Islamic glossary: 99 essential terms
Islamic vocabulary is the doorway to meaning. As long as a word remains opaque, the text that uses it stays blurred; once the definition is grasped in its original language and technical sense, reading the Quran, the ḥadīths and the explanations of scholars becomes markedly clearer. This is why Deen Coach embeds, inside the mobile app, a glossary of 99 essential terms covering creed (ʿaqīda), acts of worship (ʿibādāt), transactions (muʿāmalāt) and conduct (akhlāq). This page is not the glossary itself: it is its methodology. It explains why these terms were chosen, how they are defined, and according to which transliteration convention. The full glossary, consultable offline, lives inside the app. Wa Allāhu aʿlam.
Why a glossary?
Islamic vocabulary is largely an Arabic vocabulary that the Quran has invested with precision: everyday words receive a new technical meaning (the ḥajj is not just any visit, zakāt is not a mere alms, tawḥīd is not a simple monotheism). Confusing the linguistic everyday sense with the technical religious sense leads to misunderstandings. A well-built glossary does two things at once: it restores the word in its Arabic spelling and pronunciation (through transliteration), and gives its definition as used by the scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah. This helps reading a book, listening to a class, or following a sermon without getting stuck on a word.
Methodology of selecting the 99 terms
The 99 terms of the glossary are not chosen at random or according to a trend. Three principles guide the selection: First principle: textual anchoring. Every term retained comes from the Quran or the authentic Sunnah. No modern neologism, no militant or ideological expression without textual root appears in the glossary. Second principle: hierarchy of sciences. The selection respects the traditional order of learning among Ahl al-Sunnah: first ʿaqīda (creed: tawḥīd, īmān, kufr, shirk, etc.), then ʿibādāt (acts of worship: ṣalāh, ṣiyām, zakāt, ḥajj, ṭahāra, etc.), then muʿāmalāt (transactions: bayʿ, ribā, ʿaqd, etc.), then akhlāq (conduct: ṣabr, ṣidq, taqwā, iḥsān, etc.). These are the categories scholars use to structure a curriculum. Third principle: exclusion of innovated terms. Terms tied to practices that Ahl al-Sunnah scholars consider bidaʿ (religious innovations) — whether from innovated Sufi currents, rāfiḍī Shīʿism, philosophical kalām, or cultural traditions without textual dalīl — are not included. This exclusion follows the methodological distinction set out by imām Abū Isḥāq al-Shāṭibī in *al-Iʿtiṣām* between established Sunnah and bidʿah.
Transliteration convention
The transliteration used in the glossary follows the academic convention with macrons and diacritical points. Concretely: - Long vowels are marked with a macron: ā, ī, ū (ṣalāh, ḥadīth, wuḍūʾ). - Emphatic consonants carry a subscript dot: ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, ẓ, ḥ (Ṣaḥīḥ, Ramaḍān, ṭahāra, ẓuhr, ḥadīth). - The specific letters of Arabic are noted by their conventional signs: ʿ for ʿayn (ʿibādāt, ʿaqīda), ʾ for hamza (Qurʾān, wuḍūʾ), ġ for ġayn, q for qāf, kh for khāʾ, dh for dhāl, sh for shīn, th for thāʾ. - The definite article remains ال (al-), without spelling assimilation to the solar letters: al-Salaf, al-Ṣāliḥ, al-ṣalāh. This academic choice is intentional: it lets a learner of Arabic recover the original spelling (and therefore the correct pronunciation) without ambiguity. A simplified transliteration (without diacritics) would be easier to type but less faithful to the Arabic word and therefore less useful for learning.
Examples of categories covered
Without unveiling the full list, here are the broad families into which the 99 terms are distributed: - Faith and creed (ʿaqīda): tawḥīd, īmān, islām, iḥsān, shirk, kufr, nifāq, qadar, malāʾika, rusul, yawm al-qiyāma. - Prayer (al-ṣalāh): ṭahāra, wuḍūʾ, ghusl, tayammum, qiyām, rukūʿ, sujūd, qibla, jamāʿa, jumuʿa. - Fasting (al-ṣiyām): Ramaḍān, suḥūr, ifṭār, niyya, qaḍāʾ. - Legal alms and financial purification (al-zakāt) and pilgrimage (al-ḥajj): niṣāb, ḥawl, miqāt, iḥrām, ṭawāf, saʿy, wuqūf, ʿumra. - Transactions (al-muʿāmalāt): bayʿ, ribā, ijāra, ʿaqd, halāl, ḥarām, makrūh, mubāḥ. - Conduct and character (al-akhlāq): ṣabr, ṣidq, amāna, taqwā, iḥsān, raḥma, tawakkul, tawba. - Collections and sciences (ʿulūm al-sharʿ): Ṣaḥīḥ, Sunan, Musnad, Muwaṭṭaʾ, ḥadīth, isnād, matn. - Categories of scholars and generations: Ṣaḥābī, Tābiʿī, imām, mufti, faqīh, muḥaddith, mufassir.
Consult the full glossary in the app
The full glossary — the 99 terms with, for each one: the Arabic spelling, the academic transliteration, the linguistic meaning (luġawī) according to the great classical lexicons such as *Lisān al-ʿArab* by Ibn Manẓūr, the technical meaning (iṣṭilāḥī) according to the scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah, and where relevant a reference to a verifiable source — is embedded in the Deen Coach application. The app works entirely offline: once installed, the glossary is accessible without a connection, on transport, while travelling, or simply next to a book you are reading. A search function lets you quickly retrieve a term by its Arabic spelling, its transliteration, or its French or English translation.
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