QEALIS (Arabic & Islamic Studies) cheat sheet

Arabic root system: most lexical meaning derives from triliteral (sometimes quadriliteral) roots; patterns (awzān) such as faʿala, mafʿūl, istifʿāl map grammatical and derivational meaning onto the root consonants.

Iʿrāb (case/mood marking) is carried by short vowels and/or long vowels: rafʿ (nominative) often -u/-ūna, naṣb (accusative) -a/-īna, jarr (genitive) -i/-īna, jazm (jussive) sukūn.

The noun's three states: definite (with al- or an idāfa complement), indefinite (tanwīn), and construct (muḍāf) - a muḍāf never takes al- or tanwīn.

Idāfa is head-first: the first term (muḍāf) takes no definiteness marker or case-ending tanwīn; the second (muḍāf ilayh) is always genitive.

Verb tense/aspect: al-māḍī (perfect, completed), al-muḍāriʿ (imperfect, ongoing/possible), and al-amr (imperative); the muḍāriʿ is inflected for mood (marfūʿ, manṣūb, majzūm).

Weak verbs (muʿtall) change according to the position of wāw/yāʾ (mithāl, ajwaf, nāqiṣ); doubled verbs (muḍaʿʿaf) assimilate identical radicals.

Arabic phonology distinguishes emphatic (muṭbaqa) consonants ṣ ḍ ṭ ẓ from their plain counterparts, plus uvular, pharyngeal, and glottal articulations absent in many languages.

Arabic dialects (ʿāmmiyya) diverge from fuṣḥā in phonology, lexicon, and syntax; Modern Standard Arabic (fuṣḥā ʿaṣriyya) remains the written and formal register across the Arab world.

The Qur'an has 114 sūras revealed over roughly 23 years: Meccan sūras tend to emphasize tawḥīd, resurrection, and prophecy; Medinan sūras emphasize law, community, and relations with other groups.

Revelation is transmitted through two modes in tradition: direct inspiration and via the angel Jibrīl; the text was compiled into a single muṣḥaf under ʿUthmān, with earlier collection efforts under Abū Bakr.

Qirāʾāt (canonical readings) differ in pronunciation and occasionally wording; the seven or ten transmitted readings are traced to named reciters and are not treated as textual corruption.

Tafsīr bi-l-maʾthūr relies on Qur'an-by-Qur'an, then prophetic sunna, then Companions' reports; tafsīr bi-l-raʾy uses reason and language, and is judged by whether it conforms to transmitted evidence.

Key exegetical tools: asbāb al-nuzūl (occasions of revelation), nāsikh wa-mansūkh (abrogation), muḥkam wa-mutashābih (clear vs. ambiguous verses), and muhkam Arabic lexical analysis.

The doctrine of iʿjāz holds the Qur'an inimitable in eloquence and content; al-Bāqillānī and al-Jurjānī developed systematic arguments for its rhetorical inimitability.

Makki/Madani classification, sūra chronology, and the science of drawing the muṣḥaf (rasm ʿuthmānī) are standard subfields of ʿulūm al-Qurʾān.

Translation of the Qur'an is generally treated as interpretation (tarjama tafsīriyya), not as a substitute for the Arabic text in ritual recitation.

A ḥadīth has two components: the isnād (chain of transmitters) and the matn (text); criticism examines both the chain's continuity and the text's content.

Grading by chain continuity: ṣaḥīḥ and ḥasan require an unbroken chain; munqaṭiʿ, mursal, muʿḍal, and muʿallaq denote specific breaks; a ḥadīth with a hidden defect is muʿallal.

Ṣaḥīḥ conditions classically include ʿadāla (integrity) and ḍabṭ (accuracy) of each narrator, continuity, absence of shudhūdh (deviation from stronger narrators), and absence of ʿilla (hidden defect).

Ḥasan lies below ṣaḥīḥ in narrator accuracy; ḍaʿīf (weak) fails one or more conditions and is categorized by defect type (weak memory, discontinuity, etc.).

Mutawātir reports are transmitted by numerous independent chains at every level and yield certainty; āḥād reports yield probable knowledge and are graded individually.

The science of al-jarḥ wa-l-taʿdīl evaluates narrators; major works include Ibn Abī Ḥātim's and al-Dhahabī's biographical dictionaries.

The ṣaḥīḥ collections of al-Bukhārī and Muslim are the most rigorously authenticated; other canonical collections (Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Māja) include varying grades.

Ḥadīth terminology distinguishes marfūʿ (traced to the Prophet), mawqūf (Companion's statement), and maqṭūʿ (Successor's statement).

Core creed: tawḥīd (oneness of God), prophethood, revealed books, angels, the Last Day, and divine decree (qadar); these form the standard articles of faith.

Major theological schools: Ashʿarī and Māturīdī (Sunni), Muʿtazilī (rationalist, five principles including divine justice and unity), and Atharī (textualist).

Key debates: divine attributes (tafwīḍ vs. taʾwīl), the createdness of the Qur'an, free will vs. determinism, and the status of the grave sinner.

Islamic law derives from four primary sources: Qur'an, Sunna, ijmāʿ (consensus), and qiyās (analogical reasoning); secondary tools include maṣlaḥa, ʿurf, and istiḥsān.

Fiqh rulings fall into five categories (al-aḥkām al-khamsa): farḍ/wājib, mandūb, mubāḥ, makrūh, and ḥarām.

The four Sunni schools: Ḥanafī (Abū Ḥanīfa), Mālikī (Mālik), Shāfiʿī (al-Shāfiʿī), and Ḥanbalī (Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal); differences arise from methodology, not from rejecting revelation.

Ijtihād is independent legal reasoning by a qualified mujtahid; taqlīd is following an established school's ruling; maqāṣid al-sharīʿa concerns law's higher objectives.

Legal maxims (al-qawāʿid al-fiqhiyya) such as 'hardship brings ease' and 'certainty is not removed by doubt' guide application across cases.

The Prophet Muhammad's mission began c. 610 CE in Mecca; the hijra to Medina in 622 CE marks year one of the Islamic calendar.

The Rāshidūn caliphs were Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī; their era saw major conquests and the compilation of the Qur'anic muṣḥaf.

The Umayyad caliphate (661–750) ruled from Damascus; the Abbasid revolution (750) shifted the capital to Baghdad and inaugurated a translation movement.

The ʿAbbāsid era produced the Bayt al-Ḥikma and major advances in algebra (al-Khwārizmī), medicine (Ibn Sīnā), optics (Ibn al-Haytham), and philosophy.

Al-Andalus (711–1492) and Sicily were key zones of cultural exchange; major centers included Córdoba, Toledo, and Palermo.

The Ottoman Empire (c. 1299–1922) administered a vast multi-ethnic state with a millet system and a codified legal tradition (the Mecelle).

Key historiographical sources include al-Ṭabarī's Taʾrīkh, Ibn Khaldūn's Muqaddima (which theorizes ʿaṣabiyya and cyclical dynastic change), and al-Masʿūdī's Murūj al-Dhahab.

The 19th–20th centuries saw reform movements (al-Afghānī, Muḥammad ʿAbduh, Rashīd Riḍā) and the abolition of the caliphate in 1924.

Pre-Islamic poetry (al-Jāhiliyya) is preserved in the Muʿallaqāt and the Mufaḍḍaliyyāt; its conventions include the nasīb (opening lament), raḥīl (journey), and madīḥ (praise).

The Qur'an's rhetorical style is central to iʿjāz; classical rhetoric (ʿilm al-balāgha) divides into maʿānī (syntax and context), bayān (figurative expression), and badīʿ (embellishment).

Key tropes: tashbīh (simile), istiʿāra (metaphor), kināya (metonymy), and majāz (figurative usage); tajnīs (paronomasia) and ṭibāq (antithesis) are badīʿ devices.

ʿIlm al-maʿānī treats sentence structure and pragmatic meaning: khabar (statement) vs. inshāʾ (non-assertive utterance), taqdīm wa-taʾkhīr (fronting), and iqtiḍāʾ al-ḥāl.

The classical ode (qaṣīda) follows a monorhyme and a fixed meter; al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad systematized the sixteen ʿarūḍ meters.

The maqāma genre (al-Hamadhānī, al-Ḥarīrī) uses rhymed prose (sajʿ) and a trickster narrator; the modern novel emerged with figures such as Naguib Mahfouz.

Modern movements include the mahjar (émigré) school of Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān and Mīkhāʾīl Nuʿayma, and free-verse (shiʿr ḥurr) pioneered by Badr Shākir al-Sayyāb and Nāzik al-Malāʾika.

Rhetorical analysis of a text proceeds by identifying the speaker's purpose, the contextual requirement (maqām), and the choice of syntactic and figurative devices.

Modern Islamic reform debates distinguish tajdīd (renewal), iṣlāḥ (reform), and revivalism; the terms are not interchangeable.

Islamic ethics grounds norms in divine command and maqāṣid; contemporary bioethics debates appeal to ḍarūra (necessity) and maṣlaḥa (public interest).

Islamic finance prohibits ribā (interest), gharar (excessive uncertainty), and maysir (gambling); permissible structures include murābaḥa, mushāraka, and ijāra.

Contemporary fiqh councils (e.g., the OIC Islamic Fiqh Academy) issue collective fatwas on medicine, finance, and technology.

Major modern thinkers include Muḥammad ʿAbduh (rational reform), Rashīd Riḍā (Salafī reform), Fazlur Rahman (double-movement theory), and Sayyid Quṭb (Islamist thought).

Ethical debates on gender, human rights, and democracy turn on how to reconcile universal norms with classical juristic texts and local custom.

Environmental ethics (khalīfa, amāna, and ḥimā) and animal welfare draw on scriptural stewardship themes.

Digital ethics: rulings on data privacy, AI, and social media usually apply existing principles such as ʿurf, maṣlaḥa, and avoidance of harm (lā ḍarar wa-lā ḍirār).

Manuscript study requires identifying the copyist, date, colophon, and chain of transmission; critical editions (taḥqīq) compare multiple witnesses and record variants.

Isnād analysis uses biographical dictionaries (ṭabaqāt, tarājim) to test contemporaneity and reliability of transmitters.

Textual criticism distinguishes the original text (archetype) from later interpolations; variant readings are recorded in an apparatus criticus.

Source criticism separates primary sources (contemporary documents, early chronicles) from secondary sources; isnād and matn are analyzed separately.

Philological method: consult classical lexica (Lisān al-ʿArab, Tāj al-ʿArūs), grammatical works (Sībawayh's al-Kitāb), and poetry as lexical evidence.

Comparative method in tafsīr: collate multiple exegetes on a verse, note method (maʾthūr vs. raʾy), and distinguish text from interpretation.

Digital humanities tools (OCR of Arabic script, corpus linguistics, and database projects) supplement, but do not replace, manuscript and isnād verification.

Citation practice in Islamic studies: give full isnād or edition details, distinguish ḥadīth grading sources, and mark translations of technical terms on first use.