“Believe” In Arabic

Maggie sent me the following question in a blog comment:

keefakkk
my name is maggie (ghaleb)
just want to make sure of something…
getting my 3th arabic tattoo! (proud to be libanease!)
its the word believe (faith) in the way, i believe i will get trough this, or i believe things will get better ….. NOT in the way: I don’t believe you OR I believe (In God)…even though I do (lol!)
my dad wrote it to mee…but can’t get a confident confirmation from anyone..
thank YOU so much! LOVE YOUR SITE! Just discovered it tonight!
maggie

Translating “believe” into Arabic is tricky and I’m glad you gave a few example sentences to illustrate which sense of “believe” you mean. The word آمن (aamana) is a good fit for “to believe” in the religious sense (e.g. “I believe in God”), but it would seem out of place in a translation of e.g. “I believe things will get better”. This phrase would be better translated using the verb اعتقد (i3taqada). However, اعتقد (i3taqada) does not have the connotations of “determination” or “hope”, that the English verb “to believe” sometimes has.

I think that in your case the word اقتناع (iqtinaa3) would be better suited. الاقتناع (al-iqtinaa3) means “conviction” in the sense of being convinced of something. E.g. أنا مقتنع بأنني سألعب في كأس العالم ana muqtana3 bi-annani sa-al3abu fi ka’s al-3aalam “I am convinced that I will play in the World Cup”.

Below is the word “conviction” in Arabic as a picture:

The Arabic word for "conviction"

"Conviction" in Arabic

Alternatively, I would suggest العزيمة al-3azeema (determination) or الثقة بالنفس ath-thiqa bi-n-nafs (self-confidence or trust in one self) or perhaps القوة الداخلية al-quuwa ad-daakhileeya “inner strength”. Maybe “hope” الأمل al-amal might be an option too? There are tattoo designs for all of these four phrases in my Arabic Tattoos eBook.

I’m sorry that I couldn’t give you a clear-cut answer, but I hope that my explanations have given you a better idea of your options. If you send me the word your dad wrote for you I will tell you what it says.

13 thoughts on ““Believe” In Arabic

  1. Marhaba again

    Also the sentences (I believe you) translated أنا أصدقك so (believe) has the meaning of honesty too.

    Arabic (my language) has a very many vocabularies and has a strong flexibility makes it the best language in the world (that’s my opinion and everyone speaks Arabic agrees with me).

  2. Amer, I certainly agree that Arabic has a very large and rich vocabulary. But, even though I love the Arabic language, I’m not sure whether it’s “the best” language in the world. 🙂 That’s pretty difficult to judge I guess and many speakers of other languages would probably like to claim that title for their own language.

  3. Hi, I am in need of the correct translation of the word ‘Believe’ in Arabic (in the context of ‘Believe in thy self’). I have researched many resources however; my findings have been different each time, which you can imagine has caused a lot of confusion.
    I would really appreciate your help.
    Many thanks! 🙂

  4. Shen, did you read my post above? In it I explain in some detail the alternative translations for “believe”. Or, perhaps, you mean something else?

  5. Unfortunately i cannot retrieve the text in Arabic for some reason and am unable to see your translations. It’s a shame considering you explained in some detail… Thanks for your quick response though.

  6. Pingback: Surutul Baqara (2:4) « twentyfivepercentreducedfat

  7. Hello,

    I am looking for the translation of Believe and Achieve from english to Arabic.

    I see above that you have already quoted “to believe” which is great, is there a way of getting that piture bigger.

    Any help would be great

    Many thanks

    Liam Davies

  8. hi…i saw your comment above, but im not really sure i understand…i would like to know what “believe” (as in believe in yourself) would be like in arabic…or the whole phrase “Believe in yourself”…some guy told me this ( يعتقد ) means believe…but im not quiet sure cause when i look for other ways of writting it, it shows me other ways so if you could clear that out for me it would be great! thank u so much

  9. hi all,

    probably someone of you can help me? I looking for a translation of two words “honesty” and “gratitude” .. can someone translate them in arabic for me?

    important for me is tht it gets the right sense… i mean tht:

    “honesty” – stands for being honest in every matter of life, as i personally believe that every religion in this world teaches us just to be honest, if u speak the truth you never have to fear anything and you will always be close to god.

    “gratitude” – well i guess that is pretty obvious… i believe that the key to happiness and success is to be grateful for every moment you live and everything you have.

    well to remind my self always to those ground rules i want to have both words on both of my wrists, but in arabic…

    so? can anyone help me with the right translation please?

  10. Salam. I’ve read you’re response on Maggie’s inquiry above. I have the same dilemma and I hope you could help me too. I would like to know the translation and how to write “have faith” in arabic. By “have faith” i mean: “Have faith in yourself”, “Have faith in Allah”, “have
    faith in everything”. etc. Is it somehow the same with Believe? Hope
    you could hep me with this, Shukran.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Learn the Arabic script effortlessly, without need for rote memorization or hours of repetition.

Memory aids in the form of images make all letters stick in your brain..

LEARN MORE
book1

Over 1400 Arabic Tattoo Designs based on 284 Arabic phrases - instant download!

This is the biggest Arabic tattoos collection around. Which design will you choose?

LEARN MORE
book2

Free - Download "200 Arabic Words You Already Know" and increase your Arabic vocabulary painlessly.

Over 200 Arabic words that you can assimilate effortlessly.

LEARN MORE
book3