Thread by @piousdeenn

The Arabic word for "jinn" and the Arabic word for "baby" come from the same root.
So does "paradise." So does "madness." So does "shield." So does "heart."

Three letters. ج - ن - ن
One meaning: hidden.
Let me show you how deep this goes.

The root j-n-n (ج-ن-ن) means "to conceal."
Every word that grows from it is something hidden from you in some way.
Hidden from your eyes. Hidden from your reach. Hidden from your understanding.Arabic took one idea and built an entire universe around it.

Jinn (الجن).
Arabic didn't call them spirits. Didn't call them demons.
It called them "the hidden ones." That's the name. That's the definition. They exist. You can't see them. So Arabic named them after the only thing you need to know about them: they are concealed from you.

Janeen (جنين). A fetus.
Hidden inside the womb. Alive but invisible. Growing but unreachable.
Arabic gave an unborn baby the same root as the jinn. Not because they're related. But because both are real and both are hidden from you. One hides behind the unseen world. The other hides behind skin and bone.

Jannah (جنة). Paradise.
But the word originally means a garden so dense with trees that the ground beneath disappears.
You're covered. Surrounded. Hidden from everything that could reach you. Arabic named the greatest reward in existence after the feeling of being completely concealed from harm.

Junoon (جنون). Madness.
Majnoon (مجنون). The one who lost his mind.
Same root. Still hidden.
When someone loses their reason, Arabic didn't say the mind is gone. It said the mind is concealed. Still there. Just hidden. Arabic didn't call a madman broken. It called him someone whose mind is buried where no one can reach it.
Even in madness, this language chose mercy over judgment.

Junnah (جُنّة). A shield. Not a weapon. A concealer. It hides the body behind it.
Janaan (جَنان). A poetic word for the heart. Why? Because the most important part of you is hidden the deepest inside you.
"Jannahu al-layl" (جنّه الليل). "The night concealed him." Even darkness in Arabic is an act of hiding. The night doesn't just fall. It covers.

Three more words. Same root. Same truth. Everything important is hidden.

Three letters. One root.
The beings you can't see.
The baby you can't reach.
The paradise you can't enter yet.
The mind you can't find.
The shield that covers you.
The heart buried in your chest.
The night that wraps the world.

All hidden. All j-n-n (ج-ن-ن). All connected inside three letters that Arabic planted over a thousand years ago.

This is why I fell in love with Arabic. One root and suddenly seven different words make sense together.

Via: @geebereal99