Muslim Law Dictionary

"If we use religion for division ... that’s wrong and destructive. But it’s the person who uses it who makes it wrong, not the religion. We will not achieve understanding through prayers to God. We have to make an effort to talk to each other."

These were the wise words of the Dalai Lama, speaking in Montreal, on September 7, 2011 (albeit a Buddhist leader). There are almost as many followers of Islam as there are Christians (1.7-billion to 2.2-billion). It is thus imperative that the concepts of Islamic law be transparent; doubly so as inherent in this religion of the prophet Muhammad (570-632) is a strong bias towards theocracy.

al Qaeda: A terrorist organization, nominally Islamic, and originally based in Afghanistan.
Apostacy: The ancient criminal offence of atheism or not being Christian, or of denying the doctrines of a state religion.
Blasphemy: The scurrilous, deriding or intemperate expression of dissent or criticism of God or a state's official religion.
Dhimmi: Muslim law: non-Muslims.
Diyya: Muslim law: the payment by an aggressor to his victim of a sum of money to thus avoid a retaliation punishment ("kisas").
Djabr: Muslim law: a father's right to constrain his son or daughter into a marriage of the father’s choosing.
Fiqh: The law of Islam. Also spelled fikh.
God: Supreme being.
Hawala: Arabic: a form of international money transfer often used to conduct money laundering.
Heresy: A historic criminal offence comprised of the act of public denial of Christian doctrines.
Hiraba: Muslim law: organized crime such as highway robbery.
Hudud: Muslim law: divine punishments; the category of crimes most egregious and therefore most severely punished.
Idda: Muslim law: The mandatory waiting period before a divorce created by talaq becomes effective.
Islamic Law: The law according to the Muslim faith and as interpreted from the Koran.
Jald: Muslim law: flogging, a punishment for some crimes.
Jihad: A tenet of Islamic law to adherents, with the reward of eternal life in Paradise, if they promote and exhort the word of Muhammad and the Koran to others, and not necessarily excluding the use of violence.
Khula: Muslim law: a divorce on the wife's initiative and upon payment of an agreed amount to the husband.
Kitabia: Muslim law: women who qualify for marriage with Muslim men as belonging to acceptable religions for this purpose.
Mohtasib: Muslim law: the investigating and, in some cases, prosecuting office of criminal justice.
Mujtahid: Muslim law: a scholar of Muslim lawyer; one sufficiently versed in Muslim law.
Muslim: Muslim law: any person who professes as a religion, that there is but one God and that Mohammad is the prophet of that God.
Muslim Law: The body of law derived from the Koran and other recorded sayings of the Muslim prophet Muhammad (570-632).
Muta: Muslim law: a temporary marriage; for a fixed period.
Nashiza: Muslim law: a disobedient wife.
Nikah: Muslim law: marriage.
Polyandry: The having of more than one husband by a wife.
Polygyny: One man with several wives.
Quesas: Muslim law: the right of a person who has suffered corporal injuries by the act of another, to inflict, or have inflicted similar injuries upon the aggressor.
Religion: Faith and worship in a god.
Ridda: Muslim law: the rejection of the religion of Islam by a Muslim.
Rukun: Muslim law: the essential requirements for marriage.
Sariqa: Muslim law: theft.
Sharia Law: Muslim or Islamic law, both civil and criminal justice as well as regulating individual conduct both personal and moral.
Shurb Al-Khamr: Muslim law; the crime of consuming alcoholic beverages.
Siyasa Shar’iyya: Muslim law: the legal authority of Muslim theocracies to supplement the broad criminal law principles of the Koran and other Muslim legal texts of sacred origin, on points of detail.
Ta'azir: Muslim law: discretionary and corrective punishments for minor crimes.
Talaq: Muslim law: The right given to a Muslim man to divorce his wife by mere unequivocal statement.
Waqf: Muslim law: property dedicated to charitable purposes.
Zihar: Muslim law: an insult proffered by a husband upon his wife which likens the wife to some prohibited female relation of his, and exposes the husband to divorce.
Zina: Muslim law: sexual relations; occurring outside of bond of marriage.

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