It simply means stage. The division of the Koranic suras on the basis of manzil is made to facilitate the reading of the entire Koran within a week. The manzil are seven in number as follows:-

1. Sura Fatiha (1) to Sura Nisa (4)

2. Sura Maida (5) to Sura Tauba (9)

3. Sura Yunus (10) to Sura Nahl (16)

4. Sura Bani Israel (17) to Sura Furqan (25)

5. Sura Shora (26) to Sura Yasin (36)

6. Sura Safaat (37) to Sura Hujurat (49), and

It means what God does, is well done. It is usually uttered at the end of an act and reminds us that, ultimately, whatever comes from God, and that whatever is realized is not by human effort alone but through His Will.

Masiyaf is a town of central Syria on the eastern side of the Jabal al-Nusairia, situated at 33 miles to the east of Baniyas and 28 miles to the east of Hammah. The word masiyaf is derived from the second form verb sayyafa means to pass the summer. The pronunciation and orthography of the name varies between the form, Masyad, Masyaf, Mayat, Masyath, Masyab, Masyah and Messiat. The stronghold of Masiyaf lies to the northeast of the settlement, at the foot of the Jabal al-Bahra.

The word masjid is derived from sajd (prostration), thus it means the place of prostration. The English word mosque derives via French mosquee, the old French mousquaie, the old Italian moschea and moscheta, while moschee in German and mescit in Turkish - all came from the Arabic via Spanish mezquita. In East Africa, the mosque is commonly spoken of in Swahili as msikiti (pl. misikiti). In Indonesia, it is pronounced as mesigit, masigit and maseghit. The Chinese call it Ch'ing-chen ssu.

The status of women in Islam, especially with regards to such issues as marriage, inheritance, veiling and seclusion has received a great deal of scholarly attention. For women, the mosque meant access to almost every aspect of public life. Debarring or limiting their access means restricting their participation in public life. Gender segregation, as seen in most mosques today, is such a limitation, for it limits women's full access.

The temple of Jerusalem is honoured in the Koran (17:1) as al-majid al-Aqsa (lit. the remote mosque). The sacredness of Jerusalem is emphasized on numerous places. Abraham migrated to the land of Canaanite around 1805 BC. The Koran states: "And We made them the greater losers. But We delivered him and (his nephew) Lot (and directed them) to the land which We have blessed for the nations" (21: 69-71). The Koran reports Moses telling his people: "O my people!

The Kaba stands in the center of a parallelogram whose dimensions are as follows: North-west side 545 feet, south-east side 553 feet, north-east side 360 feet and south-west side 364 feet. This are is known as al-Masjid al-Haram, or the Sacred Mosque, the famous mosque in Mecca. In the Koran this name occurs in revelations of the early Meccan period, as in 17:1. The area of the Sacred Mosque contains, besides the Kaba, the Maqam Ibrahim and the Zamzam buildings.

MASJID-I NABWI [ see MASJID ]

The word ma'sum is derived from the verb asama, means prevented, hindered, protected, defended, preserved, etc. Hence, ma'sum means one who is incapable of error and sin. In Islamic theology, the Arabic term isma both impeccability and closely related notion of infallibility, which is not an inherent quality, but rather a divine gift bestowed on the Prophets and Imams.

See Immunity of Prophets and Immunity of Imams

"The very object of the raising up of the prophets and Imams makes it clear that they themselves must be free from the bondage of sin or error, and thus, the doctrine of the infallibility or immunity has therefore always been an admitted principle of Islam.

"The Shi'ites believe in the infallibility of their Imams, for their Imams were the highest example of man's perfection. They explain it as protection from sin and is specific quality of the Imams, who are infallible or immune (immunity from error and sin). Once Ali bin Abu Talib said, "By God, if I was given the seven regions and what is under their orbits to disobey God through taking a grain of barley from the mouth of a locust, I would not do that."

The word mata salamat means mother of peace. This is a unique title awarded only to three mothers of different Imams during last thirteen hundred years, such as Sarcar Bibi Marium Khatoon, Lady Aly Shah and Umm Habibeh.

Mlle Blanche Yvette Labrousse, the widow of Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah was born on February 15, 1906 in Sete, near Marseilles. Her parent moved to Cannes when she was a baby. Her father was a tram-conductor. She always remembered her parent for the moral code instilled in her. She was granted the title of Miss Lyon and became Miss France in 1930 in a nation-wide beauty contest, and in the same year she went to Rio de Janiero to represent her country at an international event.

When the Prophet summoned the nations the message of Islam, one of his letters was addressed to Shurahbil bin Amr, the ruler of Ghassan, and the vassal of Caesar of Rome. The letter of the Prophet was carried by Harith bin Umayr, who was killed at a place called Mauta, a village not far from Balka in Syria. The murder of the Muslim envoy by a feudatory of the Roman empire was an outrage, which could not be passed over in silence.

"The Shi'ites from Iran were not granted equal status by their Arab co-citizens in the social system of Kufa, and thus they were called mawali (sing. mawla) means clients, a term to indicate inferior social standing, or second-class citizens. The expression mawla at the latest stage of its evolution means the people descended from foreign families whose ancestors, or even they themselves, on accepting Islam, have been adopted into an Arab tribe, either as freed slaves or freeborn aliens.

Some 127 meanings of the word mawla have been given in the lexicons, notably master, lord, or one who deserves superior authority, guardian or patron. The Koran says, "God is Guardian (mawla), and He gives life to the dead" (42:9) and "He is your Master (mawla); how excellent the Master (mawla) and how excellent the Helper!" (22:70). The word mawla occurs in different forms in the Koran, such as mawali (4:33.

The soul is the principle of life, which leaves the body at the moment of death. Human life is not the individual's property but a divine gift to be used in God's service or to be dedicated to a divine cause or to God Himself. Death is no longer the end of life, but only the end of the appointed period (ajal) in which humans are tested in the world. Death in this perspective is simply the end of a testing period and a threshold, which must necessarily passed.

"He was born in Ahwaz in Iran. He belonged to the Makhzumi clan and was the mawla (freed slave) of Imam Muhammad al-Bakir and Imam Jafar Sadik. His surname al-Qaddah is usually taken to mean oculist, which seems extremely doubtful. It is a word connected with al-qidah i.e., an ancient Arab play or a form of divination with the help of arrows. Tusi (d.

The word mazhar is derived from zahr meaning to manifest or become apparent. Thus, the mazhar means epiphanic form, or more accurately theophany, that is to say a manifestation of God. In Ismaili tariqah, the Imam is the mazhar, who bears Divine Light in the terrestrial world. He is the most perfect expression of the divine hypostasis because in him the theomorphosis is fully realized and the Absolute becomes manifest to mortal eyes.

The city in the Arabian peninsula that was the birthplace of the Prophet of Islam, which due to the presence of the Kaba therein, is revered as one of the holy cities in Islamic culture. Mecca was also known as Makuraba. Mecca is explicitly mentioned twice in two relatively passages of the Koran (in 48:24, makka; and in 3:96 spelt bakka).

"The Treaty of Hudaibia had been nearly two years in force. Acting on the discretion allowed by the treaty, Banu Khazao and Banu Bakr, inhabiting Mecca and its neighborhood, the former had become the allies of the Prophet, the latter had entered into an alliance with Qoraish. These two rival tribes had been fighting among them for a long time. Aided by a party of Qoraish, Banu Bakr attacked by night an unsuspecting encampment of Banu Khazao, and slew several of them.

Medina, one of the major settlements of the Hijaz and some 350 km to the north of Mecca, was in pre-Islamic times commonly called Yathrib (the Iathrippa of the Greek geographers). The town is named in the Koran (33:13) where the Medinan Muslims are addressed as "people of Yathrib" (ahl yathrib). This name was also in vogue in pre-Islamic poetry and in the Constitution of Medina.

Meditation is a deep religious thought over a particular subject. It is a strenuous spiritual exercise requiring composure of mind, internal quietitude, abstraction from sense and persistent concentration of attention. It can also be defined briefly as devotion or contemplation in a particular pious direction. The term is invariably used in an esoteric sense and associated with human indulgence in establishing communion with the Divine.

"The word mehmani means hospitality. When one makes a private audience with the Imam, it is called mehmani, and before that he presents a najwa (offering) to the Imam. There are different words in Persian for the hospitality, viz. mehman-dari, mehman-parwari and mehman nawazi. Thus the proper word mehmani means an entertainment, banquet, feast or hospitality.

The First MicroFinance Bank Ltd (FMFBL) is the Pakistan's first private sector micro credit institution licensed by State Bank of Pakistan under the Microfinance Ordinance, 2001. The Ordinance defines that the FMFBL borrowers are those whose annual income is below the taxable limit.

MIRACLE [ see MUJIZAH ]

The word miraj is derived from uruj means to ascend. The Koran (70:4) says, "To Him ascend the angels and soul" (taruljul malaikatu war'ruhi ilaihi), and in 97:4: "Angels and soul (from Him) descend (tanz'zalul malaikatu wa'ruhi), and also in 70:3: "Lord of the ways of ascent" (minal'lahi zil ma'arij).

The reform introduced by Islam into the rules relating to inheritance is twofold; it makes the female a co-sharer with the male, and divides the property of the deceased person among his heirs on a democratic basis, instead of handling it all over to the eldest son, as is done by the law of primogeniture.

Qadi Noman mentioned the shares of inheritance, and then took up the question of their mathematical calculation in certain circumstances.

The share laid down by Ahl al-Bayt belongs to two cardinal groups: (I) the shares are fixed by the Koran, and the residue (ma baqiya) is to be distributed in accordance with certain rules; and (II) the shares are fixed by the Koran, and the residue returns to certain heirs in definite proportions.
PRINCIPLE ONE

The word ism (pl. asma) is derived from wasim meaning dyeing or spotting. Another view suggests that its root is samu meaning elevation or prominence. The Koran says, “And He gave Adam the knowledge of asma” (2:31). In the New Testament, the Opening sentence of St. John reads: “In the beginning was the “word” and the “word” was with God, and the “word” was God.” Paul Brunton writes that, “The “word” represents the very first motion of the Creative Power.

"The word isqat means abortion. Classical Muslim jurists applied a number of terms to abortion, including isqat, ijhadIt, tarh, ilqa and imlas. The Koran does not make reference to abortion as the term is commonly understood, although it upholds the sanctity of human life in general (5:32) and forbid the killing of children (17:31) and female infants (81:18-9) in particular.

The verb istakhbara is used forty times in the Koran and its participle, mustakbir, six times. Pride (takabbur) is very often denounced by the Koran as a sin, because of its similarity to a form of partnership with God. Pride is the sin of all those who refuse to surrender to God. It was also Satan's first sin (2:34, 38:73-4).

"The death of Imam Jafar Sadik in 148/765 marked the beginning of the decentralization of Shi'ite religious authority. The Ithna Asharites or the Twelvers, the Shi'ite sect supported Musa Kazim as their next Imam after Imam Jafar Sadik. Musa Kazim was born in 128/745 on the road between Mecca and Medina. His mother was a Berbar slave, called Hamida. Throughout the whole of his life, Musa was faced with hostility from the Abbasids.

"Jafar bin Mansur, the son of Ibn Hawshab was greatly distressed by the internal quarrels in which his brother, Abul Hasan Mansur played a conspiracy in killing Abdullah bin Abbas al-Shawiri in Yamen. Jafar bin Mansur was deadly against his brother and went to Maghrib at the Fatimid court. He reached Maghrib when Imam al-Mahdi had died in 322/934. He was however well received by Imam al-Qaim and his services were amply rewarded and was given the charge of mission.

"Abu Abdullah Jafar bin Muhammad was born in 80/699 at Medina. Ibn Khallikan (1:327) and others determine his birth from the event of Amm al-Juhaf (the year of the flood) in Mecca, which according to Tabari (2:320) occurred in 80/699. According to the Arabic lexicon, jafar means stream. His father had referred to him "the best of all mankind" and "one in charge of the family of Muhammad" (qaim al-Muhammad).

The word jahannam is derived from jihinnam means a deep pit, and as it is said in Arabic: bir'un jahannam'un means a well whose depth is very great. The word jahannam occurs 77 times in the Koran. Another name for hell, which bears a similar significance, but occurs only once in the Koran, is hawiya (101:9) means an abyss or a pit having no bottom, the root being hawa which means falling down to a depth from a highest and hence according to Raghib, it refers to low desires.

(continued)

Remedial nature of hell

The word jahiliyya means ignorance, which is taken to refer to the pre-Islamic period. It was the age of tribalism and is reckoned to cover the period of about a century before the advent of Islam. In pre-Islamic literature, and to a considerable degree in the Koran, the word from the root j-h-l means not ignorance but something like barbarism. The term jahiliyya occurs four times in the Koran (33:33, 48:26, 5:50 and 3:154).

The Divine Qualities can be divided into two groups, jalal (majesty) and jamal (beauty). Majesty, the revelation of which burns and consumes the worlds, is in one aspect rigorous, severe. Beauty on other hand is the synthesis of mercy, generosity, compassion and all analogous qualities. God has a jalal side and jamal side, the aspects of Powerful Majesty and Wonderful Kindness, and that these two fall together in Him as kamal or perfection. Jalal is a masculine aspect, the Overpowering.

"Hasan, surnamed Jalaluddin was born in 583/1187. He is also called as Hasan III. During his childhood, his father had designated him as his successor. According to John Malcolm in History of Persia (London, 1815, 1:405), "He is celebrated in Persian history for the kindness and generosity of his disposition; and we are informed that this prince of the Ismailis was the handsomest man for his age".

"A'isha had long hated Ali, and wished that, when the aged Uthman died, her own kinsman, Zubayr, should become caliph. When Uthman was assassinated, she was not in Medina, having gone to Mecca a few weeks previously to perform the pilgrimage. The news of Uthman's murder reached her when she was on the way back. She returned immediately to Mecca and incited the citizens against Ali. The fiery address set a match to the smouldering fire of discontent.

The word jamatkhana means communal house or communal gathering place. The Persian word khana means house or place, such as khana'i chaslm (the socket of the eyes), khana'i zumbur (a bee-hive) or khana'i murgh (a bird's nest). The Jamatkhana is a concrete expression of the response to the beliefs that are an integral part of Ismailism. It represents the physical space in which the community gathers together in a shared process of communication.

Paradise, the abode of the righteous in the hereafter, is called in the Koran, al-janna, meaning the garden. It occurs under this name over hundred times. In addition to this figure, the Koran uses the same word janna in the sense of an earthy garden for 26 times and six times for the original garden in which Adam and Eve lived before the fall.

"Jawhar as-Siqilli was born most probably between 298/911 and 300/913 in Sicily, the then island under occupation of the Byzantines. During the period of Imam al-Mansur, Jawhar was brought as a slave to Kairwan and was presented before the Imam. Realizing his potential, he was made as a personal attendant of Imam al-Mansur, and soon rose to prominence. In 341/932, Imam al-Muizz appointed him as his Katib and since then, he became known as Jawhar al-Katib.

The word jazia is explained as meaning the tax that is taken from the free non-Muslim subjects of a Muslim government, being derived from jaza, means he gave satisfaction or he compensated him for a certain thing, or for what he had done. In Koran, it is spoken of only once, and there in connection with war with the followers of the Book: "Fight those who do not believe in God

According to the Koran, the angel who brought revelation to the Prophet is known by the name of Jibrail (2:98). The Arabic form of jibril, which is composed of jibr, meaning abd or servant, and il, meaning God. The word jibrail occurs three times in the Koran (2:97-98, 66:4). Jibrail is also mentioned as Ruh al-Amin (26:193-4), means the divine soul, and also Ruh al-Qudus (16:102), means the holy spirit. In hadith, Jibrail is spoken of as al-Namus al-Akbar (the great angel).

The word jihad is derived from jahd or juhd means to strive, exert oneself or take extraordinary pains. Jihad is a verbal noun of the third Arabic form of the root jahada, which is defined classically as exerting one's utmost power, efforts, endeavours or ability in contending with an object of disapprobation. The word jihad is used 36 times in the Koran, and the derivatives of the root occur in 41 Koranic verses. Five of these contain the phrase, jahd aymanihim meaning strong oath.