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M / م

This glossary page contains entries for words beginning with the English letter ‘M’ and the Arabic letter ‘م’ (meem).

Mahram مَحْرَم (plural: Mahaarim مَحَارِم)
Comes from the triliteral root verb ha-ru-ma حَرُمَ or ha-ri-ma حَرِمَ which means ‘to be prohibited‘, ‘to be unlawful‘. From this comes the noun haraam حرام, meaning prohibited. This is one of the categories of Hukm حكم. See Usool al-Fiqh series for more detail.

Mahram محرم is the noun of place (ism al-makaan اسم المكان) which means prohibited, unlawful and specifically in Islamic Law refers to those persons to whom marriage is not permitted, e.g. siblings.

Maqsad مَقْصد (plural: Maqasid مَقاصِد)
Comes from the triliteral root verb qa-sa-da قَصَدَ which means ‘to intend’, ‘to aim’, ‘to consider’, ‘to go towards’.

Maqsad مفصد is the “noun of place,” (ism al-makaan اسم المكن) and means the ‘place of destination‘, ‘intent‘, ‘aim‘, ‘objective‘, ‘goal‘, ‘meaning‘ and in the nomenclature of the Shari’ah refers to an objective of Islamic Law. The objectives or maqasid مقاصد are the overall aims that Islamic Law and all its laws (ahkaam احكام) are geared towards achieving.

Muhammad (s) مُحَمَّد
Comes from the root verb hammada حمّد which means ‘to praise‘ and is the passive participle meaning ‘one who is praised.’

Muhammad is the name of the last prophet and messenger of God, upon whom the final revelation, the Qur’an was revealed. Muhammed (s) was born in Makkah in present day Saudi Arabia, in 571 AD. His sayings and actions are an important source of Islamic Law as his life explains the Qur’an and how to live as a Muslim. He is the role model for all Muslims and whenever his name is mentioned, we are encouraged to say “May the peace and blessings of God be upon him” صلى الله عليه و سلم . On bitesize islam this will be abbreviated as (s).