Arabic term (edited): ��� ���

This question was posted a long time ago. You may want to consult the archives.

Words such as أما بعد are evocative of an era when language was mostly a spoken phenomenon, even when it was actually written. Even in its written form, Classical Arabic had man of the characteristics of oral delivery. That is one reason Arabic writings are full of the conjunction "and."

In later developments in European writing, punctuation marks acquired many important functions, replacing words and changing the way we write and even (ironically), the way we speak. Modern Standard Arabic has adopted many of these new conventions, albeit not consistently.

The expression أما بعد is a segmentation tool. It simply serves to announce that the preceding part was a preamble, and what was to follow was to be the body of the message. Today, when we write anything strucured in this manner, we simply stop with an appropriate punctuation (comma, colon, or period, depending on convention), then we start a new paragraph.

If we translating into English, and we want to impart the flavor of the old style, we can use an expression that serves to announce the body of the message, such as:

"Now, ..."
"Having said so, ..."
"With that in mind, ..."

The choice would depend on the topic and the style.



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Note added at 8 hrs 9 mins (2005-02-13 18:08:01 GMT)
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Corrections:

Classical Arabic had many of the characteristics...

If we are translating into English, ...

I apologize for th errors

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Note added at 10 hrs 15 mins (2005-02-13 20:13:28 GMT)
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Remember that when we translate, we have an obligation not only to be faithful to the intent of the source text, but also to conform to the conventions of the target language. Otherwise, what we offer the reader would hardly make sense.

Although the suggested \"translations\" above may seem to satisfy the perceived need to account for every word and tittle in the source text, they are, in my opinion, superfluous. The proper approach is to recognize that the words أما بعد have no cognitive content. They only serve as a transiton between the preamble and the body. In the conventions of modern English, placing words to effect such a transition would be out of place. To effect such a transition, you simply pause with a period, then start a new paragraph, sometimes leaving a blank line.

In oral delivery, the speaker makes a similar transitional pause that clearly signals to the audience that the preceding part was just the \"warm up,\" and that the serious part is about to begin. The tone of voice and the facial expression may sometimes change to reflect the transition as well.

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Note added at 11 hrs 26 mins (2005-02-13 21:24:41 GMT)
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One reason many traditional Islamic texts in English translation read so stale, odd, and misleading is that the translators employed by traditional Islamic advocacy houses that publish such material are often unfamiliar with the conventions of the target language for which they were hired. This unfamiliarity, especially when coupled with a piously literal approach to the original text, often produces odd-sounding word strings with skewed meaning, if any meaning at all.

One example is the widespread practice of translating every occurrence of the word إنّ to \"certainly,\" \"verily,\" \"surely,\" or something to that effect. Somewhere in the translators\' education, they were taught that إنّ تفيد التوكيد, whereupon they proceed to place \"verily\" in every sentence.

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Note added at 14 hrs 28 mins (2005-02-14 00:26:46 GMT)
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These same translators also commit the same error when they encounter the word قد or لقد in a Classical Arabic text.