Study Qur'anic Words in Qur'anic Context: Qur'an Concordance via Roots, Patterns, Letters

The Qur'an defends itself. Qur'anic Context is the best way to test the interpreted meanings of Qur'anic Words. How to use Qur'anic Context?

1. Qur'an Concordance based on Roots

The steps involved in this type of Qur'an Concordance are:

• Identify and write the roots for Qur'anic Words.
• Arrange same root words together.
• Split the different words from the same root.
• Identify the singulars for broken plurals and write the roots. (Singular for sound plurals and dual are almost always understood)
• Identify and list Aayaat for each root, sorted further under different words from the same root with the particular word highlighted in different color in each Ayah. The Aayaat containing the plurals of a word are then to be listed after listing all the Aayaat with their singular.
• Though Roots cannot be assigned for most of the particles, particles concordance should also be part of this type of concordance. For particles, arrangement and listing of Aayaat can be done based on the different usage categories of the particles.
• Similarly proper names should also be included in this type of concordance. In short, every Qur'anic Word or Particle should be part of this concordance.

Multiple people have already done work on Qur'an Concordance based on Roots. Examples are provided at the end of this post.

2. Qur'an Concordance based on Patterns

The steps involved in this type of Qur'an Concordance are:

• Identify and write the patterns for Qur'anic Words.
• Identify the singulars for broken plurals and write the patterns for both the singular and the broken plural. The Aayaat containing the plurals of a word are then to be listed after listing all the Aayaat with the singular.
• Identify and list Aayaat for each pattern, sorted further under roots i.e. list all instances of the pattern for 1 root and then the next and so on,  with the particular word highlighted in different color in each Ayah.
• Particles and proper names should be part of this type of concordance also for completion.

Apparently, only the owner of Revive Arabic Blog i.e. I have done this type of concordance work so far and I have offered it for free download on Qur'an Concordance : Roots - Patterns - Letters

3. Qur'an Concordance based on Letters

This is an extension of Root based concordance.
The steps involved in this type of concordance are
Start from Root Based Concordance and arrange roots along with their derived words, based on the following sorting orders :

• Common letters: Lists roots with common root letters in 1st 3 locations i.e. different roots formed using the same 3 letters, but in different order. 
• F3L: Lists roots sorted according to root letter of ف then ع then ل
• L3F: Lists roots sorted according to root letter of ل then ع then ف
• 3LF: Lists roots sorted according to root letter of ع then ل then ف
• FL3: Lists roots sorted according to root letter of ف then ل then ع
• 3FL: Lists roots sorted according to root letter of ع then ف then ل
• LF3: Lists roots sorted according to root letter of ل then ف then ع

Apparently, only the owner of Revive Arabic Blog i.e. I have done this type of concordance so far and I have offered it for free download on Qur'an Concordance : Roots - Patterns - Letters

Examples of Root Based Concordance

3 Concordance books are available in Arabic Almanac and 1st book of 3 book set from this book is also planned to be added inshaALLAH! . Concordance of Particles is available in Arabic Particles tool in the book for which the code is mentioned there as hr. In addition to these, Arabic Roots Tool allows a user to see Qur'an Concordance based on roots in Qur'anic Arabic Corpus, Furqan, Qur'an Wikipedia and al Qur'an eu. In addition to these, free roots based concordance PDF is also part of Qur'an Concordance : Roots - Patterns - Letters .

More Types of Qur'an Concordance: 

• Qur'an Semantic Word Domain Concordance, previously called Qur'an Synonyms Concordance. Project was successfully completed in July 2018. See: Qur'an Concordance : Roots - Patterns - Letters for PDFs and introduction. 


• Qur'an Word Set Concordance, A new idea recently introduced by me based on repeated Aayaat and repeated Word Sets data. Qur'an Word Set Concordance PDF was launched on Qur'an Concordance : Roots - Patterns - Letters in July 2018. 

Islamic Ideas Series
Last edited : 6th August 2018

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?

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)

Free for All Islamic Books in PDF and other formats (Islamic Ideas)

Islamic books should be available free for all in PDF and other formats.

How to achieve this?

The funding for making the books free for all:

The funding can be collected via donations and given to the author. Collection and handing over of this funding to the author can most effectively be done by Muslim organizations or scholars already having a large following. But to avoid making this a monopoly of any scholar or organization, this should be a method which can be used by multiple Muslims or organizations simultaneously.
RSEI concept is that any and every Muslim can and should play his role depending on his intentions, efforts, skills, reach etc. in the research, spread and establishment of Islam. This idea impacts the research and spread parts.

Suggested Formats:

• PDF for laptop / PC reading, that can also be printed if required.
• PDF for mobile reading. This PDF should be made on a smaller page size with larger text to page size ratio. This should be done preserving all formatting and images and fonts etc. 
• Internet format i.e. accessing the book via a website. 
• Proprietary formats like Kindle, Nook etc. are not recommended. 

Useful books published already: 

Authors should be contacted to decide a funding amount or their price for making their book free for all, and then the book should be offered officially for free access via PDF and other formats. 

New books not yet published: 

Instead of getting a royalty percentage via publishing physically or electronically, which is often a smaller percentage as compared to the publisher, authors can set a reasonable funding price for offering the book for free access online in PDF and other formats. 

• Before publishing the new book, author can set a required funding price for publishing the book online freely. After collecting the required funding, he can publish the book for free.
• Or after publishing the book for free, the author can request the required funding price for offering the book free for all.
• In addition to allowing free download, author may offer printed version also via some POD (print on demand) publisher at a reasonable price.

Free Books for Hereafter reward only

Authors can invest in the hereafter solely by offering their works for free download without any demand for funding. This depends on financial strength of the author and his ability to continue allocating the required time to be able to generate the books. People have differing opinions on this, but impact is obvious. If, for example, via funding model, a skilled author may write 10 useful books but by pure spare time or hobby style work, he may manage only 1 book. 10 funded books are better for Islam and Muslims. He can even write some books for free while some via funding. Suppose he would have managed to write this 1 book without this funding method, he can still write this 1 book without funding method and generate 9 more books via funding method. 10 vs 1 is just an example , actual ratio may differ based on author, topic, availability of funding etc.  

Importance:

It is very important to convey Islam in a clarifying manner, rather this is a collective responsibility of Muslims,  specially when so much hate material is written against it and there is so much ignorance. Keeping the human factor and the big picture (i.e. situation as a whole) for Islam and Muslims in mind is also important. It should be kept in mind that

• Authors have families to feed also.
• Many readers can't afford books despite wanting to buy.
• Islam should be studied and researched properly giving due time and then these findings should be spread far and wide without any restrictions.

Many Muslims can't afford to buy the books they need. There is no need to restrict free access. Lets make it a win win for authors, donors, and readers.

• Authors can get the required funding from donors. 
• Donors can invest for the hereafter by contributing towards the funding. 
• Readers can learn the material for free and if they can afford, should also contribute towards the required funding for the book.

Extending the above concept

The idea introduced above can also be implemented on Islamic courses, Islamic Apps, and Islamic Videos etc.

Islamic Ideas Series

(This post last edited: 13 July 2017)