Love in Arabic: which translation is correct?

Posted on: Saturday, August 18th, 2012 22 comments

Love is an important concept for Arabs, so it should come as no surprise that there are many different ways to express love in Arabic, all with slightly different meanings. The strong culture of poetry and songs revolving around love developed because in the Arab world marriages were generally arranged, … Continue reading

The Truth Will Set You Free

Posted on: Friday, July 2nd, 2010 1 comments

Here is the Arabic translation of the famous quote from the Bible “The truth shall/will set you free” (John 8:32): الحق يحرركم Pronunciation: al-Haqqu yuHarrirukum In picture format: With all the tashkeel and harakaat: Of course, if you are looking to get this phrase as a tattoo, then you should … Continue reading

Compassion In Arabic

Posted on: Monday, January 4th, 2010 5 comments

Randa asked for the translation of “compassion” in Arabic. There are quite a number of Arabic words that have the meaning of “compassion”, for example: الرأفة (ar-ra’fa) الشفقة (ash-shafaqa) الحنان (al-Hanaan) However, the most standard way of translating compassion is probably الرحمة (ar-raHma). Below is this word in three different … Continue reading

“Believe” In Arabic

Posted on: Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 13 comments

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 … Continue reading

Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted

Posted on: Monday, September 28th, 2009 13 comments

Another translation request. This time it’s for an interesting aphorism. I was wondering if you might be willing to translate the phrase “Nothing is true; everything is permissible.” The saying has always fascinated me as it seems contradictory and at one turn seems to promote lawlessness but to my mind goes … Continue reading

We Dreamed Of You Yesterday

Posted on: Monday, September 28th, 2009 1 comments

Today a reader sent me this request for a quick translation: I came across your website Arabic Genie and I am wondering if you can help me. Could you please tell me what “7almana feek ams!” means in english?? I assume that this is a transcription of the Arabic حَلَمْنا … Continue reading