Monday, January 19, 2009

The Colour Green

















Green [male: ack-THarr] [female: khth-THa-rrah] is used extensively in the Arabic world and appears on four of the six GCC flags. Kuwait, Oman, and the UAE have green in their flags to represent the fertility of the land and agriculture, whilst Saudi Arabia uses green to represent Islam. (no one seems to know why the colour green is used to represent Islam)


Using the Word 'Green'
The word 'green' in Arabic lends itself to various other Arabic words including, 'vegetables' [kuth-THr-rrah-waat] and 'paradise' [kud-DHee-ra]. In English, grapes are termed either red or white. In Arabic, grapes are either red [en-aab ah-marr] or green [en-aab ack-THarr] ~one time I translated this wrong and quite upset the native speaker~


Meanings Behind the Colour Green
1.
Brides traditionally wear green on their henna nights {see wgaw blog archive: henna nights} to indicate their blossoming.

2.
If you're missing someone you can use the following phrase:
past tense, missed you: Ma halik kan akthar [maa haa-lick kaan aKH-DHarr]
present tense, missing you: Ma halik Khthur [maa haa-lick KHth-DHrr]

Literally translated this means, 'your place is/was green', or to paraphrase; the grass has grown where you should be sitting.


3 comments:

ModestJustice said...

Oh the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) loved the color green. So seeing as how Saudi is his birthplace.. it adds up :)
But besides that, lovely blog :D
I learn a lot

nida said...

Green is the symbolic color of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH, peace be upon him). He wore a green turban, and green is believed to have been his favorite color. Green was also the color of the banners used on the battlefield and the color of the first Islamic flag. The Quran and the Hadith, the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, describe Paradise as filled with green: the people of Paradise "will wear green garments of fine silk [The Noble Quran, 18:31]." and etc.etc.

lol I guess that explains it!

♥ Arab Mania ♥ said...

Our Green color of Islam is the same as u, chirstians use the "Red cross" and if u ask them from where this color connected to christians, nobody knows :)