actuary A statistician who specialises in calculating risk and uncertainty with a view to predicting future events and trends.

Typically working for insurance companies, the actuary’s work allows decision-makers to design policies and products where the flow of cash averages in the business’s favour whilst remaining attractive and competitive for customers.adadiyyat (pl. of adadiyyah) Things that are countable rather than measurable by weight, volume or length. The most common example given is eggs, which are indivisible and usually sold by the dozen, half-dozen and so on, instead of weight or volume.

Adam In the Abrahamic religions, the first human being, created by God. His wife was Eve (Hawa in the Qur’an). The pair are best know in Christian and Jewish scripture for living a pious, hard-working and unclothed life in the Garden of Eden but suffering a fall from grace after eating the ‘forbidden fruit’ (often depicted as an apple although it is not specifically named) from the Tree of Life. Straight away they recognise their nakedness, cover up with fig leaves and hide from God.

They are then cast from the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve’s named offspring are Kane, Abel and Seth. Other children are named in different versions of the Bible but their names are broadly disputed in mainstream Abrahamic religious teaching; however it is accepted Adam and Eve had ‘other sons and daughters’. He died at age 930. In Islam, the Garden of Eden is the heavenly paradise.

adhan, azaan Known in English as the call to prayer, the adhan is performed by a member of the mosque (called a muezzin), who shouts out from the minaret (if one is available) for the faithful to come to the mosque to perform daily prayers (salah). An English translation of the Sunni call is as follows: ‘Allah is the greatest; I testify that there is no God except for Allah; I testify that Muhammad is a Messenger of Allah; Come to prayer; Come to success; at the first recitation of the day, ‘Prayer is better than sleep’ is said at this point; Allah is the greatest; There is no God except for Allah.’ Most of the lines are called twice, except the first line (four times) and the last line (once). The Shi’a call is almost the same but includes ‘I testify that Ali is a Vicegerent of God’ at line four and the last three lines (after ‘Come to success’) read thus: ‘The time for the best of deeds has come; God is greater than any description; There is no deity except for God.’adl Justice; fairness; equity.ADSM The Abu Dhabi Securities Market, the bourse of Abu Dhabi.