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161-649: An infallible ( Arabic : معصوم , romanized :  ma'sūm ) is someone who is free from error in leading people to belief, in perceiving divine knowledge, and in practical matters. Prophets must be immune from all errors and sins in order to perform their mission of upholding and promoting the divine religion, interpreting the Qur'an , and establishing a wholesome social system. According to Twelver Shia , The Fourteen Infallibles ( Arabic : معصومون , romanized :  Ma‘ṣūmūn ) "divinely bestowed free from error and sin " include Muhammad , his daughter Fatimah , and

322-617: A Shi‘ite scholar, claimed that the concept of Ismah originated from the Qur’an, regarding the prophet ( Q53:3-4 ), angels ( 66: 6 ), and the Qur'an itself ( 41: 42 ) Dwight M. Donaldson regards the origin and importance of the concept of Ismah owes to the development of the theology of the Shi'ites in the period between the death of Muhammad and the disappearance of the Twelfth Imam. Ann Lambton claims that neither

483-562: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as

644-480: A composite nature. In other words, beings are composed of contradictions and contrasting faculties, whereas angels are simple and not composed of anything." According to Sadra, the verse 16: 50 refers to infallibility of angels, in general. Sunni views on the ismah of angels varies, as it does with the prophets. Some assert, that only the messengers are infalliable. Ashari theologian Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi —in his book Tafseer ul Kabeer , on verse 66:6 —said, "there

805-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By

966-1077: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to

1127-459: A firm will against opponents and enemies, followed by the sending of tranquility ( as-Sakina ) down upon them, and by the preparation of their hearts and minds to accept truth. The final stage is endowing the infallibles with "the ability to avoid acts of disobedience in spite of having the power to disobey". Tabatabaei claims that Ismah is the presence of a quality in man which protects him from error. Ismah also involves perfection of intellect and

1288-507: A god would be a completely different kind of universe from one without, and it would be a scientific difference". Carl Sagan argued that the doctrine of a Creator of the Universe was difficult to prove or disprove and that the only conceivable scientific discovery that could disprove the existence of a Creator (not necessarily a God) would be the discovery that the universe is infinitely old. Some theologians, such as Alister McGrath , argue that

1449-512: A hadith , Muhammad clearly stated that ‘ Ali was protected against sin and error, and that his sayings and deeds were consistent with teachings of Islam . The status of Imams as "proof of Allah to mankind" serves as an argument for their infallibility, and the words of the Household of the Prophet are complementary to the religious sciences, and authoritative and inerrant in the teachings of Islam, in

1610-648: A higher power or God after the experience. About a quarter of those afflicted by temporal lobe seizures experience what is described as a religious experience and may become preoccupied by thoughts of God even if they were not previously. Neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran hypothesizes that seizures in the temporal lobe, which is closely connected to the emotional center of the brain, the limbic system , may lead to those afflicted to view even banal objects with heightened meaning. Psychologists studying feelings of awe found that participants feeling awe after watching scenes of natural wonders become more likely to believe in

1771-483: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic

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1932-735: A lie, intentionally or unintentionally; they could not be Kafir before or after their assignment and also they do not commit other sins intentionally. Concerning major unintentional sins, the majority believes that the prophets could commit such sins; however, a minority says it is impossible. Regarding minor unintentional sins, most of them believe that the prophets could commit sin, though not such minor sins which would disgrace them in public. A recent and very influential Shi‘ite interpretation of Ismah by Ruhollah Khomeini holds that truly faithful and pious Muslims—not just Prophets and Imams—could possess Ismah , because it could be created by "nothing other than perfect faith." He preached that "infallibility

2093-557: A link between Prophethood and Imamah , the two institutions characterized by infallibility, as well as her association with the Imams and their attributes in numerous a hadith . The idea that angels are protected from sin, probably roots in the teachings of Hasan al-Basri and the early stages of the Mu'tazilites . Not only does he referred to Quranic verses emphasizing the nobility of angels, he also offered interpretations regarding verses proposing

2254-421: A means of enforcing morality. In small groups, morality can be enforced by social forces such as gossip or reputation. However, it is much harder to enforce morality using social forces in much larger groups. Rossano indicates that by including ever-watchful gods and spirits, humans discovered an effective strategy for restraining selfishness and building more cooperative groups. Johns Hopkins researchers studying

2415-677: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb  [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak

2576-509: A non-theistic religion, Buddhism leaves the existence of a supreme deity ambiguous. There are significant numbers of Buddhists who believe in God, and there are equally large numbers who deny God's existence or are unsure. Chinese religions such as Confucianism and Taoism are silent on the existence of creator gods. However, keeping with the tradition of ancestor veneration in China , adherents worship

2737-411: A person can reach a state where there is no desire except God's desire, and, because of an excessive love of God, shame in committing sin. According to Tabatabaei , there is a quality of man that protects him from committing sin or error. Tabatabaei equates this quality with knowledge. Virtues such as bravery, chastity, and generosity are forms of knowledge, deeply rooted in the human psyche, that enable

2898-536: A person to abstain from indulging in extremes of behavior: for example, cowardice and recklessness, austerity and dissipation, or miserliness and extravagance. An increase in knowledge means increased obedience to God. In ordinary people with imperfect knowledge, virtue can be overpowered and tainted by desires and vices. Prophets are bestowed with supreme knowledge and thus a spiritual faculty that always remain unaffected by whims and vices. This supreme knowledge in Prophets

3059-569: A result of the presence of Muhammadan Light, the Imam possesses the quality of inerrancy (Ismah), in spiritual and religious matters...and this Light is the source of knowledge and revelation." According to Twelver Shia , The Fourteen Infallibles ( Arabic : معصومون Ma‘ṣūmūn ), who are "divinely bestowed free from error and sin ", include Muhammad , his daughter Fatimah , and the Twelve Imams , with Fatimah's infallibility being derived from her being

3220-576: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from

3381-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",

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3542-465: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for

3703-445: A special favor from God ( allah ). Al-Mofid said that Ismah is God's gift to someone He knows will act impeccably and not be disobedient. Therefore, in the perspective of Shi‘ites, infallibles abstained from committing sins because of their knowledge of the consequence of sin, that God had foreknowledge of their future, knowing that they will save themselves from sin and error, and that Verse 5: 67 confirms this notion by explaining

3864-400: A supernatural being and to see events as the result of design, even when given randomly generated numbers. Theistic religious traditions often require worship of God and sometimes hold that the purpose of existence is to worship God. To address the issue of an all-powerful being demanding to be worshipped, it is held that God does not need or benefit from worship but that worship is for

4025-503: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means

4186-499: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as

4347-470: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted

4508-472: Is hierohistory . He emphasized a phenomenogical approach, in that one must discover the aims of Shi‘ite awareness in order to share its vision; a vision which it has been acquiring ever since it began. In the perspective of Shi‘ites, Verse 4: 64 of the Qur’an expresses an absolute order to follow the messengers, so they must be infallible. Verse 4: 59 and other such verses express the virtues of obedience and

4669-410: Is omnipotent , omniscient, and benevolent. This belief raises questions about God's responsibility for evil and suffering in the world. Dystheism , which is related to theodicy , is a form of theism which holds that God is either not wholly good or is fully malevolent as a consequence of the problem of evil . Omnipotence (all-powerful) is an attribute often ascribed to God. The omnipotence paradox

4830-553: Is "beyond" being and is both the source of the Universe and the teleological purpose of all things. Aristotle theorized a first uncaused cause for all motion in the universe and viewed it as perfectly beautiful, immaterial, unchanging and indivisible. Aseity is the property of not depending on any cause other than itself for its existence. Avicenna held that there must be a necessarily existent guaranteed to exist by its essence—it cannot "not" exist—and that humans identify this as God. Secondary causation refers to God creating

4991-435: Is Ismah. Ismah does not nullify the Prophets' free will to choose whether to commit sin or not. Ismah is regarded by Shi‘ites as being bestowed as a blessing from God upon infallibles, and that this blessing has both voluntary and involuntary aspects, the voluntary aspect being the efforts of infallibles to act according to God's orders, the involuntary aspect being inheritance and training, not acquired through effort, but as

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5152-727: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic

5313-585: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak

5474-542: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It

5635-501: Is an abbreviation of Jahweh/Yahweh, and often sees usage by Jews and Christians in the interjection " Hallelujah ", meaning 'praise Jah', which is used to give God glory. In Judaism , some of the Hebrew titles of God are considered holy names . Allāh ( Arabic : الله ) is the Arabic term with no plural used by Muslims and Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews meaning 'the God', while ʾilāh ( إِلَٰه , plural `āliha آلِهَة )

5796-401: Is an explanation of the phrase "stern and strong": The meaning of "stern and strong" is that the angels are committed to the assignment given to them by Allah. Besides Almighty Allah and His commandment, no any other factors out of pity and compassion affect their activities. They do not disobey Allah by rejecting or opposing His order and whatever He commands, they carry it out meticulously. It

5957-475: Is an extraordinary intervention by God, such as miracles . Deism holds that God exists but does not intervene in the world beyond what was necessary to create it, such as answering prayers or producing miracles. Deists sometimes attribute this to God having no interest in or not being aware of humanity. Pandeists would hold that God does not intervene because God is the Universe. Of those theists who hold that God has an interest in humanity, most hold that God

6118-654: Is an indication in this verse that in the hereafter the angels are bound with obligations (like human beings in this world). They are under obligation, commands and prohibitions in the hereafter. The disobedience of angels lies in their opposition to Allah’s commandment and prohibition." Yet another Asharite, al-Taftazani (1322 AD –1390 AD), accepted that angels might slip into error and become disobedient, but rejected that angels would ever consciously turn against God's command and become unbelievers. Most scholars of Salafism usually reject accounts on erring angels entirely and do not investigate this matter further. Ja'far Sobhani ,

6279-476: Is beginningless. Some interpretations and traditions of Buddhism can be conceived as being non-theistic . Buddhism has generally rejected the specific monotheistic view of a creator deity . The Buddha criticizes the theory of creationism in the early Buddhist texts . Also, major Indian Buddhist philosophers, such as Nagarjuna , Vasubandhu , Dharmakirti , and Buddhaghosa , consistently critiqued Creator God views put forth by Hindu thinkers. However, as

6440-469: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in

6601-481: Is borne by faith. If one has faith in Allah, and if one sees Allah with the eyes of his heart, like the sun, it would be impossible for him to commit a sin. In front of an armed powerful [master], infallibility is attained." Nasr Dabashi argues that Khomeini's theory of Ismah from faith was connected to his theory of Islamic government by guardianship of the jurist . If the truly faithful possessed Ismah, and if Khomeini and

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6762-506: Is clear from this explanation that the statement "they do not disobey Allah in what He commands them" means that the angels are committed to their assignment while the statement, "they act as they are bidden", means they accomplish their work according to instruction. Hence, the respected reader should not think the second statement is a repetition of the first statement if so claimed by commentators because it would not be correct. The first statement implies they do not abandon their assignment and

6923-424: Is contradictory as that would entail opposing himself. Omniscience (all-knowing) is an attribute often ascribed to God. This implies that God knows how free agents will choose to act. If God does know this, either their free will might be illusory or foreknowledge does not imply predestination, and if God does not know it, God may not be omniscient. Open Theism limits God's omniscience by contending that, due to

7084-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon

7245-468: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and

7406-605: Is derived from the Proto-Germanic *ǥuđan. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form *ǵhu-tó-m was probably based on the root *ǵhau(ə)- , which meant either "to call" or "to invoke". The Germanic words for God were originally neuter , but during the process of the Christianization of the Germanic peoples from their indigenous Germanic paganism , the words became a masculine syntactic form . In English, capitalization

7567-456: Is evil. If they are to gain His favor, but can not be sure of the righteousness of their actions, there must be a prophet to give that permission, and to inform them of that which they do not know and of the rewards of obedience and punishments of disobedience. The prophets teach that which is needed to live a righteous life. In addition, according to philosophical and theological doctrines, to establish

7728-414: Is most often framed with the example "Could God create a stone so heavy that even he could not lift it?" as God could either be unable to create that stone or lift that stone and so could not be omnipotent. This is often countered with variations of the argument that omnipotence, like any other attribute ascribed to God, only applies as far as it is noble enough to befit God and thus God cannot lie, or do what

7889-459: Is necessary to commit mistakes to teach people how to repent. The notion that prophets are generally sinless was first pushed by Asharites and Maturidites, but not accepted by Hanbalites. Annemarie Schimmel believed that "The absolute obedience owed to the Prophet is meaningful only if Muhammad is free from any faults and could thus constitute an immaculate model for even the most insignificant part of life." Shia and some Sunni scholars believe that

8050-730: Is no deity except God." In Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity describes God as one God in Father , Son ( Jesus ), and Holy Spirit . In past centuries, this fundamental mystery of the Christian faith was also summarized by the Latin formula Sancta Trinitas, Unus Deus (Holy Trinity, Unique God), reported in the Litanias Lauretanas . God in Hinduism is viewed differently by diverse strands of

8211-566: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference

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8372-788: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not

8533-499: Is often believed to be forgiving. For example, a hadith states God would replace a sinless people with one who sinned but still asked repentance. Sacrifice for the sake of God is another act of devotion that includes fasting and almsgiving . Remembrance of God in daily life include mentioning interjections thanking God when feeling gratitude or phrases of adoration , such as repeating chants while performing other activities. Transtheistic religious traditions may believe in

8694-430: Is often thought of as incorporeal and independent of the material creation, while pantheism holds that God is the universe itself. God is sometimes seen as omnibenevolent , while deism holds that God is not involved with humanity apart from creation. Some traditions attach spiritual significance to maintaining some form of relationship with God, often involving acts such as worship and prayer , and see God as

8855-485: Is one of the best known traits of religion. He cites examples from Greek mythology , which is, in his opinion, more like a modern soap opera than other religious systems. Bertrand du Castel and Timothy Jurgensen demonstrate through formalization that Boyer's explanatory model matches physics' epistemology in positing not directly observable entities as intermediaries. Anthropologist Stewart Guthrie contends that people project human features onto non-human aspects of

9016-514: Is only in this way that people are guided and can form a wholesome social system, and that the philosophy behind the sending of the prophets necessitates their infallibility, and that their thoughts, actions, and sayings reflect Divine Will. Therefore, Allah does not guide via authoritative texts (i.e. the Qur'an and Hadith ) alone, but also through specially endowed individuals known as Imams. Shi‘ites believe that status and authority attributed to Imams would have been senseless if they were prone to

9177-501: Is only one deity, referred to as "God" (with uppercase g ). Comparing or equating other entities to God is viewed as idolatry in monotheism, and is often strongly condemned. Judaism is one of the oldest monotheistic traditions in the world. Islam's most fundamental concept is tawhid , meaning 'oneness' or "uniqueness'. The first pillar of Islam is an oath that forms the basis of the religion and which non-Muslims wishing to convert must recite, declaring that, "I testify that there

9338-424: Is possible for the prophets to unintentionally commit sin, while the minority believe that it is not. The purity of Ahl al-Bayt , the family of Muhammad , is manifested by the verse of purification in the Qur'an. The development of Shi'ite theology in the period between the death of Muhammad and the disappearance of the Twelfth Imam extends this concept of purity and originates the concept of ismah. The concept of

9499-415: Is reasonable to ask who or what created the universe, but if the answer is God, then the question has merely been deflected to that of who created God. Both authors claim, however, that it is possible to answer these questions purely within the realm of science and without invoking divine beings. A deity, or "god" (with lowercase g ), refers to a supernatural being. Monotheism is the belief that there

9660-468: Is taken by exclusivists, who believe they are the chosen people or have exclusive access to absolute truth, generally through revelation or encounter with the Divine, which adherents of other religions do not. Another view is religious pluralism . A pluralist typically believes that his religion is the right one, but does not deny the partial truth of other religions. The view that all theists actually worship

9821-559: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As

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9982-484: Is the term used for a deity or a god in general. Muslims also use a multitude of other titles for God. In Hinduism , Brahman is often considered a monistic concept of God. God may also be given a proper name in monotheistic currents of Hinduism which emphasize the personal nature of God , with early references to his name as Krishna - Vasudeva in Bhagavata or later Vishnu and Hari . Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa

10143-567: Is the term used in Balinese Hinduism . In Chinese religion , Shangdi is conceived as the progenitor of the universe, intrinsic to it and constantly bringing order to it. Ahura Mazda is the name for God used in Zoroastrianism . "Mazda", or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā- , nominative Mazdå , reflects Proto-Iranian *Mazdāh (female) . It is generally taken to be the proper name of

10304-489: Is the universe and the universe is God and denies that God transcends the Universe. For pantheist philosopher Baruch Spinoza , the whole of the natural universe is made of one substance, God, or its equivalent, Nature. Pantheism is sometimes objected to as not providing any meaningful explanation of God with the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer stating, "Pantheism is only a euphemism for atheism." Pandeism holds that God

10465-584: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that

10626-459: Is the view that the truth values of certain claims—especially metaphysical and religious claims such as whether God , the divine or the supernatural exist—are unknown and perhaps unknowable. Theism generally holds that God exists objectively and independently of human thought and is sometimes used to refer to any belief in God or gods. Some view the existence of God as an empirical question. Richard Dawkins states that "a universe with

10787-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into

10948-676: Is to the Wonderful Lord." Baha , the "greatest" name for God in the Baháʼí Faith , is Arabic for "All-Glorious". Other names for God include Aten in ancient Egyptian Atenism where Aten was proclaimed to be the one "true" supreme being and creator of the universe, Chukwu in Igbo , and Hayyi Rabbi in Mandaeism . The existence of God is a subject of debate in theology , philosophy of religion and popular culture . In philosophical terms,

11109-516: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while

11270-404: Is used when the word is used as a proper noun , as well as for other names by which a god is known. Consequently, the capitalized form of god is not used for multiple gods or when used to refer to the generic idea of a deity . The English word God and its counterparts in other languages are normally used for any and all conceptions and, in spite of significant differences between religions,

11431-466: Is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator , and principal object of faith . In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the universe or life, for which such a deity is often worshipped". Belief in the existence of at least one god is called theism . Conceptions of God vary considerably. Many notable theologians and philosophers have developed arguments for and against

11592-428: Is wise, but can say that God is not ignorant (i.e. in some way God has some properties of knowledge). Christian theologian Alister McGrath writes that one has to understand a "personal god" as an analogy. "To say that God is like a person is to affirm the divine ability and willingness to relate to others. This does not imply that God is human, or located at a specific point in the universe." Pantheism holds that God

11753-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary

11914-667: The awliyah (friends of God), by eliminating the theological problems of undermining the expectation of the Mahdi. " According to Mesbah-Yazdi , there is an intellectual argument that if getting to the ideal is impossible or difficult, then be satisfied with the less ideal concerning a matter. This argument is called "gradual degradation". Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized :  al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )

12075-561: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to

12236-401: The anthropic principle , and so would not learn of, for example, life on other planets or of universes that did not occur because of different laws of physics . Non-theists have argued that complex processes that have natural explanations yet to be discovered are referred to the supernatural, called god of the gaps . Other theists, such as John Henry Newman who believed theistic evolution

12397-403: The existence of God . Atheism rejects the belief in any deity. Agnosticism is the belief that the existence of God is unknown or unknowable . Some theists view knowledge concerning God as derived from faith. God is often conceived as the greatest entity in existence. God is often believed to be the cause of all things and so is seen as the creator, sustainer , and ruler of the universe. God

12558-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic

12719-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In

12880-737: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c.  8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. God In monotheistic belief systems, God

13041-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to

13202-562: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of

13363-812: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ    [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized

13524-494: The Imam is appointed by God , but that the Imam's Ismah is manifest. They also believe that Ismah is a hidden virtue, and that, in order to assure that God's message is clear, so that people will not have ignorance as an excuse on the Day of Resurrection, God must provide a succession of Imams, each with the appropriate attributes and Ismah, as messengers, to guide the people and to interpret the Qur'an for all time. Shi‘ites believe that

13685-533: The Messenger, in any matter: " O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. And if you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you should believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is the best [way] and best in result. " According to Shi‘ites, people know that they are possessed by Allah, but that acting while under that possession, without His permission,

13846-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around

14007-467: The Punjabi language. Vāhi (a Middle Persian borrowing) means 'wonderful', and guru ( Sanskrit : guru ) is a term denoting 'teacher'. Waheguru is also described by some as an experience of ecstasy which is beyond all description. The most common usage of the word Waheguru is in the greeting Sikhs use with each other— Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh , "Wonderful Lord's Khalsa , Victory

14168-539: The Qur'an and the Fourteen Infallibles will not be separated from each other until the Day of Judgment , and that each one of them guides the other. He cites the Qur'an 17:9 to support his claim. To Al-Raghib al-Isfahani and Murtada al-Zabidi , Ismah is God's preservation of the infallibles, accomplished in stages. The first stage is to bestow on infallibles a robust constitution, followed by excellent qualities, then

14329-626: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from

14490-561: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With

14651-701: The Twelve Imams . Ismaili also attribute ismah to Ismaili imāms and Fatimah , daughter of Muhammad , while Zaidis do not attribute the quality to the Zaidi imams . The doctrine of ismah has been rejected by some Muslims, such as the Kharijites who cited Quran 48:2 as evidence for the rejection. Sunnis interpret ismah to mean that prophets are immune from telling lies (intentionally or unintentionally), of being Kafir (infidel) before or after their assignment, and of being unable to commit other sins intentionally. In other aspects, opinions diverge. Most Sunnis believe that it

14812-432: The argument from morality is the argument from conscience which argues for the existence of God given the existence of a conscience that informs of right and wrong, even against prevailing moral codes. Philosopher John Locke instead argued that conscience is a social construct and thus could lead to contradicting morals. Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. Agnosticism

14973-449: The atheist J. L. Mackie agreed that the argument is valid, they disagreed with its premises. David Hume argued that there is no basis to believe in objective moral truths while biologist E. O. Wilson theorized that the feelings of morality are a by-product of natural selection in humans and would not exist independent of the mind. Philosopher Michael Lou Martin argued that a subjective account for morality can be acceptable. Similar to

15134-405: The beginning, or if they are only sinnless after they started their prophetic mission. Among non-Shi‘ites, Ashari theologian Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi is one of the supporters of the idea of the ismah of the prophets. He stated his view is as follows: "According to us the best view is that, owing to their prophethood, there is neither a grave nor a small sin or error (dhanb)." Besides investigating

15295-568: The benefit of the worshipper. Mahatma Gandhi expressed the view that God does not need his supplication and that, "Prayer is not an asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is a daily admission of one's weakness." Invoking God in prayer plays a significant role among many believers. Depending on the tradition, God can be viewed as a personal God who is only to be invoked directly while other traditions allow praying to intermediaries, such as saints , to intercede on their behalf. Prayer often also includes supplication such as asking forgiveness . God

15456-639: The claims of the Imamah against the claims of Sunni caliphs, so the doctrine was expanded and elaborated upon. According to Francis Robinson, though Shi'ism initially began as a movement of political opposition to the Caliphs, the belief that eventually developed was that the Imams possessed superhuman qualities of sinlessness and infallibility. Henry Corbin believed that historical criticism would be quiet, particularly about Ismah, and that what has been described altogether

15617-448: The consequence of sin. An infallible is considered immune from error in practical affairs, in calling people to religion , and in perception of divine knowledge, so that their followers do not fall into error. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi has said that the infallibility of the Imam does not exclude the capacity to commit sins. Allamah Majlesi says that through reason and intellect, steadfastness in prayer and fasting, and by God's guidance,

15778-567: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after

15939-445: The doctrine of Ismah , pointing to verse 48:2 of the Qur’an, in which God said to Muḥammad: "That God may forgive thee thy preceding and thy subsequent sin, and may complete his favour on thee, and direct thee in the right way ". Isma‘ilites also attribute Ismah to Imāms and Fatima Zahra , daughter of Muhammad . Sunnis have different opinions regarding Ismah: on lying and infidelity, Sunnis believe that prophets could not tell

16100-455: The doctrine that salvation is eventually available for everyone. A fourth approach is syncretism , mixing different elements from different religions. An example of syncretism is the New Age movement. Fideism is the position that in certain topics, notably theology such as in reformed epistemology , faith is superior than reason in arriving at truths. Some theists argue that there is value to

16261-470: The effects of the "spirit molecule" DMT , which is both an endogenous molecule in the human brain and the active molecule in the psychedelic ayahuasca , found that a large majority of respondents said DMT brought them into contact with a "conscious, intelligent, benevolent, and sacred entity", and describe interactions that oozed joy, trust, love, and kindness. More than half of those who had previously self-identified as atheists described some type of belief in

16422-577: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of

16583-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around

16744-434: The existence of God is not a question that can be answered using the scientific method . Agnostic Stephen Jay Gould argued that science and religion are not in conflict and proposed an approach dividing the world of philosophy into what he called " non-overlapping magisteria " (NOMA). In this view, questions of the supernatural , such as those relating to the existence and nature of God, are non - empirical and are

16905-415: The existence of deities but deny any spiritual significance to them. The term has been used to describe certain strands of Buddhism, Jainism and Stoicism . Among religions that do attach spirituality to the relationship with God disagree as how to best worship God and what is God's plan for mankind. There are different approaches to reconciling the contradictory claims of monotheistic religions. One view

17066-589: The existence of other deities. Transcendence is the aspect of God's nature that is completely independent of the material universe and its physical laws. Many supposed characteristics of God are described in human terms. Anselm thought that God did not feel emotions such as anger or love, but appeared to do so through our imperfect understanding. The incongruity of judging "being" against something that might not exist, led many medieval philosophers approach to knowledge of God through negative attributes, called Negative theology . For example, one should not say that God

17227-399: The existence of ugliness in the universe. This has also been countered by arguing that beauty has no objective reality and so the universe could be seen as ugly or that humans have made what is more beautiful than nature. The argument from morality argues for the existence of God given the assumption of the objective existence of morals . While prominent non-theistic philosophers such as

17388-593: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From

17549-501: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and

17710-645: The ground of all being, immanent in and transcendent over the whole world of reality, with immanence and transcendence being the contrapletes of personality. God has also been conceived as being incorporeal (immaterial), a personal being, the source of all moral obligation , and the "greatest conceivable existent". These attributes were all supported to varying degrees by the early Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologian philosophers, including Maimonides , Augustine of Hippo , and Al-Ghazali , respectively. Jainism has generally rejected creationism , holding that soul substances ( Jīva ) are uncreated and that time

17871-456: The immunity from sin (ma'sum) of the imams, the Imamiyyah, perhaps began in the first half of the second century AH . Shia scholars of the fourth and the fifth centuries AH extended the infallibility of Muḥammad and the Twelve Imams until the doctrine came to mean that they could not have committed any sin or inadvertent error either before or after they assumed office. According to Edward Lane ,

18032-579: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward

18193-454: The infallibility of Messengers, Prophets, Imams, and Angels is a kafir ( Arabic : كَـافِـر , unbeliever). Yet, this interpretation isn't shared universally. Based on Quran 2:30 and Quran 2:34 , other scholars argue that angels can err, despite the majority always remains obedient, as stated by Bulak al-Djurdjani . According to Tabatabaei, the statement, "they do not disobey Allah in what He commands them, and only act as they are bidden",

18354-467: The lack of deficiency in knowledge. From a Shia theological perspective, ash-Shaykh al-Saduq argues that Ismah is a quality peculiar only to the Twelve Imams ; it is a natural state of immunity from sin which is seen as a miraculous gift from God . An infallible is regarded as preserved from sin because of his or her supreme level of righteousness, consciousness, love of God, and thorough knowledge of

18515-608: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about

18676-599: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c.  603 –689)

18837-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA

18998-430: The laws of the Universe which then can change themselves within the framework of those laws . In addition to the initial creation, occasionalism refers to the idea that the Universe would not by default continue to exist from one instant to the next and so would need to rely on God as a sustainer . While divine providence refers to any intervention by God, it is usually used to refer to "special providence", where there

19159-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya

19320-573: The messengers are to be obeyed, the sinners are not to be obeyed, the result is that the messengers are not sinful. The verse of purification implies that it is the will of Allah to purify none but the Ahl al-Bayt as free of any kind of sin, error, and defilement. Abundant traditions in Shia and Sunni hadith state that, by the term Ahl al-Bayt , the Five Pure People—or the Ahl al-Kisa , not including

19481-403: The most learned and pious Islamic jurists were truly faithful, than this would reassure Shi'ites hesitant about granting the same ruling authority to Khomeini and his successors that Shi'ites traditionally believed was reserved for the 12th Imam ( Mahdi ) on his return. According to Dabashi, Khomeini's theory helped "to secure the all-important attribute of infallibility for himself as a member of

19642-455: The nature of time, God's omniscience does not mean the deity can predict the future and process theology holds that God does not have immutability , so is affected by his creation. Theologians of theistic personalism (the view held by René Descartes , Isaac Newton , Alvin Plantinga , Richard Swinburne , William Lane Craig , and most modern evangelicals ) argue that God is most generally

19803-768: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum  [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve

19964-485: The needs of humanity at different points in history and for different cultures, and as part of a scheme of progressive revelation and education of humanity. An example of a pluralist view in Christianity is supersessionism , i.e., the belief that one's religion is the fulfillment of previous religions. A third approach is relativistic inclusivism , where everybody is seen as equally right; an example being universalism :

20125-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on

20286-534: The opposite. Al-Basri taught that angels are, due to their lack of bodily desires, the most noble beings. Thus, he ranked them higher than humans and prophets. On the other hand, Shi‘ites believe that the Prophets, Apostles , and Imams are more excellent than angels, based on Quran 15:30 and Q2:33 . According to Al-Shaykh al-Saduq , based on 16:50 and 21: 27 of the Qur’an , he agrees with al-Basri's view point that angels never disobey God , that they are free from sins and impurities, and that anyone who denies

20447-433: The origin of the universe to argue for the existence of God. The teleological argument , also called "argument from design", uses the complexity within the universe as a proof of the existence of God. It is countered that the fine tuning required for a stable universe with life on earth is illusory, as humans are only able to observe the small part of this universe that succeeded in making such observation possible, called

20608-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on

20769-549: The perspective of Shi‘ites. Provided that the obedience is compulsory, it may be concluded that the apostles and Ulil-Amr ( Arabic : أُولي الأَمـر ) are sinless. Many verses in the Qur’an order men not to obey the unjust. Instead in the Qur’an Allah orders the believers to follow the apostle and the Ulul-Amr, and joins that obedience to obedience to Him, with the condition that no difference of opinion exists between Ulul-Amr and

20930-414: The principle of ontological guidance, which stated that God, in His omniscience and omnipotence , did not err in guiding those whom He desired to guide; and, secondly, that Ismah implied protection from sin based on the prophets' will and knowledge. Tabatabaei also said that if the prophets' actions contradict their words, setting one example by their actions but preaching something else, this would obscure

21091-502: The proper domain of theology . The methods of science should then be used to answer any empirical question about the natural world, and theology should be used to answer questions about ultimate meaning and moral value. In this view, the perceived lack of any empirical footprint from the magisterium of the supernatural onto natural events makes science the sole player in the natural world. Stephen Hawking and co-author Leonard Mlodinow state in their 2010 book, The Grand Design , that it

21252-496: The prophets are free from all sin—major or minor, intentional or unintentional, before or after their assignment, in matters relevant to their mission or not—and that the prophet's commands and prohibitions are those of Allah. Shia also believe that the prophets have complete knowledge of Allah's will given to them by the First Infallible, Muhammad , which at all times causes them to act perfectly in religious matters; and that "as

21413-463: The prophets were given ismah even before their assignment to the prophecy, and that it covered every aspect of their life including the emotional, behavioral, personal, social, intentional and unintentional. Representing Shi‘ites' point-of-view, Tabatabaei stated that Ismah took two forms with regard to revelation : firstly, that the prophets were necessarily free from sin in the reception of revelation, in its preservation, and in its propagation, due to

21574-516: The prophets' wives—are meant. Shia interpretation of the verse of purification is based on the Hadith of Ahl al-Kisa’ , which is an account of the Prophet gathering his four family members under his cloak. This is in accordance with scholars such as Wilferd Madelung , Momen, and Kardan, who claim that the verse of purification is proof of the purification of the Ahl al-Bayt. According to several Shi‘ite and Sunni

21735-497: The question of the existence of God involves the disciplines of epistemology (the nature and scope of knowledge) and ontology (study of the nature of being or existence ) and the theory of value (since some definitions of God include "perfection"). Ontological arguments refer to any argument for the existence of God that is based on a priori reasoning. Notable ontological arguments were formulated by Anselm and René Descartes . Cosmological arguments use concepts around

21896-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within

22057-406: The religion, with most Hindus having faith in a supreme reality ( Brahman ) who can be manifested in numerous chosen deities. Thus, the religion is sometimes characterized as Polymorphic Monotheism . Henotheism is the belief and worship of a single god at a time while accepting the validity of worshiping other deities. Monolatry is the belief in a single deity worthy of worship while accepting

22218-476: The risk in having faith and that if the arguments for God's existence were as rational as the laws of physics then there would be no risk. Such theists often argue that the heart is attracted to beauty, truth and goodness and so would be best for dictating about God, as illustrated through Blaise Pascal who said, "The heart has its reasons that reason does not know." A hadith attributes a quote to God as "I am what my slave thinks of me." Inherent intuition about God

22379-610: The role of the prophet's will in deciding whether to perform or reject an action. Among the doctrines that arose from the mid-2nd century AH (8th century CE ) onwards is that "Ismat al-anbiya" (the protection of the Prophets) means God's protection of the prophets from sin and error. This doctrine seems to have originated from among the Shia, but is embraced, in one way or another, by almost all Muslim sects and theological and legal schools. A major dispute deals with, whether prophets are sinless from

22540-432: The root of Ismah is `asama ( Arabic : عَصَمَ ), which means protected or defended ; and thus Ismah means prevention or protection . Ismah is translated by (de:) A. J. Wensinck as impeccability , by William M. Miller as immunity to sin , and by W. Ivanow as infallibility . Shia's fourth Imam, Zayn al-Abidin , regarded Ismah as "a quality which enables a man to seize firmly to the Qur'an ". Al-Abidin said that

22701-483: The rule of Grace and the clarity of the Divine message, Allah sent selected individuals as prophets to guide the people, to establish a social system, and to put an end to intellectual and social disputes. Thus, they believe that discharging of such a heavy responsibility is only possible if the prophet is immune from any error, and always reflects all aspects of truth and the Divine Will. Therefore, in their perspective, it

22862-479: The same god, whether they know it or not, is especially emphasized in the Baháʼí Faith, Hinduism, and Sikhism. The Baháʼí Faith preaches that divine manifestations include great prophets and teachers of many of the major religious traditions such as Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Zoroaster, Muhammad, Bahá'ú'lláh and also preaches the unity of all religions and focuses on these multiple epiphanies as necessary for meeting

23023-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there

23184-412: The same weaknesses found in ordinary people, therefore, that the prophets must be infallible (ma'sum) for the same reason that they were sent. In other words, they believe that the ismah or infallibility of the messengers establishes the authenticity of the message: To be required to follow a prophet who commits sin is a contradiction. Zaydi Shi‘ites and non-Shi‘ites, such as the Kharijites , rejected

23345-436: The second statement means they carry out the instruction. Mulla Sadra , a Shi‘ite philosopher , uses both rational and theological arguments in defense of the infallibility of angels: "The sense of sin and fallibility is to contrast between lowly faculties and sublime faculties, where the soul wants superlative motives but motives and inner purposes contradict. These contradictions and contrasts are endemic to beings who are of

23506-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of

23667-519: The source of all moral obligation . God is sometimes described without reference to gender , while others use terminology that is gender-specific. God is referred to by different names depending on the language and cultural tradition, sometimes with different titles of God used in reference to God's various attributes. The earliest written form of the Germanic word God comes from the 6th-century Christian Codex Argenteus . The English word itself

23828-514: The spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhā means 'intelligence' or 'wisdom'. Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian *mazdhā- , from Proto-Indo-European mn̩sdʰeh 1 , literally meaning 'placing ( dʰeh 1 ) one's mind ( *mn̩-s )', hence 'wise'. Meanwhile 101 other names are also in use. Waheguru ( Punjabi : vāhigurū ) is a term most often used in Sikhism to refer to God. It means 'Wonderful Teacher' in

23989-513: The spirits of people such as Confucius and Laozi in a similar manner to God. Some atheists have argued that a single, omniscient God who is imagined to have created the universe and is particularly attentive to the lives of humans has been imagined and embellished over generations. Pascal Boyer argues that while there is a wide array of supernatural concepts found around the world, in general, supernatural beings tend to behave much like people. The construction of gods and spirits like persons

24150-556: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of

24311-532: The subject in his Commentary on the Qur'an , he wrote a separate book titled Ismatu'l-Anbiya ( The Sinlessness of the Prophets ), and championed the cause of this dogma being a part of Sunni theology. But Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī , a Sunni Philosopher, rejected this doctrine. Over the course of history, Sunni views varied to the extent of protection, distinguishing between major sins ( al-kaba'ir ), minor sins ( al-sagha'ir ), inadvertent error ( sahw ) forgetfulness ( nisyān ) and lapses (zallāt). F. Some of them argued, it

24472-422: The term nor the concept of Ismah is found in either the Qur'an or in the canonical Sunni hadith . It was apparently first used by the Imamiyyah, perhaps around the beginning of the second century AH , to maintain that the Imam must be immune from sin (ma'sum). Hamid Algar states that the ascription of infallibility to the Imams is encountered as early as the first half of the 8th century, second century AH, and it

24633-520: The term remains an English translation common to all. El means 'god' in Hebrew, but in Judaism and in Christianity , God is also given a personal name, the tetragrammaton YHWH, in origin possibly the name of an Edomite or Midianite deity, Yahweh . In many English translations of the Bible , when the word LORD is in all capitals, it signifies that the word represents the tetragrammaton. Jah or Yah

24794-431: The terrible results of disobedience. Allah orders the servants to obey Him and His messengers, who are equivalent, according to verse 4: 80 . So, if the prophet be not infallible, it is a contradictory order. In other verses, He orders: Then do not obey the deniers ( 68: 8 ), And do not obey every worthless habitual swearer ( 68: 10 ), ...do not obey from among them a sinner or ungrateful [disbeliever] ( 76: 24 ). So,

24955-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to

25116-494: The truth, which would undermine the religious mission of the prophets, therefore, that the Ismah of the prophets in delivering the message of Allah depends upon their Ismah with regard to their inability to sin. Another argument from him was that all the prophets were guided by God, that everyone who is guided by God never sins, and that the prophets were therefore free from error. Shi‘ites not only interpret Qur’an 2:124 as saying that

25277-430: The world because it makes those aspects more familiar. Sigmund Freud also suggested that god concepts are projections of one's father. Likewise, Émile Durkheim was one of the earliest to suggest that gods represent an extension of human social life to include supernatural beings. In line with this reasoning, psychologist Matt Rossano contends that when humans began living in larger groups, they may have created gods as

25438-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study

25599-402: Was a separate entity but then became the universe . Panentheism holds that God contains, but is not identical to, the Universe. God is often viewed as the cause of all that exists. For Pythagoreans , Monad variously referred to divinity, the first being or an indivisible origin. The philosophy of Plato and Plotinus refers to " The One ", which is the first principle of reality that

25760-474: Was acceptable, have also argued against versions of the teleological argument and held that it is limiting of God to view him having to only intervene specially in some instances rather than having complex processes designed to create order. The argument from beauty states that this universe happens to contain special beauty in it and that there would be no particular reason for this over aesthetic neutrality other than God. This has been countered by pointing to

25921-504: Was soon extended to the prophets. The doctrine came to exclude the commission of any sin or inadvertence on their part, either before or after their assumption of office. Regarding the concept of Ismah in the Shi‘i doctrine, Imams have a more central role compared to the caliph in Sunni political theory. Perhaps the evolution of this doctrine, as Donaldson suggests, caused Shi‘ite scholars to establish

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