
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Ayah
"Sign" a verse of the Qur'an; plural, ayat
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Caliph
"The successor to the Messenger of God" this is a secular position that resembled that of the traditional tribal Shaykh whose chief responsibility was to maintain the unity and the stability of the Ummah.
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Ulama
"Learned ones" a class of Islamic religious scholars
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Sunni
A major division of Islam, which regards the four "rightly-guided caliphs" as the legitimate successsors of Muhammad.
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Theology
The religious practice of making meaning about the nature of God/ creating an understanding of God
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Faith (Iman)
Iman is certainty about the reality of God and the peace and security that comes from it
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Grace
God given gift of eternal salvation granted to the individual
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Immanent
Dwelling within, pervading, a belief in God's immanence hold that the divine is present to human experience.
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Predestination
The doctrine, usually associated with Calvinism, that each person's salvation or damnation has been pre-determined by God and that one can do nothing to change it
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Theocratic
Divinely ruled; under theocratic governance a state is ruled by clerical authority and its principles are determined by religious priorities.
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Shia
A major division of Islam, which regards Muhammad's son-in-law Ali as his rightful successor as well as Ali's descendents, the Imams.
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Secularism
An ideology based on the eradication of religion from public life.
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Al-Jahiliyya
"Age of Ignorance" This term refers to pre-Islamic Arabia, when the tribal communities lived with only an inkling of God's divine message before the revelation of the Qur'an
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Henotheism
The belief in a single "High God" without the explicit rejection of other lower gods.
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Ka'ba
The ancient sanctuary at Mecca that housed the tribal deities of the Hijaz before being cleansed by Muhammad and rededicated to Allah
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Tawhid
Oneness of God and humanity
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Taqwa
Awareness of God and that piety is the highest state of being, thereby bringing salvation
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Ghiflah
Forgetfulness. An Islamic theological explanation concerning the idea of "sin" When we sin, we merely "forget" who we are.
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Hawa
Caprice, is manifestation of Satan within us and is the worst false god to worship. The opposite of Caprice is intelligence (Aql)
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Hira
The cave in Arabia in which Muhammad received God's revelation through the Angel Gabriel.
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Shirk
Means associating others with God. (Idolatry or polytheism). This is among one of the gravest sins. The opposite of Shirk is Tawhid
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Sufism
A mystical and esoteric form of Islam. Members of this community seek to turn away from the corrupt material world in efforts to draw nearer to God's divine presence.
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Dhimmi
(protected people) Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims who lived within Islamic state. They had full rights to practice their faiths and implement their own laws in their communities
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Pan-Islamism
A reformist agenda based on fusing Western democratic ideals with traditional Islamic principles. Goal was the encouragement of Muslim unity across culture, sectarian, and national boundaries. The revival of the Ummah.
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The Four Righty Guided Caliphs
The first four caliphs following the rule of the Prophet Muhammad over the Ummah: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali.
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Westoxification
Dubbed by the Iranian social critic Jalal Al-e Ahmad, this refers to the rapid spread of Western cultural hegemony in the developing coutries of the Middle East and North Africa
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Wahhabism
Launched by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, this radically puritanical and fundamentalist sect of Islam sought to strip Islam of its superstitious innovations and restore it to its original Arab purity.
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al-Qaeda
A group of Muslim extremists who began as a small group of Saudi dissidents who took up the original revolutionary ideology of Wahhabism and turned against the Sanid royal family.
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Bismillah irrahman irrahim
"In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful"
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Shahada
means attestation, bearing witness. "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God."
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Valayat-e Faqih
Created by Ayatollah Khomeini and literally meaning "Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists" The Faqih, the most learned religious authority in Iran, was initially given the primary function of ensuring the Islamic quality of the state of Iran. Yet the Faqih was transformed into a supreme political authority of the state.
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