LAUGHING

Arabic ẓaḥk , ẓiḥk ( ضحك‎ ). Heb. ‏צָחַק‎ . ( Gen. xviii. 13 .) Immoderate laughing is generally condemned by Muḥammadan teachers, for ʿĀyishah relates that Muḥammad “never laughed a full laugh so that the inside of his mouth could be seen; he only smiled.” ( Mishkāt , book xxii. ch. vii.) AL -LAUḤU ʾL-MAḤFŪZ̤ ( اللوح المحفوظ‎ ). “The preserved tablet.” In the Ḥadīs̤ and in theological works it is used to denote the tablet on which the decrees of God were recorded with reference to mankind. In the Qurʾān it only occurs once, when it refers to the Qurʾān itself. Sūrah lxxxv. 21, 22 : “It is a glorious Qurʾān written on the preserved table .” The plural alwāḥ occurs in Sūrah vii. 142 , for the tables of the law given to Moses.