Jacob

Jacob (later given the name Israel) is regarded as a Patriarch of the Israelites. According to the Book of Genesis, Jacob (/ˈdʒeɪkəb/; Hebrew: יַעֲקֹב Standard Yaʿakov) was the third Hebrew progenitor with whom God made a covenant. He is the son of Isaac and Rebecca, the grandson of Abraham, Sarah and of Bethuel, and the younger twin brother of Esau. Jacob had twelve sons and at least one daughter, by his two wives, Leah and Rachel, and by their handmaidens Bilhah and Zilpah.

Jacob's twelve sons, named in Genesis, were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. His only daughter mentioned in Genesis is Dinah. The twelve sons became the progenitors of the "Tribes of Israel".

As a result of a severe drought in Canaan, Jacob and his sons moved to Egypt at the time when his son Joseph was viceroy. After 17 years in Egypt, Jacob died and Joseph carried Jacob's remains to the land of Canaan, and gave him a stately burial in the same Cave of Machpelah as were buried Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, and Jacob's first wife, Leah.

Arab Idol

Arab Idol Arabic: أراب آيدول‎, also called Arab Idol : Mahboub El Arab (Arabic: أراب آيدول : محبوب العرب‎), is an Arabic television show based on the popular British show Pop Idol created by Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment and developed by Fremantle Media. The first season premiered on December 9, 2011. The show was broadcast worldwide on MBC 1 and simultaneously aired on LBC. The second season debuted on 8 March 2013 and the third season on 5 September 2014 on MBC. The live shows are recorded in Beirut, Lebanon.

Background

Arab Idol is the successor of a previous pan-Arab rendition of the Idol series called Super Star, and that aired on Future TV for 5 seasons, beginning in 2003. MBC 1 expressed desire to revive the show in a revamped version. The concept is still the same: ten young contestants from all over the Arab world are selected after many auditions, and should perform a song on stage in front of the public and the judges on the main weekly show every Friday. Then there is a 24-hour time period during which the viewers can vote for their favorites by SMS. The one who receives the least amount of votes is eliminated during the results show, and this every week, until there is one left. The winner receives various prizes, including but not limited to a recording contract with Platinum Records (recording label affiliated with MBC) for a debut album, and a Chevrolet Corvette. The show was unveiled to the public on July 21, 2011 when MBC 1 began airing the first advertisement. The name was changed from Super Star to Arab Idol and a new logo was launched.

Peace be upon him (Islam)

The Arabic phrase ʿalayhi as-salām (عليه السلام), which translates as "peace be upon him" is a conventionally complimentary phrase or durood attached to the names of the prophets in Islam. The English phrase is also given the abbreviation pbuh in writing. An extended variant of the phrase reads salla llāhu ʿalayhi wa-alehe wa-sallam (Arabic: صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم‎) [lit.] "prayer of God be upon him and his family and peace", and it is often abbreviated SAWS in writing in an English-language context. The Arabic phrase is given the name ṣalawāt. The phrase is encoded as a ligature at Unicode codepoint U+FDFA ﷺ ARABIC LIGATURE SALLALLAHOU ALAYHE WASALLAM

Some Islamic scholars have voiced disagreement with the practice of abbreviating these phrases, arguing that it demonstrates laziness and a lack of respect.

Variants of the phrase in Arabic

Allah

Allah (English pronunciation: /ˈælə/, /ˈɑːlə/ or /əlˈlɑː/;Arabic: الله‎ Allāh, IPA: [ʔalˤˈlˤɑːh]) is the Arabic word for God (al ilāh, literally "the God"), referring to the God in Abrahamic religions. The word has cognates in other Semitic languages, including Elah in Aramaic, ʾĒl in Canaanite and Elohim in Hebrew.

It is now mainly used by Muslims to refer to God in Islam, but has been also used by Arab Christians since pre-Islamic times. It is also often, albeit not exclusively, used by Bábists, Bahá'ís, Indonesian and Maltese Christians, and Mizrahi Jews. Christians and Sikhs in West Malaysia also use and have used the word to refer to God. This has caused political and legal controversies there as the law in West Malaysia prohibits non-Islamic uses of the word.

Etymology

The term Allāh is derived from a contraction of the Arabic definite article al- "the" and ilāh "deity, god" to al-lāh meaning "the deity", or "the God".Cognates of the name "Allāh" exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Aramaic. The corresponding Aramaic form is Elah (אלה), but its emphatic state is Elaha (אלהא). It is written as ܐܠܗܐ (ʼĔlāhā) in Biblical Aramaic and ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ (ʼAlâhâ) in Syriac as used by the Assyrian Church, both meaning simply "God".Biblical Hebrew mostly uses the plural (but functional singular) form Elohim (אלהים), but more rarely it also uses the singular form Eloah (אלוהּ). In the Sikh scripture of Guru Granth Sahib, the term Allah (Punjabi: ਅਲਹੁ) is used 37 times.