Arabic Language Blog

The Day of Ashura (عاشوراء‎) is on the 10th day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar. It marks the climax of the Remembrance of Muharram. The day of Ashura is special to all Muslims, especially the Shiites. Sunni Muslims celebrate the day by fasting it and by preparing a special treat that has the same name made from wheat grains, sugar and milk.

For Shia Muslims, Ashura is a day of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala on the 10th of Muharram in the year 61 AH. In some Shia countries and regions such as Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Lebanon, and Bahrain, the Commemoration of Husayn ibn Ali has become a national holiday and most ethnic and religious communities participate in it. For Shiites, commemoration of Ashura is a sad event; it is a period of intense grief and mourning. Hundreds of thousands take to the city of Karbala and other places with Shiites majority where they participate in activities express their grief collectively.

Thanks Wikipedia

Image sourcse:

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The new Hijri year (1432) started on the 7^th of December 2010. The word Hijri is derived from the word Hijra (emigration of Prophet Mohammed from Mecca to Medina.) This is considered the beginning of the establishment of the Islamic state.

The beginning of the Hijri year is often celebrated in many ways. Sufi traditions hold special celebrations that include reciting the Quran, giving religious speeches and singing Islamic songs. These celebrations are held in Mosques and the main ones are aired on national television.

At the family level, mothers cook special meals and make special pies for the family. Children often play with special toys made from sugar. Girls play with sugar dolls

Boys have horse and knight sugar figures.

The Hijri months are listed below:

Muḥarram محرّم

Ṣafar صفر

Rabīʿ al-Awwal ربيع الأوّل

Rabīʿ al-Thānī (or Rabīʿ al-Ākhir) ربيع الآخر أو ربيع الثاني

Jumādā al-Ūlā جمادى الأولى

Jumādā al-Thānī (or Jumādā al-Ākhirah) جمادى الآخرة أو جمادى الثانية

Rajab رجب

Shaʿbān شعبان

Ramaḍān رمضان

Shawwāl شوّال

Dhū al-Qaʿda ذو القعدة

Dhū al-Ḥijja ذو الحجة

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Gender is a term that has been gaining wider uses in academic and international contexts. Although the term is not new, it is very confusing in Arabic, as it has been used in new and more varied senses in recent decades. There are two terms in Arabic that originally mean gender; (نوع) which literally means ‘kind or type’ and (جنس) which literally means ‘sex’.

 By time, it was felt that these two terms do not provide accurate matches to the more recent contexts in which the term ‘gender’ came to be used in relation to gender studies, gender identities and social role; therefore, new terms came into usage in Arabic to correspond to the term ‘gender’, e.g. (نوع الجنس) and (النوع الاجتماعي). Some people even use the English term transliterated into Arabic (جندر), and it has been undergoing some linguistic adaptation in the language, e.g. introducing the definite article (الجندر) or the adjectival suffix (جندري). Using gender as an adjective poses another challenge in Arabic, because the word (جنسي) means ‘sexual’ which is much more specific than ‘gender’, therefore, a new term was introduced (جنساني), and sometimes one can substitute the term by its explanation (المرتبط بنوع الجنس) or use the prepositional phrase (بين الجنسين) as appropriate in context.

 Below are some collocations in which the term is used, and their Arabic equivalents:

 Source of table: http://www.almaany.com/home.php?word=gender (Note many more expressions are available if you follow the link)