"Islam began as a stranger and will go back to being a stranger just as it began, so give glad tidings to the strangers."

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Kunya(s)

Assalamu Alaikum,
A kunya. What is a kunya? A kunya (Arabic: كنية‎) is an honorific widely used in place of given names through the Arab world and the medieval Muslim world. It is a component of an Arabic name, and a type of epithet(attribution) referring to the person's first-born son or daughter or parents. Men go by either:
  1. Abu ~ (the father of ~)
  2. Or Ibn ~ (the son of ~) .

Women go by either:

  1. Umm ~ (the mother of ~)
  2. Or Bint ~ (the daughter of ~).

For instance my personal Kunya is Bint Khaled...which differs from my webname: VeiledKnight. But my besties still call me by my first name (so do my sibs and family). In my opinion, it is best for people from the opposite gender to call each other by their Kunya rather than their first name. It is more respectful that way and less hinting towards anything.

What's your Kunya? Let us know...

-Bint Khaled.

For Allah. For Islam.

1 comment:

Maryam said...

Mine is Bint Khaled too!! Awesome!! So wait, what if we want to have a seperate Kunya from our siblings and there are like 10 of them?