Q and A

I have heard of the following terms associated with Islam.  Could you please explain the differences and job roles of each one. 

Are they in a particular order as to how knowledgeable one is in Islam? 

Are they all affiliated with Islam or are some self-given names?

Not sure if I have missed any out..if so could you please include them.

  • Maulana
  • Mullah
  • Hafiz
  • Maulvi
  • Imam
  • Sheikh
  • Peer Sahib
  • Awliya / Wali Allah
  • Sufi Sahib
  • Ameer Sahib
  • Ayatollah
  • Chisti
  • Fakir
  • Qari
  • Mufti

Thank you.

Posted in

Submitted by zara_2k on 6 November 2007 - 10:31pm.

Anonymous | 29 August 2008 - 5:43pm

* Maulana
is the a title given to an Aalim out of respect, it means "our leader"

* Mullah
A variation of the above

* Hafiz
A person who has committed to memory the entire Quran.

* Maulvi
An indo-pak term for an Aalim, although used today by people to mean Aalim's who eat a lot!

* Imam
The person leading Salah

* Sheikh
An Arab term of respect, similar to Maulana, can also be used for old people.
* Peer Sahib
An indo-pak term to describe a spiritual leader

* Awliya / Wali Allah
A term to describe a very pious man. A person who has a real connection with Allah.

* Sufi Sahib
An indo-pak term of respect, loosely used for a person with a beard

* Ameer Sahib
A respectful term used for the leader of a group, for example when traveling.
* Ayatollah
Used for a religious leader in Iran, popular amongst the Shia community.

* Chisti
A branch of Sufi-ism. There are four popular one's, Chisti, Naqshbandi, Qadri and Soharwardi.

* Fakir
Not sure

* Qari
A person who knows the rules of recitation of the Quran (tajweed), and can apply them. He can correctly pronounce each and every letter ccording to it's rules

* Mufti
A person who has the authority to give a FATWA, a special ruling that caters to a specific problem.

»

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Post new comment

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <i> <b> <h3>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • You may insert videos with [video:SOURCE]

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is used to prevent spam.
Image CAPTCHA
Copy the characters (respecting upper/lower case) from the image.

Congregation Times

Fajr:06:45
Zuhr:13:00
Asr:14:45
Maghrib:16:11
Isha:20:45

Recent comments

User login