Читать книгу A Dictionary of Islam. Being a cyclopedia of the doctrines, rites, ceremonies, and customs, together with the technical and theological terms, of the Muhammadan religion онлайн

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G͟HUSL MASNŪN (غسل مسنون‎). Lit. “Washings which are Sunnah.”

Such washings are founded upon the Sunnah, or precept and practice of Muḥammad, although they are not supposed to be of divine institution. They are four in number: (1) Upon the admission of a convert to Islām; (2) Before the Friday prayers and on the great festivals; (3) After washing the dead; (4) After blood-letting. (See Ṣaḥīḥu ʾl-Buk͟hārī, p. 39, Bābu ʾl-G͟husl.) Akrimah relates that people came from al-ʿIrāq and asked Ibn ʿAbbās if he believed that bathing on Fridays was a divine institution, and Ibn ʿAbbās replied, “No, but bathing is a great purifier, and I will tell you how the custom of bathing began. The people were engaged in daily labour and wore blankets, and the people sweated to such a degree as to cause a bad smell, so the Prophet said, ‘O men! bathe ye on Fridays and put some scent on your clothes.’” (Matthew’s Mishkāt, vol i. p. 120, from the Ḥadīs̤ of Abū Dāʾud.)

GIANTS. There is but one allusion to giants in the Qurʾān, namely, to the tribe ʿĀd, who are spoken of as men “with lofty statures” (Sūrah lxxxix. 6), and the commentator, Shāh ʿAbdu ʾl-ʿAzīz of Delhi, says they were men of not less than twelve yards in stature. According to a tradition in the Kitābu ʾsh-Shafah by the Qāẓī ʿAyāẓ (p. 65), Adam was sixty yards in height. In the G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah, a giant named ʿŪj is mentioned, who was born in the days of Adam and lived until the time of Moses, a period of 3,500 years, and that he was so high, that the flood in the days of Noah only reached to his waist. There are traditions and stories of giants whose graves exist unto the present day, throughout the whole of Asia. Opposite the Church Mission House at Peshawur is a grave nine yards long, which is held in great reverence by both Muḥammadans and Hindūs. De la Belle, in his Travels in Persia, vol ii. p. 89, mentions several which exist in Persia. Giant graves in Hindūstān are numerous.