Monday, December 04, 2006

The Lord's Prayer in Urdu

I have to admit, I have always thought that the opening lines of the "The Lord's Prayer" often repeated by a lot of Christians (or is just a Catholic thing?) have a very elegant sound to them--especially when chanted gently and in unison by a bunch of people--kinda like the "Ameen" one hears at the end of the Fatiha in congregations with enough Malikis in it (who tend to say it out loud, unlike most Urdu speakers, who usually follow the Hanafi school of Islamic practise):
Holy Father, who art in heaven
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
On Earth
As it is in heaven...
So, don't ask me how, but I stumbled on this a littel while ago and have been meaning to post it here; it's a page with the The Lord's Prayer in Urdu, together with a translation of "Ave Maria", the Catholic prayer to Bibi Maryam, The Virgin Mary, the formulation of the Trinity, and a couple of other things:

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/JPN-urdu.html

Here's the prayer itself:



I have never actually heard it being chanted in Urdu. I wonder if it sounds anywhere near as sonorous; Urdu is a rather mellifluous language generally, so maybe it does...maybe some of the folks who were pillorying me on a list I am on for (they thought) being averse to any mention of Christianity and Pakistan in the same breath can help with that...

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3 comments:

Qais Mujeeb said...

Nice Post, Sabahat bhai.

It is really good to read the Urdu translation of the prayer which I used to recite in the morning assembly at my school.

True, it resembles a lot to Surah Fatiha in many ways.

December 05, 2006 4:03 AM
Anonymous said...

This so called 'Lords Prayer' is a direct violation of the Creed of the Muslims and is not in anyway like Surah Al Fatihah! No Prophet's never said about themselves they are the children of God and never made sucha prayer, further it is also not permisable to say about God "our Father".

The Creed of Muslims is that God is the Creator (not in need of anything) and we the creation are His slaves (in need of Him), further God existed when there was no time, no place, no Heaven, no Earth and He is as He was i.e. without a place, therfore it is not permisable to say about God, He is one place or in every place, rather God exists without a place!

May 03, 2011 12:57 PM
Anonymous said...

Hi
I was in a Christian monastery for twelve years and left a few years ago. I recently dreamt someone was singing the Lord's Prayer to me in Urdu and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. I was interested to read anything I could find about the Lord's Prayer in Urdu (it is a language I learnt a bit of many years ago when I was a teaching assistant in an inner city school). Thank you for your post.
Emma

August 11, 2013 1:25 PM

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