Dīn

In Islamic terminology, the word refers to the way of life Muslims must adopt to comply with divine law, encompassing beliefs, character and deeds. The term appears in the Quran 98 times with different connotations, including in the phrase yawm ad-dīn (Arabic: يوم الدين), generally translated to "Day of Judgment" or the famous verse La ikraha fid din which translates to "Let there be no compulsion in religion" (Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation).

Etymology

Orientalist Arthur Jeffery derives the religious term dīn as pertaining to judgement, law, religion, debt from the Middle Persian den, itself derived from the Zoroastrian Avestan notion daena, he furthermore claimed that dīn "related to religion" and the Arabic cognate dīn "judgement, debt etc..." are two separate words of different origin. It may be related to Aramaic notions of judgment as seen in Rabbinic usage. Many scholars, such as Nöldeke, Vollers, Mushegh Asatrian, and Johnny Cheung are in agreement with this etymology. Others like Gaudefroy-Demombynes and Gardet, have found this derivation unconvincing. Nonetheless, al-Khafaji and Tha'ahbi have included the term dīn as related to religion in their list of foreign words, due to its lack of verbal root. According to the Encyclopaedia of the Qur'ān, prior to the 20th century, "English word 'religion' had no direct equivalent in Arabic nor had the Arabic word dīn in English".

The Arabic dīn ("judgement, debt," etc.) has Semitic cognates, including the Hebrew dīn (דין), Aramaic dīnā (דִּינָא), Amharic dañä (ዳኘ), and Ugaritic dyn (𐎄𐎊𐎐), though different meaning from dīn relating to religion.

The Arabic sense of judgment is likely analogous to the Hebraeo-Aramaic cognate root. The Hebrew term "דין", transliterated as dīn, means either "law" or "judgement". In the Kabbalah of Judaism, the term can, alongside "Gevurah" (cognate to the feminine form of Arabic adjective "Jabārah جَبَّارَة"), refer to "power" and "judgement". In ancient Israel, the term featured heavily in administrative and legal proceedings i.e. beth din, literally "the house of judgement", the ancient building block of the Jewish legal system. The Arabic sense "custom, usage" has been derived by classical and modern lexicologists from the Arabic verbal forms dāna (دانى, "be indebted") and dāna li- (-دانى لِ, "submit to"). Louis Gardet sees the Hebraic and Arabic senses as related through the notions of retribution, debt, obligation, custom, and direction, prompting him to translate yawm ad-din as: "the day when God gives a direction to each human being". This view is not supported by the majority of scholars, who translate yawm ad-din as "the day of judgement".

Quranic studies scholar Mohsen Goudarzi has argued that in the Quran dīn means "worship", Islam means "monotheism" and muslim means "monotheist". Until the 8th century, the term muslim was more inclusive, including anyone who was considered to be submitting to God—e.g. Christians and Jews—and the term mu'min was instead used to refer to believers in Islam as a distinct religion.