Core Glossary
Core Glossary
translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.
Composition
The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the risks identified in Culture Analysis and Comparative Theology. Every term entry records:
- The approved Urdu translation (Perso-Arabic script) and transliteration
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons — including, where relevant, which specific Islamic technical term is being avoided and why
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice, including cases where the approved term is itself shared with Islamic theological vocabulary and requires contrastive teaching rather than substitution
Governing principles
- Follow established Urdu Christian Bible precedent where it exists — proper names and core terms (خدا, یسوع, خداوند, مسیح) follow the Urdu Bible Society tradition rather than inventing new renderings.
- Distinguish shared-vocabulary risk from forbidden-substitution risk. Some terms (نجات, روح القدس, مسیح) cannot be avoided because they are the only recognizable words for the concept and are also live Islamic theological terms; these require contrastive teaching, not substitution. Other terms (کافر, اسلام, دعوت, تبلیغ) are avoidable and are avoided outright because a safer alternative exists and is equally recognizable.
- Explicit rejection with reasoning, not silent avoidance — every Critical-risk term records why a tempting alternative is wrong or risky (see
alternatives_rejected), citing the specific Qur’anic verse or Islamic doctrine where relevant, so a translator or reviewer understands the reasoning rather than just following a rule. - Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document (see the AI Translation Requirements’ Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions).
Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry
Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects, and from there to the specific Qur’anic verse or Islamic theological doctrine the doctrine registry names as the source of the collision.
Critical Risk Terms
Father
Approved rendering: باپ
Transliteration: bāp
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
God as personal Father. This title itself, independent of ‘Son of God’ language, is generally understood by Muslim readers as metaphorical/relational rather than as a literal begetting claim, and carries substantially less of the shirk-collision risk that ‘Son of God’ does; still best introduced with brief relational framing rather than assumed to carry identical connotations to its use in Christian devotional culture generally.
God
Approved rendering: خدا
Transliteration: k͟hudā
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: اللہ
CRITICAL: this glossary follows the established Urdu Christian Bible tradition of using خدا (Khuda, a Persian-origin word meaning ‘self-existing one,’ theologically neutral and pre-Islamic in origin) rather than اللہ (Allah, the Qur’anic Arabic name for God, carrying the full weight of the Islamic theological system — tawhid, the 99 names, and specific denials such as the rejection of the Trinity and of divine sonship). Usage varies across the wider Urdu-speaking Christian world and translators should be aware some Pakistani and Indian Urdu Bible editions do use اللہ, arguing correctly that Arabic-speaking Christians have always used Allah for God without contradiction; this Language Package nonetheless follows the Khuda tradition specifically to keep this curriculum’s Trinitarian and Christological claims from being heard as claims about the Qur’anic Allah with a different label, which risks either immediate rejection as blasphemous or false assimilation to Islamic theology proper.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: روح القدس
Transliteration: rūḥ al-qudus
Doctrine: Sanctification
CRITICAL AND UNUSUAL: روح القدس is not merely similar to a Quranic phrase, it IS a Quranic phrase (e.g. Qur’an 2:87, 2:253, 16:102), traditionally identified in mainstream Islamic exegesis (tafsir) with the angel Jibreel (Gabriel), not as a distinct, co-equal, and co-eternal third Person of the Trinity. This is a genuinely shared-term problem structurally similar to Konkani’s देव and Sanskrit’s आत्मा: no alternative word avoids the collision, because روح القدس is also the established Urdu Christian Bible term and the only phrase readers will recognize as referring to God’s Spirit at all. This term must never appear without a note affirming the Holy Spirit’s full, co-equal divine personhood, distinct from any created angelic being — a distinction Islamic theology’s own use of the same phrase specifically forecloses.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: منسوب راستبازی
Transliteration: mansūb rāstbāzī
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: کمائی ہوئی راستبازی
Credited/attributed righteousness from God, NOT righteousness achieved through personal piety or deeds weighed at judgment (کمائی ہوئی, ‘earned,’ is explicitly rejected, as is any framing that assimilates this to the Islamic deeds-and-mercy judgment model).
Incarnation
Approved rendering: مجسم ہونا
Transliteration: mujassam honā
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: اوتار
CRITICAL: اوتار (avatar, a Sanskrit loanword occasionally seen in South Asian religious discourse generally) is rejected as inapplicable and potentially confusing for an Urdu-speaking, primarily Muslim-background audience; the operative risk category for Urdu is not avatar theology but tawhid’s absolute insistence that God does not take on created form or human nature (Qur’an 112). مجسم ہونا (‘taking bodily form’) must be taught, every time, alongside an explicit acknowledgment that this claim is itself contested by Islamic theology, rather than presented as an uncontroversial description.
Jesus
Approved rendering: یسوع
Transliteration: yasū’
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: عیسیٰ
CRITICAL AND DISTINCT FROM EVERY OTHER LANGUAGE IN THIS BATCH: unlike Hindi, where ईसा (Isa) is a minority/Muslim-register option next to the Christian-majority यीशु, in Urdu عیسیٰ (Isa) IS the majority, default name for Jesus for most readers, since it is the Qur’an’s own name for him (e.g. Qur’an 3:45) and is used throughout Islamic tradition. The established Urdu Christian Bible tradition instead uses یسوع (Yasu’, transliterated from the Aramaic/Greek via Syriac Christian usage) specifically to signal the fuller New Testament portrait of Christ — eternal Son, crucified and risen — distinct from the Qur’anic Isa, a prophet and messenger who Islamic theology holds was neither crucified nor divine. This curriculum uses یسوع مسیح (Yasu’ Masih) consistently. Because Isa is the default rather than a minority option here, translators must never assume familiarity with Yasu’ and should introduce the name with a brief clarifying note at first occurrence in any new document.
Justification
Approved rendering: راستباز ٹھہرایا جانا
Transliteration: rāstbāz ṭhahrāyā jānā
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: معافی پانا
Compound phrase required; no single Urdu word carries the forensic ‘declared righteous’ sense. معافی پانا (obtaining forgiveness) names only the removal of guilt, not the positive crediting of righteousness, and also risks assimilation to the Islamic understanding of divine forgiveness (maghfirah) as granted directly by Allah’s mercy weighed against deeds, without a mediating atonement.
Lord
Approved rendering: خداوند
Transliteration: k͟hudāvand
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: مالک, آقا
خداوند is the established Urdu Christian Bible term for ‘Lord,’ built on خدا (see ‘god’ entry) plus an honorific suffix, and is distinguishable from Quranic Arabic vocabulary. In Romans 10:9 the confession renders as ‘یسوع خداوند ہے.’ Must convey exclusive, supreme Lordship — never softened to ‘a master/authority’ (آقا), which lacks the divine-title weight required.
Messiah
Approved rendering: مسیح
Transliteration: masīḥ
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
مسیح (‘Messiah/Christ’) is shared vocabulary: the Qur’an itself calls Isa ‘al-Masih’ (e.g. Qur’an 3:45), but without the Old Testament messianic-fulfillment content Paul assumes, and explicitly without divine sonship or atoning death. The shared name is retained (it is the established Urdu Christian Bible term and matches the Qur’an’s own usage), but this curriculum must be explicit that the content behind the title — the Anointed One who is God’s eternal Son, who died and rose again — goes well beyond what the Quranic use of the same title affirms.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: قیامت
Transliteration: qiyāmat
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: پنر جنم
CRITICAL AND DISTINCT FROM EVERY OTHER LANGUAGE IN THIS BATCH: unlike the vernacular Hindu-context languages, Islam does NOT deny bodily resurrection — qiyamat (the general resurrection of all people for judgment) is a core, affirmed Islamic doctrine. The risk here is therefore not denial but conflation: Christ’s own historical, unique resurrection (that he alone has already been raised, bodily, ahead of and as the guarantee of the general resurrection) must be clearly distinguished from the single end-times qiyamat all humanity still awaits. Use قیامت for Christ’s resurrection only with an explicit qualifying note (‘مُردوں میں سے جی اُٹھنا،’ ‘rising from among the dead,’ already ahead of the general resurrection); پنر جنم (a Sanskrit-derived rebirth/reincarnation term) is rejected as inapplicable to this audience’s frame of reference.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: راستبازی
Transliteration: rāstbāzī
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: نیکی, تقویٰ
CRITICAL: تقویٰ (taqwa, God-consciousness/piety) is rejected as the primary rendering because it names a whole Quranic ethical-spiritual disposition achieved through obedience and God-consciousness, not a status granted through faith apart from works. راستبازی (‘being in the right, uprightness’) is the established Urdu Christian Bible term and must be explicitly taught as right standing before God received through faith, not personal piety achieved.
Salvation
Approved rendering: نجات
Transliteration: najāt
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: مکتی
CRITICAL: نجات is the established Urdu Christian Bible term, but it is also the ordinary Islamic word for deliverance from hell/judgment. In Islamic theology, najat is secured by Allah’s mercy weighed against a person’s deeds at qiyamah (the day of judgment), with no mediating atonement; in this curriculum, najat is deliverance secured entirely through Christ’s atoning death and resurrection. This is a shared-term risk (the same word, two different soteriological mechanisms) rather than a forbidden-substitution risk, and requires explicit contrastive teaching every time it carries doctrinal weight, not a search for a different word. مکتی (a Sanskrit-derived Hindi/Hindu-context term for liberation from rebirth) is rejected outright as inapplicable to an Urdu-speaking audience’s actual religious frame of reference.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: خدا کا بیٹا
Transliteration: k͟hudā kā beṭā
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ابن اللہ
CRITICAL — THE SINGLE MOST DOCTRINALLY EXPLOSIVE TERM IN THIS LANGUAGE PACKAGE: ‘Son of God,’ rendered ابن اللہ (ibn Allah) or خدا کا بیٹا, is heard by a Muslim reader as a direct claim of shirk (associating a partner/offspring with God), the one sin the Qur’an states Allah does not forgive (Qur’an 4:48, 4:116) and a direct contradiction of tawhid (Qur’an 112, Surah al-Ikhlas: ‘He begets not, nor is He begotten’). This is not a translation-word problem solvable by choosing a better term — both available renderings carry the same explosive charge in Urdu regardless of phrasing, because the underlying claim itself, not the word chosen for it, is what collides with tawhid. This curriculum’s use of the phrase must always be accompanied by explicit teaching that biblical sonship is not physical or sexual generation (which is precisely what the Qur’an denies) but eternal, relational, and unique — a clarification necessary here in a way no other language in this pipeline requires with this degree of urgency.
High Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: ابّا
Transliteration: abbā
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of filial intimacy preserved in Romans 8:15; retained as a transliteration rather than reduced to formal باپ alone.
Adoption
Approved rendering: لے پالک بنانا
Transliteration: le-pālak banānā
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Note for reviewers: formal adoption in the Western legal sense (a child fully taking the adopting family’s lineage and name) is a notably sensitive topic in Islamic law, which restricts changing a child’s lineage-name and inheritance status (based on Qur’an 33:4-5); this curriculum’s use of adoption imagery for the believer’s standing before God should be framed relationally (full sonship, full inheritance in God’s family) rather than assumed to map onto any existing Islamic legal category, since none matches.
Called
Approved rendering: بلایا گیا
Transliteration: bulāyā gayā
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: دعوت دی گئی
Context-sensitive: in 1:1, called to apostleship; in 1:7, called to be saints; in 8:28-30, effectual calling to salvation. دعوت (invitation, also the Islamic technical term for the call to Islam, da’wah) is avoided as the primary rendering to prevent conflation with that specific missionary-invitation concept; بلایا گیا (summoned) better captures a sovereign, effectual call.
Calling
Approved rendering: بلاہٹ
Transliteration: bulāhaṭ
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: دعوت
Noun form for the act/state of being called by God, sharing its verb root with ‘called’ for consistency; avoids دعوت for the same da’wah-conflation reason noted above.
Covenant
Approved rendering: عہد
Transliteration: ahd
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: معاہدہ
عہد is the established Urdu Christian Bible term for a solemn, relational covenant (also used of Allah’s covenant with the prophets and humanity in Islamic theology, e.g. Qur’an 7:172’s primordial covenant, giving some genuine bridge value). معاہدہ (a routine bilateral contract/treaty) lacks this relational-covenant weight and is avoided.
Election
Approved rendering: خدا کا انتخاب
Transliteration: k͟hudā kā intik͟hāb
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: تقدیر
تقدیر (taqdir, divine decree/predestination) is a major, precisely debated Islamic theological category in its own right (the classical Ash’ari-Mu’tazila dispute over qadar, divine decree versus human free will); it is avoided as the primary rendering of election specifically because it would import that whole separate debate rather than naming God’s particular gracious choice of specific people for salvation as Romans describes. تقدیر may need to be engaged directly in supporting material on providence (see that entry) but should not double as the word for ‘election.‘
Faith
Approved rendering: ایمان
Transliteration: īmān
Doctrine: Faith
ایمان is shared vocabulary with Islamic theology (belief in Allah, his angels, his books, his messengers, the last day, and divine decree — the six articles of iman) and is not rejected, since it is also the settled Urdu Christian Bible term; however, every occurrence must make the object of faith explicit (trust in Christ specifically), since ایمان’s Islamic usage names assent to a creedal list rather than personal trust in a specific mediator.
Glory
Approved rendering: جلال
Transliteration: jalāl
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
جلال is the established Urdu Christian Bible term for God’s radiant majesty and honor, and is also a recognized divine-attribute-adjacent term in Islamic theology (Allah as Dhu’l-Jalali wa’l-Ikram, ‘Possessor of Majesty and Honor’); this shared vocabulary is retained as a point of genuine linguistic overlap, provided it is always anchored to Christ specifically in context to avoid an unqualified, merely generic reading.
Gospel
Approved rendering: خوش خبری
Transliteration: khush khabrī
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: انجیل شریف کی تعلیم
Established Urdu Christian Bible term (‘good/joyful news’). Distinguish from انجیل (Injil) used alone, which in Quranic usage names a revealed book given to Isa that Islamic theology holds was later lost or corrupted (taḥrīf) — انجیل shریف (‘the noble Injil’) is used by Urdu Christians for the New Testament as Scripture, but ‘gospel’ as the proclaimed message of Christ’s death and resurrection is better carried by خوش خبری to avoid the Islamic-theology baggage of ‘a scripture that was corrupted.‘
Grace
Approved rendering: فضل
Transliteration: faz̤l
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: رحمت, احسان, کرم
فضل is the established Urdu Christian Bible term for unmerited divine favor. رحمت (mercy) is a genuine Quranic divine attribute (al-Rahman, al-Rahim) but in Islamic theology operates alongside a deeds-weighed-at-judgment framework, not apart from merit as Romans requires; رحمت may be used for God’s mercy/compassion generally but not as the primary rendering of grace specifically, to keep the unmerited, apart-from-works sense unambiguous.
Holy
Approved rendering: پاک
Transliteration: pāk
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: طاہر
پاک is the established Urdu Christian Bible term (also familiar from Pakistan’s own name, ‘land of the pure’), meaning set apart for God and morally pure. طاہر leans toward ritual purity in the sense of Islamic wudu/ghusl ablution law (tahara), a legal-ritual purity category distinct from the moral/relational holiness in view here.
Law
Approved rendering: شریعت
Transliteration: sharī’at
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: توریت
شریعت is the established Urdu Christian Bible term for the Mosaic Law, but it is also the central Islamic legal-theological term for the entire body of Allah’s law as revealed through Muhammad — a much broader and differently sourced concept than Torah. توریت (Tawrat, the Quranic name for the revelation given to Musa) is available and more narrowly correct for ‘the Law of Moses’ specifically, and should be preferred in contexts distinguishing the Mosaic covenant from a generic ‘religious law’ sense that شریعت alone could suggest.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: ایمان کی فرمانبرداری
Transliteration: īmān kī farmānbardārī
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: اسلام
Romans 1:5 and 16:26. اسلام (islam, literally ‘submission’) is explicitly avoided as a translation choice despite its literal meaning being close to ‘submission/obedience,’ precisely because the word is now the proper name of a specific religion; using it here would create unavoidable, confusing conflation. فرمانبرداری (obedience/compliance) keeps the sense without the name collision.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: خدا کی قدرت
Transliteration: k͟hudā kī qudrat
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
قدرت (power/omnipotence) is a standard divine-attribute term shared with Islamic theology (Allah as al-Qadir, ‘the All-Powerful’) with no significant syncretism risk; genuinely safe shared vocabulary.
Providence
Approved rendering: خدا کی تدبیر
Transliteration: k͟hudā kī tadbīr
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: تقدیر
تقدیر (taqdir) is avoided as the primary rendering because, per the classical Ash’ari-dominant Sunni consensus, it names a specific, precisely debated doctrine of divine decree that can be popularly received in a stronger predestinarian/fatalistic sense than Romans 8:28’s personal, purposive providence intends to convey; تدبیر (purposive arrangement/management) is preferred to keep the personal-care sense forward, though translators should be aware taqdir-adjacent language may still be the most natural way some readers process this passage, and a clarifying note is recommended.
Saints
Approved rendering: مقدس لوگ
Transliteration: muqaddas log
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: ولی
ولی (wali, ‘friend of God/saint’) names a specific category of especially favored holy person in Sufi and broader Islamic devotional tradition, often associated with shrines (dargah) and intercessory veneration — an elevated-elite category, not every believer. مقدس لوگ (holy/set-apart people) applies corporately to all believers.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: تقدیس
Transliteration: taqdīs
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: پاکیزگی
The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy; established Urdu Christian Bible term, distinct from ritual purification categories in Islamic fiqh (jurisprudence).
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: داؤد کی نسل سے
Transliteration: dā’ūd kī nasl se
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Romans 1:3; conveys physical lineage and OT covenant fulfillment.
Sin
Approved rendering: گناہ
Transliteration: gunāh
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Shared vocabulary with Islamic theology, but with a narrower semantic range than Romans requires: Islamic theology holds each person accountable only for their own individual sins, with no doctrine of inherited Adamic guilt or total depravity (Islam holds humans are born in a state of natural purity, fitrah). گناہ is retained as the correct word for individual wrongdoing, but Romans’ specific claim (all humanity inherits a sin-nature from Adam, not merely commits individual sins) must be explicitly taught as an additional claim گناہ alone does not carry.
Medium Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: رسول
Transliteration: rasūl
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: نبی
رسول is the established Urdu Christian Bible term for a sent, authorized messenger, and is also the Quranic term for a messenger-prophet who receives and delivers a scripture (Muhammad as rasūl Allah being the paradigm case in Islamic theology). This shared vocabulary is retained because it correctly conveys ‘sent with authority,’ but reviewers must ensure it is not read as claiming a Quranic-style scripture-bearing prophetic office identical to Muhammad’s; a clarifying note distinguishing apostolic commissioning by the risen Christ from Quranic prophetic revelation is recommended at first occurrence.
Church
Approved rendering: کلیسیا
Transliteration: kalīsiyā
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: مسجد, امت
Established, transliterated Urdu Christian term for the local congregation. Never مسجد (mosque) or امت (the Islamic global community), both of which import a different religious-institutional structure entirely.
David
Approved rendering: داؤد
Transliteration: dā’ūd
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Established Urdu form, also matching the Qur’an’s own Dawud, a genuine point of shared proper-name recognition.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: غیر قوموں
Transliteration: g͟hair qaumõ
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: کافر
CRITICAL CAUTION: کافر (kafir, ‘unbeliever/infidel’) must never be used for ‘Gentile’ — in Islamic theology this is a sharply pejorative and theologically loaded term for a rejector of Islam specifically, not a neutral ethnic descriptor for ‘non-Jew.’ غیر قوموں (‘other nations/peoples’) is the correct, neutral rendering.
Intercession
Approved rendering: شفاعت
Transliteration: shafā’at
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
شفاعت is shared vocabulary: Islamic theology has its own doctrine of intercession, chiefly Muhammad’s intercession for his community on the day of judgment. This curriculum must make clear that Christ’s intercession (Romans 8:26, 34) is that of the divine Son and Spirit interceding from a position of finished atoning work, not a prophet’s future intercessory plea at judgment — a genuine but instructive point of contrast rather than a forbidden term.
Israel
Approved rendering: اسرائیل
Transliteration: isrā’īl
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Proper name; established form, also recognized in Quranic usage (Bani Isra’il, ‘Children of Israel’).
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: خدا کی بادشاہی
Transliteration: k͟hudā kī bādshāhī
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
God’s sovereign reign; distinguish from a political caliphate-style kingdom concept (khilafat), which carries specific historical and political weight in South Asian Muslim discourse.
Mission
Approved rendering: بشارت کی خدمت
Transliteration: bishārat kī k͟hidmat
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Rejected alternatives: دعوت, تبلیغ
دعوت (da’wah) and تبلیغ (tabligh) are both specific, well-known Islamic technical terms for the call/propagation of Islam; using either for Christian mission would be immediately and specifically recognized as a direct parallel-claim, which is more confusing than clarifying here. بشارت کی خدمت (‘service of the good news’) describes the activity without borrowing Islamic missionary vocabulary.
Peace
Approved rendering: صلح
Transliteration: ṣulḥ
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: سلامتی
In Romans 5:1, relational and forensic peace with God through justification. سلامتی is close in meaning and etymologically related to salaam/Islam’s own root (s-l-m, submission/peace), which can be a useful bridge point, but صلح (a settled peace/reconciliation between two parties) better captures the specifically relational, reconciliation sense Romans 5 requires.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: روحانی نعمتیں
Transliteration: rūḥānī ni’matẽ
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: کرامات
کرامات (karamat) names miraculous favors attributed to Sufi saints/friends of God (awliya) in popular devotional practice, an achieved-status category; روحانی نعمتیں (spiritual blessings/favors) avoids that saint-veneration association and keeps the sense of freely given Spirit-enablement.
Low Risk Terms
Exhort
Approved rendering: نصیحت کرنا
Transliteration: naṣīḥat karnā
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Context-sensitive: use منت سماجت (entreaty) for beseeching; نصیحت کرنا (to admonish/encourage) for building up. نصیحت is also a recognized Islamic ethical-instruction term (advice/counsel), making it comfortably familiar.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: رفاقت
Transliteration: rifāqat
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: امت
امت (ummah, the global Islamic community) is explicitly rejected as too specifically tied to the Islamic communal-religious-political identity concept; رفاقت (companionship/fellowship) names shared participation in Christ without importing that specific institutional concept.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: پیشن گوئی
Transliteration: peshan go’ī
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
God-inspired declaration of what is to come; a standard Urdu term with no major competing sense.
Prophet
Approved rendering: نبی
Transliteration: nabī
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Shared vocabulary with Islamic theology (nabi as a general term for a prophet, distinct from rasul; the Qur’an names many of the same Old Testament figures as prophets). Generally safe, though note that Islamic prophetology holds Muhammad to be the final prophet (khatam an-nabiyyin, Qur’an 33:40, ‘seal of the prophets’) — a claim this curriculum’s material need not directly engage but should be aware of when discussing Old Testament prophetic fulfillment in Christ.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: شکرگزاری
Transliteration: shukr-guzārī
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term, built on شکر (shukr), itself also a significant Quranic virtue (gratitude to Allah); no significant doctrinal risk here since the underlying disposition of gratitude is genuinely shared ground.
Referenced passages