Madame Blossom's Book of Poems

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Aamiin (آمين), Amiin (أمين), and Amin (أمن).

Sometimes, I feel the need to spell out in Arabic, because as you may be aware there are accuracy issues when spelling out in roman letters. E.g. in Arabic, there is the س and ص and in roman letters, we'd just indicate that as 's'. Then sometimes, it has to do with identifying between مين or من , some people will simply put 'min' some people may put 'miin' but do all people who read it understand what that is suppose to mean? (no pun intended). And these, read wrongly, changes the intended meaning.

Yesterday, I was thinking about Aamiin. I had the urge to be sure, and find out more about this word I'm uttering daily. Aamiin - this is how I'm going to spell it in roman letters from now on, or maybe just use the clearer Arabic word itself.  In the past, I've always spelt it as Ameen. Now, I have just learnt the differences :-\.

Aamiin, In Arabic alphabets is spelled as آمين. with that longer sound at alif.  Amiin ( أمين ), has a different meaning. It means ''honest or trustworthy' like Rasulullah SAW, was known as Al Amiin, the trustworthy. If it's just Amin (أمن), it means 'peace, secure'.

Whereas aamiin (آمين ), when I checked the Mawrid (المورد), it indicates the English word 'Amen'. I'm not surprised, I can understand how they mean the same thing - these people's original religion, is the one religion of the same God. So, anyway, Amen, in the English dictionary, shows the meaning to be 'so be it'. As in 'May God make it be.'

So, that's what I understand of Aamiin now.

Allaahua3lam. الله أعلم (Allaah knows best).



20 comments:

Anonymous said...

If we want to be consistent with the way you describe above, should we transcribe الله with "Allaah" instead of "Allah"?

madame blossom said...

You're right. By this description, 'Allaah' would be more closer to the Arabic spelling and pronunciation. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Loved how pedantic you are. Ramadhaan Mubarak. May Allaah guide and forgive us all.in sha Allaah.amiin.

Marc Reinhardt said...

nice pedantics.

check out how aamin relates to naam...

Anonymous said...

The word amen isn't a native english word :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen

The word amen (/ˌɑːˈmɛn/ or /ˌeɪˈmɛn/; Hebrew: אָמֵן, Modern amen, Tiberian ʾāmēn; Greek: ἀμήν; Arabic: آمين‎, ʾāmīn ; "So be it; truly") is a declaration of affirmation[1][2] found in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Its use in Judaism dates back to its earliest texts.[3] It has been generally adopted in Christian worship as a concluding word for prayers and hymns.[2] In Islam, it is the standard ending to Dua (supplication). Common English translations of the word amen include "verily" and "truly". It can also be used colloquially to express strong agreement,[2] as in, for instance, amen to that.[4]

Unknown said...

This is intresting. I regret I don't speak or write arabic. Can someone please confirm whether Ameen (i.e., the term commonly used after recitation of sura Al-fatiha) is in fact an arabic word. Is it in the arabic dictionary? I'm concerned with only its arabic authenticity, not with islamic practise and what's wrong or right.

Ikelah said...

Laah... 2 harakat? Not 1 harakat, Lah? In Allaah and not Allah? The arabic text is 1 harakat not 2.
As amiin.... as you had enlightened us. Allah knows better.

Anonymous said...

I was looking for the right spelling of أمين , for the words mentioned above I feel Aameen (آمين), Ameen (أمين) are more closer to Arabic pronunciation than Aamiin (آمين), Amiin (أمين). Can you please advise on this about your thoughts?

Anonymous said...

In english word there are no 'vocal double' in single word ..
Write and pronounced or vocal are different..
Use arab word to pronounced but writen in english with double letter doesnt make any different..

madame blossom said...

Salam / Peace.

Aameen, Aamiin - as long as 2 counts per consonant, and the sound agrees with alif and yaa as a vowel - that's agreeable by me.

This is not trying to formalise this word or to create a new English word - it's just a spelling I'd like to use in my communication in writing, that will aid the correct verbalisation of the word. That was my intention.

Of course, this is not official. However words ARE added to the official dictionary when enough people use it. So who knows. I mean only God knows.

In any case, feel free to use this spelling or not. You're not breaking any law.

Have a great and fruitful day/night!

Darryl Solomenté said...

I'm just curious as to why you double the i instead of using i and y? Amiyn, as it is written in Arabia.

madame blossom said...

Hi Darryl,

I use double i to indicate a longer sounding vowel.
As for y, some arabic phrases or words may end with a ي as sukun e.g. النبي (an-nabiy) then we'd have to stress or make apparent the ي at the end. In those cases, I would use "iy" in roman letters to denote that. This is just my personal way of writing, in which I believe, helps with better indication for the pronunciation.

I'm not sure why in Arabia they'd spell aamiin like that. Anyhow, like I mentioned, the most accurate way to read arabic words, is to read it with the arabic letters directly.

madame blossom said...

Sorry I missed Ikelah's comments earlier. Laah in Allaah, is always pronounced with 2 counts (2 harakats), this is the standard rule for the word Allaah.

Unknown said...

We know this from our childhood that Prophet SAWS was called as Al-Ameen meaning man with trust. Hebrew Amen means "so be it" and Aameen also mean so; but Sunnah of Prophet SAWS has only mention of using it within Salat after Surah Al-Fatiha. Raise voice as loud that man behind you can hear in saying آمين‎ (“Aameen”) after Imam completes Surah Fatiha in Salaat [watch the arabic spelling Alif has a Madd implying alif to have a prolonged sound] for details please see https://www.facebook.com/jalaluddinmd.abdulhye/posts/10205677386963777

Unknown said...

JazakAllah khair

Anonymous said...

Well, it depends upon the letters in language. Eg. We can speak well any sounds in any voice. But, the problem is How to express that sounds in words or letters.
In my view, the language having lesser number of alphabet is not able to express all voices/sounds while a language having the largest number of alphabe can be used to express more voices/sounds than other language.
Therefore, if we want to express each and all sounds clearly in our language so our language must have alphabet for each voices and sounds individually.

More, we can write our same word but the pronunciation will be different in any same particularin diffrent languages as per human.
So no mattrs what is written in text only that peraon can read or speak in right way who already trained for that words.
Like Door sounds DOR , Floor -Flor , Cat-Kat.
The final is, We should know how to speak , we should understand the sounds and voices for words in other languages, we cannot specially argue for a words bcuz it is langiage problem. But, at least when you are suing other language in communication then you should need to just understand the meaning of others person.
Thanks you...

Anonymous said...

Particular*, language*, using*,

Anonymous said...

mantab...

Anonymous said...

Alah.. in Bahasa Malaysia. 😅

Anonymous said...

امين