Saturday 22 July 2017

Indexing & Linking Qur'an Ayah by Ayah. Translations, Tafsir, I'rab Books, Lectures & Apps

All Qur'an based books, videos, audios, tools and apps should be instantly accessible for detailed study without spending extra time on navigating.
How to achieve this?
Qur'an Ayah by Ayah Indexing and Linking

A Method Applicable on all the Classical & Contemporary Works:

What method is there that can be applied on all the classical books and also on all the contemporary books, videos, audios, tools and apps based on The Qur'an? A method that allows you to study the portion of the Qur'an you want to study deeper in many of these together.

1. Index The Qur'an based works Ayah by Ayah:

Ayah by Ayah means, indexing each Ayah of The Qur'an with Surah number and Ayah number like  001.001 or 001:001 .
  • For books, index the page number of the PDF or book for each Ayah, i.e. on which page the Ayah can be found, and this has to be done for all the Aayaat. 
  • For audios and videos:
    • Index the lecture number and time in hours:minutes:seconds e.g. 00.02.36 where each Ayah starts.
    • Split the audio or video into sub-videos and sub-audios based on each Ayah individually, i.e. a separate video or audio for each Ayah, named again like the books as 001.001.  
  • For apps and tools, make them such that a user can access any Ayah directly by inputting Surah Number and Ayah number.

2. Upload the book, audio or video, app or tool:

  • For books, upload the book in either streaming format like archive or even better as images named based on Surah number and Ayah number. 
  • For audios and videos, upload on any good server. Again, name the files based on Surah number and Ayah number e.g. 001.001.mp3 or 001.001.mp4 
  • For Apps and Tools, make the tool with embedded data instead of download on demand. With this, the data for each Ayah can be displayed quickly.

3. Make linker pages to access the above Qur'an based works Ayah by Ayah. 

The linker page can take user input e.g. 001.001 to give link to the required page of book or the the required audio or video. Then the reader can click the link to access the page or view, listen to or download the video or audio.

What are the benefits? 

  • This is very important because with this method a user can immediately access, study in depth and research properly any Ayah using many of the available books, audios, videos etc. 
  • Time is short in today's fast pace. Imagine having to navigate through each book to find the Ayah, then reading it. Then opening the next book, repeating this process and so on. With the instant Ayah by Ayah access method, he can focus on the actual study in his chosen material based on the situation. 
  • For audios and videos, he has to listen or view other portion before accessing the Ayah he wants to research. With this method, simply click the required audio or video and start studying

Example: 

Revive Arabic Blog has already done some work on this idea practically with
Qur'an Ayat Navigators and has launched 5 such tools. Qur'an Ayat Navigator 2 is most important as it covers many I'rab works and some other books. An idea for a tool similar to Arabic Almanac is also introduced on this page .

Following Idea is quoted from Using Arabic Almanac :
A Qur'an Research Tool having all important books dealing with Qur'anic Morphology, Qur'anic Syntax, Qur'an Tafsir and other Qur'anic Studies areas, all of which can be studied instantly and together just by inputting Surah number and Ayat number like 001.001 and as a result displaying the relevant pages from all these books together for that like Arabic Almanac. Index a page based on last Ayat on the page. It can be made containing all books used in Qur'an Ayat Navigator 2 which is a PDF tool that can be used till an Arabic Almanac style tool is designed. In 1st stage, only I'raab ul Qur'an books may be targeted for this tool like Arabic Almanac. Indexes and PDFs from Qur'an Ayat Navigator 2 to be used inshaALLAH! ...

Islamic Ideas Series.
(This post last edited: 8-August-2017)