Can someone translate this Arabic text for me?

January 4, 2018 3:49 PM

Could someone help me translate the Arabic that's written on this mystery object? Thank you!
posted by colorproof to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

Via the husband: the first word is "Iman" - it could be a name, but also translates to "faith." The second word my husband couldn't make out, he thinks it might be an unusual last name.
posted by jbenben at 4:27 PM on January 4, 2018

Same from my husband - he says the first is Iman and the second is a name but a weird name. His best pronunciation is Lilrezk ( there’s no direct equivalent in our alphabet, hubbie is a native speaker)
posted by scrute at 4:35 AM on January 5, 2018

It looks like îmân lil-rizq, with the 'lil-' meaning for the.

Rizq (رزق) is another word that can have a religious meaning, but doesn't have to. It means 'livelihood', 'sustenance' etc. The religious meaning comes from the fact that God is the sustainer, or provider of livelihoods: if I remember rightly, al-Râziq, al-Razzâq—which you see as the second element in names like Abdelrazek or Abdalrazzak, with lots of variant transliterations.

The whole thing could mean 'faith for [the] livelihood', which is odd but may be less so with some contextual information.

Lilrezq would be a very odd surname.

Respective wiktionary entries: îmân, rizq

Disclaimer: not a native speaker, quite rusty, and don't have access to my proper dictionary at the moment.
posted by lapsangsouchong at 7:00 AM on January 5, 2018

My native speaker wife says essentially the same as lapsangsouchong, her first thought for Rizq was “wealth” though. She is very confident that the second word is not a surname and that while it is odd it has been written by someone with native proficiency in writing.
posted by tomcooke at 4:56 AM on January 6, 2018