Arabic definite article in the context of "Definite article"

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⭐ Core Definition: Arabic definite article

Al- (Arabic: ٱلْـ, also romanized as el-, il-, and l- as pronounced in some varieties of Arabic), is the definite article in the Arabic language: a particle (ḥarf) whose function is to render the noun on which it is prefixed definite. For example, the word كتاب kitāb "book" can be made definite by prefixing it with al-, resulting in الكتاب al-kitāb "the book". Consequently, al- is typically translated as "the" in English.

Unlike most other Arabic particles, al- is always prefixed to another word and never stands alone. Consequently, many dictionaries do not list it, and it is almost invariably ignored in collation, as it is not an intrinsic part of the word.

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Arabic definite article in the context of Romanization of Arabic

The romanization of Arabic is the systematic rendering of written and spoken Arabic in the Latin script. Romanized Arabic is used for various purposes, among them transcription of names and titles, cataloging Arabic language works, language education when used instead of or alongside the Arabic script, and representation of the language in scientific publications by linguists. These formal systems, which often make use of diacritics and non-standard Latin characters, are used in academic settings for the benefit of non-speakers, contrasting with informal means of written communication used by speakers such as the Latin-based Arabic chat alphabet.

Different systems and strategies have been developed to address the inherent problems of rendering various Arabic varieties in the Latin script. Examples of such problems are the symbols for Arabic phonemes that do not exist in English or other European languages; the means of representing the Arabic definite article, which is always spelled the same way in written Arabic but has numerous pronunciations in the spoken language depending on context; and the representation of short vowels (usually i u or e o, accounting for variations such as Muslim and Moslem or Mohammed, Muhammad and Mohamed).

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Arabic definite article in the context of God in Islam

In Islam, God (Arabic: ٱللَّٰه, romanizedAllāh, contraction of ٱلْإِلَٰه al-’ilāh, lit.'the god', or Arabic: رب, romanizedRabb, lit.'lord') is seen as the creator and sustainer of the universe, who lives eternally. God is conceived as a perfect, singular, immortal, omnipotent, and omniscient deity, completely infinite in all of his attributes. Islam further emphasizes that God is most merciful. The Islamic concept of God is variously described as monotheistic, panentheistic, and monistic.

The Islamic concept of tawhid (unification) emphasises that God is absolutely pure and free from association or partnership with other beings, which means attributing the powers and qualities of God to his creation, and vice versa. In Islam, God is never portrayed in any image. The Quran specifically forbids ascribing partners to share his singular sovereignty, as he is considered to be the absolute one without a second, indivisible, and incomparable being, who is similar to nothing, and nothing is comparable to him. Thus, God is absolutely transcendent, unique and utterly other than anything in or of the world as to be beyond all forms of human thought and expression. The briefest and the most comprehensive description of God in the Quran is found in Surat al-Ikhlas.

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Arabic definite article in the context of Allāh

Allah (/ˈælə, ˈɑːlə, əˈlɑː/ A(H)L-ə, ə-LAH; Arabic: الله, IPA: [ɑɫˈɫɑːh] ) is the Arabic language term for God, specifically the monotheistic God of Abraham. Outside of Arabic languages, it is principally associated with Islam (in which it is also considered the proper name), although the term was used in pre-Islamic Arabia and continues to be used today by Arabic-speaking adherents of any of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism and Christianity. It is thought to be derived by contraction from al-ilāh (الاله, lit.'the god') and is linguistically related to other semitic God names, such as Aramaic (ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ ʼAlāhā) and Hebrew (אֱלוֹהַּ ʾĔlōah).

The word "Allah" now conveys the superiority or sole existence of one God, but among the pre-Islamic Arabs, Allah was a supreme deity and was worshipped alongside lesser deities in a pantheon. Many Jews, Christians, and early Muslims used "Allah" and "al-ilah" synonymously in Classical Arabic. The word is also frequently, albeit not exclusively, used by Bábists, Baháʼís, Mandaeans, Indonesian Christians, Maltese Christians, and Sephardic Jews, as well as by the Gagauz people.

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Arabic definite article in the context of Ad-Din


Ad-Din (Arabic: الْدِّين ad-dīn [ædˈdiːn], "(of) the religion/faith/creed") is a suffix component of some Arabic names in the construct case, meaning 'the religion/faith/creed', e.g. Saif ad-Din (Arabic: سيف الدّين Sayf ad-Dīn, "Sword of the Faith"). Varieties are also used in non-Arabic names throughout the Muslim world, It is used as a family name-suffix by some royal Muslim families, including the imperial Seljuks, Walashmas, Mughals, and the noble Alvi Hyderabadi families.

The Arabic spelling in its standard transliteration is al-Din. Due to the phonological rules involving the "sun letter" (حرف الشّمسيّة hurfu ’sh-Shamsiyyah), the Arabic letter د (dāl) is an assimilated letter of the Arabic definite article ال (al). This leads to the variant phonetic transliteration ad-Din. The first noun of the compound must have the ending -u, which, according to the assimilation rules in Arabic (names in general are in the nominative case), assimilates the following a-, thus manifesting into ud-Din in Classical and Modern Standard Arabic. However, all modern Arabic vernaculars lack the noun endings. Thus, the vowel of the definite article in them is pronounced in full as either a or e (the latter mostly in Maghreb and Egypt). At the same time, the Arabic short vowel u is rendered as short o in Persian, thus od-din.

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Arabic definite article in the context of Names of God in Islam

Names of God in Islam (Arabic: أَسْمَاءُ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ, romanizedʾasmāʾu llāhi l-ḥusnā, lit.'Allah's Beautiful Names') are names that each contain Attributes of God in Islam, which are implied by the respective names. Some names are known from either the Qur’an or the hadith, while others can be found in both sources, although most are found in the Qur’an.

Allāh is the Arabic word referring to God in Abrahamic religions, thought to be derived by contraction from al-ʾilāh, which means "the god", (i.e., the only god) and is related to El and Elah, the Hebrew and Aramaic words for God. Whether or not Allah can be considered as the personal name of God became disputed in contemporary scholarship. In Islamic usage and indoctrination, Allah was the God's most unique, proper name, and referred to as Lafẓ al-Jalālah (The Word of Majesty). Those who claimed that Allah was the personal name of God also denied that this name was a derivative name. Some Muslims may use different names as much as Allah, for instance Rabb, Rahman or "God" in English. The Quran refers to the attributes of God as "most beautiful names".

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