4 (number) - in Religion

In Religion

Buddhism

• Four Noble Truths
  • Dukkha – The Noble Truth of Suffering
  • Samudaya – The Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering
  • Nirodha – The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering
  • Magga – The Noble Truth of the Path leading to the Cessation of Suffering
• Four sights – observations which affected Prince Siddhartha deeply and made him realize the sufferings of all beings, and compelled him to begin his spiritual journey—an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and an ascetic
• Four Great Elements – earth, water, fire, and wind
• Four Heavenly Kings
• Four Foundations of Mindfulness – contemplation of the body, contemplation of feelings, contemplation of mind, contemplation of mental objects
• Four Right Exertions
• Four Bases of Power
• Four jhānas
• Four arūpajhānas
• Four Divine Abidings – loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity
• Four stages of enlightenment – stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner, and arahant
• Four main pilgrimage sites – Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath, and Kusinara

Judeo-Christian symbolism

• The Tetragrammaton is the four-letter name of God.
• The four Matriarchs (foremothers) of Judaism are Sarah, Rebeccah, Leah, and Rachel.
• The Four Species (lulav, hadass, aravah and etrog) are taken as one of the mitzvot on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. (Judaism)
• The Four Cups of Wine to drink on the Jewish holiday of Passover. (Judaism)
• The Four Questions to be asked on the Jewish holiday of Passover. (Judaism)
• The Four Sons to be dealt with on the Jewish holiday of Passover. (Judaism)
• The Four Expressions of Redemption to be said on the Jewish holiday of Passover. (Judaism)
• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride in the Book of Revelation.
• The four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Hinduism

• In Puruṣārtha there are 4 aims of human life Dharma, Artha, Kāma, Moksha.
• The four stages of life Brahmacharya (student life), Grihastha (household life), Vanaprastha (retired life) and Sannyasa (renunciation).
• The four primary castes or strata of society Brahmana (priest/teacher), Kshatriya (warrior/politician), Vaishya (landowner/entrepreneur) and Shudra (servant/manual laborer).

Islam

• Eid al-Adha lasts for four days, from the 10th to the 14th of Dhul Hijja.
• There are four The Rightly Guided Caliphs or Rashidun: Abu Bakr, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib.
• The Four Arch Angels in Islam are: Jibraeel (Gabriel), Mikaeel (Michael), Izraeel (Azrael), and Israfil (Raphael)
• There are four Sacred Months in Islam: Muharram, Rajab, Dhu al-Qi'dah and Dhu al-Hijjah.
• There are four Sunni schools of fiqh: Hanafi, Shafi`i, Maliki and Hanbali.
• There are four major sunni Imams: Abū Ḥanīfa, Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i, Malik ibn Anas and Ahmad ibn Hanbal.
• There are four books in Islam: Torah, Zaboor, Injeel, Quran.
• Waiting for four months is ordained for those who take an oath for abstention from their wives.
• The waiting period of the woman whose husband dies, is four months and ten days.
• When Abraham said: “My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead,” Allah said: “Why! Do you have no faith?” Abraham replied: “Yes, but in order that my heart be at rest.” He said: “Then take four birds, and tame them to yourself, then put a part of them on every hill, and summon them; they will come to you flying.
• The respite of four months was granted to give time to the mushriks in Surah Taubah so that they should consider their position carefully and decide whether to make preparation for war or to emigrate from the country or to accept Islam.
• Those who accuse honourable women (of unchastity) but do not produce four witnesses, flog them with eighty lashes, and do not admit their testimony ever after. They are indeed transgressors.

Other

• Four is the sacred number of the Zia, an indigenous tribe located in the U.S. State of New Mexico.
• The Chinese, Vietnamese, the Korean and the Japanese are superstitious about the number four because it is a homonym for "death" in their languages.