# one body, one soul, one judge



## nas786

Hi, I needed help translating the following into arabic

One body
One soul
One judge

If you can write it in arabic that's great, if not then please write out how it sounds and then each letter in it.  The more people that answer, the better, so I can make sure I have the best meaning.  If arabic has multiple dialects, I'm trying to go with dialect closest to the time of the prophet (Quranic style language).  Thanks in advance!!


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## elroy

Hello Nas, and welcome to the forums!

The "dialect" most similar the Qur'anic style would definitely be Modern Standard Arabic, which is invariable no matter where you are (and it's actually not a dialect).  I will give you the translations in Arabic letters, since that's what you asked for:

One body:* جسد واحد*
One soul: *نفس واحدة*
One judge: *قاضي واحد*


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## nas786

cool, thanks for the quick reply....i'm guessing wahad means one?   also, i thought rooh meant one of those....?

anyone else have input?  not that i dont' trust you, but i'm planning on getting this inked on my back, so i just wanna make sure i go with the most popular translations.....


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## elroy

nas786 said:
			
		

> cool, thanks for the quick reply....i'm guessing wahad means one? also, i thought rooh meant one of those....?
> 
> anyone else have input? not that i dont' trust you, but i'm planning on getting this inked on my back, so i just wanna make sure i go with the most popular translations.....


 
Yes, "wahad" means "one" (feminine "wahida").

"Rooh" is "spirit," not "soul."


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## cherine

elroy said:
			
		

> "Rooh" is "spirit," not "soul."


Actually Elroy, I was going to use "rooh" myself. the difference between the two words "rooh" and "nafs" are not always very clear (to me not even in English  but no need to go any further and have people trying to explain to me, i pass  thank you)

So, my take :
one body one soul one judge
jasad waa7id, roo7 waa7ida, kaadin waa7id
جسد واحد
روح واحدة
قاضٍ واحد
you can also use the word بدن "badan" for body.
I underlined the "d" of kaadin to mark the difference in pronounciation : it's mostly like the "d" of done, while the of "waa7id" is more similar to that of "add" (sort of soft "d" and hard "d" if you want)
the (7) is the "symbol" we use for the Arabic letter ح


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## Josh_

Like Cherine I would have used rooH *روح *also.  If I were going to get tattoed I would personally choose *روح* over *نفس* .  I would also choose *جسد* .

For the word judge I think I would use *حاكم* Haakim as I believe there is a slight connotation of wisdom there, which goes along with the idea of soul. But either word is appropriate as they are basically synonyms.


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## elroy

Please remember that we are _translating_, not explaining or injecting our own subjective interpretations of what _we_ feel would be the most appropriate on a tattoo.

Regardless of the difficulty of explaining "soul" or "spirit" in any language, the fact of the matter is that *نفس *corresponds to "soul" and *روح* corresponds to "spirit."  If Nas would prefer to say "spirit" that's a different story but *نفس *is closer in meaning to "soul."  

As for *حاكم* vs. *قاضي *I'd say that those are, in fact, pretty much interchangeable.


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## nas786

Well, I would probably wanna go with the more "poetic" sounding ones, if u know what i mean.  This forum is great, i like all the different inputs and explanations for your reasonings, this is helping me out big time.

I'm thinking of jasad, hakim, and rooh right now (i like how they sound)...any of them got a more poetic type synonym??


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## ayed

Let's put them in another way:

Jismon wa Roohon wa Gad .
جسم وروح وقاض


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## cherine

nas786 said:
			
		

> I'm thinking of jasad, hakim, and rooh right now (i like how they sound)...any of them got a more poetic type synonym??


I think they're as poetic as can be  i mean rooh (with all respect to Elroy's opinion) is more used, more "poetic" in a way or another, and even sounds better, maybe due to the long "o" vowel. (it's even used between lovers "roohi" = my love, my soul...)
Jasad is more poetic, compared to "jism" (one more thing about jasad : it can't be used with inanimate thing. You can say jism at-taa2ira (the body of the airplane), for example, but not jasad at-taa2ira). Also jasad can sometimes have a "charnel" connotaion in literary writing. (but not all the time) 
as for haakim, it's also a better choice (bravo Josh) Hakim is mainly used to say "governor", or "ruler", but it's also the jude in the sense that a hakim not just governs but also judges or determines the right from wrong, get people rights back to them, do justice for victims of injustice... (theoretically at least  ) and of course this requires a hint of wisdom too; while the word "kaadi" is only for the judge in court (so more of a "legal" context)


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## elroy

cherine said:
			
		

> I think they're as poetic as can be  i mean rooh (with all respect to Elroy's opinion) is more used, more "poetic" in a way or another


 
Cherine,

I never gave an opinion as to which one was more poetic.    I was just trying to come up with the closest translation possible.

That said, if I had to choose one without prior knowledge as to what the English was supposed to be, I would agree that "rooh" sounds more poetic.


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## cherine

elroy said:
			
		

> Cherine,
> 
> I never gave an opinion as to which one was more poetic.


 sure, i didn't mean that you judged of which is more poetic, i was referring to your preferring nafs over rooh as more accurate translation. For as i said, they're a bit interchangeable (again with respect to your opinion)


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## nas786

I'm kinda feeling "jism" (it's also a word in urdu, heh, for my paki roots  ), how would you say one body like that in arabic?


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## elroy

nas786 said:
			
		

> I'm kinda feeling "jism" (it's also a word in urdu, heh, for my paki roots  ), how would you say one body like that in arabic?


 
Not sure I understand the question.  "Jism" is another word for "body" but "jasad" is more poetic.


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## cherine

nas786 said:
			
		

> I'm kinda feeling "jism" (it's also a word in urdu, heh, for my paki roots  ), how would you say one body like that in arabic?


 
We all agreed that jasad is more poetic. But if you still prefer using jism, it will be jism waa7id جسم واحد

And i didn't know jism is Urdu. Thanks for the info.


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## nas786

waa7id, is that (ok, here goes...) wuw, alif, ha, daal, or is the ha an ein.

wow, that's pretty bad, anyone follow what i'm tryin to say?

and for "one soul" what is the last letter in wahida?


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## cherine

nas786 said:
			
		

> waa7id, is that (ok, here goes...) wuw, alif, ha, daal, or is the ha an ein.
> 
> wow, that's pretty bad, anyone follow what i'm tryin to say?


 
I think I am 
the ha is ح the sixth letter of the Arabic alphabet واحد

same for waahida (it's simply the feminine form of wahid, so the letters don't change, we simply add the feminine "mark" which is the "taa2 marbouta") واحدة


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