His Presence Really Tied the Room Together

͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­

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His Presence Really Tied the Room Together

Imam Marc Manley

Jul 20

 

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It’s been a minute, as the kids says today, since we’ve posted a #EveryDayArabic post. This one comes from reading a bio on the Egyptian scholar, Shaykh Aḥmad al-Ḥamlāwī, may Allāh have mercy on him. In his bio, it read thus:

أُوتِيَ الشَّيْخُ بَسْطَةً فِي الجِسْمِ، وَوَجَاهَةً وَوَسَامَةً فِي الهَيْئَةِ وَالوَجْهِ، مَعَ حُسْنِ ذَوْقٍ وَاعْتِنَاءٍ بِالزِّيِّ، فَكَانَتْ رُؤْيَتُهُ تَمْلَأُ العَيْنَ جَلَالَةً، وَالنَّفْسَ مَهَابَةً

“The Shaykh was endowed with a strong physique, an impressive and handsome appearance, along with good taste and care in his attire. His presence commanded respect and reverence.”

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The part I want to focus on is the idiom, “His presence command respect”, literally, “his presence filled up the eyes”. The verb, mala’a/yamla’u (مَلَأَ/يَمْلَأُ) means “to fill up” but to translate it literally would ruin statement. Instead, we have to not only translate the sentence, we also have to interpret what emotion or feeling we wish to convey in English, taking the target language and its culture into consideration. So, fill ‘er up! What’ll it be? Regular or decaf?

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