The Impact of Name

The Impact of Name

In the Arab tradition, we believe that individuals are impacted by the meaning of their names. My name is spelt as Rola, but pronounced as Rula. I did not realize the misspelling until a time when I went to London, UK. I felt a sense of disconnection and loss of identity. 

The meaning of Rola is ‘to keep moving from one place to another’. In fact, the Bedouins, or Arab nomads, are called ‘The Arab, the Rola’, because they are constantly moving, looking for greener lands with more stable sources of water for their sheep and camels. As for the impact of the meaning of this name on me, I am constantly looking for better opportunities in life, even if I had to constantly move from one city or country to another.

In Arab history, there was a famous Tribe that was called 'Rola’ who inhabited a land in the Arab Peninsula before the time of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) time. There is a very famous poem on this tribe, consisting of a thousand lines; it takes a few hours or days to finish reading it. There was a poetry market, where poets would go to hold contests amongst themselves. The winners had their poem hung on the wall of the market, accordingly they are called ‘Al Mualakat’ meaning ‘the hanging poems’. It is said that many of these great poems were written in gold. In pre-Islamic Arabia, two things, among others, were very popular: poetry and revenge. Revenge was considered a crucial part of the man's bravery and honor; it must take place, regardless of any circumstances, otherwise, the man would be considered an honorless coward. There were written rules and  practices that had to be followed when taking revenge. However, this was one of many practices that Islam has changed dramatically in the Arabian Peninsula’s communities.

The poem titled ‘The Rola Tribe’ describes a revenge story that happened in that Tribe. In nutshell, a man from another tribe loves a woman from the Rola Tribe. Their love grows and he decides to marry her. One day the man goes to meet his wife, to tell her that his family and the dignitaries of his tribe will come to propose to her. The man was surprised by the news that the father of the woman was killed. The woman has no brother who could take revenge for the father. She believes that as a future son in law, based on the law of revenge, her husband-to-be is supposed to take revenge for her. Since the man loves the woman immensely, he listened while she explained the killing of her father. At the end, he realized that it was him who killed her father. The tradition, laws, and his profound love for her, led him to take revenge for her by killing himself. Like I said, revenge was something that Islam has changed in the Arabian Peninsula’s communities. The year that the Prophet (PBUH) was born, marked the end of a brutal 40 year war that erupted between cousins, who were the kings of the two biggest tribes of the time. Thousands of innocent people were killed and displaced due to this war, which was inflamed by an inherited misconception of revenge.