The word · The heart
الدُّنْيَا
Dunya
The nearer life: this world, which is not condemned in itself, only when it becomes the whole aim.
Also written · Duniya · Dunia · Donya · Dunyaa · Hubb al-dunya · Love of dunya · This world · Worldly life · Material world · Worldliness · Chasing dunya
The meaning
What Dunya means in Islam
The word means the nearer or the lower, and names this life set against the one that comes after. The Qur'an describes it as play, amusement and mutual boasting (Qur'an 57:20), and elsewhere tells a man not to forget his share of it. What is criticised is preferring it (Qur'an 87:16-17), not eating well, working, or loving your family. A useful reading: dunya is not the place, it is the place taken as final.
Evidence · Qur’an · Stated directly in the Qur’an
Read beside it
Rooms that name it
Words that sit beside it
- ZuhdHolding the world loosely: having a thing in your hand without letting it into your heart.الزُّهْد
- Qana'ahBeing satisfied with enough, so that what you do not have stops taking up room.القَنَاعَة
- AkhirahThe hereafter: everything after death, from the grave to the final settling in Paradise or the Fire.الآخِرَة
- GhaflahHeedlessness: not the denial of the truth, but the habit of never getting round to it.الغَفْلَة
More from The heart
- 'AfwPardon: dropping a wrong you are owed, without the other person having to earn it.العَفْو
- GhibahMentioning something about a person, behind their back, that they would dislike hearing.الغِيبَة
- Kaba'irMajor sins: the ones the texts single out with a punishment, a curse, or a warning of the Fire.الكَبَائِر
- MuraqabahLiving with the awareness that Allah sees you, at the moment you are acting.المُرَاقَبَة
- SabrHolding yourself steady under what is hard, without complaint to creation and without giving up.الصَّبْر
- TabarrukSeeking blessing through a person, place or object, which scholars permit narrowly and dispute widely.التَّبَرُّك