SWT SAW AS... WTF?

Bismillah ir-rahman ir-rahim

Assalaam alaikum

Dear Small Following of Readers,

It has come to my attention that I have been using apparently random letters after people's names (thank you, Krystin, for bringing it to my attention). Though I'm pretty darn sure the Muslims know what I'm talking about, some of you non-Muslims have probably been losing sleep over it, or have otherwise been spending your time in the fetal position going "Who's Jesus AS?"So, though some of you--mostly my family--know that I am in the process of writing an entry about science and Islam, I am going to take a brief moment to explain to you WTF is up with SWT.

(Important notice: WTF here means "what the frootloops" because there is no profanity on this site... duh)

Before I begin, I'm also going to give you a brief explanation of some common phrases you might come across in this blog:

Bismillah ir-rahman ir-rahim: This is usually translated as "In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate," but I have read that a better translation is "I ask the assistance of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate." We say bismillah before we do... anything. Before we eat, drink, get up, drive, etc.
Assalaam alaikum: "Peace be with you." Muslims greet each other this way. The response is walaikum asssalaam, which is just a reciprocation.
JazakAllah Khair: Roughly translated it means "may Allah bless you with goodness." We often use it as a sort of "thank you" phrase.
Subhanallah: approximately means "Glory be to Allah." It is often an expression of amazement or joy.
Alhamdulillah: (my favourite) means "All praise is for Allah." Often used like subhanallah.
Mashallah: "Allah has granted it." It is a positive expression in every context I've ever heard it. You know, Allah grants everything (ie: nothing can happen against His Will), but I don't think you would say, "My mother is sick," "Oh, mashallah." I'm not fluent in Arabic, but as far as I can tell, it's only for good things.
Inshallah: Means "If Allah wills it." We usually use it when talking about the future, because we make plans, but they won't come into fruition unless Allah wills it.

Now, let us start with good ol' (AS) which you probably saw after Jesus' (AS) name. See? Well, what it stands for is alayhi salaam which, in Arabic, means "peace be upon him." We say alayhi salaam after the name of any known prophet (because there have been 124,000 prophets throughout history, but we don't know about most of them) who isn't Mohammad (SAW). You see, these known prophets (as well as the unknown... but there's only so much that can be done) are such great men that we want them to be blessed and blessed and blessed, so we bless them every time we say their names.

Moving on, (SAW). You will see this one after Prophet Mohammad's (SAW) name. It stands for saull allahu alayhi wa salaam and it means "may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him." It's not that we play favourites or that we don't want Allah to bless any of the other prophets, but because we believe that Mohammad (SAW) was the final prophet who delivered to humanity the final flourishes of Allah's perfected religion, we give him (SAW) something a little extra.

And now we'll move on to (SWT) which you will sometimes and sometimes not see after I mention Allah. It means subhanah wa ta'ala which in turn means something along the lines of Pure and High is He.

I hope this clears up a few things and makes my blog a bit easier to read. Now I have to go cook and clean all day because we're having guests over, and also I really have nothing better to do. So off I go!

Ta!