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Old 14th December 2019, 06:22 PM   #1
Kubur
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ariel
Because Ali was a commanding figure during Muhammed’s life, a hero according to Muhammed himself. As such, he deservedly earned respect and admiration of the entire Umma and his role had never been forgotten by any Muslim.
Thank you Ariel for your explanation. I agree with you for the basics, Ali was considered as a great fighter and a hero. The same is true for the sword zulfiqar given by the Prophet to Ali.

Inscriptions mentionning Ali and Zulfiqar were talismanic symbols used to protect the owner of the weapon and to give him some strength or even supernatural powers.

لا فتى إلا علي لا سيف إلا ذو الفقار‎
lā fatā ʾillā ʿAlī; lā sayf ʾillā Ḏū l-Fiqār.
"There is no hero like Ali; There is no sword like Dhu-l-Fiqar"

Why Ali is popular in the Sunni world?

In fact it's more complicated than simply Ali the perfect warrior and shinny knight of Islam.

Ali and Zulfiqar are parts of the symbols used in many sufi sects, including dervishes in Iran and Sudan but also Bektasi janissaries in the Ottoman army and since at least the 13th c.
THis is the deep meaning of Ali and Zulfiqar in the Sunni world.

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Old 14th December 2019, 09:21 PM   #2
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I don't see anything blasphemous in the text. There are misspellings of course, seems like whoever inscribed it did so in phonetic way.
Ali ibn Abitaleb was the cousin of Mohammad (pbuh), not a direct descedant of him. His children with Fatima (as) and their lineage are considered direct descendants of The Prophet. He is respected greatly by both shia and sunny, revered more so by the shia. During the Umayaid dynasty it was standard practice to curse his name or speak ill of him due to political reasons, this practice was abolished towards the end of that dynasty. This of course was not supported by mainstream scholars of that time, many of whom were murdered because they refused to follow that practice. Also, this is the reason the shias tried to counter this by speaking more highly of him.
He was great warrior among other virtues, and was gifted Zulfiqar by The Prophet, a sword that was given to The Prophet by angel Gabriel. Thus goes the saying carved on many swords in Muslim lands.

In the Indian subcontinent the term Firangi (G pronounced like gulf) is another way Firanji is used, pretty much same meaning.

On another note, Zulfiqar is spelled with ذ which sounds like Z, not with ض which could sound like Dh.

Hopefully this was helpful.
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Old 15th December 2019, 09:59 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AJ1356
I don't see anything blasphemous in the text. There are misspellings of course, seems like whoever inscribed it did so in phonetic way.
Ali ibn Abitaleb was the cousin of Mohammad (pbuh), not a direct descedant of him. His children with Fatima (as) and their lineage are considered direct descendants of The Prophet. He is respected greatly by both shia and sunny, revered more so by the shia. During the Umayaid dynasty it was standard practice to curse his name or speak ill of him due to political reasons, this practice was abolished towards the end of that dynasty. This of course was not supported by mainstream scholars of that time, many of whom were murdered because they refused to follow that practice. Also, this is the reason the shias tried to counter this by speaking more highly of him.
He was great warrior among other virtues, and was gifted Zulfiqar by The Prophet, a sword that was given to The Prophet by angel Gabriel. Thus goes the saying carved on many swords in Muslim lands.

In the Indian subcontinent the term Firangi (G pronounced like gulf) is another way Firanji is used, pretty much same meaning.

On another note, Zulfiqar is spelled with ذ which sounds like Z, not with ض which could sound like Dh.

Hopefully this was helpful.
This is not of general interest, so please feel free to ignore! It's not my goal to be pedantic, but since you brought it up I thought I'd respond.

There is no one system for transliteration of Arabic/Persian/Ottoman Turkish, but the most common transliteration method for ذ in an Arabic inscription, which is what this is, is with "dh". This is pronounced like "th" as in English "the" in Arabic, and as you say z in Persian and also in Turkish. Since this is an Arabic inscription, it's better to use the transliteration system for Arabic which would be "Dhu'l-Fiqar". Also, the most common way of transliterating ض is a ḍ with a dot below it for Arabic or a ż with a dot above it in Persian. For a chart with the IJMES system, which is the most commonly used in publications, see link below. Everyone else, apologies for the boring post!

https://www.tandf.co.uk//journals/au...ationChart.pdf
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Old 15th December 2019, 01:10 PM   #4
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oh Kiwiatek you are amazing!
I'm your fan number 2 after Ariel
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