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glossary of terms and concepts 549TERMINARABICTRANS-LITERATIONENGLISH TRANSLATIONالشعائرal-sha#§"ir Rituals These define the connection between human beingsand God; they are firmly fixed and unchangeablebut differ from one religious community to thenext; prayer is the most common form of a ritual asit is the most direct form of communicationbetween a worshipper and the Lord. Typical ofrituals is that they are not subject to objective,rational research reflecting the limits of legislationand commandments, because they are fixed andbecause they express loyalty to a specific messenger.This is also the case with the rituals of al-Êm§n (e.g.,prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, and alms) that areperformed while adhering to Muhammad’s (ß)messengerhood; they are wrongly called pillars ofal-isl§m since they are only pillars of al-Êm§n.الفقراءوالمساكينالفرقان أوالوصايا العشر‏(الأخلاق)‏al-fuqar§"wa’l-mas§kÊnal-furq§n awal-waߧy§al-#ashr( al-akhl§q)Poor people and handicapped peoplePoor people are those with little or no income; theyare not necessarily handicapped people; whatconstitutes poverty differs from one historical periodto the other and from one country to the next;handicapped people are those who are mentally andphysically disabled. This term is often used in theBook but not mentioned in Islamic fiqh whichreflects a derisory attitude towards handicappedpeople as they were thought of as not fully human.Moral guidance or the ten commandments (ethics)The term al-furq§n refers to the common moralground of the three monotheistic religions: itincludes the straight path of Moses, the wiseguidance of Jesus, and the straight path ofMuÈammad; Jewish, Christian and ^m§nic (based onMuÈammad’s messengerhood) principles of moralbehaviour are the common denominator that iscalled al-furq§n. There are two types of al-furq§n: a)general guidance and b) specific guidance; generalguidance refers to the ten commandments which arethe lower limit of moral guidance given to allhuman beings; this forms the common moralground of all human communities through whichone may achieve high standards of morality; specificguidance refers to the set of commandments given byMuÈammad (ß) that are applicable not only to thosewho want to realise social ethics as they arespecified by its lower level (i.e., general guidance)but who also want to increase their commitmentand become leaders of the devout and pious. Thesecommandments are not given in clear, explicitcommands since they are stated in the ‘generalguidance’, but only in the form of (indirect)notifications.