Abu Ben Adam

[MagnetMan]

Abu Ben Adam,may his tribe increase

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace

And saw, within the moonlight of his room

Making it rich, like a lily in bloom

An angel writing in a book of gold.

Exceeding peace had made Abu Ben Adam bold

And to the presence in his room he said

' What writest thou?'

The vision raised its head

And with a look of all sweet accord Answered:

'The names of those who love the Lord.

'And is mine one?' said Abu.

'Nay not so' Replied the Angel

Abu spoke more low

But cheerily still and said

'I pray thee then Write me as one that loves his fellow-men'

The angel wrote and vanished.

The next night it came again with awaking light

And showed the names of whom love of God had blessed.

And lo! Ben Adam's name led all the rest.

anonymous

[UVsaturated]

Who might this Abu Ben Adam be?

[MagnetMan]

Who might this Abu Ben Adam be?

Dunno. anonymous Mid-East poem sent to me by an Islamic friend who cannot remember who wrote it. But it made my day!

[UVsaturated]

Abu means Holy Man in Arabic. Ben is short for Benjamin which is the son of the right hand and Adam of course means man of the earth.

My name is Benjamin Anderson, whereby the first name is obvious. The Anderson is the name given to Neo in the movie The Matrix. His passport in the movie expires on the day after my birthday, Sept 11.

[MagnetMan]

Abu means Holy Man in Arabic. Ben is short for Benjamin which is the son of the right hand and Adam of course means man of the earth.

My name is Benjamin Anderson, whereby the first name is obvious. The Anderson is the name given to Neo in the movie The Matrix. His passport in the movie expires on the day after my birthday, Sept 11.

There area million good stories in our names. Some are derived from places of origin, others from occupations.

My surname is Pringle. It is the name of a Scottish border clan situated near a particular round copse near the town of Kelso, where ancient druids used to congregate seeking hopeful omens. The full name was originally Hoppringill. Hop is hope. Ring is round. Ill is hill. The name meant people from the "Round Hill of Hope".

My mother was born and raised in the Transkei in South Africa in a little Pondo village called Lusikisiki. She spoke the click-filled Xhosa tongue like a native. When she went to live in Johannesburg, hundreds of miles from Pondoland, Xhosa servant girlds would come to our house on their day off and spend time talking to her. I asked her once what a particular heated conversations was all about. She said it was about the origins of the place name of Lusikisiki. half the women argued that it was named after a Pondo chieftain called Sikisiki.

The other half said that the name was an onomatopoeia. In the late autumn months winds would sweep down onto the coastal plains from the high elevations of the Drakensberg Mountains. At that time the tall cereal grasses would be heavy with seed and the wind would wave them back and forth with a sibulent hiss - sikisiki sikiski sikisiki.