Sunday, May 13, 2012

Forgive Me




I have seen so many of these yellow stickers adhered to the doors of shops here in Jeddah that I finally asked my husband what these stickers say.


In Arabic the sticker says "Astaghfirullah." It is a common Arabic phrase meaning "I ask Allah forgiveness." I hear this phrase being said every day here in conversations. There are many religious phrases that Muslims repeat frequently while speaking with others that reference Allah in some form or another.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, it's in the imperative form: Ask(or Seek) Allah's forgiveness!
It's a reminder for Muslims to keep mentioning Allah always. There are many forms also: Alhamdulilah (Thank God), La elah ellah Allah (There's no god but Allah)...etc

Jerry Mc Kenna said...

I hope someone selling food to me isn't worrying about forgiveness.

Susie of Arabia said...

Thank you for the explanation.

Susie of Arabia said...

It is a rather unusual place to have a sticker like that... makes one stop to think.

Layla said...

But who places these stickers there,and WHY?

I will have to start looking around in Riyadh for these too!

Susie of Arabia said...

I have no idea where these stickers came from, but they are on many shop doors on Heraa St. Maybe someone came around in the middle of the night and placed them there!

Layla said...

Interesting, so only on that one street?

Susie of Arabia said...

I'll try to notice if I see them elsewhere. The ones I recall seeing so far have all been on Heraa St.