حجة
Ḥujjah
Conclusive proof: the unanswerable evidence of God’s work, revelation or purpose.
What it means
Ḥujjah means an argument or proof that settles a matter. In the Quran it is God’s proof against which no excuse stands: “Say: with God is the conclusive argument” (6:149). The Quran also says that messengers were sent so that people would have no argument against God after them (4:165). Revelation and the signs in creation are the proofs referred to. In later scholarship the word came to serve as a title of honour for eminent authorities, as in Ḥujjat al-Islām, the title given to al-Ghazali.
Often misunderstood as
It is sometimes read only as a legal or debating term for an argument in court, while in the Quran it means the proof God has already given to every people.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 28, listed as ḤUJJAH. The definition is restated here.