ما شاء الله
What willed God?
This exclamation comes in response to seeing great beauty, or to hearing good news. It is, of course, high praise.
I like the phrase better, however, when it is taken out of the context of fate. While there is obviously an inherent recognition of divine goodness in the original, it is within the larger text of man as the plaything of God--all the moves have been made and the game is over; you are just figuring out how it went.
The word الله is a difficult one. While it may be the transliterated Aramaic word for God, it has become deeply associated with Islam in particular. Arabic is a language where references to god are ubiquitous, as might be expected from a culture so thoroughly dominated by religion. The issue is that, when I ask what God has willed, I do so with the same words that others use to attribute a specific work to another entity, who most certainly is not God.
There is room for confusion here, and I am not so green to suggest that the only import in my use of language is what I mean, not the meaning others might divine. When I say to one of my classmates, 'peace be upon you,' it is very likely that he and I have a different peace in mind.
That said, there is a piety and courtesy that I have found in Arabic, which has thus far been appealing to me. It is just a matter of figuring out how to reconcile myself to using a language where all of the accepted and polite forms have included homage to a pagan god. Not easy.
In other news: I have to teach twenty minutes of German a week from tomorrow, and although I keep telling myself that it is going to be a piece of cake, there is a little voice screaming in the back of my head which thinks this could get hairy. The primary problem arose because, though my topic is not always easy to remember it is actually very easy to formulate. I mean the future and future perfect tenses.
Only now does it hit me that my early German classes spent multiple classes on teaching every verb tense and on perfecting its use...were we morons or what? No. I should not say that. I ordinarily had it down at once. Were they morons or what?
Not only do I have to teach it, I have to make it fresh and entertaining. I have to devise activities. And while I'm doing all of this, oh yeah, I need to finish my 15 page African history paper. Oh well. It will go fine, it always does, somehow or other.
Tomorrow morning I am setting my alarm early enough to get up and run. I hope to develop a M,W,F, routine. We'll see what kind of start I get off to tomorrow morning.
And in case youse guys didn't know, I gets the Shewoof in two days!
This exclamation comes in response to seeing great beauty, or to hearing good news. It is, of course, high praise.
I like the phrase better, however, when it is taken out of the context of fate. While there is obviously an inherent recognition of divine goodness in the original, it is within the larger text of man as the plaything of God--all the moves have been made and the game is over; you are just figuring out how it went.
The word الله is a difficult one. While it may be the transliterated Aramaic word for God, it has become deeply associated with Islam in particular. Arabic is a language where references to god are ubiquitous, as might be expected from a culture so thoroughly dominated by religion. The issue is that, when I ask what God has willed, I do so with the same words that others use to attribute a specific work to another entity, who most certainly is not God.
There is room for confusion here, and I am not so green to suggest that the only import in my use of language is what I mean, not the meaning others might divine. When I say to one of my classmates, 'peace be upon you,' it is very likely that he and I have a different peace in mind.
That said, there is a piety and courtesy that I have found in Arabic, which has thus far been appealing to me. It is just a matter of figuring out how to reconcile myself to using a language where all of the accepted and polite forms have included homage to a pagan god. Not easy.
In other news: I have to teach twenty minutes of German a week from tomorrow, and although I keep telling myself that it is going to be a piece of cake, there is a little voice screaming in the back of my head which thinks this could get hairy. The primary problem arose because, though my topic is not always easy to remember it is actually very easy to formulate. I mean the future and future perfect tenses.
Only now does it hit me that my early German classes spent multiple classes on teaching every verb tense and on perfecting its use...were we morons or what? No. I should not say that. I ordinarily had it down at once. Were they morons or what?
Not only do I have to teach it, I have to make it fresh and entertaining. I have to devise activities. And while I'm doing all of this, oh yeah, I need to finish my 15 page African history paper. Oh well. It will go fine, it always does, somehow or other.
Tomorrow morning I am setting my alarm early enough to get up and run. I hope to develop a M,W,F, routine. We'll see what kind of start I get off to tomorrow morning.
And in case youse guys didn't know, I gets the Shewoof in two days!
Please greet your sister for me.
ReplyDelete>there is a piety and courtesy
>that I have found in Arabic
Yes. Great beauty. And great foulness; curse out someone in Arabic and they will weep, even if they understand not a single word you are saying! And debate: oh, how I loved to listen to the Arabic-speaking students at my school overseas argue.
No way? But my professor does not seem like the kind of person who will teach me to cuss people out in Arabic...Evan probably wouldn't either.
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