Revisitng my name.

Earlier I posted about the adventures I face with my name. But I was thinking about it last night and I want to write a follow up for it.

You see, I said my name translates to salve of Allah. That is  mistranslated. We always say that we are all worshipers of Allah. I don't want to push my faith on you. If you don't agree with that statement, I honestly don't give a damn. You do you. But I digress. So if we are all worshipers of Allah where does the slave come?

So the word often used is transliterated as "Ibad Allah". If we said "Abeed Allah" that would mean slaves of Allah. Why did I write that it was slave of Allah?

I was at a comedy show by Yalla Laughs Abu Dhabi (great shows go check them out). The comedian asked me for my name and I simply replied Abdel. He said "and what does that mean" i replied servant. He then went on about he was told it was slave of Allah and a quick quip about slaves and such.

Now getting jabbed like that let me accept that it was in fact slave. But no I read up a bit on it and contemplated the whole thing. My conclusion is that it is worshiper of Allah not slave of.

Don't get me wrong, Abd does mean slave in some contexts but in this one it means worshiper.

So to the guy having a jab at my name, you have been given a wrong information by an illiterate hack who thinks he knows Arabic.

Ciao