Definition
The phrase means "O ". Literally, the word Yā means O (a vocative, signifying a direct address to a person). It is a common prefix used by Arabs to call each other. Someone named Zaid will be addressed in Arabic as Yā Zaid.
The word "Ya" with Muhammad, Ali, Hussain etc., is used by the Shia and Sunni Muslims who seek intercession. The only Muslim group who do not use it are the Salafi Group who are sometimes also referred as Khawarij group.
Read more about this topic: Ya Muhammad
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“... if, as women, we accept a philosophy of history that asserts that women are by definition assimilated into the male universal, that we can understand our past through a male lens—if we are unaware that women even have a history—we live our lives similarly unanchored, drifting in response to a veering wind of myth and bias.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“The definition of good prose is proper words in their proper places; of good verse, the most proper words in their proper places. The propriety is in either case relative. The words in prose ought to express the intended meaning, and no more; if they attract attention to themselves, it is, in general, a fault.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“Although there is no universal agreement as to a definition of life, its biological manifestations are generally considered to be organization, metabolism, growth, irritability, adaptation, and reproduction.”
—The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, the first sentence of the article on “life” (based on wording in the First Edition, 1935)