# الله لا إله إلا هو الحي القيوم



## Annie_Hall

Hello, 

I have this papyrus with the Arabic writing on it. As far as I can make sense of it , it says Allah huwa al-7aq. Is anybody able to understand more of it ? The picture is in the attached file.وشكرأَ


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## ayed

*الله لا إله إلا هو الحي القيوم لاتأخذه سنة ولا نوم*
It seems to be the whole verse of kursi آية الكرسي


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## Annie_Hall

Great! Even if it has nothing to do with my guess ! 
Actually one more question, it is in a way related to this thread, so hopefully it won't be deleted. Is it true that those complicated calligraphical writings which serve mostly for mosque decorations are intended to Allah, that's why they don't need to be necessarily readible by people ? Is this the explanation for their complexity ?Thank you


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## ayed

No.It is just for the sake of _*the Arabic calligraphy arts*_.It is a mere arts.One can write a verse of poetry or a Quranic verse in the form of a bird ...etc.


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## Amr Diab

Annie_Hall said:


> Hello,
> 
> I have this papyrus with the Arabic writing on it. As far as I can make sense of it , it says Allah huwa al-7aq. Is anybody able to understand more of it ? The picture is in the attached file.وشكرأَ


 *الله لا إله إلا هو الحي القيوم لا تأخذه سنة ولا نوم له ما في السماوات وما في الأرض من ذا الذي يشفع عنده إلا بإذنه يعلم ما بين أيديهم وما خلفهم ولا يحيطون بشيء من علمه إلا بما شاء وسع كرسيه السماوات والأرض ولا يؤوده حفظهما وهو العلي العظيم *
*ayat Al kursi - holy quran*


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## Qureshpor

I have a question connected with Ayatu_lkursii

*الله لا إله إلا هو الحي القيوم لاتأخذه سنة ولا نوم*

The translation of the first sentence begins something like..

Allah - there is no deity except Him...

"Allah" appears to be detached from the rest of the sentence. What kind of sentence is this?


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## Ustaath

Allah خبر 
here check out this  link, 

http://corpus.quran.com/treebank.jsp?chapter=2&verse=255


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## Qureshpor

Thank you. But I would prefer an explanation from any Arabic knowing/speaking person from the group. My main query is about the subject, "Allah" which to my mind seems rather detached from the rest of the sentence. It seems to me as if the translation should be something like...

(Well, who is) Allah? There is no god except he...

Qureshpor


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## Ustaath

I am an Arabic speaker, I thought the link was self explanatory - الله خبر مقدّم للجملة الأسمية
as such in English it takes the role of the object - as if you are saying, God- (whom there is) no other God but He
but not to the extent you are speculating, Classical Arabic doesn't use these stylistic devices to that extent- 
though I suppose in MSA stylistic variations are more flexible.

I welcome input and feedback from the more seasoned Arab speakers as well


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## Faylasoof

QURESHPOR said:


> Thank you. But I would prefer an explanation from any Arabic  knowing/speaking person from the group. My main query is about the  subject, "Allah" which to my mind seems rather detached from the rest of  the sentence. It seems to me as if the translation should be something  like...
> 
> (Well, who is) Allah? There is no god except he...
> 
> Qureshpor



Here, "Allah" is the predicate / comment (خبر) coming _first_ in the _jumlah ismiyyah_ (nominal sentence), as mentioned by Ustaath:



Ustaath said:


> I am an Arabic speaker, I thought the link was self explanatory - الله خبر مقدّم للجملة الأسمية
> as such in English it takes the role of the object -
> .....



The usual structure of a nominal /equational sentence (_jumlah ismiyyah_) is: subject / topic <مبتدأ> followed by predicate / comment < خبر> . But here the comment < خبر> is coming first.

 More explanation about sentences in Arabic here.


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## Mazhara

Ustaath,

I beg apology.

The quoted link does not call it a fronted predicate. Actually their arrow sign indicates that the following part is the predicate of this subject. Their reference book, in Arabic, also does not call it a predicate. It is the subject of nominal sentence. Their Arabic source book says,

لفظ الجلالة
مبتدأ مرفوع للتعظيم بالضمة


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## Ustaath

Yes you are correct ... I do apologize - 
Either case, the rhetoric in Classical Arabic would probably not imply ( Who is --- is HE not ...) - but a simpler more direct interpretation.
Also, if you look at the second half of the verse -  it also links directly to الله
الله ...... الحي القيوم
it truly is not as isolated - 
as I said, such stylistic devices as you suggested are more a product of MSA - though I'm not going to be insistent  or dare to be dogmatic about it. 
I would like to hear the thoughts regarding this from others.


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## Mazhara

Ustaath,

I am grateful, your quote has indicated to me the beauty and delicacy of the sentence. The subject and the second predicate translates and elaborates the first predicate which begins with absolute negation. Personal names and nouns refer to life and existence. All others whom people call and declare various sorts of إِله do not exist in reality. Those are conjectural names without any actual person behind them.


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## Ustaath

Amen to that!


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## suma

Annie,
These decorative calligraphic pieces nearly always contain verses from the Quran, not only that but verses that any Muslim adult is going to be very familiar with. So even if you can only make out a few initial words within the complex calligraphy often you can surmise the remaining parts based on one's familiarity with the Quran.
So yes they are decorative in nature, but also serve spiritual function as well, when one reads the words of Allah in such strikingly beautiful script and designs.


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## Mahaodeh

I wouldn't say "nearly always"; it's true that a huge number, maybe more than 50%, are indeed verses from the Quran, but it's also very common to use proverbs, poetry and famous quotes. It's also common to use decorative calligraphic text for logos, an example is the logo of Al Jazeera TV channel.


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## Annie_Hall

Thanks for the explanation, suma.I was actually really impressed that ayed was able to make it out so quickly, but it is also true that once you're familiar with the verse it is not that impossible to understand it.


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## Qureshpor

Faylasoof said:


> Here, "Allah" is the predicate / comment (خبر) coming _first_ in the _jumlah ismiyyah_ (nominal sentence), as mentioned by Ustaath:



Thank you. So, can we think of this sentence as:

* لا إله إلا هوالله الحي القيوم*


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## Ustaath

yes, I would think so - are there Islamic scholars around who could  confirm that?


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