Dīn

Dīn ( ar, دين, Dīn, also anglicized as Deen) is an Arabic word with three general senses: judgment, custom, and religion. It is used by both Muslims and Arab Christians.

In Islamic terminology, the word refers to the way of life Muslims must adopt to comply with divine law, encompassing beliefs, character and deeds. The term appears in the Quran 98 times with different connotations, including in the phrase ''yawm al-din'' ( ar, يوم الدين), generally translated to " Day of Judgment" or the famous verse "La ikraha fid din" which translates to "Let there be no compulsion in religion." ( Abdullah Yusuf Ali Translation).

Etymology

The Arabic ''dīn'' has Semitic cognates, including the Hebrew "dīn" (), Aramaic ''dīnā'' (), Amharic ''dañä'' (ዳኘ) and Ugaritic ''dyn'' (𐎄𐎊𐎐).

The Arabic sense of judgment is likely analogous to the Hebraeo-Aramaic cognate root. The Hebrew term " דין", transliterated as "dīn", means either "law" or "judgement". In the Kabbalah of Judaism, the term can, alongside "Gevurah" (cognate to the feminine form of Arabic adjective "''Jabārah'' جَبَّارَة"), refer to "power" and "judgement". In ancient Israel, the term featured heavily in administrative and legal proceedings i.e. Bet Din, literally "the house of judgement," the ancient building block of the Jewish legal system. The Arabic sense "custom, usage" has been derived by classical and modern lexicologists from the Arabic verbal forms ''dāna'' (دانى, "be indebted") and ''dāna li-'' (-دانى لِ, "submit to"). Louis Gardet sees the Hebraic and Arabic senses as related through the notions of retribution, debt, obligation, custom, and direction, prompting him to translate ''yawm al-din'' as "the day when God gives a direction to each human being".

Some scholars, such as Nöldeke and Vollers have derived the Arabic sense of religion from the Middle Persian ''den'', itself derived from the Zoroastrian Avestan notion '' daena''. Others like Gaudefroy-Demombynes and Gardet, have found this derivation unconvincing.

Use in Islam

It has been said that the word ''Dīn'' appears in as many as 79 verses in the Qur'an, but because there is no exact English translation of the term, its precise definition has been the subject of some misunderstanding and disagreement. For instance, the term is often translated in parts of the Qur'an as "religion".

Some Qur'anic scholars have translated ''Dīn'' in places as "faith" Others suggest that the term "has been used in various forms and meanings, e.g., system, power, supremacy, ascendancy, sovereignty or lordship, dominion, law, constitution, mastery, government, realm, decision, definite outcome, reward and punishment. On the other hand, this word is also used in the sense of obedience, submission and allegiance".

In addition to the two broad usages referred to so far, of sovereignty on the one hand and submission on the other, others have noted"Let Us Be Muslims, Abu Ala Maududi U.K.I.M. Dawah Center, 1960 that the term ''Dīn'' is also widely used in translations of the Qur'an in a third sense. Most famously in its opening chapter, al-Fātiḥah, the term is translated in almost all English translations as "judgment":

The well-known Islamic scholar, Fazlur Rahman Malik, suggested that Dīn is best considered as "the way-to-be-followed". In that interpretation, Dīn is the exact correlate of Shari'a: "whereas Shari'a is the ordaining of the Way and its proper subject is God, Dīn is the following of that Way, and its subject is man".Rahman F, ''Islam'', p. 100, University of Chicago Press, 1979 Thus, "if we abstract from the Divine and the human points of reference, Shari'a and Dīn would be identical as far as the 'Way' and its content are concerned".

In many hadith, the din has been described as a midway lifestyle:

See also

* Daena
* List of Islamic terms in Arabic
* Sharia
* Christian worldview
* Kabbalah
* Wasatiyyah (Islamic term)

References

External links

Definition of Deen

{{DEFAULTSORT:Din
Arabic words and phrases
Islamic terminology