Metta Sutta (Arabic Translation)

Hello, Everyone.

buddham saranam gacchami
dhammam saranam gacchami
sangam saranam gacchami

here, as i think, is an Arabic-language translation of Metta sutta from sutta nipata.

I’ve made it after seeing the already available Metta sutta translation into Arabic, which is also the only Arabic-language translation available on the whole website.

I felt that i was obliged to do this translation after seeing the previous one, which is made in Egyptian-folk slang language, which i see is not suitable to be a language to translate into, nor for sutra, nor for any sacred text. also, i think this slang language cannot be considered “Arabic Language” (beside from using some Arabic nouns and Arabic writing system in it, it is very far from classical or modern arabic). in my view, normal Arab readers will find it hard to read and understand the translation if they are not egyptian.

i can make an example: it’s like if 50 cent or 2pac or Snoop Dogg are using their dictionary and nouns to translate a sutra into English. will the English-speaking masses understand it the same?

here is the translation:

صحيفة حب الخير

ما يجب على امرئٍ أوتي الحكمة أن يعمله لتنزل عليه السّكينة هو هذا:

يجب عليه أن يكون قادراً، قائماً، مستقيماً، بلا فخرٍ، سهل المعشر، لطيفاً، قنوعاً،

سهل الإرضاء، لا ينفعل عند الصخب الشديد، حذراً في التّعامل مع الآخر، هادئ الحواس، ذكيّاً، بلا جُرأة، لا يطمع عندما يكون مع الآخرين،

لا يقوم حتّى بالأشياء الهيّنة الّتي يلومها الحكماء الآخرون. (حاملاً هذه الفكرة دائماً):

"عسى أن تعيش جميع الكائنات بسعادةٍ وأمان،

ولتبتهج قلوبهم من الداخل.

أيّاً من كانوا وتنبض الحياة فيهم

سواءً كانوا ضعفاء أو أقوياءً جدّاً،

بلا استثناء، سواءً كانوا طوالاً أو قصاراً،

أو متوسطي الحجم، أو كباراً أو صغاراً،

أو ذوي كثافةٍ، يُرون أو لا يُرون

سواءً كانوا يسكنون بعيداً أو يسكنون قريباً،

الذين هُم هُنا، الذين يُسعون لأن يدخلوا الوجود –

عسى أن تبتهج جميع الكائنات من الداخل."

لا لأن يجلب أحدٌ لغيره الخراب

ولا يحقرنّه بأيٍّ طريقٍ أو مكان،

لا لأن يتمنى بعضٌ لبعضٍ أي سوءٍ

بسبب الاستفزاز أو بسبب العداوة.

كما أنّ الأم تخاطر بحياتها

لأجل حبّ وحماية ولدها الوحيد،

كما يجب على المرء أن ينمّي هذا الحب الغير محدود

إلى كل من يعيش في كل هذا الكون –

مُمتدّاً من وعيٍ سامٍ

نحو الأعلى ونحو الأسفل وعبر العالم،

من غير انزعاج، مُحرّراً من الكره والعدوان

وعندما يقف المرء وعندما يقعد

أو عندما يستلقي من غير نعاس،

يجب عليه أن يعزم على أن يكون على هذه الحال –

هذا هو الشعور المقدّس الّذي يقولون عنه.

لكن عندما يعيش المرء بعيداً عن الرأي،

متحليّاً بالفضيلة، حاصلاً على البصيرة الكاملة،

مُلقياً وراءه الطمع نحو ما تشتهي الأنفس،

فإنّه يقيناً لن يُولد من جديد.

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Hi @Muhammad!
Thanks for taking the time to do this translation!
I’m notifying @Aminah who is the person handling legacy translations on SuttaCentral.
:smiley:

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Hello, faujidoc1. You’re welcome.
thanks for you and for Aminah.

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Hi Muhammad,

Thanks for the translation. I agree with your assessment of the Egyptian version.

Translation is no easy task. Many trade offs have to be made.

If i may ask you: did you rely on one English translation of the Karaniya Metta Sutta? or did you rely on more than one English translation to come up with your own Arabic version?

I am willing to share few suggestions based on your answers.

With metta,
Bundokji

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Thanks so much, that’s wonderful!

This has been added to the repository holding SuttaCentral’s legacy format texts:

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Dear Muhammed,

Thanks so much, this is a precious gift!

I know nothing of the varieties of Arabic, but I do know that I got a smile from your description! FYI, the translator of the previous version was, as you hint, Egyptian, and I wonder to what extent there are regional differences involved.

I’m wondering whether we can tag the language differences in our metadata.

Would it be correct to say that the former translation was “Egyptian Arabic”?

And would your version be “Classical Arabic”?

Meanwhile, if you ever wish to do more translations, it would be very welcome. :pray:

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@Muhammad Can I ask how you say mettā in Arabic? What about brahmavihāra?.. If we talk about mahabba, is that like mettā or not? I am so curious about whether it is possible to have an Arabic spiritual vocabulary which isn’t Islamically oriented.

I read the Sufi classic, al-Quyshari’s Al-Risāla some time back and I was impressed with the psychological vocabulary in the chapter al-maqamat (the stations). I wonder if al-ma’rifa (gnosis) has a Pāli equivalent.

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Hello, Bundokji.

You’re welcome.

I relied only on Laurence Khantipalo Mills english translation, because it is the only english translation of metta sutta available here on the website.

i hadn’t relied on my direct pali-arabic translation because it may not be accepted here since i have some apprehensions regarding the meanings of some pali words. so, i’ve gone in accord with the usual word meanings, context of the already available english translation (taking it into account).

as for your suggestions, please share them with me, i will be delighted to discuss with you.

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Hello, Aminah.
You’re welcome.
Thanks goes for you also

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Hello, Ven. Sujato.
You’re welcome. Thanks goes for you.

in my opinion, the type of language used on his translation of metta sutta cannot be considered Arabic from the first place.

it can be considered a separate language far away from Arabic.

for example: they have their own Wikipedia (arz.) for Egyptian common folk language. separated from Arabic Wikipedia which URLs start with (ar.)

example page:

you can consider my translation “classical Arabic” if you want. because, i see that it only contains words used on any average Arabic dictionary.

I have no problems doing more translation, but i need your advices regarding which text you see of more benefit to translate next. I prefer you give me texts that go accord with “pre-sectarian Buddhism”. texts that are agreeable among all transmittable-text follower sects of
Buddhism. texts that cannot be refused by any Buddhist who says that he follows the text-based Buddhism. texts that have parallels in Tibetan and Chinese, Mahayana and Vajrayana followers can’t deny. these are the texts I think must be translated into Arabic first. Texts that all evidences lead to “Shakyamuni Buddha said that”, and no evidence lead to “Shakyamuni Buddha didn’t said that”.

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Hello, Suvira.
i’ve translated “metta” pali word into “حب الخير” “love of goodness”
“brahmavihara” in my opinion if it is “divine abode”, then it will be in arabic “المأوى المقدس”.

“mahabba” is like a thing that when it veils you, you will be “loved by others”.

“hubbul-khair حب الخير” is “lov(e/ing) of goodness”

both “mahabba” and “hubbul-khair” are already considered an arabic-quranic vocabulary. in Quran:
“وألقيت عليك محبة مني” “and I’ve thrown on you, mahabba that comes from me”
“إني أحببت حب الخير” “i loved the love of goodness”

al-risala al-qushairiyya already uses Quranic words and vocabulary. “maqam” -standing- is already a quranic word also.

the vocabulary of Quran is already a building-block of arabic language, it cannot be separated. even in Christian and Jewish texts, when using arabic language as an output, vocabulary from Quran will be in it. because before Quran, no authentic data of arabic vocavbulary is known. people started to know arabic language after Quran is already a text related to Arabic language and to islam.

“al-ma’rifa” is better translated into "knowing or knowledge’ is indeed a concept which is not quranic, but the verb which is used to form the word ma’rifa “يعرف ya’rif”= “to know” is already found in quran.

instead, similar Quranic words are “'Ilm عَلم” science. or “hikmah حِكمَة” wisdom.

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Greetings, Muhammad, great to see new translators and translations arriving here!

Well, I see five English translations that are available on SuttaCentral, and that doesn’t even include Laurence Mill’s:

Ah! I see! You looked at Snp 1.8, and there is Laurence Khantipalo Mill’s as the only one:

The Metta Sutta is in two places in the canon, Snp 1.8 and Kp 9, and obviously SuttaCentral’s lists of both English and other language translations vary between the two.

@Aminah, could those become consistent in the future legacy data? I mean, they won’t “become” consistent just by themselves, but someone would have to help … :wink:

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Hello, sabbamitta.
Thanks for these information.

if metta sutta is the same -copy, paste- (letter by letter) in pali at these two places. then, surely i must enhance my translation using the other 5 translations you’ve shown.

but, if there is any difference between the two metta suttas in these two places, then, i will consider my translation final and based only on Laurence Khantipalo Mills.

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The Pali root text is identical in both places—and has each time the same bad mistake! :-1: But I don’t think that mistake is represented in any of the translations. They have the good version. :+1:

The Kp collection is a small collection of only 9 texts that has most likely been compiled as a study list for novices. The texts in this collection are found elsewhere in the canon too.

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sir Sabbamitta, which bad mistake in the pali root text you are referring to. please enlighten me. it will be my pleasure to take note on pali text benefiting from your insights.

also, as i declared in the above comments, i built my translation according to the English available translation. if Aminah added the other 5 English translations to the snp version, i will take them into a consideration and provide a version 2. originally, i wanted to translate directly from pali text, but because i cannot jump off or disregard the already existing pali-english dictionary, i found myself obliged to base the translation from the first place on the available English translations only to take it as a source.

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It’s here:

Mātā yathā niyaṃputta—​
Māyusā ekaputtamanurakkhe;

This would actually mean that a mother does not love her child, but it’s of course the opposite. It may be a transmission problem, in that the “m” at the beginning of Māyusā belongs at the end of the previous line instead.

It’s not my insight, I learned it from Bhante Sujato.

That will take time. Even if changes are made to the legacy text repository, which Aminah is doing, it will only be visible on SuttaCentral once the updated version is released. That depends on many other things I don’t really know.

These translations are just as valid if they’re in the Kp section as in the Snp section.

If you understand Pali well enough to do that I personally would think this is the best way to do, and consult other translations for difficult passages. That’s probably how the various existing translations came about.

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could this not refer to the child?
instead, referring to the characteristics of the state his mother is in. (she is in the weakened state, which is characterized by: the love of life and the HATE of death.)

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Probably ask the Pali experts for that.

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I know. but my translation was a response for the previous Arabic-titled translation. directing it to be put along the previous one for Arabic readers to pass-by when seeing the other translation, specially those who may compare it to the english translation. the other-translation is on snp. so. I targeted snp section’s metta.

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Apologies, I’ve only been able to briefly read the thread so if I’ve missed or duplicated something please forgive:

And so it was done! :zap: :sparkler: :sparkles:

In fact, it was done in March after being raised in this thread; I’ll let you sing the “pending update” chorus line. :musical_note:

That’s marvelous; as per the above I did this a little while ago, it’s just not showing on the site yet. In any case kp9 and snp1.8 are the same sutta. When I added your translation I added it at as both.

Also, I don’t know if it will be of help to you, but while looking for the thread in which the kp9/snp1.8 point was raised I found the following mentioned by another user: 20 Metta Sutta Translations.

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