Glossary
Terms as used in the episode and on this site, in English and Arabic. The chapter where each term matters most is linked in the last column.
From the episode
| Term | Arabic | Meaning | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decree (qadar) | القَدَر | What God has written for a person before it happens. The first of the three truths: a crisis was written before you were created. | 1 |
| Capacity (wus') | الوُسع | What a person can bear. "God does not burden a soul beyond its capacity." | 1 |
| Rebroadcast | إعادة البث | The guest's image for life: for God it is the second showing, for us the first, so the score will not change while we watch. | 1 |
| Test (ibtila') | الابتلاء | Hardship understood as a trial built into life on earth, not as a sign of being unloved. | 2 |
| Patience (sabr) | الصبر | Enduring a hardship without protest, even while it burns inside. The second of the four levels. | 4 |
| Decrease (naqs) | النقص | The first of two laws: every pleasure, trip and evening ends, and even what lasts loses its shine. | 3 |
| Conflict (sira') | الصراع | The second law: people clash everywhere, from states to families and marriages. | 3 |
| Discontent and panic (sukht, jaza') | السخط والجزع | The lowest level of receiving a crisis: anger at what was decreed, "Why me?" | 4 |
| Contentment (rida) | الرضا | Accepting what God chose out of trust in Him. It lives alongside sadness and rules out protest. | 7 |
| Gratitude (shukr, imtinan) | الشكر / الامتنان | The highest level: seeing a gift even in the hardship, and thanking God daily for what remains. | 9 |
| The hidden good (al-khira) | الخِيرة | The good in what was decreed. It does not walk beside the crisis but comes "hiding behind" it, later. | 5 |
| Complaint (shakwa) | الشكوى | To people, it renews the pain; to God, it is the complaint of the prophets. | 6 |
| Venting (fadfada) | الفضفضة | Unburdening yourself, allowed with one or two people who have sound judgment and keep secrets. | 6 |
| Reward and burden (ajr, wizr) | الأجر والوِزر | Umar's two options: the decree passes either way, with reward if you are patient, with a burden if not. | 7 |
| Comparison | المقارنة | "The door to misery" when it is unfair: upwards, on one detail, at a low moment. | 8 |
| Gifts, not rights (hibat, huquq) | هبات لا حقوق | Blessings are gifts; treating them as rights makes every loss feel like theft. | 8 |
| Social disconnection media | وسائل التقاطع الاجتماعي | The guest's name for social media, which can pull people apart while it seems to connect them. | 8 |
| Permanence of circumstances (dawam al-hal) | دوام الحال | The false belief that a hard time will last forever. | 8 |
| Psychological balance | التوازن النفسي | What a friend can help restore in a crisis, by listening, not criticising and keeping the other's dignity. | 10 |
| Health, the hidden crown | العافية المُلك الخفي | Health is a hidden treasure: only those who lose it know its worth. | 10 |
| Psychological fragility | الهشاشة النفسية | Breaking over small things, often because the interpretation is bigger than the event. | 11 |
| Acceptance, not surrender | التقبّل لا الاستسلام | Accepting a situation inwardly while still working to change it. | 11 |
| Toil (kabad) | الكَبَد | "We created man in toil": hardship is part of human nature. | 11 |
| Life's circles | دوائر الحياة | Work, friends, health, hobbies and free time, kept apart so a crisis in one does not flood the rest. | 12 |
From psychology
These terms are not used in the episode. The site uses them in "The idea, explained" to connect the guest's advice with research.
| Term | Arabic | Meaning | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acceptance | التقبّل | Separating what can no longer be changed from what can, and spending effort only on the second. | 1, 11 |
| Post-traumatic growth | النمو بعد الصدمة | Positive change some people report after a hard event: closer ties, new priorities, a sense of strength. | 1 |
| Resilience | المرونة النفسية | Coping well with adversity. Some adversity seems to build it more than none. | 2 |
| Hedonic adaptation | التكيّف مع المتعة | Getting used to good things, so their pleasure fades back to your usual level. | 3 |
| Perpetual problems | الخلافات الدائمة | Recurring disagreements rooted in temperament, to be managed rather than won. | 3 |
| Benefit finding | اكتشاف الفوائد | Noticing real benefits that followed a hardship. | 5 |
| Co-rumination | الاجترار المشترك | Talking a problem over again and again with someone, without moving towards a solution. | 6 |
| Chronic stress | الضغط المزمن | Long-lasting stress, which wears the immune system down; brief stress does not. | 7 |
| Social comparison | المقارنة الاجتماعية | Judging our own lives by looking at others'. | 8 |
| Three good things | ثلاثة أشياء جميلة | Writing down three good things each evening, and why they happened. | 9 |
| Outcome bias | انحياز النتيجة | Judging a decision by how it turned out rather than by what was known when it was made. | 10 |
| Rumination | الاجترار | Dwelling on a problem; it prolongs low mood. | 12 |
| Mental subtraction | الطرح الذهني | Imagining a good thing gone, which makes you value it more. | 12 |
| Self-compassion | التعاطف مع الذات | Speaking to yourself with the kindness you would show a friend. | 12 |