HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Taqbil or Taqbeel ( ar, تقبيل}; ; ) is a tradition to require non
Sayyid ''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Prophets in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali ...
s to kiss the hand of
Sayyid ''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Prophets in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali ...
s, mostly in
Hadhrami people The Hadhrami ( ar, حضرمي, ḥaḍramī, singular) or Hadharem ( ar, حضارم, ḥaḍāram, plural) are an Arab ethnic group indigenous to the Hadhramaut region in South Arabia around Eastern Yemen, western Oman, and southern Saudi Arab ...
of
Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast an ...
.


Description

Taqbil in Arabic literally means Kissing. In
Hadhramaut Hadhramaut ( ar, حَضْرَمَوْتُ \ حَضْرَمُوتُ, Ḥaḍramawt / Ḥaḍramūt; Hadramautic: 𐩢𐩳𐩧𐩣𐩩, ''Ḥḍrmt'') is a region in South Arabia, comprising eastern Yemen, parts of western Oman and southern S ...
, the Sayyid people receive gestures of respect from the rest of population in recognition of their descent from
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monot ...
. These gestures include the method of greeting, in which their hand (usually right hand) is kissed and/or sniffed. This hand-kissing is performed even when the recipient is still a child or a person without any special distinction in terms of religious knowledge or piety, in recognition of the
nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...
of the bloodline rather than the merits of the particular individual. This tradition of Taqbil was called ''Shamma'' in Hadhramaut. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, some members of the Sada continued to put forth justifications for their special treatment. One of the prominent jurisprudents at the time, Abdurrahman bin Muhammad al-Mashhoor addressed the matter of the special status of the Sada in Hadhramaut. He asserted that "the descendants of the Prophet were the most favored of people, and the descendants of 'Alawi the most favored of them all" because of religious learning and practice, their high moral standing, their blessedness and their piety. In response to a question as to the correctness of the practice of kissing the hands of ''Sada'', he asserted that it was correct according to
Shafi'i The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by ...
authorities. The tradition currently is no longer common among Hadhrami, except when a person greets a respected Sayyid out of paying respect to his knowledge-ability or piety (such as to a
Habib Habib ( ar, حبيب, ''ḥabīb''; ), sometimes written as Habeeb, is an Arabic masculine given name, occasional surname, and honorific, with the meaning "beloved" or "my love", or "darling". It also forms the famous Arabic word ‘''Habibi’'' ...
or a
Shaikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...
) .


References

Islamic jurisprudence Arabic words and phrases in Sharia Traditions Islamic terminology {{arabic-lang-stub