User:Ktiley14/sandbox

Overview
All actions carried out by human beings fall into one of five categories, called in Arabic أحكام (Ahkam), meaning rules'':
 * 1) واجب / فرض (fard / wajib) - Required
 * 2) مستحب (mustahabb) - Recommended
 * 3) مباح (mubah) - Neutral
 * 4) مكره (makruh) - Disliked
 * 5) حرام (haram) - Forbidden ''

(paragraph from Michelle)

The religious term haram, based on the Qur'an, is applied to:


 * Actions, such as premarital sex, murder, or getting a tattoo.
 * Policies, such as riba. need explanation
 * Objects, such as al-Masjid al-Haram and al-Masjid al-Nabawi in context as two haram (sacred) mosques.
 * Food and drinks, such as pork and alcohol.
 * Some ḥalāl objects, foods or actions that are normally halal but under some conditions become haram. For example halal food and drinks at noon-time during Ramadan, or a cow or another halal animal that is not slaughtered in the Islamic way and in the name of Allah (God).

Haram also applies to ill-gotten wealth obtained through sin. Examples include money earned through cheating, stealing, corruption, murder and Interest or any means that involves harm to another human being. It is prohibited in Islam for a Muslim to profit from such haraam actions. Any believer who benefits from or lives off wealth obtained through haram is a sinner.

''This is not an exhaustive list by any means, and in fact no exhaustive list exists that applies to all Muslims at all times. As part of Islamic fiqh, the status of certain actions as haraam is defined ''

Culture
Linguistically, the root of the term haraam is used to form a wide range of other terms that have legal implications, such as hariim (a harem) and ihraam ( a state of purity). In addition, the same word (haraam) is used in the Quran to denote the sacred nature of the Ka'ba and the areas of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. As such, the legal use of the root ح-ر-م is based on an idea of boundaries between the profane and the sacred, as opposed to prohibitions, as is normally assumed.

Colloquially, the word haraam takes on different meanings, and operates more closely as a dichotomy with Halal, which denotes the permissible. In Arabic-speaking countries, saying "haraam" can mean 'what a shame' or 'what a pity' (this meaning has been adopted by Modern Hebrew slang as well). The term can be used formally as method for chastising strangers who behave inappropriately, or between friends as a form of teasing. The word is also used to instruct children in how to behave by telling them that harming other children or animals is haraam, among other things.

The binary concepts of halal and haraam are used in a number cultural phrases, most notably ibn (boy) al-halal and bint (girl) al-halal. These phrases are often used to refer to appropriate spouses in marriage, and stand in contrast to ibn al-haraam or bint al-haraam, which are used as insults. In this case, the term haraam is used to mean ill-mannered or indecent, instead of strictly meaning 'unlawful'. Halal and haraam are also used in regards to money (mal). Mal al-haraam means ill-gotten money, and brings destruction on those who make their living through such means.

These cultural interpretations of what is haraam influence and are influenced by the legal definitions used at the local level. This means that popular conceptions of haraam are partly based on formal Islamic Jurisprudence and partly on regional culture, and the popular conceptions in turn change how the legal system defines and punishes haraam actions.

The word also appears in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia. It connotes the same idea of prohibition on religious grounds, however it is used by Christians in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, including bans on pork (more out of Jewish dietary laws, not Islamic).

The Hebrew cognate ḥerem refers to the highest ecclesiastical censure in the Jewish community.