Abd (Arabic)

Abd (Arabic: عبد‎) is an Arabic word meaning one who is totally subordinated; a slave or a servant.^[1]

Abid (Arabic: عابد ‎) is a given name meaning "worshipper". It is based on the Arabic word "Ibadah", i.e. worship. The female version of the name is Abida.

The word can also be transliterated into English as 'Abd, where the apostrophe indicates the ayin, denoting a guttural "a" sound.

It appears in many common Arab names followed by Al (the) in form of "Abd ul", "Abd ul-", etc.; this is also commonly translitated as "el-," in the form "Abd el-", meaning "servant of the-". This is always followed by one of the names for God. These names are given in List of Arabic theophoric names and 99 Names of God.

A widespread name Abdullah (name) (or 'Abd Allah) means "servant of God" or "worshipper of God".

• Abdul lah (“slave of divinity” or “servant of divinity”)
  • (This is synonym to Abdullah, because Allah is a contraction of al-ilah from al, “the”, and ilah, meaning "god".)
• Abd Rabbi-hi (“slave of your Lord” or “servant of your Lord”)
• Abduh (“His slave” or “His servant”)
• Abdul Nabi (“slave of the Prophet” or “servant of the Prophet”)

It can also be used by Arab Christians and Arabic-speaking Christians, just as long as it is associated to their religion:

• Abdul Masih (“slave of the Messiah” or “servant of the Messiah”)
• Abdul Salib (“slave of the Cross” or “servant of the Cross”)
• Abdul Shahid (“slave of the Martyr [i.e. Jesus Christ]” or “servant of the Martyr”)
• Abd Yasu ("slave of Jesus" or "servant of Jesus")
• Abida
• Abidi

Abdullah can be also used by Arab Christians, as they refer to God as Allah.

Further notes

The word Abd is a cognate with the Hebrew word "eved" (עבד), meaning slave.

See also

• Arabic names
• Islam and slavery
• Ibadah
• Abeed
• Black Guard
• Obaidullah (name)

References