Glossary: H

ḥabṭ

The failing (ḥabṭ) connected with disbelief, which is certainly connected with the reward of other deeds, is also connected with the deeds themselves in God's speech, so the two must be read alike; this does not go against the apparent meaning, since the invalidity of an action goes with the invalidity of its resultant effects. → Read at 49:2

ḥadd

A barrier between two things that prevents their mixing and keeps their distinction intact, like the boundary of a house or garden. Here it refers to the inheritance laws and the decreed shares. → Read at 4:13

ḥāfiẓ

The ḥāfiẓ (guard, watcher) is an angel who writes the good and evil deeds of each soul for the Day of Resurrection; the guarding may also be the preservation of the soul’s essence and deeds so that it does not perish at death. → Read at 86:4

ḥajj

Ḥajj literally means qaṣd (to aim, to intend); it is the name of a particular ritual in the Islamic shariah, first legislated by Abraham, because it involves aiming for the Sacred House. Taʾdhīn means proclaiming by raising one's voice. → Read at 22:27

ḥakīm

In the Mother Book the Qur'an is sublime (ʿalī), too exalted in value and station for human minds to reach, and firm (ḥakīm), epistemically dense (muḥkam) and not yet elaborated or divided into sūrahs, verses, sentences and words, as it is once made an Arabic Qur'an (). → Read at 43:4

halūʿ

From halaʿ, intense covetousness, explained by the next verses as impatience in misfortune and niggardliness in fortune; this self-interest is a branch of self-love, not a vice in itself, becoming one only when exercised without propriety. → Read at 70:19

ḥamd

() It has been said that al-ḥamd is to praise someone for a good he acquired by his own intention, while al-madḥ is more general and covers even a good given without one's will (one may praise a pearl's luster with madḥ but not ḥamd). → Read
() Praise for a beautiful thing accomplished by choice; all praise is due to God because creation and command are His, and every beautiful being, attribute, or deed is from Him. → Read

ḥamīd

An active participle with the meaning of a passive one, from al-ḥamd, praise for a chosen beauty; since all beauty culminates in God, all praise is directed to Him. → Read at 14:1

ḥaml

Al-dhuhūl is to abandon something in fear. Al-Rāghib: ḥaml is a heavy load carried within, like the fetus in the womb, while ḥiml is a heavy load carried outwardly, like the load of a camel. → Read at 22:2

hamzah

Majmaʿ al-bayān: hamzah means a severe push and repulsion; the Devil's hamzah is his thrust toward sin by deceitful temptation. → Read at 23:97

ḥanān

Ḥanān means compassion and sympathy. Al-Rāghib: because sympathy never separates from mercy (raḥmah), it is referred to as ḥanān in "And tenderness from Us". → Read at 19:13

ḥanīf

() One who inclines away from extremes towards moderation and balance; qānit means obeying God's commands and worshiping Him continuously. → Read
() Ḥanīf comes from a root meaning to incline both of one's feet to the middle, and it conveys the sense of uprightness (iʿtidāl). → Read
() Ḥunafāʾ is the plural of ḥanīf, from ḥanaf: “to incline away from the two extremes of doing too much and too little, to the balanced center”; Islam is called ḥanīf because it calls to moderation in all matters. → Read

ḥaqq

() A statement that corresponds to reality. God's promise of the Return is true because creation will not be complete until all things, including man, return to Him, as a falling stone's movement foretells its landing. → Read
() An action is "true" if it serves a purpose for its doer, directing towards a meaningful end; God did not create the heavens and the earth in play or in vain. → Read
() Truth is something as it really is, obtainable only through knowledge (undeniable belief); beliefs that admit their opposite cannot be a yardstick for what is real. → Read

ḥaqq al-yaqīn

Ḥaqq is knowledge corresponding to objective reality, and yaqīn knowledge without ambiguity or doubt; the possessive construct is expository and emphatic. → Read at 56:95

ḥāqqah

The Day of Resurrection, named for its indisputable and absolute certainty, from the root ḥaqq, which signifies firm establishment and undeniable reality. → Read at 69:1

ḥasan

In essence, to be ḥasan means that a thing's parts are in harmony with one another and that together they suit some external purpose or goal, as a face or justice is ḥasan. (Al-Rāghib defines it as anything pleasant and desirable, of three kinds: what reason, desire, or the senses deem good.) → Read at 32:7

ḥashr

() Al-Rāghib: ḥashr means to take a group of people out of their domiciles and drive them to war or something similar. → Read
() To muster is to take something out of its place by coercion; here it is the resurrection of people from their graves and driving them to the place of gathering. → Read
() To banish a group with upheaval; "the outset of banishment" refers to the Banū al-Naḍīr's first expulsion from the Arabian Peninsula. → Read

hawā

Desire here is the desire of the ego and its opinions; the context shows the Prophet does not speak from his own desire when calling to God or reciting the Qur'an, all of which is revelation. → Read at 53:3

hāwiyah

Apparently hāwiyah (lit. falling, plunging) refers to hell, because whoever is cast into it plunges into its depths; it is called his umm (mother) because it is his final abode and place of return. → Read at 101:9

hawn

According to al-Rāghib, hawn means tadhallul (humility, humbleness). Walking on the earth in humbleness is most plausibly a figurative expression for the believers' whole way of life: subservient to their Lord and humble with people, yet never subservient to God's enemies. It could also mean lenience and moderation. → Read at 25:63

haymanah

The haymanah of one thing over another is its authority over it, involving its protection and management; it describes the Qur'an's position over the previous scriptures, preserving their permanent fundamentals and abrogating those subsidiary items that are liable to change. → Read at 5:48

hidāyah

() Al-hidāyah means to guide, to show the destination by showing the way, or to convey to the destination; guidance in reality is reserved for God, who guides His servants by creating causes that point them to their goal, and its meaning does not change with or without the preposition ilā. → Read
() Guidance in this verse means conveying someone to the desired destination, to a state where the heart overflows with faith, a role reserved for God alone; this does not negate showing the right path, which is the messenger's responsibility. Ihtidāʾ means accepting true guidance. → Read
() Hidāyah (guidance) in this verse means showing the way, a form of announcement and notification; it occurs as intuitive guidance through the fiṭrah, by which God inspires the human being toward true beliefs and righteous acts, and as verbal and external guidance through prophets, messengers, scriptures and divine laws, which confirms the first. → Read
() Guidance in this verse means showing the way; its second sense, taking a person to the desired goal (a wholesome worldly life or a felicitous afterlife), is a creational phenomenon that belongs to God only, though it can be carried out by others as intermediaries by His will. → Read

ḥijr

Al-Rāghib (al-Mufradāt): ḥijr means something not accessible because it has been prohibited; ḥijran maḥjūrā was said on meeting someone one did not feel secure about, meaning let there be a prohibiting barrier between us. → Read at 25:22

ḥikmah

() Al-ḥikmah, on the paradigm fiʿlah denoting a kind, literally means a sort of precision and perfection in which there is no defect; it is mostly used for true intellectual cognition not liable to falsehood or error. → Read
() Al-Rāghib: attaining the truth through knowledge and reason (and mawʿiẓa, after al-Khalīl, is admonishing to good in a way that softens the heart). The ʿAllāmah: it seems that wisdom here is an argument producing indisputable, unequivocal truth that leaves no room for ambiguity. → Read
() Based on how the term is used here and elsewhere, wisdom signifies useful knowledge, as opposed to ignorance (jahl) or pretense (jurbuzah). → Read
() Wisdom originates from the root ḥ-k-m, meaning to discern the truth or adjudge; here it is correct, certain comprehension of what benefits the human being and his ascent to perfection. He sets aside the views that it means prophethood or the Psalms and knowledge of the law. → Read

ḥikmah bālighah

Wisdom is a true statement that is also beneficial; bālighah, from bulūgh (arriving at a destination), figuratively denotes fullness, so far-reaching wisdom is complete wisdom without deficiency in itself or its effect. → Read at 54:5

ḥill

Al-Rāghib: al-ḥill basically means to untie a knot, then descending (as one unties one's luggage), and al-ḥarām is the forbidden thing. The ʿAllāmah: the contrast of ḥill (lawfulness) with ḥurmah (unlawfulness) apparently rests on an imagined tying of a knot when something is forbidden; both words were used for lawful and unlawful before Islam. → Read at 5:87

ḥimiyyah

Al-Rāghib: when the faculty of anger is inflamed and enlarged it is called belligerence. → Read at 48:26

ḥinth

Majmaʿ al-Bayān: violating one's solemn oath; the great sin they persisted in was arrogantly refusing servanthood, violating the oath given through their innate nature and the pledge in the realm of atoms. → Read at 56:46

ḥubuk

Either embellishment or beauty, skillful creation, or (as plural of ḥubaykah or ḥubbāk) a trail like that which wind leaves on water. → Read at 51:7

hudā

Because the Qur'an singles out those who have certainty for guidance and mercy, guidance here means arriving at one's destination rather than just perceiving it correctly, and mercy is the mercy reserved for the Godwary who believe in His Messenger. → Read at 45:20

ḥudūd allāh

The ḥadd of a thing is the point at which it terminates and does not go beyond, originally meaning prevention; God's limits are the rulings He laid down, not to be transgressed. → Read at 58:4

ḥukm

() Judgment: making an affirmative connection between the parts of a statement; in practical affairs both the proposition and the relation it conveys are called ḥukm, so each of the five rulings (obligation, prohibition, permissibility, recommendation, dislike) is a ḥukm. It is also used for making and decreeing a judgment. → Read
() A judgment and verdict: the revealed book is at once a divine judgment and a judge between people. This is its meaning, not ḥikma, as some have claimed. → Read
() Ḥikma (wisdom) is a type of ḥukm; ḥukm means knowledge of true, divine gnosis (maʿārif) and revealing what is not disclosed to normal perception, which may be why it is interpreted as understanding. → Read
() Ḥukm here, in contrast to ḍalāl (ignorance), means having a correct view of reality and discerning how to act: true judgment of the goodness or evil of actions and the ability to act accordingly; it is distinct from prophethood (nubuwwah). → Read
() Al-ḥukm here means God's judgment and authority that is effective in things and on the basis of which the management of the system of existence operates; the meaning of His discharging judgment on the Day of Resurrection is excluded because the verse mentions His judgment before the return to Him. → Read
() God's ruling is of two kinds: creative (takwīnī), when He actualizes effects and makes them subsist through their competing causes by giving priority to the complete cause; or moral (tashrīʿī), such as the duties of belief and practice laid down in the divine religion. → Read

humazah

Majmaʿ al-bayān: humazah is someone who frequently spreads false libels and blames others for what is not blameworthy, the root hamz meaning “breaking”; lumazah is a near synonym, and the pattern fuʿalah denotes a habitual doer. → Read at 104:1

ḥuṭamah

Ḥuṭamah is an intensive form of ḥaṭm, “breaking, cracking,” also defined as “consuming,” and is one of the names of hell. → Read at 104:4

Glossary: H ​

Glossary: H