an open courtyard. This house became a sacred
center, and Muhammad is reported to have said,
“Whoever visits my house deserves my interces-
sion [on JUdgment day].” It was also a place of
communal prayer that served as a model for other
mosques in Syria, iraq, egypt, and North Africa.
In popular Islamic usage, all mosques can be
called “houses of God.”
The chapters of the Quran associated with the
latter part of Muhammad’s career (622–632) con-
tain ritual commandments and rules concerning
houses, both human and divine. The most impor-
tant pilgrimage command in the Quran urges
“people to perform a haJJ to the house [the Kaaba]
if they are able to do so” (Q 3:97). With respect
to ordinary houses, believers are instructed to
request permission before entering a person’s
house (Q 24:27–29), and they are to permit a
divorced woman to keep her house, at least until
it can be determined whether she is pregnant (Q
65:1, 6).
Nearly one-third of the references to houses
in the Quran pertain to the rewards and punish-
ments that await people in the afterlife. paradise
is called the “house of peace,” the “house of the
god-fearing,” or simply “the house” (dar). The
people of paradise are promised dwellings and
lofty apartments among its gardens and flowing
rivers. Evildoers, on the other hand, will go to the
Fire (hell), which is also called the “evil house”
and the “house of perdition.” Their shelters there
will be made of fire.
Even though Muslims do not adhere to reli-
gious building codes with respect to their housing,
they do employ religious symbols and amulets to
sanctify their dwellings. Many place verses of the
Quran, the names of God, or pictures of mosques
in Mecca, Medina, or JerUsalem on their house
walls. These forms of “decoration” are intended
to secure God’s blessing for the household and
to repel evil forces. In rural and working class
neighborhoods of Egypt, families decorate the
walls of their homes with religious inscriptions
and images when members of the family perform
the hajj. These pilgrimage murals often express
symbolic relations between the pilgrim’s home
and the sacred houses of Mecca, Medina, and
paradise. Shii homes in Lebanon, Iraq, and iran
often display prayers for the People of the House
(ahl al-bayt) and the 12 imams, or portraits of
beloved Shii saints and shrines. The use of reli-
gious symbols and talismans, combined with
efforts to adhere to codes of etiquette, hospitality,
and morality in the home, are believed to make it
a center of blessing with its own sacred character
(hurma).
See also amUlet; haram; harem; mosqUe.Further reading: Juan Eduardo Campo, The Other Sides
of Paradise: Explorations into the Religious Meanings of
Domestic Space in Islam (Columbia: University of South
Carolina Press, 1991); Timothy Insoll, The Archaeology
of Islam (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999); Guy T.
Petherbridge, “Vernacular Architecture: The House and
Society.” In Architecture of the Islamic World: Its History
and Social Meaning, edited by George Michell, 176–208
(New York: Morrow, 1978).hudud See crime and punishment.
hujja (Arabic: proof, convincing argument;
also spelled hujjat)
The idea of a hujja, or proof, is expressed in
the qUran, where God provides true arguments
(proofs) through revelation against the false ones
raised by humans (Q 4:165; 42:16). Also, accord-
ing to the Quran, prophets can provide proofs
against those who disbelieve (Q 6:77). In other
contexts, hujja has been used most widely among
the Shia with reference to prophets, imams (sacred
leaders descended from Muhammad), and high-
ranking religious authorities. In this sense, a hujja
is a living proof of God’s existence in human
form. One Shii sect, the Ismailis, has used it for
esteemed leaders who claimed access to the hid-
den mahdi and engaged in missionary activitieshujja 313 J