The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (345 page)

see
FAN
’.

 
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(Aram., for Heb.,
hizonah
, ‘outside’). Every Jewish tradition of the
tannaim
which is found outside Judah ha-Nasi's
Mishnah
. The beraitot (pl.) were used to supplement mishnaic teaching or to solve a new problem which had arisen.

 
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Baraka
.

‘blessing’
(Arab., cf. Heb.,
b
rakh
). In Islam, a quality or force emanating originally from
All
h
but capable of transmission to objects or to human beings. The word appears in the
Qur'
n
in the plural,
barak
t
, ‘blessings’ (7. 94; 11. 50, 76), and the term
mub
rak
, ‘blessed’, is used, for example, of the Book (6. 92, 155), the
Ka‘ba
(3. 90), an olive tree (24. 33).
Mu
ammad
,
prophets
, and holy persons in general are especially credited with baraka, and in popular Islam baraka can be acquired by touching a shrine or the tomb of a
wal
(holy person), and above all from the
Black Stone
in the Ka‘ba. A baraka from God initiates a
S
f
order: see
SILSILAH
. Great S
f
shaykhs
also become possessed of baraka which is transmitted to others and may remain associated with their tombs, thereby evoking
pilgrimage
.