LUNATIC

The Arabic majnūn ( مجنون‎ ) includes all mad persons, whether born idiots, or persons who have become insane. According to Muḥammadan law, a lunatic is not liable to punishment for robbery, or to retaliation for murder. Zakāt (legal alms) is not to be taken from him, nor is he to be slain in war. The apostasy of a lunatic does not amount to a change of faith, as in all matters, both civil and religious, he is not to be held responsible to either God or man. An idiot or fool is generally regarded in the East by the common people, as an inspired being. Mr. Lane, in his Modern Egyptians , says, “Most of the reputed saints of Egypt are either lunatics, or idiots, or impostors.” A remark which will equally apply to India and Central Asia. LUQMĀN ( لقمان‎ ). A person of eminence, known as Luqmānu ʾl-Ḥakīm , or Luqmān the Philosopher, mentioned in the Qurʾān as one upon whom God had bestowed wisdom. Sūrah xxx i. 11–19 : “Of old we bestowed wisdom upon Luqmān, and taught him thus —‘Be thankful to God: for whoever is thankful, is thankful to his own behoof; and if any shall be thankle .… God truly is self-sufficient, worthy of all praise!’ And bear in mind when Luqmān said to his son by way of warning, ‘O my son! join not other gods with God, for the joining gods with God is the great impiety. O my son! observe prayer, and enjoin the right and forbid the wrong, and be patient under whatever shall betide thee: for this is a bounden duty. And distort not thy face at men; nor walk thou loftily on the earth; for God loveth no arrogant vain-glorious one. But let thy pace be middling; and lower thy voice: for the least pleasing of voices is surely the voice of a es.’ See ye not how that God hath put under you all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth, and hath been bounteous to you of his favours, both for soul and body. But some are there who dispute of God without knowledge, and have no guidance and no illuminating Book.” Commentators are not agreed as to whether Luqmān is an inspired prophet or not. Ḥusain says most of the learned think he was a philosopher, and not a prophet. Some say he was the son of Bāʿūr, and a nephew of Job, being his sister’s son; others that he was a nephew of Abraham; others that he was born in the time of King David, and lived until the time of Jonah, being one you sand years of age. Others, that he was an African slave and a shepherd amongst the Israeli tes. Some say he was a tailor, others a carpenter. He is admitted by all Arabian historians to have been a fabulist and a writer of proverbs, and consequently European authors have concluded that he must be the same person whom the Greeks, not knowing his real name, have called Æsop, i.e . Æthiops. Mr. Sale says: “The commentators mention several quick repartees of Luqmān, which (together with the circumstances above mentioned) agrees so well with what Maximus Planudes has written of Æsop, that from thence, and from the fables attributed to Luqmān by the Orientals, the latter has been generally thought to be no other than the Æsop of the Greeks. However that be (for I think the matter will bear a dispute), I am of opinion that Planudes borrowed a great part of his life of Æsop from the traditions he met with in the East concerning Luqmān, concluding them to have been the same person, because they were both slaves, and supposed to be the writers of those fables which go under their respective names, and bear a great resemblance to one another; for it has long since been observed by learned men, that the greater part of that monk’s performance is an absurd romance, and supported by no evidence of the ancient writers.” Dr. Sprenger thinks Luqmān is identical with the Elxai of the Ebionites ( Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad , vol. i. p. 34). Luqmān is the title of the XXI st Sūrah of the Qurʾān. LUQT̤AH ( لقطة‎ ). “Troves.” Property which a person finds and takes away to preserve it in trust. In English law, trover (from the French trouver ) is an action which a man has against another who has found or obtained po e ion of his goods, and refuses to deliver them on demand. ( See Black stone .) According to Muḥammadan law, the finder of lost property is obliged to advertise it for the space of a year before he can claim it as his own. If the finder be a wealthy person, he should give it to the poor. ( Hidāyah , vol. ii. p. 277.) [ TROVES .] LŪT̤ ( لوط‎ ). [ LOT .]