Draft: this lesson was written with AI help and has not yet been read by a human editor.
1 What your class asks
This lesson asks you to identify conventions of greeting and address, and to use them appropriately when you speak. The museum offers two: how a greeting is given on meeting and on parting, and how a person is honoured by a kunya. The source for the greeting is a television programme and a lesson. The phrases you practise, regional variants, and everyday formality, your class brings. 1
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- B3.2 identify sociolinguistic conventions associated with a variety of social situations in diverse communities where the target language is spoken, and use them appropriately in spoken interactions in the target language […]
2 Before you start
A thought to carry into the lesson.
3 The lesson
When do you greet, and how do you address someone?
Notice the occasions for the greeting in the record: on meeting and on parting. Then compare how you would address an older person, a friend and a stranger, and what changes between them.
Go deeper
The Kuwaiti encyclopaedia of jurisprudence sets the kunya beside two other kinds of name. A laqab is a byname that praises or blames, and in grammar the ism is a word that signifies a meaning in itself without a time attached 2 3. On the kunya itself, most jurists hold it recommended for people of merit, men and women, and for a man to take the kunya of his eldest son, and a woman that of her eldest 4. Ibn Muflih cites the report of Hani ibn Yazid, who was called Abu al-Hakam and was given the kunya Abu Shurayh after his eldest son; another son may be used, as the Prophet ﷺ was given the kunya Abu Ibrahim 4.
Two views
Under the heading on using the kunya of the Prophet, the encyclopaedia says scholars hold five views 3. The first: no one may use the Prophet's kunya Abu al-Qasim during his life; after his death it is permitted, whether or not the bearer is named Muhammad, on a hadith, name yourselves by my name but do not take my kunya, and on the report of Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) that the Prophet forbade combining his name and kunya 3 5. Al-Rafi'i said this seems the soundest, since people have always done it without objection 5. The fourth view forbids naming someone Muhammad and taking the kunya Abu al-Qasim altogether; Umar is reported to have said not to name anyone after a prophet, and Iyad thought he meant it out of reverence 5. The fifth forbids the Prophet's kunya during his life, and after his death forbids it to men named Muhammad or Ahmad but permits it to others; Ibn Hajar called it the most equitable, though rare 5 4.
How do we know?
The five views are reported in one jurists' encyclopaedia, which names their grounds: the hadith quoted above, and the report of Abu Hurayra that the Prophet forbade combining his name and kunya 3 5. It also names the scholars who weighed the views: al-Rafi'i, Iyad and Ibn Hajar 5 4. The record reports the views and their grounds and does not say which is right.
Think about it
Al-Rafi'i said the first view seems the soundest since people have always followed it without objection, and Ibn Hajar called the fifth the most equitable, though rare 5 4. Defend your answer against the other side: when sources disagree about a custom, should long practice among people or the balance among the reports count for more?
Into the museum
- Kunya: ism, laqab and kunya, the ruling on taking a kunya, the kunya of a child and the five views on the kunya of the Prophet.
- Greeting with peace: the meaning of taslim in the language and in the jurists' usage.
- Tasmiya: the jurists' senses of the word for naming, the father's better right to name a child, and the schools' differing views on the time.
Try this
Read the records on the greeting of peace and on the kunya. Write a short role-play in which two people meet, honour each other by a name that begins with Abu or Umm, and take leave.
4 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does Greeting with peace (salam) have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
Greeting on meeting and on parting. Abd al-Rahman Mansour makes giving the greeting of peace the first of 'the keys to hearts' in his programme Ahalina. He says the greeting belongs to arriving and to leaving alike, and that the first is no more due than the last. Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy counts greeting on meeting among a Muslim's rights over his brother. When do you greet, and when do you take leave, in the language you study?
In your own words: what does Kunya (teknonym, fiqh rulings) have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
Honouring someone by a kunya. The Kuwaiti Encyclopaedia of Fiqh says that a kunya is a name that begins with ab, father, or umm, mother, such as Abu Abd Allah or Umm al-Khayr. It says it is a name besides the given name and the laqab, used with them or alone to honour its bearer, and that it belongs to notable people. Among the Arabs kunyas were so well known that they sometimes overcame the proper names. How would you address someone you wish to honour?
I can now
Notes
- 1. Ontario Ministry of Education, The Ontario Curriculum: Classical Studies and International Languages
- 2. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3), p.13538
- 3. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3), p.13539
- 4. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3), p.13541
- 5. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3), p.13540