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Today: consumption kills eco-systems; fraud, greed, grand larceny and theft bring down world's finances; deceit, infidelity and instant gratification destroy families; murders and wars have left us without peace or stability. On top we have droughts, earthquakes, floods, storms, tsunamis … has the world gone mad! Submit now to Allah before it is too late - to the One and Only God, the Creator, Lord and Sustainer of the universe, Unique in His Person and Actions, without any blemish, weakness or relatives. Follow the Sunnah of Muhammad (the last Messenger and Prophet - upon whom be the peace and blessings of Allah), and join those who will be the really successful ones.

see end of page for buttoned useful links

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Mesbahul Quran: مصباح القرأن

The organisation baitul Quran has more publications than the ones shown on its website: bait-ul-quran.org

These are for understanding the Quran without using terminology of Arabic Grammar. The language of teaching is Urdu. There are two main publications:

1. meftahul Quran, which describes the function of various indicators (alamaat) in a word, and how each indicator is used in the Quranic Arabic. The indicator (alamat) is shown in red.

  • Black is used for Quran words that are also used (in original or derived form) in Urdu, hence an Urdu user is familiar with these words. These comprise approximately 65% of the Quranic words.
  • Blue is used for those Arabic words that are not used in Urdu, but are very frequently used in the Quran. This frequency makes it possible to remember them with their meanings.
  • Red is used for those words that are quite new for Urdu users, and need to be learnt with some effort. These are about 15% of the words in the Quran.

2. mesbahul Quran, which is a series of Quran juzz (paras) in three colors. One the left page:

On the opposing page the words are broken up in boxes, using three colors:
  • Red for using one indicator (alamat)
  • Blue for a second indicator (alamat) if used in the same word
  • Black for the normal remaining portion of the word.
Thus composition of each word is clearly visible in different colors.  The translation follows the same colors.

After the understand Quran short course  (levels 1 and 2), I am now going for reading the Quran with the help of these publications. Classes will start on Feb 8th, inshalllah. Although I am still struggling with levels 1 and 2, this level 3 will inshallah allow me to make an effort for covering the previous levels as well.

Allah's Quran and tanzil.info

Allah's Quran



and tanzil.info are two sites that provide the Quran is various Arabic scripts/fonts, translations of the meanings, recitations, searches, etc. Admittedly these are also provided by many other sites, some with a greater variety than in these two sites. However, an attractive feature of these two is search by roots.

There is a database of roots on both these sites. By selecting a root and hitting the search button, one gets the ayahs containing words derived from these roots. These words are displayed in red. The tanzil.info site also has other refined search capabilities.

The Quran Corpus

The Quran Corpus is an annotated linguistic resource which shows the Arabic grammar, syntax and morphology for each word in the Holy Quran. Clicking on an Arabic word shows details of the word's grammar, or a correction may be suggested. One of the features is the Quranic Syntactic Treebank. An example is given below:





Another example is:

Friday, January 29, 2010

Understand Quran the easy way

understandquran.com claims to teach most of the Arabic of the Quran (more than 70% words) without using too much grammatical terms, in 52 lessons. Two supporting sites provide practice of the 80% words and are:

Previous claims were for more than 80% words, hence the names of these two supporting sites.
    understandquran.com uses modern methods of teaching: audio, video, powerpoint presentations and printed or pdf files for the lessons. The key is total physical interaction, and frequent revision until one has a fair grasp.

    The short course, comprises two participatory sessions of 10-12 hours each. Level-1 covers 25 lessons. Similar hours are needed in Level-2 for the remaining 27 lessons. These can be broken down into sessions of lesser durations (e.g. 20-30 minutes for one lesson), for those who find the intensity overwhelming. The level-1 course was initially conducted in Ramadan this way, and now has been offered in several places over weekends as intensive sessions.

    The Basic course contains 50 main lessons, of 25 minutes duration each. 10 revision lessons follow the main ones. It is the older course, which had a book and CDs with it containing wmv files featuring Dr AbdulAziz AbdurRaheem teaching the course. It formed the basis for division (with some modifications) into the level 1 and 2 short courses.

    Short course levels 1 and 2 also have books and powerpoint presentations and are much improved versions, but any wmv files they have are not to my liking. The short course level 1 is being taught on peacetv. In Pakistan it is currently being aired at 11:30 pm. Here is a mention of this on the peactv site:

    Aao Qur'an Samjhein
    IST 22:30 23:00
    KSA 20:00 20:30

    http://www.peacetvurdu.org/our_speakers.htm

    I haven't so far seen this on TV, but if you want to watch PEACE TV tune into anyone
    of the following :-

    INTELSAT 10 (PAS 10)

    Position: 68.5 East,
    Frequency: 4116,
    Symbol Rate: 8145,
    FEC: 3/4,
    Polarization - Vertical.
    Reach: Asia, Middle East,
    Australia and Africa

    If you possess a personal Private Dish then please tune into above new frequency, alternately request your cable operator or DTH provider to include 'Peace TV' and mention them they are absolutely free to air channels.

    Here is a page showing a verb conjugation template.

    Saturday, January 16, 2010

    more massacre of children by US mercenaries

    Were Afghan Children Executed By US-led Forces?Why Aren't The Media Interested?

    By Media Lens

    January 16, 2010 "Media Lens" -- Ignoring or downplaying Western crimes is a standard feature of the corporate Western media. On rare occasions when a broadcaster or newspaper breaks ranks and reports 'our' crimes honestly, it is instructive to observe the response from the rest of the media. Do they follow suit, perhaps digging deeper for details, devoting space to profiles of the victims and interviews with grieving relatives, humanising all concerned? Do they put the crimes in perspective as the inevitable consequence of rapacious Western power? Or do they look away?
     One such case is a report that American-led troops dragged Afghan children from their beds and shot them during a night raid on December 27 last year,


    Wednesday, January 13, 2010

    CIA and Xe Corporation (Blackwater)!

    WILL THE REAL CIA PLEASE STAND UP?

    By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

    Were the seven CIA employees killed in the recent terror attack at Camp Chapman in Afghanistan really CIA? Sources now tell us that some were Blackwater operatives, not CIA at all.

    Is the CIA and Blackwater one in the same? Are either one or both working for the United States or has the disease of privatization created a culture of greed and incompetence that has left the United States vulnerable and defenseless? Are we simply "out of our depth" in Afghanistan?


    Saturday, January 09, 2010

    Don't they know you can't kill CIA officers?

    CIA Killings Spell Defeat In Afghanistan

    By Douglas Valentine

    January 08, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- Why?

    “Why?” The grieving family members ask. “Why did the terrorists kill our loved ones?”

    The hardnosed colleagues of the four fallen CIA officers comfort the wives and children (and one husband). They shake off their sorrow, huddle together by the graves, and vow vengeance. They bathe themselves in their seething anger like it was the blood of the lamb.

    Why? The American public and its officials ask. Why? The media repeats, adding in shock and awe, “Don’t the terrorists know that you can’t kill CIA officers?”

    Why, everyone wonders, did a Jordanian suicide bomber target the CIA, knowing that the wrath of the biggest, baddest, bloodthirstiest Gang on Planet Earth is going to start dropping bombs and slitting throats until its lust for death and suffering is satisfied?

    Over the course of its sixty year reign of terror, in which it has overthrown countless governments, started countless wars costing countless lives, and otherwise subverted and sabotaged friends and foes alike, the CIA has lost less than 100 officers.

    On a good day, one CIA drone, and one CIA hit team, kills 100 innocent women and children, and nobody bats an eye.

    ...

    Don't they know you can't kill CIA officers?

    Friday, January 08, 2010

    America's War With Muslim Nations

    by Ghali Hassan
    30 June, 2009

    Countercurrents.org

    “The sooner the extremists are isolated and unwelcome in Muslim communities, the sooner we will all be safer”.
    U.S. President Barack Obama, Cairo, June 04, 2009.

    According to U.S. leaders and their Zionist handlers, the term “extremist” is any nation or movement resisting U.S.-Israel domination and murderous ideology is defamed and deemed extremist. Whether in Afghanistan, in Iraq or in Pakistan, the extremists are part of the U.S. strategy to justify wars of aggression.



    The Muslim world is not, repeat not, at war with the West. It is the West that is at war with Muslim nations. Neither Afghanistan nor Iraq attacked the U.S. and its allies.


    Wednesday, January 06, 2010

    Banned by confused Muslimah

    I have just been banned from jannah.org forum

    Of late the sweet young lady running that forum has been turning into an apologist for US special status claims.

    Well, she is welcome to this freedom. However, such freedom is not available to dissenters on her forum, not any more.

    I don't grudge her this banning. Life in non-Muslim countries is harsh for Muslims, with the media and society and agencies all ballistic about the Islamic threat (!). Muslims engaged in Dawah work cannot tolerate the view that non-Muslim militaries and intelligence agencies are fair targets. It makes them susceptible to charges of unpatriotic and subversive attitudes.

    Good luck to jannah and her efforts to survive in the jungle that is the United States of America.

    Now about the confused part:

    This is not about ABCD or BBCD - American Born or British Born Confused Desis. Those are outdated terms.

    This is about those Muslims who confuse Jihad with Terrorism.