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

BENJAMIN. Heb. בִּנְיָמִין, Arabic بنيامين Binyāmīn. The youngest of the children of Jacob. He is not mentioned by name in the Qurʾān, but he is referred to in Sūrah xii. 69, “And when they entered in unto Joseph, he took his brother (i.e. Benjamin) to stay with him. He said Verily I am thy brother, then take not that ill which they have been doing. And when he had equipped them with their equipment, he placed the drinking-cup in his brother’s pack,” &c. [JOSEPH.]

BEQUESTS. Arabic وصية waṣīyah, pl. waṣāyā. A bequest or will can be made verbally, although it is held to be better to execute it in writing. Two lawful witnesses are necessary to establish either a verbal bequest or a written will. A bequest in favour of a stranger to the amount of one-third of the whole property, is valid, but a bequest to any amount beyond that is invalid, unless the heirs give their consent. If a person make a bequest in favour of another from whom he has received a mortal wound, it is not valid, and if a legatee slay his testator the bequest in his favour is void. A bequest made to part of the heirs is not valid unless the other heirs give their consent. The bequest of a Muslim in favour of an unbeliever, or of an unbeliever in favour of a Muslim, is valid. If a person be involved in debt, legacies bequeathed by him are not lawful. A bequest in favour of a child yet unborn is valid, provided the fœtus happen to be less than six months old at the time of the making of the will.

BESTIALITY is said by Muslim jurists to be the result of the most vitiated appetite and the utmost depravity of sentiment. But if a man commit it, he does not incur the Ḥadd, or stated punishment, as the act is not considered to have the properties of whoredom; the offender is to be punished by a discretionary correction (Taʿẕīr). According to Muslim law, the beast should be killed, and if it be of an eatable species, it should be burnt. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. 27.) Obs. According to the Mosaic code, a man guilty of this crime was surely to be put to death. (Ex. xviii. 19.)

BIER. Arabic جنازة jināzah and janāzah. The same word is used for the corpse, the bier, and the funeral. In most Muḥammadan countries the ordinary charpoy, or “bedstead,” is used for the bier, which, in the case of a female, is covered with a canopy. [BURIAL.]

BILĀL (بلال). The first Muʾaẕẕin or caller to prayer appointed by Muḥammad. He was an Abyssinian slave who had been ransomed by Abū Bakr. He was tall, dark, and gaunt, with negro features and bushy hair. Muḥammad honoured and distinguished him as the “first fruits of Abyssinia.” He survived the Prophet.

BINT LABŪN (بنت لبون). “The daughter of a milk-giver.” A female camel two years old; so called because the mother is then suckling another foal. The proper age for a camel given in zakāt, or “legal alms,” for camels from thirty-six in number up to forty-five.

BINT MAK͟HĀẒ (بنت مخاض). “The daughter of a pregnant.” A female camel passed one year; so called because the mother is again pregnant. This is the proper age for a camel given in zakāt, or “alms,” for camels from twenty-five in number up to thirty-five.

BIOGRAPHERS OF MUḤAMMAD. Although the Qurʾān may be said to be the key-stone to the biography of Muḥammad, yet it contains but comparatively few references to the personal history of the Prophet. The Traditions, or Aḥādīs̤, form the chief material for all biographical histories. [TRADITION.] The first who attempted to compile an account of Muḥammad in the form of a history, was az-Zuhrī, who died A.H. 124, and whose work, no longer extant, is mentioned by Ibn K͟hallikān. The earliest biographical writers whose works are extant are—Ibn Isḥāq, A.H. 151; Al-Wāqidī, A.H. 207; Ibn Hishām, A.H. 218; Al-Buk͟hārī (history), A.H. 256; At̤-T̤abarī, A.H. 310. Amongst more recent biographies, the most noted are those by Ibnu ʾl-Aṣīr, A.H. 630, and Ismāʿīl Abū ʾl-Fidāʾ, A.H. 732. Abū ʾl-Fidāʾ’s work was translated into Latin by John Gagnier, Professor of Arabic at Oxford, A.D. 1723, and into English by the Rev. W. Murray, Episcopal clergyman at Duffus in Scotland, and published (without date) at Elgin. The first life of Muḥammad published in English is that by Dean Prideaux, which first appeared in 1723, and afterwards passed through several editions. Dr. Sprenger commenced a life of Muḥammad in English, and printed the first part at Allahabad, India, A.D. 1851; but it was never completed. The learned author afterwards published the whole of his work in German, at Berlin, 1869. The only complete life of Muḥammad in English which has any pretension to original research, is the well-known Life of Mahomet, by Sir William Muir, LL.D. (First Edition, four vols., London. 1858–61;

BIOGRAPHY. A Dictionary of Biography is called اسماء الرجال asmāʾu ʾr-rijāl (lit. “The Names of Men”). The most celebrated of these is, amongst Muslims, that by Ibn K͟hallikān, which has always been considered a work of the highest importance for the civil and literary history of the Muḥammadan people. Ibn K͟hallikān died A.H. 681 (A.D. 1282), but his dictionary received numerous additions from subsequent writers. It has been translated into English by MacGuckin De Slane (Paris, 1843).

BIRDS. It is commonly believed by the Muḥammadans that all kinds of birds, and many, if not all, beasts, have a language by which they communicate their thoughts to each other, and in the Qurʾān (Sūrah xxvii. 16) it is stated that King Solomon was taught the language of birds.

BIʾR MAʿŪNAH (بئر معونة). The well of Maʿūnah. A celebrated spot four marches from Makkah, where a party of Muḥammad’s followers were slain by the Banū ʿĀmir and Banū Sulaim. He professed to have received a special message from heaven regarding these martyrs, which runs thus:—“Acquaint our people that we have met our Lord. He is well pleased with us, and we are well pleased with Him.” It is a remarkable verse, as having for some reason or other been cancelled, and removed from the Qurʾān. (Muir’s Life of Mahomet, vol. iii. p. 207.)

BIRTH, Evidence of. According to the Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, if a married woman should claim to be the mother of a child, her claim is not to be valid unless the birth of the child is attested by the testimony of one woman. But in the case of a father, inasmuch as the claim of parentage is a matter which relates purely to himself, his testimony alone is to be accepted.

If the woman be in her ʿiddah [ʿIDDAH] from a complete divorce, the testimony of the midwife is not sufficient with respect to birth, but the evidence of two men, or of one man and two women, is requisite. (Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. iii. p. 134.)

1. Bi-ʾsmi ʾllāhi ʾr-raḥmāni ʾr-raḥīm, i.e. “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.” This is used at the commencement of meals, putting on new clothes, beginning any new work, and at the commencement of books. It occurs at the head of every chapter or sūrah in the Qurʾān, with the exception of the IXth (i.e. the Sūratu ʾl-Barāʾah).

The formula Bi-ʾsmi ʾllāhi ʾr-raḥmāni ʾr-raḥīm is of Jewish origin. It was in the first instance taught to the Quraish by Umaiyah of T̤āʾif, the poet, who was a contemporary but somewhat older than Muḥammad, and who, during his mercantile journeys into Arabia Petræa and Syria, had made himself acquainted with the sacred books and doctrines of Jews and Christians. (Kitābu ʾl-Aghānī, 16, Delhi; quoted by Rodwell.)

BLEEDING. Arabic حجامة ḥijāmah. The two great cures recommended by Muḥammad were blood-letting and drinking honey; and he taught that it was unlucky to be bled on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, the most lucky day being Tuesday, and the most lucky date the seventeenth of the month. (Mishkāt, xxi. c. 1.)

BLIND, The. Arabic أعمىAʿmā, pl. ʿUmyān. It is not incumbent upon a blind man to engage in Jihād, or a religious war. And, according to the Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, the evidence of a blind person is not admissible, but the Imām Zufar maintains that such evidence is lawful when it affects a matter in which hearsay prevails. Sales and purchases made by a blind person are lawful. (Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. ii. pp. 141, 402, 682.)