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

(3) Al-ḥikmatu ʾl-majhūlah, “unknown wisdom,” or those acts of the Creator the wisdom of which is unknown to the creature, such as the infliction of pain upon the creatures of God, the death of infants, or the eternal fire of hell. Things which we believe, but which we do not understand.

ḤILFU ʾL-FUẒŪL (حلف الفضول). A confederacy formed by the descendants of Hāshim, Zuhrah, and Taim, in the house of ʿAbdu ʾllāh ibn Judʿān at Makkah, for the suppression of violence and injustice at the restoration of peace after the Sacrilegious war. Muḥammad was then a youth, and Sir William Muir says this confederacy “aroused an enthusiasm in the mind of Mahomet, which the exploits of the sacrilegious war failed to kindle.”

ḤIMA (حمى). Lit. “guarded, forbidden.” A portion of land reserved by the ruler of a country as a grazing ground. (See Mishkāt, book xii. ch. i. pt. i.) “Know ye that every prince has a grazing ground which is forbidden to the people, and know ye the grazing place (ḥima) is the thing forbidden by Him to men.”

ḤINNAʾ (حناء). The Lawsonia inermis, or Eastern privet, used for dyeing the hands and feet on festive occasions. [MARRIAGE.] Muḥammad enjoined the use of ḥinnāʾ, and approved of women staining their hands and feet with it. He also dyed his own beard with it, and recommended its use for this purpose. (Mishkāt, book xx. c. 4.) It has therefore become a religious custom, and is sunnah.

The following are some of the chief points in the Sunnī law with regard to ijārah, and for further particulars the reader must refer in English to Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. iii. p. 312, or in Arabic to such works as the Durru ʾl-Muk͟htār, Fatāwā-i-ʿĀlamgīrī, and the Raddu ʾl-Muḥtār, in which works it is treated in the Bābu ʾl-Ijārah.

A contract of hire, or rental, or lease, is not valid unless both the usufruct and the hire be particularly known and specified, because there is a traditional saying of the Prophet, “If a person hire another let him first inform him of the wages he is to receive.”

A workman is not entitled to anything until his work is finished, but the article wrought upon may be detained until the workman be paid his full wages, and the workman is not responsible for any loss or damage in the article during such detention. If a person hire another to carry a letter to al-Baṣrah and bring back an answer, and he accordingly go to al-Baṣrah and there find the person dead to whom the letter was addressed, and come back, and return the letter, he is not entitled to any wages whatever! This strange ruling is according to Abū Ḥanīfah and two of his disciples, but the Imām Muḥammad says the messenger ought to be paid.

It is lawful to hire a house or shop for the purpose of residence, although no mention be made of the business to be followed in it, and the lessee is at liberty to carry on any business he pleases, unless it be injurious to the building. For example, a blacksmith or a fuller must not reside in the house, unless it is previously so agreed, since the exercise of those trades would shake the building.

It is lawful to hire or lease land for the purposes of cultivation, and in this case the hirer is entitled to the use of the road leading to the land, and likewise the water (i.e. his turn of water) although no mention of these be made in the contract.

A lease of land is not valid unless mention is made of the article to be raised on it, not only with a view to cultivation, but also for other purposes, such as building, and so forth. Or the lessor of the land may make declaration to the effect:—“I let the land on this occasion, that the lessee shall raise on it whatever he pleases.”

If a person hire unoccupied land for the purposes of building or planting, it is lawful, but on the term of the lease expiring it is incumbent on the lessee to remove his buildings and trees, and to restore the land to the lessor in such a state as may leave him no claim upon it, because houses or trees have no specific limit of existence, and if they were left on the land it might be injurious to the proprietor. But it is otherwise when the land is hired or leased for the purpose of tillage, and the term of the lease expires at a time when the grain is yet unripe. In this case, the grain must be suffered to remain upon the ground at a proportionate rent, until it is fit for reaping.

The hire of an animal is lawful, either for carriage, or for riding, or for any use to which animals are applied. And if a person hire an animal to carry a burden, and the person who lets it to hire specify the nature and quantity of the article with which the hirer is to load the animal, the hirer is at liberty to load the animal with an equal quantity of any article not more troublesome or prejudicial in the carriage than wheat, such as barley, &c. The hirer is not at liberty to load the animal with a more prejudicial article than wheat (unless stipulated beforehand), such as salt or iron. For a hired animal perishing from ill-usage, the hirer is responsible.

ḤIRṢ (حرص). “Avarice, greed, eagerness.” Derivatives of the word occur three times in the Qurʾān. Sūrah ii. 90: “Thou wilt find them (the Jews) the greediest of men for life.” Sūrah iv. 128: “And ye may not have it at all in your power to treat your wives with equal justice, even though you be anxious to do so.” Sūrah xii. 104: “And yet most men, though thou ardently desire it, will not believe.”

ḤIẒĀNAH (حضانة). Al-ḥiẓānah is the right of a mother to the custody of her children. “The mother is of all persons the best entitled to the custody of her infant children during the connubial relationship as well as after its dissolution.” (Fatāwā-i-ʿĀlamgīrī, vol. i. p. 728.)

When the children are no longer dependent on the mother’s care, the father has a right to educate and take charge of them, and is entitled to the guardianship of their person in preference to the mother. Among the Ḥanafīs, the mother is entitled to the custody of her daughter until she arrives at puberty; but according to the other three Sunnī sects, the custody continues until she is married.

There is difference of opinion as to the extent of the period of the mother’s custody over her male children. The Ḥanafīs limit it to the child’s seventh year, but the Shāfiʿīs and Malakīs allow the boy the option of remaining under his mother’s guardianship until he has arrived at puberty. Among the Shīʿahs, the mother is entitled to the custody of her children until they are weaned, a period limited to two years. After the child is weaned, its custody, if a male, devolves on the father, if a female, on the mother. The mother’s custody of the girl continues to the seventh year.

Apostasy is also a bar to the exercise of the right of ḥiẓānah. A woman, consequently, who apostatizes from Islām, whether before or after the right vests in her, is disentitled from exercising or claiming the right of ḥiẓānah in respect to a Muslim child.

HOLY SPIRIT. Arabic Ruḥu ʾl-Quds (روح القدس). The Holy Spirit is mentioned three times in the Qurʾān. In the Sūratu ʾn-Naḥl (XVIth, 104), as the inspiring agent of the Qurʾān: “Say, The Holy Spirit brought it down from thy Lord in truth.” And twice in the Sūratu ʾl-Baqarah (IInd, 81 and 254), as the divine power which aided the Lord Jesus: “and We strengthened him by the Holy Spirit” (in both verses).

HONEY. Arabic ʿasal (عسل). In the Qurʾān it is specially mentioned as the gift of God. Sūrah xvi. 70: “Thy Lord inspired the bee. ‘Take to houses in the mountains, and in the trees, and in the hives they build. Then eat from every fruit and walk in the beaten paths of thy Lord.’ There cometh forth from her body a draught varying in hue, in which is a cure for man.”

HORSES. Arabic faras (فرس), k͟hail (خيل), pl. k͟huyūl. Muḥammad’s affection for horses was very great, as was natural to an Arabian. Anas says there was nothing the Prophet was so fond of as women and horses. Abū Qatādah relates that Muḥammad said: “The best horses are black with white foreheads and having a white upper lip.” But Abū Wahhāb says the Prophet considered a bay horse with white forehead, white fore and hind legs the best. An instance of the way in which the traditionists sometimes contradict each other! (Mishkāt, book xvii. c. ii.)

In the Hidāyah (Arabic edition, vol. ii. p. 432) it is said that horses are of four kinds: (1) Birẕaun, Burẕūn, a heavy draught horse brought from foreign countries. (2) ʿAtīq, a first blood horse of Arabia. (3) Hajīn, a half-bred horse whose mother is an Arab and father a foreigner. (4) A half-bred horse whose father is an Arab and whose mother is a foreigner.