Translation - Arabic-English - ستغفر الله استغفر الله العظيم الكريم اللذي لا...

Hi smy

Maybe we should ask some other English speakers - kafetzou, ian megill, dramati... if they can find a suitable alternative?

It is still awfully clumsy in English and "looks translated".

It would still be quite clumsy but what about:

"He for whom there is no God but Him"

Bises
Tantine

Yes, I think it would be better if we ask for help? What makes me uncertain about the Turkish one is that the Arabic text seems very short but the Turkish one is too long

hi tantine
"He who is the unique god
The god without whom no god exists... " neither give the meaning, actually theyre totally missing the point. im sure tho that english-wise "He who there is no god but him" is plausable, like:
You, who theres noone in my heart but he
okay maybe: He, who there is no God by He

Hi Elmota

Sorry but the phrase "He who there is no god but him" does not work in english at all.

I know that the suggestions I hae made do not convey the full meaning of the phrase in Arabic, but a phrase that does not mean anything in the target language is of no use either.

How about "He for whom there is no other god"?

Word to word, literal tanslations hardly ever work, otherwise we wouldn't need translators (and we'd be out of work).

I'll cc the other English experts to see if they can suggest something that suits us all.

We'll get there in the end

Bises
Tantine

CC: Chantal IanMegill2 irini kafetzou samanthalee Una Smith

"beg the forgiveness": "for" not needed

"He who is, there is no God but Him"

"slave to Himself, who does not own his own death"

Tantine, it doesn't mean "He for whom there is no other god," it means "He who is the only god" - it refers to God Himself.

Maybe it should be "He but for whom there is no other god". It's actually really hard to make it sound good in English.

"Ever Living" should be "Immortal".

I don't agree with Una's suggestions this time. "beg for the forgiveness" is fine, the second suggestion is ungrammatical in English, and the "himself" does not refer to God, but to the sinner.

I think that elmota's suggestions for the last part are fine, except that "their" should be "his" to agree with the other pronoun.

I seek repentance from You as a slave who has been wrongful towards himself, and who does not control his own death ...

Hi Kafetzou et al

Yeah, I know it's speaking of God, which is why I made my first suggestions:

What about "He who is the only God"

or "He who has no God above him"

I could make another suggestion:

"He for whom there is no other God but himself"

Its really hard to find it in English.

In French it would have probably given:

"Celui pour lequel il n'y a de Dieux que Lui-même"

The "I seek repentance..." part looks good now though.

Bises
Tantine

But it's not "for whom" - it's "other than whom" or "except whom", but these are awkward in English. That's why I suggested "but for whom". In French I would think it would be "sauf lequel" or "au dehors duquel", but then again, my French isn't that good.

I hope you guys don't mind, but I've made some edits. It's now less awkward, but certainly more wordy.

Hehe, you are quite right Kafetzou, But for whom, even if it is a little "clumsy" is about the best bet we have.

Your French is quite up to standard, don't worry.

Bises

No no, Tantine, I think I didn't make myself clear - "for whom" is not correct. If you say "for whom" it doesn't refer to God, it refers to the person who believes in God. If I say, "For me, there's only one God," I am me, not God.

I've made another edit. I changed it to the following:

the One other than Whom there is no god

I found this on a website, and I think it works quite nicely.

elmota, would it be possible to say "who has sinned against himself" instead of "who has been wrongful toward himself"?

Ok Kafetzou, I get it

I get it easier in French, but I don't seem to be able to get it out in English.

I mean, I know what I want it to say, but I can't get the words out correctly.

oof!

Bises

The special name "Allah" for the monotheistic God in Islam is consisting of the arabic word "ilah" for any god, and farthermore of the arabic article "al", which is the contrapart of the english word "the". Therefore this name "Allah" just means "the only God" or "the one God", because it means "the God". It is determinated. This means, that "Allah" is just the only one, whom we have to pry or whom we have to thank for the harvest, for the food, for everything, that we got from him. So, this is a term in Islam. Therefore we have to decide between god and Allah otherwise. Than there are 99 qualities of Allah, which are definitions of his might.
الله العظيم الكريم الذي لا إله إلا هو الحيّ القيّوم
And one of this names is "al-hayy'ul-qayyum" (الحيّ القيّوم). This one consists of two parts or really of two names: 1. al-hayy "the only Living" (because "al-hayah" is the life), and 2. al-qayyum "the only Standing" (because "qama" means "to stand (up)", "al-qiyamah" is the Armageddon, where all (dead) people will stand up from their graves), but Allah, who is "al-qayyum", he'll be still standing.
The text الله العظيم الكريم means: Allah, the Magnificient/Highest, the Generous/Bountiful.
لا إله إلا means: There is no (other [polytheistic], irreal) god, but ... . إلا is also a sureness: but there is the only real God, whom to adore is reasonable, because he is existing and therefor we are existing, because he "built" us. الذي means: He about whom it can be said ... . Now we can translate the text:
الله العظيم الكريم الذي لا إله إلا هو الحيّ القيّوم

Allah, the Highest of the bountiful, he about whom it can be said, that there is no [other] god [besides him], but really he, the Only-Living, the Only-Standing[, whom to adore is reasonable].

We can shorten this sentence by saying:
Allah, the Highest, the Generous, he about whom it can be said, that there is no other god, but really/surely he, the Eternal, the Constant.

Thanks
Mukhi

hi all, the one above looks pretty much it, "the One other than Whom there is no god" just nailed it, thanks for your input
to answer you kafe, the "wrongful" part is not the same as the sinner, because the prayer is clear about it, you being to urself unjust if u sin, so ur wrongful towards ur own self, sinner has a different word
as for Immortal, it isnt so, because Immortal is: Daa'em, and this is "Hai" which means ever living, both are names of the 99 names of Allah so i think it should be "Ever living"

hello everybody, I don't see, why "the One other than Whom there is no god" should match here. Why not "the One than Whom there is no other god"?

Immortal is in Arabian "laa-yemout", "daa'im" means "continuing" (in German: dauernd, fortwährend, kontinuierlich). "Al-Baaki" is one of the 99 names of Allah. "baaki" means the only, who is existing. Every other things are "faani", they are >mortal<, >not really existing< and >not eternal<!
Thanks
Mukhi

So according to what Mukhi wrote (thank you Mukhi for your very informative post above!), and what elmota confirmed, "immortal" is incorrect. The problem is that "ever-living" in English MEANS immortal - it's just awkward.

So we need a way to say "Who will remain standing after all others have fallen" - any ideas?

How about "the One who lives on"?

"lives on" is one way to say it, "alive" is another, because the word "Hai" actually can be given to mortals, when we say he is alive, a lot of the names of the 99 can be given to people, to show that their god holds the same great traits only magnified and they lack the opposite, and also "absolute" so he is Alive, but he is never dead, he is Generous but he is never frugal...

this was a good example elmota, the 99 names of God can be given to persons, but without the dividing "divinal" article "the". Forinstance you can name your baby "Metin", "Mecit" or else, but whether "al-Metin" nor "al-Mecit" nor anything else with "al-". Because above we have said, that "al-" is a determination. This here is "the" determination of the "ONE" and "ONLY" GOD.
Another example, how you can name somebody with the name of God is, that you call him "a servant (arab. 'Abd') of..." by calling him "Abd'al-lah" and not "Allah" or you call him "Abd'ur-Rahman and not only "Rahman", and so on.

Thanks
Mukhi