Monday, February 06, 2006

Very little, very late

Everybody knows what the acronym (yes I know it's not really an acronym) PBUH means, but for some reason the question came up today, what do the acronyms SWT and SAW you also see used after the mention of Allah or Mohammed mean?

It took some hellish research that involved actually reading a review of Saw II (stinko!), but I found out: SAW is the "[a]cronym for Arabic 'Salla Allahu alaihi Wa Sallam.' It means 'peace be upon him,' but it is used when referring to Prophet Muhammad (SAW)."

"SWT" somewhat more strangely stands for "'Subhanahu wa ta'ala' meaning 'Allah is pure of having partners and He is exalted from having a son.'"

Update: A comment at the ever-witty B-BBC that I can't find at the moment mentions the baby Jesus and ritually intones, "May his father bless his little cotton socks." This is very cute and makes an easily pronounced acronym: "MHFBHLCS."

Update II: The link added to the word "partners" is from this top-ten album cover list. You all know what the album is.

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