Dum Pendebat Filius

The information I found at Jabal al-Lughat (see earlier post) fascinated me to the point that I decided to have a crack at my own translation of the statement. My Arabic is so scanty that I don’t pretend to have anything of genuine value to add to the discussion, but this is some interesting stuff anyways.

Here is the text of the statement, first, in SATTS transliteration, with line numbers:

01  ALOMIS 30/5/1426 ? -- ALMWAFQ 7/7/2005 M

02  JMA"? ALTNYIM ALSRI
03  TNYIM QA"D? ALJ?AD FI AWRWBA

04  BSM ALL? ALRHMN ALRHIM WALXLA? WALSLAM "LI ALVHWK ALQTAL SIDNA
         [ MHMD
05  XLI ALL? "LI? WSLM AMA B"D

06  AB:RI IA AM? ALASLAM AB:RI IA AM? AL"RWB? FQD HAN WQT ALANTQAM
07  MN ALHKWM? ALXLIBI? ALX?IWNI? ALBRIUANI?

08  RDA "LI ALMJA;R ALTI TRTKB?A BRIUANIA FI AL"RAQ WAFGANSTAN

09  QAM ALMJA?DWN ALABUAL BALQIAM BG;W? MBARK? FI LNDN W?A?I BRIUANIA
          [ ALAN
10  THTRQ MN ALOWF WALR"B WALF;" FI :MAL?A WJNWB?A W:RQ?A WGRB?A

11  LQD HZRNA ALHKWM? ALBRIUANI? WAL:"B ALBRIUANI MRARA WTKRARA

12  W?A NHN QD AWFINA BW"DNA WNFZNA G;W? "SKRI? MBARK? FI BRIUANIA
       [ B"D
13  MJ?WDAT :AQ? QAM B?A ALMJA?DWN ALABUAL WASTMRT FTR? UWIL? LVMAN
       [ NJAH
14  ALG;W?

15  WMA;LNA NHZR KLA MN HKWM? ALDNMARK WHKWM? AIUALIA WKL ALHKWMAT
16  ALXLIBI? MN AN?M SWF INALWN NFS AL"QAB AN LM ISHWBA QWAT?HM MN
        [ AL"RAQ WAFGANSTAN WQD
17  A"ZR MN ANZR

18  QAL T"ALI (( AN TNXRWA ALL? INXRKM WICBT AQDAMKM ))

19  ALOMIS 30/5/1426 ? -- ALMWAFQ 7/7/2005 M

20  JMA"? ALTNYIM ALSRI
21  TNYIM QA"D? ALJ?AD FI AWRWBA

(note: Please ignore the backslashes; my blog software automatically sticks them in front of the double quotes)

My work:

Thursday 30/5/1426 (Islamic calendar), which falls on 7/7/2005 (Christian calendar)

The Group of the Secret Organization,
The Organization of the Base of Jihad (Qa’idat al-Jihad) in Europe

In the name of God, the Beneficient, the Merciful, blessings and peace be upon the laughing killer, our master Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him salvation. Now then:

Rejoice, O nation of Islam; rejoice, O nation of Arabdom, for the time has come for revenge on the crusader Zionist British government.

In reply to the butcheries which England has perpetrated in Iraq and Afghanistan,

The heroic holy warriors undertook the commission of a blessed raid in London, and lo! Britain is now engulfed in flames of fear, horror, and panic, in the north, south, east, and west.

Truly, we did warn the British government and the British people, time and again.

And lo! we did keep our promise, and we carried out a blessed military raid in Britain after toilsome efforts which the heroic holy warriors undertook, and which continued for a long period of time, to ensure the success of the raid.

And we are still warning both the government of Denmark and the government of Italy and all of the crusader governments that they will earn the same penalty if they do not withdraw their forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, and he who warns is excused.

The word of the Sublime: “If you help God, He will help you, and plant your feet firmly.”

Thursday 30/5/1426 (Islamic calendar), which falls on 7/7/2005 (Christian calendar)

The Group of the Secret Organization,
The Organization of the Base of Jihad (Qa’idat al-Jihad) in Europe

Notes:

1. Line 01: The letter haa’ stands for hijriiya, and the letter miim stands for miilaadiiya meaning “after Christ, A.D.”
2. Line 02: jamaa’at at-tanziim as-sirri — The word sirri “secret” modifies tanziim “organization.” Hence “The group of the secret organization” and not “The secret group of the organization.”
3. Line 04: I have decided on “the laughing killer” (see earlier post). “The merry lethal one” is way too awkward.
4. Line 05: ammaa ba’du, according to Hans Wehr, is “a formular phrase linking introduction and actual subject of a book or letter.” Maybe it doesn’t need to be translated.
5. Line 06: ummat al-’uruuba — “Arabism” is better than “Arabdom,” which I got out of Hans Wehr. See Juan Cole for more.
6. Line 09: qaama bi plus direct object means “to undertake (something).” qiyaam means “commission,” “performance,” or “carrying out.”
7. Line 09: ghazwa mubaaraka — Apparently the word ghazwa has special connotations of Islamic history. One website says it means “a battle… in which the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) took part in himself with a large army.” Further down, in Line 12, the author adds the adjective ‘askariiya “military.”
8. Line 11: miraaran wa-takraaran is an expression I didn’t know. miraar is a secondary plural form of the word marra “time, turn.” takraar means “repetition”; takraaran, an adverbial form, means “repeatedly.” miraaran wa-takraaran is a set formula meaning “over and over again,” “time and again.”
9. Line 12: ha by itself means “look!” or “there!” or “lo!”
10. Line 13: I had trouble finding shaaqa in the dictionary. The second radical is doubled, so you look it up under shaqqa “to split, cleave, part…” (I thought the second radical had to be waaw or yaa’). The word means “troublesome, toilsome, wearisome,” etc.
11. Lines 16-17: wa qad a’zara man anzara “he who warns is excused” — Another formulaic expression I never encountered.
12. Line 18: qaala ta’aalii — Hans Wehr has qauluhu ta’aalii “the word of the Sublime (introducing Koran quotations).” Another apparently common formula I didn’t know. Is there a book out there that lists all these formulas? If there is, I’d sure like to have a copy.
13. Line 18: From the Koran, sura 47.7.