AHMAD KHAN, SAYYID (1817-1898), Indian Islamic modernist writer and political activist. The family of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan claimed lineal descent from the prophet Muhammad; his ancestors had settled in Heratin Afghanistan and then migrated to Mughal Indiain the seventeenth century. Despite their residence in India for nearly two hundred years, Sir Sayyid’s family retained
Read More
A messianic movement in modern Islam, the Ahmadiyah has been one of the most active and controversial movements since its inception in British Indiain 1889. It has sustained its activities for more than a century and has been unrivaled in its dedication to the propagation of the faith. Ahmadi mosques and missionary centers have been
Read More
Those who are qualified to act on behalf of the Muslim community in electing a caliph are known as ahl al-hall wa-al-`aqd (less frequently, ahl al-`aqd wa-al-hall. In medieval political theory, their main function was contractual, namely, to offer the office of caliphate to the most qualified person and, upon his acceptance, to administer to
Read More
Literally “people of the household,” ahl al-bayt refers to the family of the prophet Muhammad and his descendants. Shi’i Muslims are particularly devoted to the family of the Prophet-his cousin and son-in-law, `Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661), his daughter, Fatimah (d. 632), and their sons, Hasan (d. 669/7o) and Husayn (d. 680)-and the other
Read More
There are thirty-four countries with both significant agricultural sectors and majority Muslim populations. They form a broad band running from west to east across the tropics and northern subtropics of Africa and Asia, spanning a diversity of natural environments from the verdant rain forests of West Africa and the East Indies to the barren deserts
Read More
A private, nondenominational, philanthropic institution established by the Aga Khan, the Isma’ili imam, in 1967 to translate “the Muslim ethic of care and compassion for those of the society in greatest need,” the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) was conceived as an extension and outreach to the developing world by way of relating Islam’s humanitarian philosophy
Read More
The Nizari Isma’ili imams since the time of Hasan ‘Ali Shah (d. 1881) have borne the title Aga Khan. The present imam, Prince Karim alHusayni, Aga Khan IV, is according to this tradition the forty-ninth hereditary imam of the community worldwide, representing direct lineal descent and succession from the first Shl’i imam `All and his
Read More
The reality of the afterlife is integral to an understanding of the Islamic views of both the individual life cycle and the flow of human history. It is also the basis for the structure of ethical responsibility in Islam: one’s condition in the afterlife, felicitous or painful, is determined by the degree to which one
Read More
