SEVEN DIALECTS

Arabic Sabʿatu Aḥruf ( سبعة احرف‎ ). The Prophet is related to have said that the Qurʾān was revealed in seven dialects ( Mishkāt , book ii. ch. ii.). The word aḥruf , translated “dialects,” may admit of two interpretations . Some understand it to mean that the Qurʾān contains seven kinds of revelation: Commandment ( amr ), prohibition ( nahy ), history ( qiṣṣah ), parable ( mis̤āl ), exhortation ( waʿz̤ ), promises ( waʿdah ), and threatening ( waʿīd ). But the more common interpretation of aḥruf is “dialects,” by which is understood that by changing the inflections and accentuations of words, the text of the Qurʾān may be read in the then existing “seven dialects” of Arabia, namely, Quraish, T̤aiy, Hawāzin, Yaman, S̤aqīf, Huẕail, Tamīm. [ QURʾAN .] SEVEN SALĀMS. Seven verses of the Qurʾān, in which the word salām ( سلام‎ ), “peace,” occurs:— Sūrah xxxvi. 58 : “ Peace shall be the word spoken unto the righteous by a merciful God.” Sūrah xxxvii. 77 : “ Peace be on Noah and on all creatures.” Sūrah xxxvii. 109 : “ Peace be on Abraham.” Sūrah xxxvii. 120 : “ Peace be on Moses and Aaron.” Sūrah xxxvii. 130 : “ Peace be on Elias.” Sūrah xxxvii. 181 : “ Peace be on His apostles.” Sūrah xcvii. 5 : “It is peace until the breaking of the morn.” These verses are recited by the religious Muslim during sickne , or in seasons of danger or distre . In some parts of Islām it is customary to write these seven verses of the Qurʾān on paper and then to wash off the ink and drink it as a charm against evil. SHAʿBĀN ( شعبان‎ ). Lit . “The month of separation.” The eighth month of the Muḥammadan year. So-called because the Arabs used to separate themselves in search of water during this month. SHAB-I-BARĀT ( شب برات‎ ). The Persian title for the fifteenth day of the month Shaʿbān, which is called in Arabic Lailatu ʾn-niṣf min Shaʿbān , or “the night of the middle of Shaʿbān.” On this night, Muḥammad said, God registers annually all the actions of mankind which they are to perform during the year; and that all the children of men, who are to be born and to die in the year, are recorded. Muḥammad, it is said, enjoined his followers to keep awake the whole night, to repeat one hundred rakʿah prayers, and to fast the next day; but there are generally great rejoicings instead of a fast, and large sums of money are spent in fireworks. It is the “Guy Fawkes Day” of India, being the night for display of fireworks. The Shab-i-Barāt is said to be referred to in the XLIV th Sūrah of the Qurʾān, verse 2, as “the night on which all things are disposed in wisdom,” although the commentators are not agreed as to whether the verse alludes to this night or the Shab-i-Qadr , on the 27th of the month of Ramaẓān. The Shab-i-Barāt is frequently confounded with the Lailatu ʾl-Qadr , or, as it is called in India, the Shab-i-Qadr . SHAB-I-QADR ( شب قدر‎ ). [ LAILATU ʾL-QADR .] SHĀDI ( شادى‎ ). Persian. Lit . “Festivity.” The ordinary term used for weddings amongst Persian and Urdu-speaking peoples. In Arabic the term is ʿurs ( عرس‎ ). [ MARRIAGE .] SHADĪDU ʾL-QUWĀ ( شديد القوى‎ ). Lit . “One terrible in power.” A title given to the agent of inspiration in the Sūratu ʾn-Najm (liii.), verse 5: “Verily the Qurʾān is no other than a revelation revealed to him: one terrible in power ( shadīdu ʾl-quwā ) taught it him.” Commentators are unanimous in a igning this title to the angel Gabriel. SHAFʿ ( شفع‎ ). A term used for rakʿahs of prayer when recited in pairs. SHAFĀʿAH ( شفاعة‎ ). [ INTERCESSION .] ASH -SHĀFIʿĪ ( الشافعى‎ ). Imām Muḥammad ibn Idrīs ash-Shāfiʿī, the founder of one of the four orthodox sects of Sunnīs, was born at Askalon in Palestine A.H . 150. He was of the same tribe as the Prophet, and is distinguished by the appellation of al-Imāmu ʾl-Mut̤t̤alibī, or Quraish Mut̤t̤alibī, because of his descent from the Prophet’s grandfather, ʿAbdu ʾl-Mut̤t̤alib. He derived his patronymic ash-Shāfiʿī from his grandfather, Shāfiʿī Ibn as-Sāʾib. His family were at first among the most inveterate of Muḥammad’s enemies. His father, carrying the standard of the tribe of Hāshim at the battle of Badr, was taken prisoner by the Muslims, but released on ransom, and afterwards became a convert to Islām. Ash-Shāfiʿī is reported by Muslim writers to be the most accurate of all the traditionists, and, if their accounts be well founded, nature had indeed endowed him with extraordinary talents for excelling in that species of literature. It is said that at seven years of age he had got the whole Qurʾān by rote, at ten he had committed to memory the Muwat̤t̤aʾ of Mālik, and at fifteen he obtained the rank of Muftī. He pa ed the earlier part of his life at Gaza, in Palestine (which has occasioned many to think he was born in that place); there he completed his education and afterwards removed to Makkah. He came to Bag͟hdād A.H . 195, where he gave lectures on the traditions, and composed his first work, entitled al-Uṣūl . From Bag͟hdād he went on a pilgrimage to Makkah, and from thence afterwards pa ed into Egypt, where he met with Imām Mālik . It does not appear that he ever returned from that country, but spent the remainder of his life there, dividing his time between the exercises of religion, the instruction of the ignorant, and the composition of his later works. He died at Cairo A.H . 204. Although he was forty-seven years of age before he began to publish, and died at fifty-four, his works are more voluminous than those of any other Muslim doctor. He was a great enemy to the scholastic divines, and most of his productions (especially upon theology), were written with a view to controvert their absurdities. He is said to have been the first who reduced the science of Jurisprudence into a regular system, and to have made a systematic collection of traditions. Imām Ḥambal remarks that until the time of ash-Shāfiʿī men did not know how to distinguish between the traditions that were in force and those that were cancelled. His first work was, as before-mentioned, the Uṣūl , or “fundamentals,” containing all the principles of the Muslim civil and canon law. His next literary productions were the Sunan and Masnad , both works on the traditional law, which are held in high estimation among the Sunnīs. His works upon practical divinity are various, and those upon theology consist of fourteen volumes. His tomb is still to be seen at Cairo, where the famous Ṣalāḥu ʾd-dīn afterwards ( A.H . 587) founded a college for the preservation of his works and the propagation of his doctrines. The mosque at Ḥīrah was built by Sultān G͟hiyās̤u ʾd-Dīn for the same purpose. Imām ash-Shāfiʿī is said to have been a person of acute discernment and agreeable conversation. His reverence for God was such that he never was heard to mention his name except in prayer. His manners were mild and ingratiating, and he reprobated all unnece ary morosene or severity in a teacher, it being a saying of his that whoever advised his brother tenderly and in private did him a service, but that public reproof could only operate as a reproach. His principal pupils were Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥambal and az-Zuhairī, the former of whom afterwards founded a sect . [ HANBAL .] The Shāfiʿī sect of Sunnīs is chiefly met with in Egypt and Arabia. SHAG͟HĀR ( شغار‎ ). A double treaty of marriage common amongst the pagan Arabs, viz. the man marrying the sister or daughter of another, and in return giving his sister or daughter in order to avoid paying the usual dower. It is strictly forbidden by the Muḥammadan religion (see Mishkāt , book xii. ch. 11), although it is even now practised by the people of Central Asia. SHĀH ( شاه‎ ). Persian. “A King.” A title usually given to members of the Ascetic order, and to Saiyids, as Faqīr Shāh, Akbar Shāh. It has, however, become a common addition to surnames, both in India and other countries, and no longer denotes a position of dignity. SHAHĀDAH ( شهادة‎ ). “Evidence.” [ WITNESSES .] Martyrdom. [ MARTYRS .] SHAHĪD ( شهيد‎ ). [ MARTYRS , WITNESS .] ASH -SHAHĪD ( الشهيد‎ ). “The Witne .” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. It frequently occurs in the Qurʾān for the Almighty ( e.g . Sūrah iii. 93 ) as one who seeth all things. SHĀHINSHĀH ( شاهنشاه‎ ). A Persian title given to the King of Persia—“King of Kings.” It is a title strictly forbidden in Traditions, in which it is related that Muḥammad said “ ‘King of Kings’ is the vilest name you can call a man, for there is no other King of Kings but God.” ( Mishkāt , book xxii. ch. viii.) SHAIK͟H ( شيخ‎ ), pl. shuyūk͟h , ashyāk͟h , or mashāyik͟h . A venerable old man. A man above fifty years of age. A man of authority. A superior of an order of Darweshes. Shayk͟hu ʾl-Islām , a title given to the chief Maulawī or Qāẓī of the cities of Constantinople, Cairo, Damascus, . SHAIT̤ĀN ( شيطان‎ ). [ DEVIL .] SHAJJAH ( شجة‎ ), pl. shijāj . [ WOUNDS .]