glossary 411Fiqh: jurisprudence, the study and application of the body of Muslim sacred law.
Islamic jurisprudence is based on the Qur"àn, the Sunnah and ijtihàdwhich is
the process of exerting oneself to reach a ruling in an unparallel situation that
either did not exist in the past or existed but not on the same scale. The bases
on which ijtihàdis established are: consensus of opinions, ijma", judicial reasoning
or derivation, qiyàs, preference, istiœsàn, public interest, istislàœ, and custom and
usage, 'urf.
Fitnah:the religious schism that led to civil wars among Muslims during the lat-
ter part of the Rightly-Guided caliphate and the early Umayyad period.
Ghanìmah:technically differentiated from Fai"and Anfàl, was the spoils of war
that were gained during actual combat in military operations. By contrast to Fai",
warriors were entitled to the spoils of war, ghanìmah, as they used their skills and
effort, and they risked their lives in combat. The state was entitled to one-fifth
of the ghanìmah.
Gharar: fall into deception as a result of holding known information from the
buyer. Gharar is an element of deception either through ignorance of the goods,
the price, or through faulty description of the goods, in which one or both par-
ties stand to be deceived through ignorance of an essential element of exchange.
Gharar is divided into three types, namely gharar fahish (excessive), which viti-
ates the transaction, gharar yasir (minor), which is tolerated and gharar mutawas-
sit (moderate), which falls between the other two categories. Any transaction can
be classified as forbidden activity because of excessive gharar.
Ghassànìds:the Ghassànìds originated from a tribe that emigrated from South
Arabia at the end of the third century after the destruction of the dam of Ma"rib
and established itself to the south east of Damascus on the south-to-north trade
route. The Ghassànìds who were Christianised and had two languages; Aramaic
and Arabic were allies and clients of the Byzantines and served as a buffer area
between the Byzantine Empire and the nomads’ sporadic attacks on the Empire’s
borders. At the time of the Islamic conquests the Ghassànìds fought alongside
the Byzantines in the battle of Yarmùk in 636 A.C. Later the Ghassànìd king
embraced Islam, but renounced it afterwards and fled to Constantinople when
the second Caliph wanted to reduce him to a Bedouin status in a dispute that
erupted between them.
Hˆadìth:see Ahˆàdìth.
Œadramawt: one of the four kingdoms in the pre-Islamic South Arabia, after
Saba", Ma"in and Qatabàn. It lasted from about 450 B.C. to the end of the first
century A.C. The kingdom though was overshadowed by the Sabaeans and the
Minaeans, played an important role in organising spice trade.
Œanafì: a follower of Hˆanafìschool of thought. The founder of the school was
Abù-Hˆanìfah al-Nu"man ibn-Thabit (699–767), who relied mainly on juristic pref-
erence, istiœsàn, and analogical deduction, qiyàs, in arriving at juristic rulings.
Œanbalì: a follower of the Hˆanbalìschool of thought. The founder of the School
was Ahmad ibn-Hˆanbal (784–855) who strictly adhered to Sunnah to the letter
narrowing the margin of the consensus of opinion, ijma", and analogical deduc-
tion, qiyàs, and rejecting any form of human reasoning. Although he was a stu-
dent of the moderate al-Shafì"i, he adopted an uncompromising approach to
Islamic jurisprudence. His followers are mainly in Saudi Arabia.
Œaq Màlì: financial right.Haq Màlìare rights on the financial assets. Examples
of such rights are haq dayn (debt rights) if the asset is a collateral of a loan, and
haq tamalluk (ownership rights).