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Sea

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Wikis > Dictionary of Islam > Sea
SEA. Arabic bahr بحر
“The sea.” al bahr is a term applied in the Qur’an to the Red Sea known amongst Muslims as the Bahru i-Qulzum. [RED SEA.] Surahs ii. 47 vii 134 – “The ships that sail like mountains in the sea are amongst the signs of God (See. Surah xlii. 31.) In Surah iii., 6 Muhammad, swears by “the swelling sea.” In Surah vii 68; “It is the Lord who drives the ships for you in the sea that ye may seek after plenty from Him.” In Surah viii 109, it occurs as an illustration of the boundless character of the Word of God, “Were the sea ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would surely fail before the words of my Lord, fail, aye, though we brought as much ink again.”
In Muslim works in the Traditions and commentaries, the Arabic bahr is used for large rivers as the Euphrates and in the same sense the Hebrew yam (but the) word nahr, Hebrew nahar occurs in the Qur’an for rivers.)
It is related that Muhammad said, “Let none but three classes of people cross the sea (for it has fire under it which causes its troubled motion) namely, (1) those who perform the Hajj or Pilgrimage; (2) those who make the umrah of visitation; (3) those who go forth to war.” (Majma’u ‘l-Bihar, vol. i. p. 76)
The following are the names of the seas as current in Muslim literature:-
Al-Bahru ‘l-Akhzar the Green or Indian Ocean.
Al-Bahru ‘l-Abyas, the White or Mediterranean Sea.
Al-Bahru ‘l-Aswad, the Black, or Euxine Sea.
Al-Bahru ‘l-Azraq, the Blue or Persian Sea.
Al Bahru ‘I-Qulzum, or al-Bahu ‘l-Ahmar, the Red Sea.
Al-Buhru ‘l-Lut, the Sea of Lot or Dead Sea.
Al-Bajru ‘l-Khizr, the sea of Khizr, the Caspian Sea.

Based on Hughes, Dictionary of Islam

 
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