Glossary

[A] Indicates an Arabic word
[T] Indicates a Tamil word

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

'abd (A) A slave.

ahadith (A) (sing. hadith) Traditions of the Prophet Muhammad; traditional stories.

aham (T) The heart. Muhammad can be defined as the beauty of the heart [aham] reflected in the face [muham].

ahmad (A) The state of the heart, the qalb, or aham. Ahmad is the heart of Muhammad. The beauty of the heart [aham] is the beauty of the countenance [muham,Tamil] of Muhammad. That is the beauty of Allah's qualities. This is a name that comes from within the ocean of divine knowledge [bahr al-'ilm]. Allah is the One who is worthy of the praise of the qalb, the heart. Lit.: most praiseworthy.

al-akhirah (A) The hereafter; the next world; the kingdom of God.

'alam (A) (pl. 'alamun or 'alamin) The universe; the cosmos; the metaphysical world.

'alam al-arwah (A) The world of pure souls, where all souls are performing tasbih, or prayers of praise to God.

al-hamdu lillah (A) "All praise is to You.'' Allah is the glory and greatness that deserves all praise. "You are the One responsible for the appearance of all creations. Whatever appears, whatever disappears, whatever receives benefit or loss-all is Yours. I have surrendered everything into Your hands. I remain with hands outstretched, spread out, empty, and helpless. Whatever is happening and whatever is going to happen is all Yours." Lit.: All praise belongs to Allah!

alif (A) The first letter of the Arabic alphabet. To the transformed man of wisdom, the alif represents Allah, the One. See also: lam, mim.

'alim (A) (pl.'ulama) Teacher; learned one; one of wisdom. One who swims in Allah's dhat [essence of grace] and has learned the ocean of divine knowledge [bahr al-'ilm].

Allahu Akbar (A) God is Great!

Allah ta'ala (A) God Almighty; God is the Highest. Allah: (A) the beautiful undiminishing One.

Ta'ala: (A) the One who exists in all lives in a state of humility and exaltedness.

Amir al-Mu'minin (A) Commander of the faithful.

anbiya' (A) (sing. nabi) Prophets.

An'um Muhammad (A) The food; the rizq; the nourishment of all creations; Muhammad of the kindness' or blessings.

'arsh (A) The throne of God; the plenitude from which God rules. The station located on the crown of the head which is the throne that can bear the weight of Allah. Allah is so heavy that we cannot carry the load with our hands or legs. The 'arsh is the only part of man that can support Allah.

'arsh al-mu'min (A) The throne of the true believer; the throne of one who has steadfast iman [absolute faith, certitude, and determination]; the throne of an insan, a true man who has that perfect certitude of man. Allah resides within the heart which praises Him, the tongue which speaks only virtuous thoughts, the tongue which speaks the truth and praises the truth.

ashab (A) Companions of Prophet Muhammad.

Asma' al-husna (A) The ninety-nine beautiful names of Allah. The plenitude of the ninety-nine duties of God; the sifat of His dhat, the manifestations of His essence. The states of His qualities are His manifestations which emerge from Him. He performs His duty when these manifestations of His essence are brought into action. Then they become His wilayat, the actions which stem from the manifestations of His essence.

The Asma' al-husna are the ninety-nine beautiful names of His duties. They were revealed to Prophet Muhammad in the Qur'an, and he explained them to his followers. This is a vast bahr al-dawlah, a very deep ocean of His grace and His limitless, infinite, and undiminishing wealth.

If we go on cutting one of these ninety-nine wilayat over and over again, taking one piece at a time, we will see ninety-nine particles revolving one around the other without touching. This applies to each one of the ninety-nine wilayat. This is the Asma al-husna. As we go on cutting, we lose ourselves in that. We die within that. How can we ever hope to reach an end of the ninety-nine? If we receive only one drop of that, it will be more than sufficient for
us. The person who has touched the smallest, tiniest drop becomes a good one. These are merely His powers. If you go on cutting just one of His powers, it is so powerful that it will draw you in. That power will swallow you up, and you become the power [wilayah]. Then you come to the stage at which you can lose yourself within Allah; you can disappear within Allah.

'asr (A) The third of the five-times prayers; also means era, time, and afternoon.

astaghfiru Allah al-'Azim (A) I seek forgiveness from Allah the Supreme.

a'udhu billahi min al-Shaytan al-Rajim (A) I seek refuge in God from the evils of the accursed Satan.

awliya' (A) (sing. wall) The favorites of God. Those who are near to God, referring to holy men of Islam.

al-awwal (A) The creation of all forms; the stage at which the soul became surrounded by form and each creation took shape; the stage at which the souls of the six kinds of lives (earth-life, fire-life, water-life, air-life, ether-life, and light-life) were placed in their respective forms. Allah created these forms and then placed that 'trust property'
which is life within those forms.

Awwal Muhammad (A) The first Muhammad; the beginning; the emergence of creation; the time Muhammad emerged, resonated, and pulsated within Allah.

bahr al-'ilm (A) The ocean of divine knowledge.

barakat (A) The wealth of Allah's grace.

al-Bayt al-Muqaddas: A name given to the temple at Jerusalem, on which site the Dome of the Rock stands today. Lit.: the Holy House.

Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim (A) In the name of God, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate. Bismillah: Allah is the first and the last, the One with the beginning and without beginning. He is the One who is the cause for creation and for the absence of creation, the cause for the beginning and for the beginningless.

al-Rahman: He is the King, the Nourisher, the One who gives food. He is the Compassionate One. He is the One who protects the creations. He is the Beneficent One.

al-Rahim: He is the One who redeems, the One who protects from evil, who preserves and who confers eternal bliss; the Savior. On the Day of judgment and on the Day of Inquiry and on all days from the day of the beginning, He protects and brings His creations back unto Himself.

Dajjal (A) Antichrist. Lit.: lying, false.

dawlah (A) This has two meanings. One is the wealth of the world, or dunya. The other is the wealth of the grace of Allah. The wealth of Allah is the wealth of the divine knowledge known as 'ilm and the wealth of perfect iman, or absolute faith, certitude, and determination.

dhat (A) The essence of God; His treasury; His wealth of purity; His grace.

dhikr (A) The remembrance of God. It is a common name given to certain words in praise of God. Of the many dhikrs, the most exalted dhikr is to say, "La ilah illa Allah-There is nothing other than You. Only You are Allah.'' All the others relate to His wilayat, or His actions, but this dhikr points to Him and to Him alone. See also:
kalimah; La ilaha illa Allah.

din (A) The light of perfect purity; the resplendence of perfectly pure iman, absolute faith, certitude, and determination. Lit.:religion, faith, or belief.

Din al-Islam (A) The faith of surrender to the will of Allah.

dunya (A) The earth-world in which we live; the world of physical existence; the darkness which separated from Allah at the time when the light of the Nur Muhammad manifested from within Allah.

fikr (A) Contemplation; meditation; concentration on God.

firdaws (A) The eighth heaven. If we can cut away the seven base desires known as the nafs ammarah, what remains will be Allah's qualities, actions, and conduct, His gracious attributes, and His duties. If man can make these his own and store them within his heart, then that is firdaws. That is Allah's house, the limitless heaven. That will be the
eighth heaven, Allah's house of infinite magnitude and perfect purity.

furud (A) (sing. fard) The five furud refer to the five pillars of Islam: Iman, or absolute faith, prayer, charity, fasting, and hajj, or holy pilgrimage.

gnanam (T) Divine luminous wisdom; grace-awakened wisdom. If man can throw away all the worldly treasures and take within him only the treasure called Allah and His qualities and actions, His conduct and behavior, if he makes Allah the only treasure and completeness for him-that is the state of gnanam.

hadith (A) (pl. ahadith) A tradition of the Prophet Muhammad; traditional story.

hadith qudsi (A) A divine transmission directly revealed to Prophet Muhammad without Gabriel as an intermediary.

hajj (A) A pilgrimage; the fifth fard, or obligatory duty, in Islam.

''Do this duty wearing the kafan, the shroud, like one who has died to the world. Give a share of your wealth to those who are poor. If you have a wife and children, divide your wealth among them. Even the inner desires must be surrendered-all of the self must die for the hajj.''

halal (A) That which is permissible or lawful according to the commands of God and which conforms to the word of God. This relates to both food and to divine knowledge, or 'ilm.

haram (A) That which is forbidden by truth and forbidden by the warnings or commands of God. For those who are on the straight path, haram means all the evil things, the actions, the food, and the dangers that can obstruct the path.

hayah (A) The plenitude of man's eternal life; the splendor of the completeness of life; the ruh, or the soul, of the splendor of man's life.

Hayah Muhammad (A) Life of Muhammad.

hayf (A) A wrong; a harm; damage; injustice; having faults.

hikmah (A) Divine wisdom.

'ibadah (A) Worship and service to the One God.

ihsan (A) To do right and to act beautifully, because one knows that Allah is always watching man's actions and thoughts.

'ilm (A) Allah's divine knowledge.

imam (A) Leader of prayer.

Imam Abu Hanifah, Imam Malik, Imam Ibn Hanbal, Imam al-Shafi'i (A) The four imams:
Imam Abu Hanifah: Born in al-Kufah A. H. 80 and died in Baghdad A. H. 150. Imam
Malik: Born and died in Medina A.H. 94-A.H. 179.
Imam Ibn Hanbal: Born and died in Baghdad A.H. 164-A.H. 241.
Imam al-Shaf'i: Born in Askalon, Pakistan A.H. 150 and died in Cairo A.H. 204. These four men systematically developed the rules of conduct and law [fiqh] from the injunctions of the Qur'an and the ahadith. Four different schools of thought were established after them and each has a slightly different interpretation of the practices of Islam.

Imam al-Ghazzali revealed in Ihyi ' 'Ulum al-DI'n that all four men not only devoted themselves to the knowledge of jurisprudence [fiqh] but were also keen observers of the knowledge of the heart.

iman (A) Absolute, complete, and unshakable faith, certitude, and determination that God alone exists; the complete acceptance of the heart that God is One.

Iman-Islam (A) The state of the spotlessly pure heart which contains Allah's Holy Qur'an, His divine radiance, His divine wisdom, His truth, His prophets, His angels, and His laws.

When the resplendence of Allah is seen as the completeness within this pure heart of man, that is Iman-Islam. When the complete, unshakable faith of this pure heart is directed toward the One who is completeness and is made to merge with that One; when that heart trusts only in Him and worships only Him, accepting Him as the only perfection and the only One worthy of worship-that is Iman-Islam.

insan (A) True man; a true human being; the true form of man; the form of Allah's qualities, actions, conduct, behavior, and virtues. One who has the completeness of this form and has filled himself with these qualities is an insan.

insan kamil (A) Perfect man, God-realized being. One who has realized Allah as his only wealth, cutting away all the wealth of the world.

insha'a Allah (A) If God wills.

ittihad (A) Unity.

jahil (A) Ignorant; ignorant one.

jihad (A) Holy war. The greater jihad or religious war is waged by the believer against his evil desires and bad qualities. The external jihad, prescribed by the shari'ah for the repulsion of oppressors, must be conducted under a truly righteous imam within rigid restrictions and may be continued only to the limit of what is needed to repel the aggressors.

jum'ah (A) The traditional gathering for prayers on Friday.

juz' (A) Portion; section.

Ka'bah (A) In Islam, the Ka'bah is the most important shrine for worship. The place where the earlier prophets and the Final Prophet, Muhammad, gathered together in prayer.

On the path of shari'ah, one of the five obligations, or furud, is the pilgrimage to the Ka'bah, known as hajj.

Another meaning: the innermost heart, or qalb, which is the original source of prayer; the place where a true man, or insan, meets Allah face to face. Whoever brings his heart to that state of perfection and prays to God from that heart will be praying from the Ka'bah.

kafir (A) One who rejects faith in Allah or who is ungrateful for the blessings of Allah.

kalimah (A) Affirmation of faith. La ilaha illa Allah: There is nothing other than You, O God. Only You are Allah.
The recitation or remembrance of God which cuts away the influence of the five elements (earth, fire, water, air, and ether), washes away all the karma that has accumulated from the very beginning until now, dispels the darkness, beautifies the heart, and causes it to resplend. The kalimah washes the body and the heart of man and makes them pure, makes his wisdom emerge, and impels that wisdom to know the self and God. Lit.: the
word. See also: dhikr, la ilaha illa Allah.

khayr (A) That which is right or good; that which is acceptable to wisdom and to Allah, as opposed to sharr, that which is evil or bad.

kufr (A) The rejection of faith in Allah after understanding the truth. Disbelieving in Allah, the Rasul, and the Qur'an; infidelity. Lit.: that which covers the truth. Also means ingratitude.

kursi (A) The gnostic eye; the eye of light; the center of the forehead where the light of Allah's Nur, His resplendence, was impressed on Adam's forehead. Lit.: the seat of the resplendence of Allah.

La ilaha illa Allah (A) There is nothing other than You, O God. Only You are Allah. There is only one Lord, one deity, one God. To accept this with certitude, to strengthen one's iman, or absolute faith, and to affirm this kalimah is the state of Islam.

There are two aspects. La ilaha is the manifestations of creation, or sifat. Illa Allah is the essence, or dhat. All that has appeared, all creation, belongs to la ilaha. The One who created all that, His name is Allah. See also: kalimah, dhikr.

La ilaha illa Allah Muhammad Rasul Allah (A) There is nothing other than You, O God. Only You are Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.

lam (A) The Arabic letter (j) which correlates to the English consonant "I." In the transformed man of wisdom, lam represents the Nur, the resplendence of Allah. See also: alif, mim.

la'nat al jahannam (A) The curse of hell.

maghrib (A) The fourth waqt of the five-times prayer in Islam. Lit.: the time of sunset; also means the west.

ma sha'a Allah (A) Whatever God has willed.

al-mawla (A) The lord; master.

mawla al-Islam (A) Friends of Islam; master (lord) of Islam.

mawlawi (A) A sheikh; a teacher; master.

maya (T) Illusion; the unreality of the visible world; the glitters seen in the darkness of illusion; the 105 million glitters seen in the darkness of the mind which result in 105 million rebirths. Maya is an energy, or sakti, which takes on various shapes, causes man to forfeit his wisdom, and confuses and hypnotizes him into a state of torpor.

Maya can take many, many millions of hypnotic forms. If man tries to grasp one of these forms with his intellect,
though he sees the form he will never catch it, for it will take on yet another form.

mim (A) The Arabic letter which correlates to the English consonant "m." In the transformed man of wisdom, mim represents Muhammad. The shape of mim is like a sperm and from this comes the nuqtah, or dot, which is the form of the world. See also: alif, lam.

mi'raj (A) The night journey of the Prophet Muhammad through the heavens said to have taken place in the twelfth year of the Prophet's mission, on the 27th of the month of Rajab.

During this event the divine order for five-times prayer was given. Lit.: an ascent.

miskin (A) A poor person; one who possesses no property at all.

mubarakat (A) Blessings; the supreme, imperishable treasure of all three worlds (al-awwal, dunya, and al-akhirah).
Muhaiyaddeen or Muhyiddin (A) The pure resplendence called the Qutb. The one who manifests the wisdom which lies hidden and buried under illusion (maya). The one who gives life to that wisdom and shows it again as a resplendence. The one who revives the life of wisdom and gives it to someone else. Muhaiyaddeen: Mu is that which existed earlier; hayy is life, ya is a title of greatness, a title of praise; and din means the light which is perfectly pure.
Din is what existed in the beginning, the "ancient thing" which was with God originally and is always with Him. To that purity God gave the name Muhaiyaddeen. Muhaiyaddeen is that beauty which manifested from Allah and to which Allah gave His wilayat [powers].

Lit.: the giver of life to the true belief.

muham (T) Face or countenance. Muhammad can be defined as the beauty of the heart [aham] reflected in the face.
Muhammad al- Ummi: The unlettered Muhammad.

Muhammad Mustafa al-Rasul (A) Mustafa-the chosen one; al-Rasul-the Messenger. A name used for Prophet Muhammad.

mu'min (A) A true believer; one of true iman, or absolute faith, certitude, and determination.

Mustafa al-Rasul (A) The chosen Messenger.

nafs or nafs ammarah (A) The seven kinds of base desires. That is, desires meant to satisfy one's own pleasure and comforts. All thoughts are contained within the ammarah.

Ammarah is like the mother while the nafs are like the children. Lit.: person; spirit; inclination or desire which goads or incites toward evil.

Nur (A) Light; resplendence of Allah; the plenitude of the light of Allah which has the brilliance of a hundred million suns; the completeness of Allah's qualities. When the plenitude of all these becomes one and resplends as one, that is the Nur-that is Allah's qualities and His beauty. It is the resplendent wisdom which is innate in man and can
be awakened.

Nur Muhammad (A) The beauty of the qualities and actions of the wilayat [powers] of Allah, the radiance of Allah's essence, or dhat, which shines within the resplendence of His truth. It was the light of Muhammad called Nur Muhammad that was impressed upon the forehead of Adam. Of the nine aspects of Muhammad, Nur Muhammad is that aspect which is the wisdom.

qalam (A) The pen with which God is said to have prerecorded the actions of men. The Prophet said the first thing which God created was the pen [qalam] and that it wrote down the quantity of every individual thing to be created, all that was and all that will be to all eternity. Lit.: a reed pen.

qalb (A) The heart within the heart of man; the innermost heart. There are two states for the qalb.

One state is made up of four chambers which are earth, fire, air, and water, representing Hinduism, Fire Worship, Christianity, and Islam. Inside these four chambers there is a flower, the flower of the qalb, which is the divine qualities of God. That is the second state, the flower of grace or rahmah. God's fragrance only exists within this inner qalb.

qiblah (A) The direction one faces in prayer. For Jews, the qiblah is Jerusalem; for Muslims, it is Mecca. Internally, it is the throne of God within the heart [qalb].

Qiyamah (A) The standing forth; the Day of Reckoning.

qudrah (A) The power of God's grace and the qualities which control all other forces.

Quraysh (A) Name of the tribe in Mecca into which Prophet Muhammad was born.

qurban (A) Externally, it is a ritual method for the slaughter of animals to purify them and make them permissible, or halal, to eat. Inwardly, it is to sacrifice one's life to the devotion and service of God and to cut away the beastly qualities within the heart of man that cause him to want to slaughter animals.

qutb (A) Divine analytic wisdom, the wisdom which explains; that which measures the length and breadth of the seven oceans of the nafs, or base desires; that which awakens all the truths which have been destroyed and buried in the ocean of maya; that which awakens true iman [absolute faith, certitude, and determination]; that which explains to the hayah, to life, the state of purity as it existed in al-awwal, the beginning of creation; the grace of the
dhat, the essence of God, which awakens the hayah of purity and transforms it into the divine vibration.

Qutb is also a name which has been given to Allah. He can be addressed as Ya Qutb or Ya Quddus, the Holy One. Quddus is His wilayah, His power or miracle, while Qutb is His action. Wilayah is the power of that action. Lit.: axis, axle, pole, pivot. Also, a title used for the great holy men of Islam.

Rabb (A) God; the Lord; the Creator and Protector.

Rabb al-'alamin (A) The Ruler of the universes.

al-Rahim (A) One of the beautiful ninety-nine names of God-the Most Compassionate.

al-Rahman (A) One of the beautiful ninety-nine names of God-the Most Merciful. He is the Rahman. He is the King. He is the Nourisher, the One who gives food. He is the Compassionate One. He is the One who protects the creations. He is the Beneficent One.

rahmah (A) God's grace; His benevolence; His wealth. All the good things that we receive from God are called His rahmah. That is the wealth of God's plenitude. If man can receive this, it is very good.

Everything that is within God is rahmah, and if He were to give that grace, it would be an undiminishing, limitless wealth.

rahmat al-'alamin (A) The mercy and compassion of all the universes; the One who gives everything to all His creations.

Rasul (A) Allah's Rasul is His dhat, that is, the resplendence that emerged from His effulgence, shining radiantly as His Messenger. The manifestation of that resplendence discourses on the explanations of luminous wisdom which he imparts to Allah's creations. He is the one who begs for truth from Allah and intercedes with prayers [du'a's] for all of Allah's creations and for his followers. Therefore Allah has anointed His Rasul with this title: The Messenger
who is the savior for both worlds. Lit.: the word rasul can be used to refer to any of Allah's apostles or messengers.
Rasul Allah (A) Prophet Muhammad, the Messenger of God.

ruh (A) The soul; the light ray of God; the light of God's wisdom; hayah [life]. Of the six kinds of lives, the soul is the light-life, the ray of the light of Nur [the resplendence of Allah] which does not die. It does not disappear; it is the truth; it exists forever. That is the soul, the light-life.

ruku' (A) A posture in the daily formal salah [prayer] of Islam. A bending over from the torso, with head down and hands resting on knees.

sabr (A) Inner patience; to go within patience, to accept it, to think and reflect within it. Sabr is that patience deep within patience which comforts, soothes, and alleviates mental suffering.

Ya Sabur - one of the ninety-nine names of Allah. God, who in a state of limitless patience is always forgiving the faults of His created beings and continuing to protect them.

saivam (T) Inner purity; in common usage it refers to vegetarianism.

sajdah (A) In the formal prayer of Islam, [salah], a position of prostration on hands and knees, with forehead touching the ground.

salah (A) Blessing; ritual prayer.

salam (A) The peace of God. Greetings! There are many meanings to the world salam. When we say al-salam, it means in God's name or in the presence of God, both of us become one without any division; both of us are in a state of unity, a state of peace.

as-salam 'alaykum (A) "May the peace and peacefulness of Allah be upon you." This is the greeting of love. As-salam 'alaykum; wa 'alaykum as-salam. One heart embraces the other with love and greets it with respect and honor. Both hearts are one. In reply, wa 'alaykum as-salam means, ''May the peace and peacefulness of Allah be upon you also. "
as-salam 'alaykum wa-rahmat Allah wa-barakatuhu kulluh (A) May all the peace, the beneficence, and the blessings of God be upon you!

salawat (A) (sing. salah) Prayer; usually used for the supplications asking God to bless the prophets and mankind. See also: Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa-sallam.

Salla Allahu 'alayhi wa-sallam (A) (pl. Salla Allahu 'alayhim wa-sallam) God bless him and grant him peace. A supplication traditionally spoken after mentioning the name of Prophet Muhammad. The plural form is used when asking God to bless the prophets and mankind.

sawm (A) Fasting.

al-shahddah kalimah (A) The second kalimah, the witnessing. Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah wahdahu la sharik lahu; wa-ashhadu anna Muhammad 'abduhu wa-rasuluh--I witness (testify) that there is no god other than Allah; He is One without partner, and I witness (testify) that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. See also: kalimah, appendix.

sharr (A) That which is wrong, bad, or evil, as opposed to khayr or that which is good.

shukr (A) (pl. shukur) Contentment arising out of gratitude; the state within the inner patience known as sabr; that which is kept within the treasure chest of patience. Lit.: gratitude; thankfulness.

Ya Shakur - one of the ninety-nine beautiful names of Allah. To have shukr with the help of the One who is Ya Shakur is true shukr.

siddhi (T) Magic; miracle; supernatural abilities commonly called miracles and obtained by controlling the elements.

sifat (A) (sing. sifah) The manifestations of creation; attributes; all that has come to appearance as form.

singhan (T) See: tarahan, singhan, and suran.

sirr (A) The secret of Allah.

subhanahu wa-ta'ala (A) Glory is His and exaltedness! A spontaneous outpouring of love from a believer's heart upon hearing or uttering the name Allah.

surah (A) Form or shape, such as the form of man. suran (T) See: tarahan, singhan, and suran. Surat al-Adam (A) Form of Adam.

surat al-insan (A) The inner form of man. The inner form of man is the Qur'an and is linked together by the twenty-eight letters. This form, this surah, is the Umm al-Qur'an, the source of the Qur'an. It is the Qur'an in which the revelations of Allah are revealed. The sounds in the Qur'an which resonate through wisdom, the Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad, the angels and heavenly beings-all are made to exist in this body as
secrets.

takbir (A) Saying: "Allahu Akbar. "

tarahan, singhan, and suran (T) The three sons of maya or illusion. Tarahan is the trench or the pathway for the sexual act, the birth canal or vagina. Singhan is the arrogance present at the moment when the semen is ejaculated (karma). It is the quality of the lion. Suran is the illusory images of the mind enjoyed at the moment of ejaculation. It is all the qualities and energies of the mind.

tasbih (A) The glorification of God.

tawakkul 'ala Allah (A) Absolute trust and surrender; handing over to God the entire responsibility for everything. Lit.: ''Trust in Allah.''

tawbah (A) Repentance; asking forgiveness for sins.

tawhid (A) The affirmation of the unity of Allah, the principal tenet of Islam.

'ulama' (A) (sing.'alim) Teachers; learned ones; scholars.

umm (A) Mother.

Umm al-Qur'an (A) The "source" or "mother" of the Qur'an. It is used commonly to refer to the Surat al-Fatihah, or the opening chapter of the Qur'an. It is said that within the 124 letters of the Surat al-Fatihah is contained the meaning of the entire Qur'an. It is often used to denote the eternal source of all the revelations to all of the prophets and is also known as the Umm al-Kitab [the mother, or source of the book]. This is a divine, indestructible tablet on which all is recorded. This is the silent Qur'an which exists as a mystery within the heart [qalb] of each person.

ummi (A) One who is unlearned, illiterate. A title given to Muhammad and found in Surah VIII of the Holy Qur' an.

wahy (A) Revelation; inspiration from God; the inspired word of God revealed to a prophet; the commandments or words of God.
Wahys, or revelations, have come to Adam, Moses, and various other prophets, but most of all to Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad received 6,666 revelations. The histories of each of the prophets were contained within the revelations given to Prophet Muhammad.

waqt (A) Time of prayer. In the religion of Islam there are five specified waqts, or times of prayer, each day. But truly, there is only one waqt. That is the prayer that never ends, where one is in direct communication with God and one is merged in God.

wilayah (A) (pl. wilayat) God's power; that which has been revealed and manifested through God's actions; the miraculous names and actions of God. See also: Asma' al-husna.

zakah (A) True charity.