Assalamu Alaikum!
So this is my first post. I was thinking about doing a blog for some time....a blog about language - words, phrases, quotes, etc. I love different languages...I love how a single word can be the whole conversation. So this is a blog about my love of language. I would love to have been a linguist...but I already did one degree that my parents didn't want me to do...so I figure the next degree should be something they want me to do...my parents have rights over me :)
I'm going to try to post different words, phrases, quotes everyday...they might be in different languages...but I'll try to explain what they mean and what they mean to me.
So for the first word.
My name: Rabea.
It is the arabic for the fourth. Ra. Alif. Bay. Aein. Tha' Marbutha.
My parents named me after Rabi'a Basri or Rabi'a thul Adawiyya. She was a very spiritual woman...well-known in Sufi texts for her devotion to Allah and her abandonment of the physical world for the spiritual world.
So what my name means to me... I always liked to be named after a famous Muslim woman...there is a certain bit of mystery surrounding Rabi'a Basri...I liked that also. Her love for Allah(swt) is what I wish I could achieve.
So how "the fourth" relates to me.
I was born on the 4th of December.
I was either born on the 3rd or 4th of Muharram. (I choose to believe the 4th).
I am the 4th child in my family. (My mother had a miscarriage her first pregnancy).
My name means the fourth.
My middle name is Nisa which is the fourth surah numerically in the Quran.
Interesting that I am named a number. I love numbers. Although I generally have a strong liking for anything to do with the number 3.
This is not specific to me, but many things are enumerated by fours in the Quran. Like take Surah Thul Asr. There are four things you need to be successful: To Believe - Have Iman in Allah, To do Good Deeds, To Enjoin the truth - the Haqq, And to Enjoin Sabr or Patience.
I will comment more on this later.
So in a nutshell - it's cool to be named Rabea - I like being the fourth.
-Rabea
