Category: I

INHERITANCE

INHERITANCE. The Islamic law of inheritance, mirdth, constitutes the single most distinctive and complicated part of shari`ah law. It is particularly closely tied to the text of revelation: the Qur’an contains more extensive and specific rules on inheritance than on any other subject. For this reason, it is the part of shart`ah law least affected

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INDIAN OCEAN SOCIETIES

INDIAN OCEAN SOCIETIES. Apart from two major islands-Sri Lanka in the north and Madagascar in the south-the Indian Ocean otherwise has only very small islands and island groups, only one of which (Mauritius) has a population in excess of one million. The ocean has acted as a highway for Islam; for example, the great medieval

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INDONESIA

INDONESIA. Approximately 85 to 90 percent of Indonesia’s more than 180 million people are followers of Islam, the largest population of Muslims of any country in the world today. They are almost all Sunnis and followers of the Shafi’i school. The remainder of the population are Christian, Hindu, animist, or followers of varying Confucian and

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INDIA.

INDIA. The Muslim population of the Republic of India, which came into existence in 1947 as a successor state, along with Pakistan, to British India, consists of some 12 percent of the population as a whole; Indian Muslims thus number more than ioo million people and constitute one of the largest Muslim populations in the

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IMAMZADAH

IMAMZADAH. Literally “offspring or descendent of an imam,” imdmzddah, in Iran, is most commonly applied to a shrine-tomb of a descendent of the Shi`i imams. Imdmzddahs are the centers of popular Shl’! devotion and the objects of pilgrimages. Many of them are regarded as possessing miraculous and healing properties. The source of veneration of imdmzddahs

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IMAMAH

IMAMAH. The meaning of imamah (“religious-political leadership”) of the Muslim community was the most practical question dominating Muslim minds following the Prophet’s death in 632. Theological and juridical aspects of the imamate have engaged Muslim intellectual activity for many centuries and continue to do so as part of the community’s accommodation to the realities of

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IMAM

IMAM. A title indicating leadership, governance, or rule, imam (Ar., imam) is used in a wide variety of contexts by both Sunni and Shi’i Muslims. The most common contemporary use of the word is to designate the leader of congregational prayers, this being justified by the etymological sense of imam as “one who stands in

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`ILM

`ILM. The Arabic word `ilm is commonly translated as both “learning” and “knowledge,” for it refers both to the process of attaining knowledge and to the information that one gains by learning. As such, it is to be contrasted with fiqh, which refers not to the end product of learning but only to the process

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