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Humza or Hamza?

Thursday, March 19, 2009

I've gotten lots of flak for spelling my son's name as Humza. Most people are used to spelling it Hamza. Can't really blame them, especially since most books refer to the Prophet's (saw) uncle as Hamza. And also, Sh. Hamza Yusuf spells it that way.

But I just don't get it.

The name is pronounced HUM-za, as in hummingbird. It's not HAM-za as in hamster.

But for some reason, people are retarded and insist that it's spelled with an A. Some folks who I will not name but are male relatives of my wife deride my spelling and mock its pronunciation by making an ugly face and saying something like 'Hey look, its HOOOOME-za's father. How is HOOOME-za?'

They stink.

You see, I don't want bullies (or rude coworkers) coming up to my son and mocking him 'Hey HAM-za the HAM-lover, did you eat HAM today? HAHA. Your dad really messed up your name...HAHA.'

You're probably thinking 'What kind of person thinks this way? So far into the future?' Well, its people with vision. Visionary folks have foresight, hindsight, insight, and outsight. All kinds of sights. Normal people just wouldn't understand.

Anyways, I digress. This foolishness ends now. I will leave it up to my esteemed readership to once and for all decide the fate of my son. Enter your suggestions as comments and I will count the votes in 2 days. I shall vow to follow the democratically suggested spelling of my son's name.

I trust most of you are intelligent and will see things my way. Otherwise, feel free to jump on the Hamza bandwagon and choose the way of the intellectually malnutritioned.

It's your choice.

Oh btw, I have veto power.

Yeah, and uhmmm...the wife doesn't know about this, so let's keep this whole vote thing between us. She's not democratically-inclined like that...being Arab and all...

Thursday, March 19, 2009 | Labels: About Me, Humor, raising kids |  

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19, 2009 and is filed under About Me , Humor , raising kids . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

 

23 comments:

Islam Blog said...

"She's not democratically-inclined like that...being Arab and all..."

Hillarious!

I'm used to spelling it as 'Hamza' but 'Humza' sounds right too.

I'm not voting.. Democracy is haram!

:D

March 19, 2009 9:19 AM
Humzah said...

I go by Humzah...

Ma'Salaam & Duas

March 19, 2009 12:45 PM
Anonymous said...

i agree with humzah since there is a ta marboota at the end.

March 19, 2009 1:23 PM
Hamza Isa said...

As a Hamza, i vote Hamza....

However, i have an Arab friend who is also called Hamza, but he spells his name Hamzah

March 19, 2009 4:03 PM
Anonymous said...

Salaam, I'd just like to say that in Arabic, the vowel is actually 'a', therefore it is not spelled, nor pronounced 'Humza' at all.

March 19, 2009 9:40 PM
sophister said...

I would definitely say Humza. Only because it undermines the arabic-transliteration power hegemony that exists amongst Moslems.

March 19, 2009 10:59 PM
sophister said...

As can be seen by the comment above my first comment.

March 19, 2009 10:59 PM
Anonymous said...

by using a "u" it would mean the "haa" has a damma. But the "haa" has a "fatha" which is why "hamza" makes more sense.

But "humzah" looks and sounds cooler I have to say.

March 20, 2009 12:17 AM
Anonymous said...

oh yea here's a proof:

humus ..HUUUU mus....HUU

March 20, 2009 12:18 AM
The Dynamic Hamza 21 said...

I think naming your son Humza will add confusion to something where there isn't any. I have yet to find a muslim not pronounced the name correctly.Humza looks like it should produced HOOMza and naming your son that might invite strange connections to Humazah(the slanderer).

March 20, 2009 2:00 AM
Anonymous said...

not a big deal anyway or something to fret over because english pronunciations and spellings are never accurate for example aisha or aysha.

March 20, 2009 2:23 AM
Arif said...

haha, u dork

March 20, 2009 3:52 AM
JDsg said...

Hamza. If you want to open a real can of worms, try "A'ishah," the name of my daughter. ;)

March 20, 2009 6:38 AM
Zubaid said...

I agree. I don't know why people spell it with an 'A'. I thought it was always with a 'U', until recently.

March 20, 2009 7:14 PM
Naeem: said...

AA-

Thank you everyone for making this even more confusing. Your assistance is definitely NOT appreciated!

Now its not just Humza vs Hamza, but Humzah vs. Hamzah! I've decided to simplify everything and call my son Bob. So from now on, please refer to me as Abu Bob.

BTW, the Humus argument is weak, cuz whenever a westerner reads it, he pronounces it HUMus (as in HUMmingbird). What does that tell you???

March 21, 2009 8:53 AM
mezba said...

not that you want a Bollywood movie to support your argument but there IS an Indian movie called Hum Tum and the Hum is pronounced the way you want it and everyone knows what it is.

So maybe you should spell it 'Hum Za'.

:-P

March 23, 2009 5:03 PM
Naeem: said...

AA- Mezba,

You may be onto something here... We can all rebel against the 'arabic-transliteration power hegemony' (Sophister's term) by turning to the wise ways of Bollywood!!

I'll start this revolution by naming my next kid Sholay!!

March 24, 2009 7:38 AM
Anonymous said...

im dying laughing, on the inside ofcourse.

sholay!

March 24, 2009 1:41 PM
Anonymous said...

You're amazing! Love your jokes. Keep it up.

March 28, 2009 9:08 AM
Humza said...

Humza my name is Humza! Vote for Humza!

May 11, 2009 11:46 PM
Humza Awan said...

Hey I spell and write my nam with "Humza" I also got objected by my teachers but no one has authentic proof !!! So for me it doesn't matter it's HUMZA or HAMZA!!! I write my name with "u" and it's bcause on a speaking software I tried my name and I came to know that with "Hamza" the sound was like HAM-za and then I treid e and u . "u" was much better so I started to write my name with U. . . .

September 16, 2009 3:20 PM
Humza Awan said...

Sorry Mr. Naeem we are not scholars but students. You should refer some experienced Arabic scholars to figure it out!!!

September 16, 2009 3:24 PM
Humza said...

I vote for Humza, since that's already his name. :).

There's no need to change it.

December 8, 2009 4:27 AM

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