H.
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Hughes, Thomas Patrick
HABĀʾ (هباء). “Dust,” especially the finer particles which fly about and are only conspicuous in the sun’s rays.
A term used by the Ṣūfī mystics for those portions of matter (hayūla) which God has distributed in creation. (ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)
HABĪB AN-NAJJĀR (حبيب النجار). “Ḥabīb the Carpenter,” whose story is told in the Qurʾān (Sūrah xxxvi. 12), as follows:—
“Set forth to them the instance of the people of the city (i.e. of Antioch) when the Sent Ones came to it.
“When we sent two (i.e. John and Jude) unto them and they charged them both with imposture—therefore with a third (i.e. Simon Peter) we strengthened them: and they said, ‘Verily we are the Sent unto you of God.’
“They said, ‘Ye are only men like us: Nought hath the God of Mercy sent down. Ye do nothing but lie.’
“They said, ‘Our Lord knoweth that we are surely sent unto you;
“ ‘To proclaim a clear message is our only duty.’
“They said, ‘Of a truth we augur ill from you: if ye desist not we will surely stone you, and a grievous punishment will surely befall you from us.’
“They said, ‘Your augury of ill is with yourselves. Will ye be warned? Nay, ye are an erring people.’
“Then from the end of the city a man (i.e. Ḥabīb, the carpenter) came running: He said, ‘O my people! follow the Sent Ones;
“ ‘Follow those who ask not of you a recompence, and who are rightly guided.
“ ‘And why should I not worship Him who made me, and to whom ye shall be brought back?
“ ‘Shall I take gods beside Him? If the God of mercy be pleased to afflict me, their intercession will not avert from me aught, nor will they deliver:
“ ‘Truly then should I be in a manifest error.
“ ‘Verily, in your Lord have I believed; therefore hear me.’
“—It was said to him, ‘Enter thou into Paradise’ (i.e. after they had stoned him to death). And he said, ‘Oh that my people knew
“ ‘How gracious God hath been to me, and that He hath made me one of His honoured ones.’
“But no army sent we down out of heaven after his death, nor were we then sending down our angels—
“There was but one shout from Gabriel, and lo! they were extinct.
“Oh! the misery that rests upon my servants! No apostle cometh to them but they laugh him to scorn.”
Al-Baiẓāwī, the commentator, says the people of the City of Antioch were idolaters, and that Jesus sent two of his disciples, Yaḥyā and Yūnas (John and Jude) to preach to them. And when they arrived, they met Ḥabīb, the carpenter, to whom they made known their mission. Ḥabīb said, “What signs can ye show that ye are sent of God?” And the disciples replied, “We can heal the sick and give sight to those who are born blind, and cure the leprosy.” Then Ḥabīb brought his sick son to them, and they laid their hands upon him and he was healed. And Ḥabīb believed in Jesus, and he made known the gospel to the people of the city. Many of the people then came to the disciples and were also healed. The news then reached the ear of the governor of the city, and he sent for the two disciples and they preached to him. He replied, “Is your God different from our God?” They said, “Yes. He it is who made thee and thy gods.” The governor then sent them away and put them in prison. When they were in prison, Jesus sent Shamʿūn (Simon Peter), and he came secretly and made friends with the servants of the governor, and in time gained access to the governor’s presence, and performed a miracle in the presence of the governor by raising a child who had been dead seven days. The child when raised from the dead, said he had seen Jesus Christ in heaven, and that he had interceded for the three disciples in prison. The governor believed and many others with him. Those who did not believe raised a disturbance in the city, and Ḥabīb the carpenter exhorted them to believe.
For this he was stoned, and, having died, entered into Paradise.
Ḥabīb’s tomb is still seen at Antioch, and is visited by Muḥammadans as a shrine.
HABĪL (هبيل). [ABEL.]
ḤABWAH (حبوة). The posture of sitting with the legs and thighs contracted towards the belly, the back bent forwards, and supported in that position by the arms crossed over the knees. Muslims are forbidden to sit in this posture during the recital of the K͟hut̤bah on Fridays (Mishkāt, book iv. p. 45, pt. 2) as it inclines to drowsiness.
ḤADAS̤. (حدث). State of an unclean person, of one who has not performed the usual ablutions before prayer.
ḤADD (حد), pl. ḥudūd. In its primitive sense ḥadd signifies “obstruction,” whence a porter or gate-keeper is called ḥaddād, or “obstructer,” from his office of prohibiting people from entering. In law it expresses the punishments, the limits of which have been defined by Muḥammad either in the Qurʾān or in the Ḥadīs̤. These punishments are (1) For adultery, stoning; (2) For fornication, a hundred stripes; (3) For the false accusation of a married person with adultery (or Qaẕf), eighty stripes; (4) For apostasy, death; (5) For drinking wine, eighty stripes; (6) For theft, the cutting off of the right hand; (7) For highway robbery: for simple robbery on the highway, the loss of hands and feet; for robbery with murder, death, either by the sword or by crucifixion. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 1.) [PUNISHMENT.]
AL-ḤADĪD (الحديد). “Iron.” The title of the LVIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in which the word occurs (verse 25): “We sent down iron in which are both keen violence and advantages to men.”
ḤĀDIS̤ (حادث). What happens for the first time; new, fresh. That which is born in time as opposed to qadīm, or that which is without a beginning, as God.
ḤADĪS̤ (حديث), pl. aḥādīs̤. [TRADITION.]
ḤADĪS̤ QUDSĪ (حديث قدسى). A divine saying. A term used for a ḥadīs̤ which relates a revelation from God in the language of the Prophet. An example is found in the Mishkāt (book i. c. i. pt. 1): “Abū Hurairah said, ‘The Prophet of God related these words of God, “The sons of Adam vex me, and abuse the age, whereas I am The AGE itself: In my hands are all events: I have made the day and night.” ’ ”
HADĪYAH (هدية). A present or offering made to persons of consequence, kings or rulers.
HADY (هدى). Cattle sacrificed at Makkah during the Pilgrimage, as distinguished from animals sacrificed on the Great Festival, which are called uẓḥīyah. These animals are branded and sent off with strings round their necks, as offerings to the sacred temple. They may be bullocks, or camels, or sheep, or goats. (Mishkāt, book xi. c. viii.)
ḤĀFIZ̤ (حافظ). Lit. “A guardian” or protector. (1) One of the names of God, al-Ḥāfiz̤. (2) A governor, e.g. Ḥāfiz̤u ʾl-Bait; the guardian of the Makkan temple. (3) One who has committed the whole of the Qurʾān to memory.
ʿUs̤mān relates that the Prophet said: “The best person amongst you is he who has learnt the Qurʾān and teaches it. (Mishkāt, book vii. c. i.) In the east it is usual for blind men to commit the Qurʾān to memory, and to thus obtain the honourable distinction of Ḥāfiz̤.
ḤAFṢAH (حفصة). One of Muḥammad’s wives. She was the daughter of ʿUmar, and the widow of K͟hunais, an early convert to Islām. She married Muḥammad about six months after her former husband’s death. During the lifetime of the Prophet she was a person of considerable influence in his counsels, being the daughter of ʿUmar. She survived Muḥammad some years, and has recorded several traditions of his sayings.
HAGAR. Arabic Hājar (هاجر). The slave wife of Abraham and the mother of Ishmael. Al-Baiẓāwī says that Hājar was the slave girl of Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and she admitted her to Abraham, and from her was born Ishmael. Sarah became jealous of Hājar (because she had a son), and she demanded of Abraham that he should put both the mother and child away, and he sent them away in the direction of Makkah, and at Makkah God produced for them the spring Zamzam [ZAMZAM]. When the tribe of Jurhum saw that there was water in that place, they said to Hājar, “If you will share with us the water of this spring, we will share with you the milk of our herds,” and from that time Makkah became a place of importance. (Tafsīru ʾl-Baiẓāwī, p. 424.)
HAIR. Arabic shaʿr, shaʿar (شعر). Heb. שֵׂעָר.
The sale of human hair is unlawful in the same manner as the use of it for any purpose is unlawful. Being a part of the human body, it is necessary to preserve it from disgrace, to which an exposure of it to sale necessarily subjects it. It is related in the traditions that God has cursed women who use false hair. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 439.) [HEAD.]