Sunday, 2 May 2021

Concordance Labeling of Qur'anic Words and Aayaat for Comprehensive Online Study and Learning Tool for all

Word Label 2

Above image has 2 subparts, but in some words, there are as many as 5 subparts as in below example
Word label image 2


Below, I give a few more samples for the practical tool:
Word Label Sample

Word Label 5

The basic unit of work could be 1 page of Madinah Mushaf. There are a total of 604 pages in The Madinah Mushaf. Based on this, a suitable cost can be decided per page. Then the total cost of the project can be easily estimated. Total cost of the project = Cost per page x 604. Even if 5 pages are done per week, the project can be done within 121 weeks, i.e. 2 years 4 months and 1 week. If more manpower is deployed, e.g. by allotting different pages to different persons or by splitting the type of labels to be filled on each page by 2 persons based on their expertise level, the speed of the project can be increased further. Here is a sample page of the 604 page Madinah Mushaf. Page is taken from Qur'an Complex

Madinah Mushaf sample page

A better idea is to start from there where the need is most. Exhaustive Morphology data is not available in existing books. This means, 1st step should be to focus on Morphology. Below screenshot explains this suggested idea of assigning roots, patterns, verb forms etc., along with morphology notes. This work requires experience and I am available to offer my services for this step, though I an available for remaining steps also, but I prefer this step since this is unique work in an area where I have done a big project already i.e. Qur'an Concordance - Roots - Patterns - Letters - Word Sets - Word Domains, while remaining steps are some form of data gathering, copying, refining and addition with due quality assurance. 
Word Label 6

2nd step should be to assign role and sub-role to particles and related words. Though this data is available in 1 book Mu'jam Huroof il Ma'ani fil Qur'an il Kareem. More books can be consulted and these should be applied on all particles and related words used in The Qur'an.  

3rd step should be to exhaustively check all I'rab ul Qur'an Books and devise an efficient way on how to copy the grammatical and syntax information Word by Word after choosing most optimum books for this purpose. 

I am available to offer my services for labeling all the pages of The Qur'an, specially on my areas of experience from my past project i.e. Qur'an Concordance - Roots - Patterns - Letters - Word Sets - Word Domains , namely : Sub-part #, Sub-Word / Sub-Part, Base Word / Base-Part, Root , Base Pattern, Word Pattern and Base Verb Form. I can also work on Role, Sub-role, Verb Mode, Verb Specification, Case, Reason for Case, Contextual Role, Grammar Notes, Other Notes etc., but these can be done by anyone with basic knowledge of Arabic and ability to consult reference books quickly. So I prefer to assign labels for the 1st set of labels, but am available to assign remaining labels also inshaALLAH!  

For Every Word used in The Qur'an, assign a Word Level Labeling with labels for :
Root
Word Pattern
Base Pattern (for forms like broken plurals etc. for which identifying pattern of base form is more important)
Case (marfoo', mansoob, majroor, majzoom etc.)
Reason for Case e.g. Haal, maf'ool etc.
Contextual Role (e.g. Mudaaf)
Role (for particles etc.)
Sub-role (for particles etc.)
Verb Form (for verbs).
Miscellaneous Grammar details for each word

Apply these labels or even more to all The Words used in The Qur'an. This is Word level labeling.

What has been done so far on some sites: Roots have been assigned to Words by some sites, and Aayaat concordance is available based on roots and words. What is required is:

Rechecking of roots assignment in detail. This can be consulted using Qur'an Roots Linker 2019 PDF available on Qur'an Concordance - Roots - Patterns - Letters - Word Sets - Word Domains

Assigning : Base Pattern, Word Pattern, Case, Reason for Case, Contextual Role : to each Word. Assigning verb form to all verbs. Assigning role and sub-role to particles and some nouns for which role and sub-role is to be assigned instead of root and pattern.

Base Pattern, Word Pattern, Verb Form (for verbs, including the 6 types for Form I) can be assigned using already done research of Qur'an Patterns Concordance PDF available on Qur'an Concordance - Roots - Patterns - Letters - Word Sets - Word Domains. This can be reverified and also some more word patterns can be split with same base pattern but different word pattern based on the direction indicated by Research on different forms of writing the same word available on Qur'an Concordance - Roots - Patterns - Letters - Word Sets - Word Domains e.g. The Word مِهَاد is used while referring to Hell and The Word مِهَـٰد is used while referring to Earth. Both are used in The Qur'an. We can assign base pattern of فِعَال to both, but individual word pattern of فِعَال and فِعَـٰل to each respectively.

For assigning roles and sub-roles to particles, and nouns which are to be assigned roles and sub-roles instead of root and pattern, the book Mu'jam Huroof il Ma'ani fil Qur'an il Kareem available and linked up in Arabic Particles Quick Study PDF and posted on Arabic Particles Quick Study Tool can be used as a starting point and then efforts can be made to verify it and also consult other books for any particles not covered by it.

For assigning : case, reason for case, contextual role, relevant grammar concepts, and other grammatical details like gender, number, kind etc. and for verbs : imperative case, perfect, imperfect, and also moods etc., Qur'an Ayat Navigators can be consulted to check multiple إعراب القرآن and تفاسير in parallel for each Word.

Some sites display all relevant Aayaat based on roots and sub-arranged based on words from the same root. What is required is 3 types of concordance quotation of all relevant Aayaat together.

Roots based concordance listing of all relevant Aayaat together, which has to be further split based on base words and base words can be further split based on case and then the relevant Aayaat can be quoted together based on case, base word and root, with a different color coding for each Word. This is found to some extent on some sites like Qur'anic Arabic Corpus and books like Mu'jam ul Mufahras ush Shamil li Alfaz il Qur'an il Kareem bir Rasm il Uthmani, but base words have to be sorted in a better way, and case should also be kept in focus while sorting the Aayaat for concordance display and complete Aayat should be displayed instead of short collection of Words from each Aayah.

Patterns based concordance listing of all relevant patterns together. These should be sub-sorted based on root and case, i.e. for the same pattern from the same root, sub-arrange based on case. Once all occurrences from a root are completed, list the next root's occurrences for the same pattern, sub-sorted, based on case. Use different color coding for the Word form the pattern, while displaying all the relevant Aayaat together. This is a new idea of Aayaat concordance based on patterns, not attempted in any book or site so far but a base has been published in the form of Qur'an Patterns Concordance PDF available on Qur'an Concordance - Roots - Patterns - Letters - Word Sets - Word Domains using which this concordance listing can be attempted and accomplished inshaALLAH!. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, complete Aayaat should be quoted instead of collection of Words from each Aayah.

Role and sub-role based concordance for particles and some nouns. These are to be sorted based on particle, and then role and then sub-role. This concordance listing is available to some extent in the book Mu'jam Huroof il Ma'ani fil Qur'an il Kareem available on Qur'an Concordance - Roots - Patterns - Letters - Word Sets - Word Domains and this book can be used as a starting point, but it has to be verified and improved and expanded to more particles along with color coding for the particle. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, complete Aayaat should be quoted instead of collection of Words from each Aayah.


Now come to Aayaat level labeling of Grammatical Rules and Concepts
In this case, set of Words should be labeled together, like Murakkabi Idaafy or Jumla Haaliya etc. and labeling should start from smallest subset and then labeling of larger subset of which the smaller subset is also a part.

For relationship between Words, Syntactic Treebank or an improved form of it may be introduced. Idea can be taken from Qur'anic Arabic Corpus.

Once all the labeling has been done, the website should make a list of all labels, clicking which user can go to study the label in detail via display of all The Aayaat (with complete Aayah display) of The Qur'an with Words from that label highlighted in different color. Moreover, this should also be available in reverse, i.e. while studying any Aayah, user can click the Word and he should be able to see all the available labels for the Word and also the labels for the Grammatical Concepts in which the Word has been used, and once clicked, he should be shown all the Aayaat in which the label has been used with different color for the Word or Word Set, e.g. root should show all Aayaat in which Words from the root have been used, patterns should show all the Aayaat in which that pattern has been used and so on for other labels.

Qur'an Concordance - Roots - Patterns - Letters - Word Sets - Word Domains

Friday, 4 August 2017

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?
Qur'an Concordance Concept

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: 

Islamic Ideas Series
Last edited : 6th August 2018

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)

Wednesday, 12 July 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?
Free for all Islamic Books Idea

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)