Abawan (the two parents)

Abawan is the dual of father. Literally it means a father and a mother; figuratively it can mean a grandfather and a grandmother, as in one verse of Surat Yusuf. It is also used of a father and a mother together, by generalization, and this is its most common use. ^{1 2}

Jurists use the word as the language does. When it appears without qualification in a will, an endowment, a grant of safe conduct, an accusation of slander or similar act, it means the father and the mother. A verbal sign can show a figurative sense, as when someone bequeaths to "my two parents" who are his grandfather and paternal uncle; a situational sign can do the same, as when someone has no father or mother, only a grandfather and a grandmother. ²