Ghuraba or Al-Ghurabaa ( ''al-Ghurabā’'') is an Islamic

eschatological Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of present age, human history, or the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that negative world ...

epithet mentioned in the

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

that vicariously describes the manner in which upright

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

s are perceived by the wider society. The term ''Ghuraba'' literally means ''strange'' or ''weird''.

Overview

The most authentic hadith collection that discusses the ''Ghuraba'' in detail is

Sahih Muslim () is the second hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj () in the format, the work is valued by Sunnis, alongside , as the most important source for Islamic religion after the Q ...

. In it, the term ''Ghuraba'' is used as both a countable noun, to refer to the people, and as a non-countable noun, to refer to the concept:

Sahih Bukhari () is the first hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar al-Bukhari () in the format, the work is valued by Sunni Muslims, alongside , as the most authentic after the Qur'an. Al-Bukhari organized the bo ...

also alludes being a ''stranger'' as the correct conduct and etiquette in the narration "Live in this world as though you are a stranger or a traveler". Saudi cleric al-Ouda described Ghuraba as meaning solitary people or loners. An Arabic journal described the term ''Ghuraba'' as meaning ''foreigner''.

Demographics

There are other hadiths wherein the term ''Ghuraba'' alludes to its sobriquets being a minority within wider society. In a response to the question of who the ''Ghuraba'' are, prophet Muhammad answers as follows: Other hadiths similarly describes them as those who correct the misguided and their dissenters as being the majority and also describes them as nihilistic, and as such, prone to evil.

Scripture

The Quran similarly ordains that the most pious stance is signified by an archetype which is eccentric, peculiar, and nonconformist rather than one which is conventional, customary, prevailing or orthodox:

Subsets

Contemporary and medieval explications on the ''Ghuraba'' hadiths have given various archetypes on the whom constitutes a member of the ''Ghuraba''. One analyst has described Muslim converts or reverts as being Ghuraba if they are amongst people who were born into Muslim families. Ibn al-Qayyim referred to Ghuraba as eccentric and nonconformist individuals, claiming that they are considered strange or weird even among fellow Muslims. His archetype of the ''Ghuraba'' followed a

pedigree chart A pedigree chart is a diagram that shows the occurrence of certain traits through different generations of a family, most commonly for humans, show dogs, and race horses. Definition The word pedigree is a corruption of the Anglo-Norman French ''p ...

whereby the most untenable Ghuraba were Muslims among non-Muslims, followed by steadfast Muslims among ordinary Muslims, and then Islamic scholars among steadfast Muslims.

Historical Usage

In 1504, following the forced conversion of the Muslim community by the

Crown of Castile The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Castile, Castile and Kingd ...

, the

Oran fatwa The Oran fatwa was a '' responsum'' fatwa, or an Islamic legal opinion, issued in 1502 to address the crisis that occurred when Muslims in the Crown of Castile, in present-day Spain, were forced to convert to Christianity in 15001502. It was au ...

was authorized by ''

mufti A mufti (; , ) is an Islamic jurist qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion ('' fatwa'') on a point of Islamic law (''sharia''). The act of issuing fatwas is called ''iftāʾ''. Muftis and their ''fatāwa'' have played an important role thro ...

Ahmad ibn Abi Jum'ah Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Abi Jum'ah al-Maghrawi al-Wahrani (; died 3 June 1511) was an Algerian Maliki scholar of Islamic law, active in the Maghreb from the end of the fifteenth century until his death. He was identified as the author of the 1504 ...

. The fatwa addressed its recipient, the Muslim community in Granada, as ''al-ghuraba.''

References

{{reflist Islamic terminology