In His Name, the Most High # Glossary The hawza’s words, and ours, explained plainly. ## The hawza and its study How the seminary teaches, and the stages a student climbs. ### Hawza Persian: حوزه علمیه · Arabic: الحوزة العلمية Also: al-hawza al-‘ilmiyya The seminary: an educational community of schools, teachers, senior jurists, libraries and students in which the Islamic sciences are taught, above all in Qom and Najaf. *Al-hawza al-‘ilmiyya* means the circle of learning. [The Hawza](https://tpilmflow.com/en/hawza/) describes how a student learns there. See also: [Dars](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#dars), [Bahth al-kharij](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#bahth-al-kharij) ### Dars Persian: درس · Arabic: درس A lesson: the teacher's explanation and analysis of a text or, at the advanced level, of a problem. Students prepare the passage before class and review it afterwards. A lesson may be recorded if the teacher and the students choose, and [Daftar](https://tpilmflow.com/en/tools/#daftar) keeps what it teaches. See also: [Mubahatha](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#mubahatha) ### Mubahatha Persian: مباحثه · Arabic: مباحثة Discussion with fellow students after a lesson, reconstructing its arguments and testing objections. A student who can follow an explanation may still be unable to reproduce the argument or answer a serious objection; peer discussion exposes that gap. See also: [Dars](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#dars) ### Muqaddimat Persian: مقدمات · Arabic: المقدمات The foundations, the first stage: Arabic morphology (*sarf*), syntax (*nahw*) and rhetoric (*balagha*); logic (*mantiq*); basic beliefs, ethics and practical law. They are the tools for reading scholarly texts precisely. See also: [Mantiq](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#mantiq), [Sutuh](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#sutuh) ### Mantiq Persian: منطق · Arabic: المنطق Also: logic Logic: the discipline of sound definition and valid inference, that is, how a concept is defined, how a judgment is formed, and when a conclusion follows from its premises. It is studied in the first stage, often in al-Muzaffar's *al-Mantiq*, and every later science reasons with it. See also: [Muqaddimat](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#muqaddimat), [Usul al-fiqh](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#usul-al-fiqh) ### Sutuh Persian: سطوح · Arabic: السطوح Also: sath (singular) Text-based intermediate study: understanding and critically analysing established works of law and legal theory, such as *Sharh al-Lum‘a* and al-Muzaffar's *Usul al-Fiqh*, with a teacher. See also: [Muqaddimat](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#muqaddimat), [Sutuh ‘ulya](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#sutuh-ulya) ### Sutuh ‘ulya Persian: سطوح عالی · Arabic: السطوح العليا Higher intermediate study: mastering difficult analytical texts, above all *al-Makasib*, *al-Rasa’il* and *Kifayat al-Usul*, before advanced research. Some descriptions count it as part of *sutuh*. See also: [Sutuh](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#sutuh), [Bahth al-kharij](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#bahth-al-kharij) ### Bahth al-kharij Persian: درس خارج · Arabic: بحث الخارج Also: dars-e kharij, kharij Advanced research, the highest stage. A senior jurist presents a problem, examines the sources, reconstructs earlier scholars' arguments and argues to a conclusion. *Kharij* means outside: outside dependence on a prescribed textbook, not outside the seminary. Attending it does not by itself make a person a mujtahid. See also: [Ijtihad](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#ijtihad), [Mujtahid](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#mujtahid) ### Ijaza Persian: اجازه · Arabic: إجازة A permission in writing from a teacher: that a student may transmit the teacher's hadith, for example, or has reached ijtihad. See also: [Ijtihad](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#ijtihad), [Hadith](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#hadith) ## Law and its method How a ruling is reached, and who may reach it. ### Fiqh Persian: فقه · Arabic: الفقه Islamic jurisprudence: the rulings of God's law for human acts, from worship to trade and family life, understood from their sources. It is the heart of the hawza's training. See also: [Usul al-fiqh](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#usul-al-fiqh), [Fatwa](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#fatwa) ### Usul al-fiqh Persian: اصول فقه · Arabic: أصول الفقه Also: usul The theory and methods of legal reasoning: how a jurist can responsibly move from evidence (the Qur’an, the Sunna of the Prophet and the Imams, consensus and reason) to a ruling, and what to do where the evidence is silent. It is the methodological centre of the advanced hawza. See also: [Fiqh](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#fiqh), [Ijtihad](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#ijtihad) ### Ijtihad Persian: اجتهاد · Arabic: الاجتهاد The scholarly capacity, and the effort, to derive rulings from their sources by the methods of *usul al-fiqh*. It is recognised through demonstrated ability and sometimes an ijaza. [Our model](https://tpilmflow.com/en/model/) does not attempt it: it explains reasoning, with its sources. See also: [Mujtahid](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#mujtahid), [Taqlid](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#taqlid), [Ijaza](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#ijaza) ### Mujtahid Persian: مجتهد · Arabic: المجتهد A scholar who has reached ijtihad, and derives rulings from their sources rather than following another's. See also: [Ijtihad](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#ijtihad), [Marja‘](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#marja) ### Marja‘ Persian: مرجع تقلید · Arabic: مرجع التقليد Also: marja‘ al-taqlid, maraji‘ (plural) A recognised authority for emulation: a senior mujtahid whose rulings believers follow in their religious practice. Becoming one is a further matter, not the final grade of a course of study. Our tools send every question about a personal ruling to the reader's own marja‘. See also: [Taqlid](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#taqlid), [Fatwa](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#fatwa), [Risala ‘amaliyya](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#risala-amaliyya) ### Taqlid Persian: تقلید · Arabic: التقليد Following the rulings of a qualified mujtahid in matters of practice: the way most believers, who are not mujtahids themselves, act on the law. See also: [Marja‘](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#marja), [Mujtahid](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#mujtahid) ### Fatwa Persian: فتوا · Arabic: فتوى Also: fatawa (plural) A mujtahid's ruling on a question of practice. IlmFlow issues none. See also: [Marja‘](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#marja), [Risala ‘amaliyya](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#risala-amaliyya) ### Risala ‘amaliyya Persian: رساله عملیه · Arabic: الرسالة العملية A marja‘'s practical treatise: his rulings on everyday religious practice, arranged by subject, for those who follow him. See also: [Marja‘](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#marja), [Fatwa](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#fatwa) ## Texts and transmission How the sources were handed down, and how their reliability is weighed. ### Hadith Persian: حدیث · Arabic: الحديث Also: ahadith (plural) A report of the words or deeds of the Prophet or of the Imams, handed down through a chain of narrators. With the Qur’an, the hadith are the textual sources of the law. See also: [Sanad](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#sanad), [‘Ilm al-rijal](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#ilm-al-rijal), [The Four Books](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#the-four-books) ### Sanad Persian: سند · Arabic: السند Also: isnad The chain of narrators through whom a hadith reached the book that records it: who heard it from whom. [Sanad](https://tpilmflow.com/en/tools/#sanad), our tool for the study of narrators, takes its name from it. See also: [Hadith](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#hadith), [‘Ilm al-rijal](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#ilm-al-rijal), [The chain](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#the-chain) ### ‘Ilm al-rijal Persian: علم رجال · Arabic: علم الرجال Also: rijal The science of narrators: it evaluates transmitters and chains of transmission, investigating identities, reliability assessments, possible gaps and disputed judgments. A report appearing in a major Shi‘i collection is not thereby accepted as authentic by every jurist. See also: [Sanad](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#sanad), [Hadith](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#hadith) ### The Four Books Persian: کتب اربعه · Arabic: الكتب الأربعة Also: al-Kutub al-Arba‘a The four great Shi‘i collections of hadith: al-Kulayni's *al-Kafi*, al-Saduq's *Man la yahduruhu al-faqih*, and al-Tusi's *Tahdhib al-ahkam* and *al-Istibsar*. See also: [Hadith](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#hadith), [The major occultation](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#the-major-occultation) ### The major occultation Persian: غیبت کبری · Arabic: الغيبة الكبرى Also: al-ghayba al-kubra The long absence of the Twelfth Imam, which began in 329 AH (941 CE). The great scholars at its start (al-Kulayni, al-Saduq, al-Mufid, al-Sharif al-Radi and al-Tusi) handed on what they knew with its chain: who said it, and from whom. See also: [The Four Books](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#the-four-books), [The chain](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#the-chain) ### Kalam Persian: کلام · Arabic: علم الكلام Theology: the discipline that develops and defends religious doctrines. See also: [Falsafa](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#falsafa), [‘Irfan](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#irfan) ### Falsafa Persian: فلسفه · Arabic: الفلسفة Also: hikma Philosophy: questions about existence, causation, knowledge and the soul. Its place in a student's training depends on the institution and the scholarly circle. See also: [Kalam](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#kalam), [‘Irfan](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#irfan) ### ‘Irfan Persian: عرفان · Arabic: العرفان Theoretical mystical thought, or practical spiritual formation; taught alongside the main curriculum, its place depending on the institution and the scholarly circle. See also: [Kalam](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#kalam), [Falsafa](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#falsafa) ## Our own words The words IlmFlow uses for its own work. ### Record Persian: نوشته · Arabic: مدوَّن A question, its answer and the sources the answer rests on, written in [Daftar](https://tpilmflow.com/en/tools/#daftar) by a teacher or student of the hawza, with a record of who wrote it and who reviewed it. A teaching example, not a ruling. See also: [Review](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#review), [Training pair](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#training-pair) ### Review Persian: بازبینی · Arabic: المراجعة A second scholar's reading of a record: a teacher, or a student at the level of bahth al-kharij, asks whether the reasoning holds and whether each source says what is claimed. The record is accepted, held until a page is checked, returned for changes or refused, always with a reason its author can act on. See also: [Record](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#record) ### Training pair Persian: جفت آموزشی · Arabic: الزوج التدريبي An accepted record in the form a model learns from: the question, and the reasoned answer with its evidence. Each pair keeps its whole history: what it is about, what it says, what it rests on, and who stands behind it. See also: [Record](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#record), [Model](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#model) ### Model Persian: مدل · Arabic: النموذج A computer program that learns patterns from many examples. Ours is learning the hawza's method from reviewed training pairs: how evidence is weighed, not a list of rulings. It runs on our own machines. [The Model](https://tpilmflow.com/en/model/) says more. See also: [Training pair](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#training-pair), [Ijtihad](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#ijtihad) ### Machine reading Persian: خوانش ماشین · Arabic: القراءة الآلية Text a machine produced: a transcript, a translation, or the reading of a printed page. It is always labelled as a machine's work, and is not quotable until a person has checked it against the page. See also: [Quotable](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#quotable), [Fingerprint](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#fingerprint) ### Quotable Persian: قابل نقل · Arabic: قابل للاقتباس Fit to quote: a passage a person has checked against the page itself. Until then it is marked as a machine's reading. See also: [Machine reading](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#machine-reading), [The chain](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#the-chain) ### The chain Persian: سلسله سند · Arabic: السلسلة Our word for where a passage came from: the source (a book's page, or a scholar's lecture as his own site published it), its exact words with their fingerprint and place, which of our tools did what and when, and the writing that cites it. A reader can follow it back, as the scholars of hadith followed a report back through its sanad. See also: [Sanad](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#sanad), [Fingerprint](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#fingerprint) ### Fingerprint Persian: اثر انگشت دیجیتال · Arabic: البصمة الرقمية A short code computed from a text's exact letters. Change a single letter and the code changes, so a passage carried with its fingerprint can be shown to be unaltered. See also: [The chain](https://tpilmflow.com/en/glossary/#the-chain) ### Passkey Persian: کلید عبور · Arabic: مفتاح المرور A way to sign in to our tools without a password. Your device checks that it is you, with your fingerprint, your face or the code that unlocks it, and tells our tools only that it is satisfied; nothing secret leaves it. [How passkeys work](https://daftar.tpilmflow.com/en/passkeys). ## A word missing? Tell us which word, and we will add it: the glossary grows with the questions people ask. --- A project of Truth Promoters, built by tpcloud.solutions. We build the technology. The scholarship belongs to the hawza.