# دين - يوم الدين‎



## uas60

Assalaamu alaykum,

So the word دين is used in common usage to mean religion, way of life, etc. However, in al-Fatiha, يوم الدين‎ doesn't mean day of "religion". I was wondering about the relationship of this word with the word for "debt", i.e. dayn. Is it a common root, and how could you linguistically justify using this rather than the common usage "religion". Indeed, most translations translate as "day of judgement", but is that an interpretive meaning or a linguistic meaning?


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## Xence

It's more likely an interpretative meaning. I have read another translation, which is "_the Day of Recompense_". This seems to be in agreement with one of Lissan al-Arab's suggestions about the word دين:



> وقال قومٌ: الحساب *والجزاء*


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## uas60

I think even 'recompense' would suggest a relation to the word 'dayn' of debt? (I'm not just making up this theory of deen and dayn but I do think I heard somewhere that they were related so just keen to clarify.)


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## uas60

Lane's Lexicon suggests recompense, as well as retaliation and reckoning. I never cease to be amazed by Lane's monumental work!


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## Xence

> a relation to the word 'dayn' of debt?



Probably, in this sense that _dayn _is akin to a debt with a deadline, according to al-Qamûs al-MuHîT.

Just my two cents !


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## Modest-boy

Doomsday = 
يوم القيامة
يوم الحساب
يوم الدين


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## uas60

Thanks for the alternative ways of saying it. Doomsday is an _interpretative_ meaning though. Those you mentioned linguistically mean:
Day of standing/resurrection
Day of being held to account/judgement
Day of _deen_ - recompense? What does_ deen_ mean here?


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## Crimson-Sky

الدين here means الحساب .


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## uas60

Crimson-Sky said:


> الدين here means الحساب .


أهذا فهم وتفسير الكلمة أم معنى لغوي؟


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## Crimson-Sky

الدين كلمة لها عدة معاني لغوية, من بين هذه المعاني نجد حساب.


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## Modest-boy

uas60 said:


> Day of _deen_ - recompense? What does_ deen_ mean here?



It means the day of recompense as you _ mentioned_


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## إسكندراني

The question is valid because today the word دِيْن is not widely used like this. Maybe examples will be useful. It might make you a bit happier if you look at أدان يُدين إدانة which holds a meaning a bit closer to this verse than the most common meaning of دِيْن. But be aware that many words and roots in Arabic have several unrelated meanings.


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## Tracer

If you wanted an English speaker with no knowledge of Islam or Arabic to understand what the phrase "Youm al_Deen" meant, you'd have to translate it as "Day of Judgement". No other term can replace it.

If you used DAY OF "recompense", "resurrection", "standing", "separation", "account" etc. almost no one, other than religious specialists, would understand what you were talking about. If you say "Day of Judgement", everyone, including agnostics, atheists, pagans, and animists, would immediately know what you meant.

Since the point of translating any passage is to impart the meaning of the original language into another language, I don't see how one can get away from saying "Day of Judgement" without totally throwing the reader off track.

I am aware that several "celebrated" translations use terms other than "Day of Judgement", but in my opinion, these are simply feeble and disastrous attempts to be "literary" and "poetic". Nothing wrong with that....I do it all the time......but if it loses the fundamental idea, the result is unacceptable.


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## uas60

I do get what you're saying and take your point, but there are other reasons for wanting to get to the bottom of the word, other than just translating. As a translation to put in a book, I would agree that Day of Judgement is the most clear.

(But for example, if we say that _deen_ means recompense in a quite literal way linguistically, then it emphasises the point that one might be judged for their deeds and maybe punished. _Wa laa tujzowna illa ma kuntum ta'malun_. I mean, a Muslim might recite it so frequently that it loses its meaning. They know it means Day of Judgement but why is the word _deen_ used? As oppos edto the more frequently used terms e.g. _yowm al-qiyamah._)


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## إسكندراني

I think this is because there are several stages of this day; several events in the afterlife. But I am not a specialist on this matter.

I think this forum is no place to discuss Qur'anic exegesis; there are specialists in that you can go find yourself. To state that يوم الدين is referring to a day in this life is out of the question. 
There are many words used for end-times and the after-life in the Qur'an and in the prophetic tradition, and these are by no means random. Each has quite a specific meaning and the chain of events is fixed and described in quite some detail. But to discuss this here would be to take the discussion outside the scope of this forum.


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## uas60

Yes, I agree. My main aim was to understand the relation between how we get from _yowm ad-deen_ to a meaning of 'Day of Judgement'. I think the answer is in its relation to the meaning of "recompense".


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## إسكندراني

My answer would be that the 'day of Judgement' in Islam is not as straightforward as it might seem, and to understand it requires a bit of study.


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