Hand representations in Arab and Western culture

Dr..

Kamal Abdul Malik

December 09, 2022

In Arabic, the hand is from everything: its handle, and the hand is from the garment and the like: its sleeve;

The hand indicates authority and power.

And when the Arabs say, “They are a hand on others,” it means that they are united in agreement.

“So-and-so came out from under his hand” means he brought him out, taught him, and nurtured him.

and a long-handed man, that is, generous;

As a long-sold, and used by the general public in the sense of embezzlement;

And he walked in front of him, i.e. in front of him.

And so-and-so has white hands on me: He has blessings and favours.

and the white hand: grace and benevolence;

He has the longest hand: the owner of the greatest and greatest credit.

In Arab culture, the hand represents strength and protection, as well as generosity, hospitality, and stability. The act of “shaking hands” in Arab and Western societies symbolizes greeting and friendship.

The most beautiful description of the mind is the metaphor of the hand by the philosopher Zeno the Stoic (died 262 BC): the mind is like an open hand, so he says, “Perception is like this.”

He would close his fingers a little and say, clasping his fingers and pointing at his fist, “Understanding is like this,” then he would clasp his fist with his other hand and say, “Knowledge is like this.”

Most people use the right hand, so what does the left hand symbolize?

The left is traditionally associated with vulnerability, negativity, and the feminine, lunar principle.

It is important to note that these associations are from a Western point of view.

In the East, the symbolic values ​​of the left and the right are very different.

So what does the left hand mean spiritually?

This term is used in the occult and equates the left path with malevolent black magic or black shamanism, while the right path with benevolent white magic.

The symbol of the hand with its five fingers is also popularly known as “five and five”.

The five is usually shaped like a hand with thumbs on both sides, and not in the anatomically correct way.

Although it is widely used by Jews and Muslims, its origins predate both religions and are attributed to the goddess Tanit, who was a Phoenician deity worshiped as the patron deity of Carthage.

The five are used to ward off the evil eye and can be found at the entrances of homes.

It is also common to place other symbols in the center of the five that are believed to help against the evil eye such as fish, eyes and the color blue, or more specifically light blue.

It is common among the public in Arab societies to believe that “scratching the insides of the right hand means the arrival of good and money to its owner, and the left hand means upcoming evil.”

And when I asked my friends who are experts and dermatologists about this, their answer was with a smile: Itchy hands are the result of nerve irritation or exposure of the skin to external stimuli such as heat, and it does not mean that whoever suffers from it will get rich.

And our saying “one hand does not clap” means that the hand alone is unable to perform an action, and from here the hand takes another social and moral concept, which is the concept of cooperation between people. 

Visiting scholar at Harvard University

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