Thursday, December 11, 2008

4:86

Salaam all,

This is 4:86
وَإِذَا حُيِّيْتُم بِتَحِيَّةٍ فَحَيُّواْ بِأَحْسَنَ مِنْهَا أَوْ رُدُّوهَا إِنَّ اللّهَ كَانَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ حَسِيبًا
Waitha huyyeetum bitahiyyatin fahayyoo biahsana minha aw ruddooha inna Allaha kana AAala kulli shayin haseeban

The Aya says:
And if you (plural) were greeting by a greeting, then greet by more beautiful than her, or return her. Indeed, Allah is, on every entity, accounting.

My personal note:
This Aya is in many ways self explanatory.

Translation of the transliterated words:


Waitha: and if/ when
Huyyeetum: you (plural) were greeted
Note: the root is Ha-Y-W and it means life or movement. The two are related since movement is a sign of life to the Arabs. Conceptually, the term can take other meanings including greetings and shyness as well according to the context. The relationship is that Arabs before Islam used to greet each other by wishing a good and long life. In here, it takes the meaning of greetings. HUYYEETUM is an action that is completed. It means: the action of greeting the object (second person plural) happened by an undeclared subject.
Bitahiyyatin: by a greeting
Note: Bi suggests that what comes after it is either an association with the action, a tool of the action or an object of the action or any combination of the three. If bi serves as an object of the action that it serves as an emphasis of the action. TAHIYYATIN is derived from the root Ha-Y-W and it means life or movement. The two are related since movement is a sign of life to the Arabs. Conceptually, the term can take other meanings including greetings and shyness as well according to the context. The relationship is that Arabs before Islam used to greet each other by wishing a good and long life. In here, it takes the meaning of greetings. TAHIYYATIN means a greeting.
Fahayyoo: then greet
Note: FA means then or therefore or so. HAYYOO is derived from the root Ha-Y-W and it means life or movement. The two are related since movement is a sign of life to the Arabs. Conceptually, the term can take other meanings including greetings and shyness as well according to the context. The relationship is that Arabs before Islam used to greet each other by wishing a good and long life. In here, it takes the meaning of greetings. HAYYOO is an order a request addressed to a group. It means: greet.
Biahsana: by better/ by more beautiful
Note: Bi suggests that what comes after it is either an association with the action, a tool of the action or an object of the action or any combination of the three. If bi serves as an object of the action that it serves as an emphasis of the action. AHSANA is derived from the root Ha-S-N and it means beauty and goodness in all the aspects of beauty and goodness. AHSANA means more beautiful or better.
Minha: than her
Aw: or
Ruddooha: return it
Note: RDDOOHA is derived from the root R-D-D and it means: making an entity return to a point of beginning. This is the general conceptual meaning and it takes meanings of repelling or other forms of “making return” that are dictated by the context of the text. RUDDOOHA is an order or request to action addressing a group of people. It means: make the object (HA= her pointing to the greeting) return to where it needs to go, which suggests greeting with the same greeting.
Inna: indeed
Allaha: Allah
Kana: Happened to be
Note; KANA is derived from the root K-W-N and it means being. KANA is an action that is completed that is derived from the root. It means: the action of being happened by the subject (third personal singular pointing to Allah). This in turn means: He was or He happened to be.
AAala: upon/ on
Kulli: every/ each
Note: KULLI is derived from the root K-L-L and it means the parts put together. This is the concrete and it means all or every or each. It can also be extended conceptually to mean the parts surrounding an entity. KULLI means every, or each.
Shayin: entity/ thing
Note: the root is SH-Y-Hamza and it means entity. SHAYIN means entity. It is taken here to mean a thing or entity.
Haseeban: measurer/ upholder of account/ accounting
Note: the root is Ha-S-B and it means calculation. This word then takes many other meanings according to the plane of thought that is talked about. It takes the form of thought and so forth. HASEEBAN is the one who measures or calculates well or the one who upholds the account.

Salaam all and have a great day.

Hussein

4 comments:

sa said...

Asalaam-u-alaekum,

Related to your post, what do you think about the fact that during our salah we say salaam directly to RasulAllah sallahualayhi was sallam as in "assalamu alaika ayyuhannabiyu"!! Do we get direct reply from the Prophet and if we do, it would be better than the one we send for no one can follow the injunctions of Allah better than the Prophet sallahualayhi wa sallam. I find saying salam to the Prophet,grammatically in second person, particularly intriguing. jazak Allah khair

hussein said...

Wa Alaykum Assalam,

There is a hadeeth reported in Musnad Ahmad and Sunan Abu Dawud and others with "good Isnad" as judged by Imam Albani and Arnaoot that goes like this:

"When someone sends me peace, Allah will return my soul to him so that I return his greeting."

In addition to this, during the same prayer, we are sending peace to every human and non human who is worshipping God, and expecting to receive the same from them. It gives the person a sense of being one of a huge community, even when he or she is praying alone in the middle of the night.

Jazaka Allah khair for your stimulating questions and discussions.

Hussein

sa said...

That was a beautiful explanation. May Allah reward you. Just goes to show that it is extremely important to stay conscious (to me that is the real definiton of dhikr as opposed to ghafla) at all times esp. during salah.
By the way, you may not know me directly, but I wanted to personally thank you for all your help when my son zaid was going through the glaucoma surgeries.

wassalam,

saniya ali

hussein said...

You are so right sister. It really is always a pleasure to help Zaid. He is a great young man and I hope that I will be always able to help.
Salaam

Hussein