From: nabeel@sce.carleton.ca (Nabeel Ghuzlaan)
Subject: Re: Shaheed
Organization: Carleton University
Comment: Yes, I am still alive!
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 19:54:11 GMT

In <92315.231733U38065@uicvm.uic.edu> Nasri <U38065@uicvm.uic.edu> writes:

" By the way, when you say that shaheed is an islamic term and not arabic,
" eventhough it has been used by the arabs over all to mean any one who dies
" in the names of his/her believes, you are scaring the christian who say that
" they are not accepted as arabs because they are not muslims.

   Actually, the term "shahId" is Islamic; it was not used by Arabs before Islam
or to describe nonmuslims. However, "shahAdah" itself is not Islamic. At least
Koran declared that God's promise to those who die for his cause was stated in
Torah, Injil and Koran.

   Regarding the semantical origin of "shahId," I think it is "fa^Il" in the
meaning of "maf^Ol" as ".hamId" in the meaning of "ma.hmUd." We say "folAnon
istoshhida" -- "mabni lilmajhOl." This is only speculation.

   About scaring Christians, I think if there was anything as martyrdom in their
religion, they would be able to use that word. Nonetheless, I think there was.

" So no wonder that many christians denounce their being arabs when people like
" you say that an ARABIC word used by christians is a muslim term.

   Isn't it funny? So do you want us to say "shahId" is a Xian term so that we
may look good in the Xian eyes? Facts do not change to please some factions.

" Maybe it IS an ISLAMIC term, but hey, maybe we do recognize some of your terms
" and borrow them, but we do NOT recognize that Mohammed ws a true prophet or
" that God has spoken to him, when you DO recongnize that Jesus was at least a pr
" ophet and that he rose from the death.  We may have borrowed a word, but at
" least we did not borrow a religion. ie. Mohammad believed in Jesus, not vice
" versa.

   The same can be said about Xians borrowing a religion from Jews. And if 
someone is Arabic, they use the word regardless of its origin without borrowing
it. If you borrow an Arabic word, then you are not Arab.
   
" _According to the christian faith there were to be NO prophets after Jesus Chri
" st and therefore, Mohammad was not a prophet.  And the Islamic religion is base
" d on the Judeo-christian religion.

   How about the Islamic social/economical/etc systems? Do uou want Muhammad to
say God is 2.718 (e) so that it may be considered an innovation?

" I did not write this to offend anyone, but I just wanted to show everyone, that
"  if one person goes to the extremes, the other will be able to.  We do not want
"  anybosy to be hurt.

   In that case, you could have stuck to lingual examples, e.g. Arabic borrowing
words from Persian, etc.

" Nasri
" +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
" |        Je suis jeune, il est vrai; mais aux ames bien nees            |
" |        La valeur n'attend point le nombre des annees.                 |
" |                                                 LE CID (DON RODRIGUE) |
" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   What do you feel about borrowing a French piece of poetry?
   
**Nabeel


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