IB World Religions

'Aqiqah is the sacrifice offered for a newborn child, normally made on the seventh day after birth. The meat is shared with relatives and given to the poor, and the child's head is shaved with charity given equal to the hair's weight.

'Ismah means the divine protection given to prophets, which Muslims hold keeps the revealed message free of corruption. Most Sunni scholars limit it to the message and to grave sin, while Twelver Shi'ah teaching extends it to the imams and to Fatima.

The Abhidhamma Pitaka means the basket of higher, or further, teaching, and restates the Buddha's discourses as systematic analysis. Its seven books classify experience into elements called dhammas, and Theravada Buddhists count it as the Buddha's own word.

Abrahamic describes the religious family of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all three of which trace their descent to Abraham and share many figures and narratives. Each teaches belief in one God who creates, reveals and judges, and some scholars extend the term to include the Bahá'í Faith.

Absolution is the declaration of God's forgiveness pronounced over a penitent. Catholic and Orthodox churches reserve it to a priest or bishop, with Catholic teaching requiring contrition, confession and penance beforehand, while most Protestant churches use a general absolution in public worship instead.

The Adi Granth, meaning Primary Collection, is the first authorised Sikh scripture, compiled by Guru Arjan in 1604 and holding the hymns of the first five Gurus alongside selected other voices. It is the direct ancestor of the present Guru Granth Sahib.

Advaita, meaning not two, names Shankara's school of Vedanta, which teaches that Brahman alone is finally real. The atman is held to be identical with Brahman, not merely near it, so that separateness is treated as ignorance rather than fact.

Agape means the love of God for humanity, which Christians also use for the love they are commanded to show others, distinguishing it from eros, philia and storge. First John 4 identifies agape with God's own character.

Aggadah is the non-legal material in rabbinic literature, gathering narrative, ethics, theology and folklore. It teaches by example rather than by obligation, and no Jew is bound to treat a given aggadic story as fact.

An agunah, meaning a chained or anchored woman, is a wife who stays married in halakhah and cannot remarry, classically because her husband is missing without proof of death or, in the modern case, refuses to give a get.

Ahimsa means non-violence to any living being, covering thought and speech as well as action. Hindus count it among duties owed by everyone; Buddhists express it chiefly through the first of the Five Precepts; Jains, who extend it to every being including one-sensed life, call it the first and greatest of their vows.

The ahkam al-khamsa are the five categories every action falls into under Islamic law: obligatory, recommended, neutral, discouraged and forbidden. Only the obligatory and the forbidden bind strictly, and most of ordinary life sits in the neutral middle.

Ajiva means non-soul, whatever lacks consciousness. Jains classify it as covering matter (pudgala), space, time, motion and rest, of which only matter can bind to a soul. Ajiva is held to be eternal and uncreated.

Akal Purukh, meaning the Timeless Being, is the usual Sikh name for God, akal being beyond time or deathless and purukh meaning being or person. Sikhs use it alongside Waheguru, Satnam and Ik Onkar to name the one God who creates everything that exists.

An Akhand Path is a continuous unbroken reading of the Guru Granth Sahib, carried by a relay of readers from first page to last over roughly forty eight hours. Sikhs use it at deaths, anniversaries and other significant occasions.

Akhirah means the life after death, the lasting world that follows the grave, covering the barzakh, resurrection, judgment and final destination. Muslims count belief in it, set against dunya, the present world, among the required articles of iman; Twelver Shi'ah teaching names it ma'ad, the return.

Akhlaq means ethics and settled moral character, from khuluq, disposition or habit. Muslims take the Prophet Muhammad's conduct as its model, asking what a person is becoming rather than only what is allowed, with adab, good manners, as its everyday form.

An altar is the table on which the bread and wine of the Eucharist are set. Catholics and Orthodox Christians use the word because they hold Christ's sacrifice to be present there, while many Protestants prefer “communion table,” teaching a memorial meal instead, so the choice of word carries doctrinal meaning.

Am Yisrael means the people of Israel, naming the worldwide Jewish community rather than the land or the modern state, though the Hebrew word Israel carries all three senses depending on context. Jewish religious experience is described first through belonging to this people.

The Amidah ('standing prayer') is said silently, standing, and facing Jerusalem. The weekday version contains nineteen blessings, ordered as praise, then petition, then thanks.

Amrit sanskar is the Sikh rite of initiation into the Khalsa, using amrit, sweetened water stirred with a double-edged sword, administered by five initiated Sikhs, the Panj Piare. Those who receive it undertake the Rahit Maryada for life.

Amrit vela, the ambrosial time, names the hours just before dawn, regarded by Sikhs as the best time for meditation on the Name. The Rahit Maryada expects a Sikh to rise then, bathe and meditate, anchoring individual practice at the start of the day.

Anand karaj, meaning the ceremony of bliss, is the Sikh marriage rite, conducted before the Guru Granth Sahib. Its central act is walking four rounds during the lavan verses, and no vows are exchanged and no officiant performs the marriage.

Anatta (Sanskrit anatman) means the absence of a permanent, unchanging self. Buddhists find no such self in any of the five khandas, and the formula sabbe dhamma anatta extends the claim to all things, not only conditioned ones. It stands as the contradictory of the Upanishadic atman.