Do you mean 'abdul' or 'abul'? because 'abdul' means slave, or 'abd' also means slave - hence if you say 'abdullah' or 'abdul Allah' - that means slave of Allaah.
no i meant abul cuz i know what abdul and abd means. i saw someone whose name was abul hussain and i found it weard cuz it cant be abdulhussain (slave of hussain :confused
I always thought all these names like 'Abu Hussein' or 'Abu Muntasir', while literally meaning 'father of Hussein/Muntasir', actually mean that the person with that name is the SON of Hussein/Muntasir. Otherwise Abu Hussein would have to name one of his sons Hussein. Which is kind of paradoxical if Abdul Hussein is named as a baby.
Which brings me back to my point: what the heck am I yammering on about?
Why can't it be Abul Hussain? the Prophet used to refer to his grandsons as alHasan wal Husain, or al Hasanain.......so yes, Abul Hasan is perfectly ok insha'allah
Ab is father and "u" is the case ending. Abu means "the father". Abû with a long "u" (I write it with an accent on top) means "the father of".
The "l" letter is wrongly attached to abû. It is the short form of the article "al" which is always attached to the following word, in this case Hussain.
So the correct Arabic is Abû alHussain shortened to Abû lHussain, or Abû l-Hussain.
So Abû l-Hussain is "the father of the Hussain" or in correct English "the father of Hussain".
That way of naming someone is honorific. It is called the kunya. You call somebody as the father of his son.
The prophet Muhammad's kunya was Abû l-Qâsim (Qâsim was his deceased first son).
There are also fictitious kunyas. For example Arafat used the kunya Abû `Ammar as nom de guerre although he had no son.
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