# ובאין נביאו



## Isidore Demsky

How would you translate this?

אלוהים לא נקרא אללה, ומוחמד הוא ובאין נביאו.


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## origumi

It's an attempt to ridicule the Shahada by a paronomasia/anagram on the letters א-ב-ו-י-נ.


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## Isidore Demsky

What is the Shahada?

And what is a paronomasia/anagram?


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## origumi

Isidore Demsky said:


> What is the Shahada?
> And what is a paronomasia/anagram?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paronomasia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anagram

The main thing is that the text you're asking about may be regarded as offensive to some on religion basis, so needs to be handled with care.


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## Isidore Demsky

Thank you.

I looked ובאין up in a dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and it defined the word as meaning "neither, never, no, none, not, nothing, nought, without."

Why not translate it as Mohamed is not His prophet? 

Would that work, or would it be grammatically incorrect for some reason?


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## origumi

Seems to me there's an attempt to look smart by taking the letters of "his prophet" and make them mean "is not".

I don't see how the sentence can be grammatically correct. Removing הוא and changing ובאין to אינו may fix it.


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## Isidore Demsky

origumi said:


> Seems to me there's an attempt to look smart by taking the letters of "his prophet" and make them mean "is not".
> 
> I don't see how the sentence can be grammatically correct. Removing הוא and changing ובאין to אינו may fix it.



Can you tell me why it would be grammatically incorrect as is?

Does it have anything to do with gender, case, or number?


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## origumi

The combination הוא ובאין means nothing.


Correction: I can find this expression in some texts, maybe the author had a specific meaning. But I cannot tell what it is.


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## Isidore Demsky

origumi said:


> The combination הוא ובאין means nothing.



Thank you.


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