SHAME

SHAME. The concept of shame (Ar., hashm; Pers., sharm) is an aspect of social status often paired with honor as contraries of moral evaluation. This […]

SHAHADAH

SHAHADAH. The Islamic witness of faith is, “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Apostle of God” (Arabic, la ilaha illa Allah […]

SHAH

SHAH. One of the most common titles used by the dynastic rulers of Iran and the Turko-Persian cultural area, shah (Ar. and Pers., shah) when […]

SHAFI’I

The Shafi’i madhhab is one of the four schools of Islamic law in Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Arab scholar Al-Shafi‘i, a pupil […]

SHADOW OF GOD

SHADOW OF GOD. The ancient Iranians developed an elaborate concept of sacral kingship. Both Achaemenid (559-33 BCE) and Sassanian (224-651 CE) kings were believed to […]

SHADHILIYAH

SHADHILIYAH. Together with the Rifa’iyah, Qadiriyah, and Ahmadiyah, the Shadhiliyah is one of the four oldest tariqahs (Sufi orders) in the Muslim world. It takes […]

SEXUALITY

SEXUALITY. In the Muslim world, sexuality is simultaneously more open and more conservative than in other geographic regions. These contradictory aspects result from a confluence […]

SEVENERS

Seveners (Arabic: سبعية‎‎) are a branch of Ismā’īlī Shīʻa. They became known as “Seveners” because they believe that Isma’il ibn Jafar was the seventh and […]

SELJUK DYNASTY

SELJUK DYNASTY. A Turkish family of Central Asian origin which ruled much of the eastern Islamic world beginning in the mid-eleventh century, the Seljuks (or […]

SECULARISM

SECULARISM. The term secularism signifies that which is not religious. It is rooted in the Latin world saeculum, which initially meant “age” or “generations” in […]