Assalamualykum Sister Nazia,
I am going to try to answer the question but Insha'Allah I hope others can
also contribute too. Here is the hadeeth you wanted us to help you with:
sعَنْ النَّوَاس بْنِ سَمْعَانَ عَن النّبيِّ
قَالَ: الْبِرُّ حُسْنُ الخُلُقِ وَ اَلْاِثْمُ مَاحَاكَ فِي نَفْسِكَ وَ كَرِهْتَ
أَنْ يَطَّلِعَ عَلَيْهِ النَّاسُ رَوَاهُ مُسْلِم
this is fe'l madi = حَاكَ
this is a past tense verb and it is masculine, singular, third person
thus one can say, "he or it," here it's more appropriate to say "it"
bothers or "it" irritates, or "it" makes him feel uncomfortable.
Does
any body know the root letters? This is where it gets tricky because of the
various related meanings it can have or the various riwaayaat (reports) of the
same hadeeth using very similar verbs/words- by the way all the information I
will give you is from Lisaan al Arab (Ibn Mundhir, vol. 4 pages 183-185, Dar
Saadir Beirut).
possible root 1: اِحْتَكَأَ ih-ta-ka'a it means to 'be very sure of something
deep down in your heart' - it can only refer to a feeling in the heart/ inside.
The example sentence given (so many but I chose this) احتكأ ذلك الأمر في نفسي
أي ثبت rough trans: ' I was so sure deep down inside about that thing in other
words: sure/ no doubt about it. This does semantically make sense because the
Prophet (s) then goes onto say that 'you would hate for others to know of it'
which means perhaps it's not so obvious to people but the person deep down in
their heart know what they have done etc.. Wallah a3la?
possible root 2: This is closely related to root 1, but it depends on the
hadeeth you have or the form of the word on question is it حاك or حكَّ? This
is because other hadeeth collectors have cited the same hadeeth except with the
word حكَّ instead of حاك. In the dictionary the hadeeth cited حكَّ 'to be
aware of something in your heart and yet not to let it be known to others'. But
interestingly enough for the word حكَّ there is an a derived noun that carries
the meaning of the whispers of shaytaan in the heart?! The noun is حكَّاكة and
the plural is الحكَّاكَّات They go on to say that these whispers cause a sort
of doubt in the heart because of the sin. Notice that both roots are exclusive
to the feelings of the heart! In relation to the hadeeth this what Ibn Madhur
says:ما حكَّ في صدرك أي شككت أنه حلال أم حرام so here the verb 'hakka' means '
to be in doubt as to whether such
a thing or other is permissible or not'
So the root word for this verb can either be احتكأ or حكَّ and both have the
same semantic sense and do not contradict each other in any way (both refer to
the heart and the certainty of something/ the sinning or whispering in the
heart) or the meaning of the hadeeth for that matter. It's kind of this doubt
one has in the action but a certainty at the same time that it can't be good?
This is the nature of Arabic that makes it hard yet beautifully interesting in
that a word that is carrying so much meaning yet none of it is nonsense.
Also, what is the best English word to translate this? I think the meaning that
is usually given in 'and sinning is what makes one uncomfortable...' which by
the way still delivers an element of the meaning so that's good. How about:
'that which causes doubt or irritation in the heart'? Honestly, I am struggling
here so I hope someone with a hadeeth background can help us out with the best
meaning- wallahu a3lam.Sorry if I bored you with the long email, I bet you
wanted a one word answer, simple and to the point!
kind regards,
Fatma
________________________________
From: Nazia Quraishi <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Fri, January 29, 2010 12:37:27 PM
Subject: Fwd: Help needed with Hadith word to word translation - calling Arab
Linguists :)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nazia Quraishi <[email protected]>
Date: 2010/1/27
Subject: Help needed with Hadith word to word translation - calling Arab
Linguists :)
To: Kais Dukes <[email protected]>
Bismillah
As-salaamu alaykum
Masha Allah when I started studying the Arabic language specifically
emphasizing on the translation of the Quran to English we were big on word to
word translations along with finding the root letters of all the words (ism and
fe'l). Now, if someone can help me doing that for a hadith I'd greatly
appreciate it:
Here is the hadith:
sعَنْ النَّوَاس بْنِ سَمْعَانَ عَن النّبيِّ
قَالَ: الْبِرُّ حُسْنُ الخُلُقِ وَ اَلْاِثْمُ مَاحَاكَ فِي نَفْسِكَ وَ كَرِهْتَ
أَنْ يَطَّلِعَ عَلَيْهِ النَّاسُ رَوَاهُ مُسْلِم
this is fe'l madi = حَاكَ
this is a past tense verb and it is masculine, singular, third person thus one
can say, "he or it," here it's more appropriate to say "it" bothers or "it"
irritates, or "it" makes him feel uncomfortable. Does any body know the root
letters? for more on root letters please check out:
http://www.studyquran.co.uk/PRLonline.htm
Also, what is the best English word to translate this?
Jazakum Allah Khayr
Naz
