A Dictionary of Islam Being a cyclopedia of the...

PRESERVED TABLET. According to the teaching of Muḥammad, both the actions of men and the Qurʾān were recorded before creation upon a preserved tablet called Lauḥ Maḥfuz̤ (لوح محفوظ), Sūrah xxxv. 22: “And if they treat thee as a liar, so did those who were before them treat their Apostles who came to them with the proofs of their mission, and with the Scriptures and with the clear Book”; and Imām Mubīn (امام مبين), Sūrah xxxvi. 11: “Verily, it is We who will quicken the dead, and write down the works which they have sent on before them, and the traces which they shall have left behind them: and everything have we set down in the clear Book of our decrees.” [PREDESTINATION, QURʾAN.]

PRIDE, Arabic kibr (كبر), is forbidden in the Qurʾān, see Sūrah xvii. 39: “Walk not proudly on the earth; truly thou canst by no means cleave the earth, neither canst thou reach the mountains in height: all this is evil with thy Lord and odious.”

“O ye who believe! enter not into other houses than your own, until ye have asked leave, and have saluted its inmates. This will be best for you: haply ye will bear this in mind. And if ye find no one therein, then enter it not till leave be given you; and if it be said to you, ‘Go ye back,’ then go ye back. This will be more blameless in you, and God knoweth what ye do. There shall be no harm in your entering houses in which no one dwelleth, for the supply of your needs: and God knoweth what ye do openly and what ye hide.”

ʿAtāʾ ibn Yasār relates that “A man once asked the Prophet, ‘Must I ask leave to go into the room of my mother?’ The Prophet said, ‘Yes.’ Then the man said, ‘But I live in the same home.’ The Prophet said, ‘Yes, even if you live in the same home.’ The man said, ‘But I wait upon her!’ The Prophet, ‘But you must ask permission; for, what! would you like to see your mother naked?’ ”

PROHIBITED DEGREES OF MARRIAGE. According to the Qurʾān they are seven: 1, mother; 2, daughter; 3, sister; 4, paternal aunt; 5, maternal aunt; 6, sister’s daughter; 7, brother’s daughter. And the same with regard to the other sex. It is also unlawful for a Muslim to marry his wife’s sister (see Lev. xviii. 18) or his wife’s aunt during the lifetime of his wife. Fosterage in Muslim law establishes relationship, and therefore a foster-sister or a foster-brother is unlawful in marriage. [MARRIAGE.]

PROPHET. The Arabic words used to express the prophetic office are nabī (نبى), pl. ambīyāʾ; rasūl (رسول), pl. rusul; and mursal (مرسل), pl. mursalūn. In Persian, the three titles are invariably translated by the word paig͟hambar (پيغمبر) (i.e. a messenger).

Muḥammad is related to have said (Mishkāt, book xxiv. ch. i. pt. 3) that there were 124,000 ambiyāʾ, or prophets, and 315 apostles or messengers. Nine of these special messengers are entitled Ūlū ʾl-ʿAzm, or “possessors of constancy,” namely, Noah, Abraham, David, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses, Jesus, and Muḥammad. Six are dignified with special titles: Adam, Ṣafīyu ʾllāh, the Chosen of God; Noah, Nabīyu ʾllāh, the Preacher of God; Abraham, K͟halīlu ʾllāh, the Friend of God; Moses, Kalīmu ʾllāh, the Converser with God; Jesus, Rūḥu ʾllāh, the Spirit of God; Muḥammad, Rasūlu ʾllāh, the Messenger of God.

The number of sacred books delivered to mankind is said to have been 104 (see Majālisu ʾl-Abrār, p. 55); of these, ten were given to Adam, fifty to Seth (a name not mentioned in the Qurʾān), thirty to Enoch, ten to Abraham, the Taurāt to Moses, the Zabūr to David, the Injīl to Jesus, and the Qurʾān to Muḥammad.

The one hundred scriptures given to Adam, Seth, Enoch, and Abraham are termed Ṣaḥīfah (a pamphlet), and the other four Kitāb (a book); but all that is necessary for the Muslim to know of these inspired records is supposed to have been retained in the Qurʾān.

Muḥammad’s enumeration of the Old and New Testament prophets, both as to name and chronological order, is exceedingly confused, and it is acknowledged to be a matter of doubt amongst Muslim commentators whether or not Alexander the Great and Æsop were inspired prophets.

Adam, Adam; Idrīs, Enoch; Nūḥ, Noah; Hūd, Heber?; Ṣāliḥ, Methusaleh; Ibrāhīm, Abraham; Ismāʿīl, Ishmael; Isḥāq, Isaac; Yaʿqūb, Jacob; Yūsuf, Joseph; Lūt̤, Lot; Mūsā, Moses; Hārūn, Aaron; Shuʿaib, Jethro?; Zakarīyā, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist; Yaḥyā, John Baptist; ʿĪsā, Jesus; Dāʾūd, David; Sulaimān, Solomon; Ilyās, Elias; Alyasaʿ, Elisha; Aiyūb, Job; Yūnus, Jonah; ʿUzair, Ezra; Luqmān, Æsop? more likely Balaam; Ẕū ʾl-Kifl, Isaiah or Obadiah?; Ẕū ʾl-Qarnain, Alexander the Great.

A Persian book, entitled the Qiṣaṣu ʾl-Ambiyāʾ, the “Tales of the Prophets,” professes to give an account of the prophets mentioned in the Qurʾān, but the utter recklessness of the writer passes all description; for example, it is a matter of uncertainty whether Ẕū ʾl-Qarnain is Alexander the Great or some celebrity who lived in the days of Abraham!

PROPHETESSES. It is said that only three women have been prophetesses: Sarah, the mother of Moses, and Mary, the daughter of ʿImrān; for Sarah received by revelation the news of Isaac’s birth, the birth of Moses was divinely communicated to his mother, and Mary received from an angel the happy tidings of the birth of Jesus. (See Hist. of Temple of Jerusalem, translated from the Arabic.)

PUBERTY. Arabic bulūg͟h (بلوغ) bulug͟hīyat (بلوغية). The puberty of a boy is established as soon as the usual signs of manhood are known to exist; but if none of these signs exist, his puberty is not clearly established until he have completed his eighteenth year. The puberty of a girl is established in the same way; but if the usual signs of womanhood are known not to exist, her puberty is not established until her seventeenth year has been completed. This is according to the teaching of the Imām Abū Ḥanīfah. But his two disciples maintain that upon either a boy or girl completing the fifteenth year, they are to be declared adult. The Imām ash-Shāfiʿī concurs in this opinion, and it is said there is also a report of Abū Ḥanīfah to the same effect. The earliest period of puberty with respect to a boy is twelve years, and with respect to a girl nine years.

When a boy or girl approaches the age of puberty and they declare themselves adult, their declaration must be credited, and they then become subject to all the laws affecting adults, and must observe all the ordinances of the Muslim faith. (Hidāyah, Hamilton’s Translation, vol. iii. p. 483; Jāmiʿu ʾr-Rumūz, Durru ʾl-Muk͟htār.)

“The validity of marriages contracted for minors by any guardian other than the father or the grandfather, is not established until ratified by the parties on arriving at puberty. Such ratification in the case of males must be express, and in the case of females may be either express or implied. On arriving at puberty, both the parties have the right of either ratifying the contract entered into during their minority or of cancelling it. According to the Sunnis, in order to effect a dissolution of the matrimonial tie, in exercise of the right of option reserved to the parties, it is necessary that there should be a decree of the judge; and until such decree is made, the marriage remains intact. If before a decree has been obtained one of the parties should die, the survivor would be entitled to inherit from the deceased.

“The Shiahs differ materially from the Sunnis on this. They hold that a marriage contracted on behalf of minors by any unauthorised person (fazûlî), i.e. any person other than a father or a grandfather, remains in absolute suspension or abeyance until assented to by the parties on arriving at puberty; that, in fact, no legal effect arises from it until such ratification, and if in the interval previous to ratification, one of the parties should die, the contract would fall to the ground and there would be no right of inheritance in the survivor.” (Personal Law of the Mahommedans, p. 269.)

PULPIT. The pulpit or mimbar (منبر) used for the recital of the k͟hut̤bah on Fridays in the chief mosque is usually a wooden structure of three steps and movable, but in the large mosques of Turkey and Egypt it is a fixture of brick or stone.

It is related that the Prophet, when addressing the people, stood on the uttermost step, Abū Bakr on the second, and ʿUmar on the third or lowest. ʿUs̤mān being the most humble of men, would gladly have descended lower, but this being impossible, he fixed upon the second step, from which it is now usual to recite the k͟hut̤bah on Fridays and on the two great festivals. [MOSQUE, MIMBAR.]