Glossary of Islamic and Judaic Terms and Concepts

Islamic Terms:

This glossary had its beginnings from the information contained in the booklet Introducing Islam to Non-Muslims by Hussein Khalid Al-Hussein and Ahmad Hussein Sakr. Other terms not in that booklet are continually being added to this list now. A substantial number of terms were donated by ISL Software, makers of the Alim database.

If you would like to see a term explained, please drop us a note.

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Glossary of Judaic Terms

abundance:
In Lurianic Kabbalah, abundance refers to the Light which the Emanator (God) bestows upon the vessels (i.e. His creatures).

 

ayin:
nothingness; in addition, the first emanation of the Sefirtot, Keter, is sometimes described as ayin.

 

devekut:
Mystical cleaving to God

 

Ein Sof
Also spelled Ain Soph. This literally means without end, or eternal. God as Ein-Sof is completely inconceivable, impersonal, and without attributes. It's usage is strikingly similar to the Hindu term, Brahman.

 

Hasidism
A Jewish religious movement founded by Baal-Shem-Tov in the 18th century. Although it was declared heretical in 1781 by the Talmudists, Hasidic communities continue to thrive in the United States and Israel. Followers of Hasidism regard acts of religious devotion as being more important than scholarly learning.

 

Kabbalah:
Also spelled Cabala. It refers to the mystical interpretation of the Jewish Scriptures. It has two principal written sources. Sefer Yezira is a third century work which purports to present a series of monologues given by the partriarch Abraham. The second, Zohar is a mystical commentary on the Torah written by Moses de León in the 13th century.

As a religious movement, it appears to have started in 11th century France, and then spread to Spain and elsewhere. It influenced the development of Hasidism in the 18th century, and continues to play a role in contemporary Judaism.

 

kavvanah:
Mystical intention -- While reading Scholem's Kabbalah, I got the feeling that kavvanah approximated the Hindu term, dhyana, indicating one-pointed concentration that's directed at a particular object and which reveals that object's true nature. In Scholem's discussion, kavvanah is focussed on the Names of God, on the words used in prayer, and on one's actions.

 

Malkhut:
The Sefirah of the "kingdom", one of the attributes by which God manifested himself via the emanation of the Sefirot. This Sefirah is also referred to as: In Lurianic Kabbalah, the Kingdom comprises all created things. These things are regarded as vessels or recipients of God's outflowing light.

In the doctrine of "cutting the shoots", evil is believed to result from man coveting one of the Sefirah in preference to others. In this particular case, man's coveting of Malkhut suggests that man wants dominion for himself.

 

mitsvot:
God's commandments

 

Sefirah:
The singlular form of Sefirot.

 

Sefirot:
Through the emanation of the Sefirot, Ein-Sof manifested itself as the personal God who is known through his attributes. Each Sefirah can be thought of as an attribute of God, as a name of God, and as God manifesting himself as a particular light. While possessing attributes, God's attributes are different from those encountered in the created world, in that each of the attributes is said to comprise all the others in an infinite reflection of the Sefirot within themselves. Hence God maintains unity and plurality simultaneously. Ten Sefirot are consistently mentioned, although there is some disagreement over a few of the attributes. In his book Kabbalah, Scholem lists the Sefirot as:
  1. Keter Elyon or simply Keter: supreme crown
  2. Hokhmah: wisdom
  3. Binah: intelligence
  4. Gedullar: greatness or Hesed: love
  5. Gevurah: power
  6. Din: judgment
  7. Tiferet: beauty or Rahamin: compassion
  8. Nezah: lasting endurance
  9. Hod: majesty
  10. Zaddick: righteous one or Yesod Olam: foundation of the world
  11. Malkhut: kingdom or Atarah: diadem

An extended description of the Sefirot (including an illustration) is available if you are interested.

 

Shekhinah:
God's presence.

 

Tetragrammaton:
YHWH, refers to God. See Yahweh for more information.

 

Yahweh:
From Jesus Christ and the Temple, by Georges A. Barrios:
Moses had asked from God ... what was his proper name. The answer had been indirect, even elusive: "I am that I am", 'ehyeh 'ashér 'éhyeh (Ex 3:14). In the third person, "I am" becomes "He is", Yahweh... "He is", Yahweh, would henceforth serve as a substitute for God's proper name, which remains unknown and unknowable...

Just as men cannot see God, neither can they call him by his proper name, for only those beings can be named whose finite essence is perceived in opposition to others and which are, so to speak, delimited by them. But He who is fullness of being and from whom all essences derive by an act of his creative will cannot possibly be measured, defined, or named by his creature. This is why a Jew is forbidden to pronounce the name "Yahweh", and why the four consonants YHWH which form the skeleton of the name are punctuated in the Massoretic Bible with the vowel points of 'Adonai, "the Lord," or 'Elohim, "God", vocables which can actually be pronounced without profanation of the Ineffable One... Thus we find in the episode of the Burning Bush the foundation of an apophatic, or negative theology, common to the three religions issued from the biblical revelation {i.e. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam}.

 

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