Today I received the following email from Paige, a reader of this blog:

Hey! I’ve been searching all over the web for a translation. I want to get “faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these is love” tattooed on my hip. I tried looking for some translations but I can’t find any.

Well, I’m not too well versed in the Bible, but when I read the phrase I knew it was from Corinthians. So, I thought that the best translation and the most authentic would be the one found in the Arabic version of the Bible. Luckily, there is an Arabic translation of the Bible (not surprising given the fact that one of the oldest Christian sects are the Egyptian Copts) and I found the verse in question straight away.

So here is the translation for “Faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these is love”:

الإيمان والرجاء والمحبة، هذه الثلاثة ولكن أعظمهن المحبة

And as pictures:

Arabic Tattoo Design For "Faith, Hope, Love, But The Greatest Of These Is Love" VERSION 1

Arabic Tattoo Design For "Faith, Hope, Love, But The Greatest Of These Is Love." Version 2

As you can see there are two different versions, each version has the same phrase written in five different fonts. The versions differ insofar as in the first version all the short vowels and other harakaat are indicated. These are the little signs above and underneath the letters that are absent in the second version (the sign that looks like a small “w” for instance indicates that the letter underneath is to be doubly pronounced). In Arabic these short vowels are usually not written. Yet, in the context of religious documents such as the Koran or the Bible, they are written to ensure that everyone can pronounce all the words correctly.

Now, it is your choice if you would like to have the tattoo made from version 1 (with short vowels and harakaat) or from version 2 (without short vowels).

Each version has the same phrase written in five different fonts. The fonts are:

1 Traditional Arabic

2 Simplified Arabic

3 Andalus

4 Lateef

5 Farsi Simple Bold

As far as getting the actual tattoo done, I would suggest to find a tattooist familiar with the Arabic alphabet if at all possible. You don’t want to have the tattoo messed up by someone who doesn’t understand how the Arabic script works.

For more Arabic tattoo designs see my new digital book that contains more than 1400 sizzling hot tattoo designs from 284 Arabic phrases and words.

Good luck with the tattoo and do send me a picture if and when you get it done!

Related posts:

1. Love in Arabic, Natasha: More Arabic Tattoos
2. Love Hate Calligraphy
3. Guardian Angel – Arabic Tattoo

"maktaba" without vowel signs

Were we to merely transcribe the letters that appear we would end up with <mktba> – the two short “a”-sounds are merely implied. The reader needs to know already that the word means “library” and that library is maktaba and not something else like muktiba or mikatuba.

So, what about the learner who just started out? Or the Arabic child who hasn’t mastered reading and writing yet? Here is where vocalization comes into play: through the short vowel and other signs any reader who knows the Arabic letters will be able to pronounce the word. Below is maktaba written with the short vowel signs added.

"maktaba" with vowels

As you can see there is now a small sign above the first letter from the right م (meem) that indicates a short <a>-sound. This little stroke is called “fatHa”. The next letter ك (kaaf) bears a symbol indicating that there is no short vowel at this point. This small circle is called “sukoon”. There is no sign above the fourth letter ب (baa’), because it is followed by a ة (taa’ marbooTa) that is pronounced as an “a”-sound in any case.

Below is a table summarizing the short vowel sings.

Should I use vocalization in my Arabic studies?

Some teachers insist that it is best to start learning Arabic without recourse to vocalized texts. Their reasoning is that almost all Arabic writing in real life comes without the short vowels and that it is therefore better to get used to reading unvowelled texts from the get go.

On the other hand, even Arab children start out by reading vowelled texts and continue to do so for a long time at school. I’ve seen textbooks for Arab kids in grade six and they still vocalize almost every word. It seems like it could take quite a while to build up the knowledge of words and grammar before children are capable of doing without the harakaat.

My personal take on this debate is that Arabic learners should pursue a double strategy. A text for study should first be read with all the vowel signs in place and repeated until the student has assimilated the pronunciation of all the words. In the next step, one can proceed to a version of the same text that lacks the short vowels. It should now be possible to read this version with the same confidence as the vowelled text.

An undoubted benefit of using fully vowelled texts is that the grammatical concepts are much easier to grasp, because all the endings are evident. To give you an example of this consider the following sentence, meaning “the weather was good”:

"The weather was nice" with no vowel signs

Without vocalization it is not immediately clear to the Arabic learner what case الطقس takes. Is it nominative or accusative? However, when the same sentence is vocalized, this becomes immediately obvious:

"The weather was nice" with vowel signs

Now we know that it’s al-Taqsu and not al-Taqsa.

While this might not seem important to some Arabic learners, these little details do make a difference, especially when the context of communication gets more educated.

So in conclusion: Do both! Vowelled and unvowelled material is both important.

UPDATE: I’ve posted a new blog entry about a neat technique that helps you remember the Arabic short vowels.

Related posts:

1. An Easy Way To Remember The Short Vowels
2. Arabic Tattoo: Faith, Hope, Love
3. Arabic Writing