Arabic word for quran

• Criticism of the Quran
• Digital Quran
• Hadith al-Thaqalayn
• Historical reliability of the Quran
• Islamic schools and branches
• List of chapters in the Quran
• List of translations of the Quran
• Quran and miracles
• Quran code
• Quran translations
• Schools of Islamic theology
• Violence in the Quran
• Women in the Quran
• The True Furqan

1. ^ The English pronunciation varies: , , , ;^[1] especially with the spelling quran , ;^[2] especially in British English .^[3][4]
2. ^ The Arabic pronunciation can be transcribed phonemically as /al.qurˈʔaːn/. The actual pronunciation in Literary Arabic varies regionally. The first vowel varies from [o] to [ʊ], while the second vowel varies from [æ] to [a] to [ɑ]. For example, the pronunciation in Egypt is [qorˈʔɑːn] and in Central East Arabia [qʊrˈʔæːn].
3. ^ (English spelling) The form Alcoran (and its variants) was usual before the 19th century when it became obsolete.^[5][6] The form Koran was most predominant from the second half of the 18th century till the 1980s, when it has been superseded by either Qur’an or Quran.^[6][7][8][9] Other transliterations include al-Coran, Coran, Kuran and al-Qur’an. The adjectives vary as well and include Koranic, Quranic and Qur’anic (sometimes in lowercase).^[10]
   
4. ^ In a small number of denominations, only the Quran is used as a source, an approach called Quranism.
5. ^ Hadith are primarily from Muhammad but some are from those closest to him. Muslim scholars have worked carefully to authenticate them.
6. ^ According to Welch in the Encyclopedia of Islam, the verses pertaining to the usage of the word hikma should probably be interpreted in the light of IV, 105, where it is said that «Muhammad is to judge (tahkum) mankind on the basis of the Book sent down to him.»
7. ^ «God’s Apostle replied, ‘Sometimes it is (revealed) like the ringing of a bell, this form of Inspiration is the hardest of all and then this state passes off after I have grasped what is inspired. Sometimes the Angel comes in the form of a man and talks to me and I grasp whatever he says.’ ʻAisha added: Verily I saw the Prophet being inspired Divinely on a very cold day and noticed the Sweat dropping from his forehead (as the Inspiration was over).»^[42]
8. ^ «Few have failed to be convinced that … the Quran is … the words of Muhammad, perhaps even dictated by him after their recitation.»^[55]
9. ^ For both the claim that variant readings are still transmitted and the claim that no such critical edition has been produced, see Gilliot, C., «Creation of a fixed text» ^[60]
10. ^ «Few have failed to be convinced that the Quran is the words of Muhammad, perhaps even dictated by him after their recitation.»^[55]
11. ^ professor emeritus of Islamic thought at the University of Paris, Algerian Mohammed Arkoun.^[73]
12. ^ Scholars disagree on the exact number but this is a disagreement over «the placing of the divisions between the verese, not on the text itself.»^[90][91]
13. ^ «The final process of collection and codification of the Quran text was guided by one over-arching principle: God’s words must not in any way be distorted or sullied by human intervention. For this reason, no serious attempt, apparently, was made to edit the numerous revelations, organize them into thematic units, or present them in chronological order… This has given rise in the past to a great deal of criticism by European and American scholars of Islam, who find the Quran disorganized, repetitive and very difficult to read.»^[112]
14. ^ Samuel Pepys: «One feels it difficult to see how any mortal ever could consider this Quran as a Book written in Heaven, too good for the Earth; as a well-written book, or indeed as a book at all; and not a bewildered rhapsody; written, so far as writing goes, as badly as almost any book ever was!» ^[113]
15. ^ «the major Ottoman printing houses published a combined total of only 142 books in more than a century of printing between 1727 and 1838. When taken in conjunction with the fact that only a minuscule number of copies of each book were printed, this statistic demonstrates that the introduction of the printing press did not transform Ottoman cultural life until the emergence of vibrant print media in the middle of the nineteenth century» ^[173]
16. ^ «at imperial expense, a ‘Tatar and Turkish Typography’ was established in St. Petersburg; a domestic scholar, Mullah Osman Ismail, was responsible for the manufacture of the types. One of the first products of this printing house was the Qur’ān. Through the doctor and writer, Johann Georg v. Zimmermann (d. 1795), who was befriended by Catherine II, a copy of the publication arrived in the Göttingen University library. Its director, the philologist Christian Gottlob Heyne (d. 1812), presented the work immediately in the Göttingische Anzeigen von gelehrten Sachen (28 July 1788); therein he pointed especially to the beauty of the Arabic types. To the Arabic text marginal glosses have been added that consist predominantly of reading variants. The imprint was reproduced unchanged in 1790 and 1793 in St. Petersburg (cf. Schnurrer, Bibliotheca arabica, no. 384); later, after the transfer of the printing house to Kazan, editions appeared in different formats and with varying presentation ^[174]
    For the 1803 Kazan edition:
    Chauvin, V.C. Bib. des ouvrages arabes, vol. X, 95;
    Schnurrer, C.F. von. Bibliotheca Arabica, 385.
    Original held by Bayerische Staatsbibliothek – Munich, Germany, shelfmark BSB A.or.554.
17. ^ Gerd Puin is quoted in the Atlantic Monthly, January 1999:«The Koran claims for itself that it is ‘mubeen’ or ‘clear’. But if you look at it, you will notice that every fifth sentence or so simply doesn’t make sense… the fact is that a fifth of the Koranic text is just incomprehensible…«^[65]

1. ^ dictionary.reference.com: koran
2. ^ dictionary.reference.com: quran
3. ^ Cambridge dictionary: koran
4. ^ Cambridge dictionary: quran
5. ^ «Alcoran». Oxford English Dictionary. Vol. 1 (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. 1888. p. 210.
6. ^ ^{a b} «Google Books Ngram Viewer». Google Books. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
7. ^ «Koran». Oxford English Dictionary. Vol. 5 (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. 1901. p. 753.
8. ^ «Koran». Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
9. ^ «Quran». Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
10. ^ «Koran». Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
11. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n} Nasr 2007
12. ^ Arberry, Arthur (1956). The Koran Interpreted. London. p. 191. ISBN 0684825074. It may be affirmed that within the literature of the Arabs, wide and fecund as it is both in poetry and in elevated prose, there is nothing to compare with it.
13. ^ Toropov, Brandon; Buckles, Luke (2004). Complete Idiot’s Guide to World Religions. Alpha. p. 126. ISBN 978-1-59257-222-9. Muslims believe that Muhammad’s many divine encounters during his years in Mecca and Medina inspired the remainder of the Qur’an, which, nearly fourteen centuries later, remains the Arabic language’s preeminent masterpiece.
14. ^ ^{a b} Esposito, John (2010). Islam: The Straight Path (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-19-539600-3. «Throughout history, many Arab Christians as well have regarded it as the perfection of the Arabic language and literature.
15. ^ Lambert, Gray (2013). The Leaders Are Coming!. WestBow Press. p. 287. ISBN 978-1-4497-6013-7.
16. ^ Roy H. Williams; Michael R. Drew (2012). Pendulum: How Past Generations Shape Our Present and Predict Our Future. Vanguard Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-59315-706-7.
17. ^ * Shaikh, Fazlur Rehman (2001). Chronology of Prophetic Events. Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd. p. 50.
    • Quran 17:105 (Arberry tr.)

18. ^ ^{a b} Fisher, Mary Pat (1997). Living Religions: An Encyclopaedia of the World’s Faiths (Rev. ed.). London: I. B. Tauris Publishers. p. 338.
19. ^ Quran 17:106
20. ^ Peters, F.E. (2003). The Words and Will of God. Princeton University Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-0-691-11461-3.
21. ^ Wheeler, Brannon M. (2002). Prophets in the Quran: An Introduction to the Quran and Muslim Exegesis. A&C Black. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-8264-4957-3.
22. ^ Carroll, Jill. «The Quran & Hadith». World Religions. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
23. ^ ^{a b} Donner, Fred (2006). «The historical context». In McAuliffe, Jane Dammen (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Qur’ān. Cambridge University Press. pp. 31–33.
24. ^ ^{a b c} Campo, Juan E. (2009). Encyclopedia of Islam. Facts On File. pp. 570–574. ISBN 978-0-8160-5454-1.
25. ^ Nigosian, Solomon A. (2004). Islam: Its History, Teaching and Practices (New ed.). Indiana University Press. pp. 65–80. ISBN 978-0-253-21627-4.
26. ^ Wheeler, Brannon M. (2002). Prophets in the Quran: an introduction to the Quran and Muslim exegesis. Continuum. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-8264-4956-6.
27. ^ Nasr 2003, p. 42
28. ^ ^{a b} Sandıkcı, Özlem; Rice, Gillian (2011). Handbook of Islamic Marketing. p. 38. ISBN 9781849800136.
29. ^ Street, Brian V. (2001). Literacy and Development: Ethnographic Perspectives. p. 193.
30. ^ Brown, Norman O. (1991). Apocalypse And/or Metamorphosis. University of California Press. p. 81. ISBN 0520072987.
31. ^ «The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon». Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. Archived from the original on 18 October 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
32. ^ Quran 75:17
33. ^ Quran 7:204
34. ^ See «Ķur’an, al-«, Encyclopedia of Islam Online and 9:111
35. ^ Quran 20:2 cf.
36. ^ Quran 25:32 cf.
37. ^ Jaffer, Abbas; Jaffer, Masuma (2009). Quranic Sciences. ICAS press. pp. 11–15. ISBN 978-1-904063-30-8.
38. ^ Tabatabae 1988, p. 98
39. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Richard Bell (Revised and Enlarged by W. Montgomery Watt) (1970). Bell’s introduction to the Qur’an. Univ. Press. pp. 31–51. ISBN 978-0-85224-171-4.
40. ^ ^{a b} P.M. Holt, Ann K.S. Lambton and Bernard Lewis (1970). The Cambridge history of Islam (Reprint. ed.). Cambridge Univ. Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-521-29135-4.
41. ^ Denffer, Ahmad von (1985). Ulum al-Qur’an : an introduction to the sciences of the Qur an (Repr. ed.). Islamic Foundation. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-86037-132-8.
42. ^ «Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Book 1». Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement. University of Southern California. Archived from the original on 10 January 2012.
43. ^ Quran 53:5
44. ^ Quran 53:6-9
45. ^ Buhl, Fr. (2012) [1913–1936]. «Muhammad». In Houtsma, M. Th.; Arnold, T. W.; Basset, R.; Hartmann, R. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Islam (1 ed.). doi:10.1163/2214-871X_ei1_SIM_4746. ISBN 9789004082656.
46. ^ Quran 7:157
47. ^ Günther, Sebastian (2002). «Muhammad, the Illiterate Prophet: An Islamic Creed in the Quran and Quranic Exegesis». Journal of Quranic Studies. 4 (1): 1–26. doi:10.3366/jqs.2002.4.1.1.
48. ^ Roslan Abdul-Rahim (December 2017). «Demythologizing the Qur’an Rethinking Revelation Through Naskh al-Qur’an». Global Journal Al-Thaqafah. 7 (2): 62. doi:10.7187/GJAT122017-2. ISSN 2232-0474.
49. ^ «Wat is de Koran?». Koran.nl (in Dutch). 18 February 2016.
50. ^ ^{a b c} Tabatabae 1988, p. 99:
    

    Since the word of God seemed threatened with alteration, the [third] caliph ordered that five of the qurrā’ from amongst the companions, (one of them being Zayd ibn Thābit who had compiled the first volume), produce other copies from the first volume which had been prepared on the orders of the first caliph and which had been kept with Ḥafṣah, the wife of the Prophet and daughter of the second caliph.

    The other copies, already in the hands of Muslims in other areas, were collected and sent to Medina where, on orders of the Caliph, they were burnt (or, according to some histtorians, were destroyed by boiling). Thus several copies were made, one being kept in Medina, one in Mecca, and one each sent to Sham (a territory now divided into Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan), Kufa and Basra.

    It is said that beside these five, one copy was also sent to Yemen and one to Bahrein. These copies were called the Imam copies and served as original for all future copies. The only difference of order between these copies and the first volume was that the chapters «Spirits of War» and «Immunity» were written in one place between «The Heights» and «Jonah.»

51. ^ al-Bukhari, Muhammad. «Sahih Bukhari, volume 6, book 61, narrations number 509 and 510». sahih-bukhari.com. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
52. ^ ^{a b c} Rippin 2006:
    • «Poetry and Language,» by Navid Kermani, pp. 107–20.
    • For the history of compilation see «Introduction,» by Tamara Sonn, pp. 5–6
    • For eschatology, see «Discovering (final destination),» by Christopher Buck, p. 30.
    • For literary structure, see «Language,» by Mustansir Mir, p. 93.
    • For writing and printing, see «Written Transmission,» by François Déroche, pp. 172–87.
    • For recitation, see «Recitation,» by Anna M. Gade pp. 481–93

53. ^ Yusuff, Mohamad K. «Zayd ibn Thabit and the Glorious Qur’an».
54. ^ Cook 2000, p. 117–24
55. ^ ^{a b} Peters 1991, p. 3–5
56. ^ ^{a b c d} Leaman, Oliver, ed. (2006). The Qur’an: an Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-32639-1.
    • For God in the Quran (Allah), see «Allah,» by Zeki Saritoprak, pp. 33–40.
    • For eschatology, see «Eschatology,» by Zeki Saritoprak, pp. 194–99.
    • For searching the Arabic text on the internet and writing, see «Cyberspace and the Qur’an,» by Andrew Rippin, pp. 159–63.
    • For calligraphy, see by «Calligraphy and the Qur’an» by Oliver Leaman, pp. 130–35.
    • For translation, see «Translation and the Qur’an,» by Afnan Fatani, pp. 657–69.
    • For recitation, see «Art and the Qur’an» by Tamara Sonn, pp. 71–81; and «Reading,» by Stefan Wild, pp. 532–35.

57. ^ Donner, Fred M. (2014). «Review: Textual Criticism and Qurʾān Manuscripts, by Keith E. Small». Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 73 (1): 166–169. doi:10.1086/674909.
58. ^ ^{a b} Melchert, Christopher (2000). «Ibn Mujahid and the Establishment of Seven Qur’anic Readings». Studia Islamica (91): 5–22. doi:10.2307/1596266. JSTOR 1596266.
59. ^ Ibn Warraq, Which Koran? Variants, Manuscript, Linguistics, p. 45. Prometheus Books, 2011. ISBN 1591024307
60. ^ Gilliot, C. (2006). «Creation of a fixed text». In McAuliffe, Jane Dammen (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Qur’ān. Cambridge University Press. p. 52.
61. ^ Warraq I, et al. Warraq I (ed.). «The Origins of the Koran: Classic Essays on Islam’s Holy Book». The Christian response to the Muslim debate. Summarised by Sharon Morad, Leeds. Archived from the original on 18 May 2011. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
62. ^ «‘The Qur’an: Text, Interpretation and Translation’ Third Biannual SOAS Conference, 16–17 October 2003″. Journal of Qur’anic Studies. 6 (1): 143–145. April 2004. doi:10.3366/jqs.2004.6.1.143.
63. ^ Bergmann, Uwe; Sadeghi, Behnam (September 2010). «The Codex of a Companion of the Prophet and the Qurān of the Prophet». Arabica. 57 (4): 343–436. doi:10.1163/157005810X504518.
64. ^ Sadeghi, Behnam; Goudarzi, Mohsen (March 2012). «Ṣan’ā’ 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān». Der Islam. 87 (1–2): 1–129. doi:10.1515/islam-2011-0025. S2CID 164120434.
65. ^ ^{a b} Lester, Toby (January 1999). «What Is the Koran?». Atlantic. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
66. ^ ^{a b} Coughlan, Sean. «‘Oldest’ Koran fragments found in Birmingham University». BBC. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
67. ^ Dan Bilefsky (22 July 2015). «A Find in Britain: Quran Fragments Perhaps as Old as Islam». New York Times. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
68. ^ «New Light on the History of the Quranic Text?». The Huffington Post. 24 July 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
69. ^ Watton, Victor (1993), A student’s approach to world religions: Islam, Hodder & Stoughton, p. 1. ISBN 978-0-340-58795-9
70. ^ ^{a b} Guillaume, Islam, 1954: p.74
71. ^ Pickthall, M.M. (1981). The Glorious Qur’an. Chicago IL: Iqra’ Book Center. p. vii.
72. ^ Ibn Warraq, Why I’m Not a Muslim, 1995: p.105
73. ^ LESTER, TOBY (January 1999). «What Is the Koran?». Atlantic. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
74. ^ Guessoum, Nidhal (June 2008). «ThE QUR’AN, SCIENCE, AND THE (RELATED)CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM DISCOURSE». Zygon. 43 (2): 411+. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9744.2008.00925.x. ISSN 0591-2385. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
75. ^ SARDAR, ZIAUDDIN (21 August 2008). «Weird science». New Statesman. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
76. ^ See:
    • Corbin 1993, p. 12
    • Wild, Stefan (1996). The Quʼran as Text. Leiden: Brill. pp. 137, 138, 141, 147. ISBN 978-90-04-09300-3.
    • Quran 2:97, 17:105

77. ^ Jenssen, H. (2001). «Arabic Language». In McAuliffe, Jane Dammen (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān. Vol. 1. Leiden: Brill. pp. 127–35.
78. ^ ^{a b} Sonn, Tamara (2010). Islam : a brief history (Second ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-8093-1.
79. ^ Quran 85:22
80. ^ Mir Sajjad Ali; Zainab Rahman (2010). Islam and Indian Muslims. Kalpaz Publications. p. 21. ISBN 978-8178358055.
81. ^ Shirazi, Muhammad (2001). The Qur’an – When was it compiled?. London, UK: Fountain Books.
82. ^ Glassé, Cyril; Smith, Huston (2002). The New Encyclopedia of Islam (revised, reprinted ed.). Rowman Altamira. p. 268. ISBN 978-0-7591-0190-6. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
83. ^ ^{a b c d} Corbin 1993
84. ^ Quran 17:88
85. ^ Vasalou, Sophia (2002). «The Miraculous Eloquence of the Qur’an: General Trajectories and Individual Approaches». Journal of Qur’anic Studies. 4 (2): 23–53. doi:10.3366/jqs.2002.4.2.23.
86. ^ «Afghan Quran-burning protests: What’s the right way to dispose of a Quran?». Slate Magazine. 22 February 2012.
87. ^ Sengers, Erik (2005). Dutch and Their Gods. p. 129.
88. ^ see Jamal Malik (6 April 2020). Islam in South Asia: Revised, Enlarged and Updated Second Edition. BRILL. p. 580. ISBN 9789004422711.
89. ^ See:
    • «Kur`an, al-«, Encyclopaedia of Islam Online
    • Allen (2000) p. 53

90. ^ Cook, The Koran, 2000: pp.119
91. ^ The Koran; A Very Short Introduction, Michael Cook. Oxford University Press, pp. 119
92. ^ مقطعات is the plural of a participle from قطع, ‘to cut, break’.
93. ^ ^{a b} Massey, Keith (2002). «Mysterious Letters». In McAuliffe, Jane Dammen (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill. p. 472. doi:10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQCOM_00128. ISBN 9004123547.
94. ^ «Appendix 1, One of the Great Miracles [74:35]». ICS/Masjid Tucson. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
95. ^ Dukes, Kais. «RE: Number of Unique Words in the Quran». The Mail Archive. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
96. ^ ^{a b} Saeed, Abdullah (2008). The Qurʼan : an introduction. London: Routledge. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-415-42124-9.
97. ^ Crone, Patricia (10 June 2008). «What do we actually know about Mohammed?». Open Democracy. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
98. ^ Quran 67:3
99. ^ Saritoprak, Zeki (2006). «Allah». In Leaman, Oliver (ed.). The Qur’an: an Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. pp. 33–40. ISBN 978-0-415-32639-1.
100. ^ Buck C (2006). «Discovering (final destination)». In Rippin A, et al. (eds.). The Blackwell Companion to the Qur’an (2a reimpr. ed.). Blackwell. p. 30. ISBN 978140511752-4.
101. ^ Haleem, Muhammad Abdel (2005). Understanding the Qur’an: themes and style. I.B. Tauris. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-86064-650-8.
102. ^ Saritoprak, Zeki (2006). «Eschatology». In Leaman, Oliver (ed.). The Qur’an: an Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. pp. 194–99. ISBN 978-0-415-32639-1.
103. ^ ^{a b c} Esack, Farid (2003). Martin, Richard C. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim world (Online-Ausg. ed.). Macmillan Reference. pp. 568–562. ISBN 978-0-02-865603-8.
104. ^ Quran 41:43
105. ^ Izutsu, Toshihiko (6 June 2007) [2002]. Ethico-religious concepts in the Qur’an (Repr. ed.). McGill-Queen’s University Press. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-7735-2427-9.
106. ^ Quran 2:274
107. ^ Quran 9:103
108. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Nidhal 2011
109. ^ Boullata, Issa J (2002), «Literary Structure of Quran», in McAuliffe, Jane Dammen (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān, vol. 3, Leiden: Brill, pp. 192, 204, ISBN 9004123547
110. ^ Mir M (2006). «Language». In Rippin A, et al. (eds.). The Blackwell Companion to the Qur’an (2a reimpr. ed.). Blackwell. p. 93. ISBN 978140511752-4.
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116. ^ Quran 21:50
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119. ^ Quran 2:151
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143. ^ Pal, Amaninder (5 May 2016) [4 April]. «Gurmukhi translation of Quran traced to Moga village». The Tribune. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
144. ^ Alya Karame. «Qur’ans from the Eastern Islamic World between the 4th/10th and 6th/12th Centuries» (PDF). The University of Edinburgh. p. 109.
145. ^ ^{a b} Leaman, Oliver, ed. (2006), The Qur’an: an Encyclopedia, New York: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-32639-1:
     • «Art and the Qur’an» by Tamara Sonn, pp. 71–81;
     • «Reading,» by Stefan Wild, pp. 532–35.

146. ^ Thānawi, Qāri Izhār (21 January 2019). «The Great Imām of Qirā’ah: Muhammad Ibn al-Jazari». IlmGate. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
147. ^ Taha Shoeb (2 February 2018) [28 September 2017]. «Khalaf from Hamzah – A look at the features of recitation of al-Qur’an by Shahzada Husain Bhaisaheb». The Dawoodi Bohras. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020.
148. ^ Ejaz Taj (6 September 2018). «A Meeting with the Egyptian Giants, al-Minshāwī, al-Huṣrī, Muṣṭafā Ismāʿīl and ʿAbdul-Bāsit ʿAbdus-Ṣamad». islam21c.com. Archived from the original on 18 May 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
149. ^ Frishkopf, Michael (28 December 2009). «Mediated Qur’anic Recitation and the Contestation of Islam in Contemporary Egypt». In Nooshin, Laundan (ed.). In Music and Play of Power in the Middle East. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7546-3457-7. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020 – via pdfslide.net.
150. ^ «Best Quran Recitation Competition for Students Planned in Egypt». iqna.ir. 4 May 2020. Archived from the original on 19 May 2020.
151. ^ Nelson, Kristina (2001). The art of reciting the Qur’an (New ed.). Cairo [u.a.]: American Univ. in Cairo Press. ISBN 978-9774245947.
152. ^ ^{a b} Ibn Taymiyyah, Ahmed. Majmue Alfatawaa مجموع الفتاوى [Total Fatwas]. p. 12/576.
153. ^ Rippin 2006:
     • «Written Transmission,» by François Déroche, pp. 172–87.
     • «Recitation,» by Anna M. Gade, pp. 481–93

154. ^ Small, Keith E. (2011). Textual Criticism and Qur’an Manuscripts. Lexington Books. pp. 109–111. ISBN 978-0-7391-4291-2.
155. ^ Melchert, Christopher (2008). «The Relation of the Ten Readings to One Another». Journal of Quranic Studies. 10 (2): 73–87. doi:10.3366/e1465359109000424.
156. ^ Hekmat Nasser, Shady (2012). The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Quran: The Problem of Tawatur and the Emergence of Shawdhdh. Brill Academic Pub. ISBN 978-9004240810.
157. ^ Dutton, Yasin (2001). «An Early Mushaf According To The Reading Of Ibn ʻAmir». Journal of Qur’anic Studies. 3 (2): 71–89. doi:10.3366/jqs.2001.3.1.71.
158. ^ Rabb, Intisar (2006). «Non-Canonical Readings of the Qur’an: Recognition and Authenticity (The Ḥimṣī Reading)». Journal of Qur’anic Studies. 8 (2): 88–127. doi:10.3366/jqs.2006.8.2.84.
159. ^ ^{a b} Déroche, François (2006). «Written Transmission». In Rippin, Andrew; et al. (eds.). The Blackwell Companion to the Qur’an (2a reimpr. ed.). Blackwell. pp. 172–87. ISBN 978140511752-4.
160. ^ Riddell, Peter G.; Street, Tony; Johns, Anthony Hearle (1997). Islam: essays on scripture, thought and society : a festschrift in honour of Anthony H. Johns. Leiden: Brill. pp. 170–74. ISBN 978-90-04-10692-5.
161. ^ Faroqhi, Suraiya (2005). Subjects of the Sultan: culture and daily life in the Ottoman Empire. I.B. Tauris. pp. 134–136. ISBN 978-1-85043-760-4.
162. ^ ^{a b} Bosworth, Clifford Edmund, ed. (1989). «Matba’a». The Encyclopaedia of Islam: Fascicules 111–112 : Masrah Mawlid. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 803. ISBN 9004092390.
163. ^ James, David (1 January 2011). «Amina bint al-Hajj ʿAbd al-Latif». In Akyeampong, Emmanuel K; Gates, Henry Louis (eds.). Dictionary of African Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195382075.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
164. ^ «Muslim Printing Before Gutenberg». muslimheritage.com.
165. ^ Krek 1979, p. 203
166. ^ «Saudi Aramco World : East Meets West in Venice». archive.aramcoworld.com. Archived from the original on 2 November 2013. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
167. ^ Nuovo, Angela (1990). «A Lost Arabic Koran Rediscovered». The Library. s6-12 (4): 273–292. doi:10.1093/library/s6-12.4.273.
168. ^ «Paganini Quran». Madain Project. Archived from the original on 6 May 2020. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
169. ^ «The Quran in East and West: Manuscripts and Printed Books». Columbia University Libraries Online Exhibitions. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
170. ^ «Alcorani textus universus ex correctioribus Arabum exemplaribus summa fide, atque pulcherrimis characteribus descriptus, vol. 2, p. i». Columbia University Libraries Online Exhibitions. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
171. ^ Faroqhi, Suraiya (2005). Subjects of the Sultan: culture and daily life in the Ottoman Empire. I.B. Tauris. p. 134–36. ISBN 978-1-85043-760-4.
172. ^ Watson 1968, p. 435; Clogg 1979, p. 67
173. ^ Hanioğlu, Şükrü (2010). A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire. Princeton University Press.
174. ^ Dorn (2002). «Chronologisches Verzeichnis, 371». In McAuliffe, Jane Dammen (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill. p. 251. ISBN 9004123547.
175. ^ Iriye, A.; Saunier, P. (2009). The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History: From the mid-19th century to the present day. Springer. p. 627. ISBN 978-1-349-74030-7.
176. ^ Kamusella, T. (2012). The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe. Springer. pp. 265–266. ISBN 978-0-230-58347-4.
177. ^ Griffith, Sidney H. (2013). «Christian Translations of the Bible into Arabic». The Bible in Arabic: The Scriptures of the ‘People of the Book’ in the Language of Islam. Princeton University Press. pp. 127–154. ISBN 978-0-691-15082-6. JSTOR j.ctt28550z.9.
178. ^ Cook, The Koran, 2000: p.30
179. ^ see also: Ruthven, Malise (2002). A Fury For God. London: Granta. p. 126.
180. ^ «Secular Web Kiosk: The Koran Predicted the Speed of Light? Not Really». Archived from the original on 9 February 2008.
181. ^ Leirvik, Oddbjørn (2010). Images of Jesus Christ in Islam: 2nd Edition (2 ed.). New York: Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 33–66. ISBN 978-1-4411-8160-2.
182. ^ Wansbrough, John (1977). Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation.
183. ^ Geisler, Norman L. (1999). «Qur’an, Alleged Divine Origin of». Baker encyclopedia of Christian apologetics. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
184. ^ ^{[181][xvii][182][183]}
185. ^ «The Kitáb-i-Íqán». Bahá’í Reference Library. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
186. ^ Griffith, Signey (2008). «Christian Lore and the Arabic Qur’an». In Reynolds, Gabriel S. (ed.). The Qurʼān in its Historical Context. Psychology Press. p. 112. ISBN 9780203939604.
187. ^ New Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America. 1967. p. 677.
188. ^ Rawandi, Ibn (2002). «On pre-Islamic Christian strophic poetical texts in the Koran». In Warraq, Ibn (ed.). What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text and Commentary. Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-57392-945-5.
189. ^ 3:3 نزل عليك الكتاب بالحق مصدقا لما بين يديه وانزل التوراة والانجيل
190. ^ Quran 2:285
191. ^ Luxenberg, Christoph (2007). The Syro-Aramaic reading of the Koran: a contribution to the decoding of the language of the Koran. Berlin: H.Schiler. ISBN 978-3-89930-088-8.
192. ^ Keeler, Annabel (2005). «Moses from a Muslim Perspective». In Solomon, Norman; Harries, Richard; Winter, Tim (eds.). Abraham’s children: Jews, Christians and Muslims in conversation. T&T Clark. pp. 55–66. ISBN 9780567081711.
193. ^ Esposito, John L (2010). The Future of Islam. USA: Oxford University Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-19-516521-0. Christians are often surprised to discover that Jesus is mentioned by name in the Quran more than Muhammad and that Mary is mentioned more times in the Quran than in the New Testament. Both Jesus and Mary play important roles not only in the Quran but also in Muslim piety and spirituality.
194. ^ Kadi, Wadad; Mir, Mustansir (2002). «Literature and the Quran». In McAuliffe, Jane Dammen (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill. pp. 213, 216. ISBN 9004123547.

Introductory texts

• Bell, Richard; Watt, William Montgomery (1970). Bell’s introduction to the Qurʼān. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-0597-2.
• Hawting, G.R. (1993). Approaches to the Qur’ān (1 ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-05755-4.
• Hixon, Lex (2003). The heart of the Qurʼan: an introduction to Islamic spirituality (2 ed.). Quest. ISBN 978-0-8356-0822-0.
• Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (2007). «Qurʾān». Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 4 November 2007.
• Rahman, Fazlur (2009) [1989]. Major Themes of the Qur’an (Second ed.). University Of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-70286-5.
• Rippin, Andrew; et al., eds. (2006). The Blackwell companion to the Qur’an. Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-1752-4.
• Robinson, Neal (2002). Discovering the Qur’an. Georgetown University Press. ISBN 978-1-58901-024-6.
• Sells, Michael (15 November 1999). Approaching the Qur’ān: The Early Revelations (Book & CD ed.). White Cloud Press. ISBN 978-1-883991-26-5.
• Tabatabae, Mohammad Hosayn (1988). The Qur’an in Islam: Its Impact and Influence on the Life of Muslims. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7103-0266-3.
• Wild, Stefan (1996). The Quʼran as Text. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-09300-3.

• Al-Tabari (1987) [Cairo 1955–69]. «Jāmiʻ al-bayān ʻan taʼwīl al-qurʼān». The Commentary on the Qurʼān. transl. J. Cooper (ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-920142-6.
• Tabatabae, Sayyid Mohammad Hosayn. Tafsir al-Mizan.

Topical studies

• McAuliffe, Jane Dammen (1991). Qurʼānic Christians: an analysis of classical and modern exegesis. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-36470-6.
• Siljander, Mark D.; Mann, John David (2008). A Deadly Misunderstanding: a Congressman’s Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide. New York: Harper One. ISBN 978-0-06-143828-8.
• Stowasser, Barbara Freyer (1 June 1996). Women in the Qur’an, Traditions and Interpretation (Reprint ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-511148-4.

Literary criticism

• M.M. Al-Azami (2003). The History of The Qur’anic Text: From Revelation to Compilation: A Comparative Study with the Old and New Testaments (First ed.). UK Islamic Academy. ISBN 978-1-872531-65-6.
• Boullata, Issa J, ed. (2000). Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Qur’ān. Curzon Press. ISBN 0700712569..
• Luling, Gunter (2003). A challenge to Islam for reformation: the rediscovery and reliable reconstruction of a comprehensive pre-Islamic Christian hymnal hidden in the Koran under earliest Islamic reinterpretations. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-1952-8.
• Luxenberg, Christoph (2007) [2004]. The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: a contribution to the decoding of the language of the Koran. Berlin: Verlag Hans Schiler. ISBN 978-3-89930-088-8.
• Puin, Gerd R. (1996). «Observations on Early Quran Manuscripts in Sana’a». In Wild, Stefan (ed.). The Qurʾan as Text. Leiden: E.J. Brill. pp. 107–11.
• Wansbrough, John (1977). Quranic Studies. Oxford University Press.

Encyclopedias

• McAuliffe JD, et al., eds. (2001). Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an (First ed.). Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-11465-4.
• Leaman O, et al., eds. (2005). The Qur’an: An Encyclopedia (First ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-77529-8.
• Iqbal M, et al., eds. (2013). The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur’an (First ed.). Center for Islamic Sciences. ISBN 978-1-926620-00-8.

Academic journals

• Journal of Qur’anic Studies (ISSN 1465-3591), published by the School of Oriental and African Studies
• Journal of Qur’anic Research and Studies, published by King Fahd Qur’an Printing Complex

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Learning Quranic Arabic for Complete Beginners

✽

A Step by Step Self-Teaching Guide to the Arabic Language of the Quran

Ikram Hawramani

2019
Stewards
Publishing

STEWARDS PUBLISHING

Copyright © 2019 Ikram Hawramani

First Edition

First Published in 2019 in the United States

ISBN 9781796502404

Hawramani.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means for commercial purposes without prior permission of the author. The author affirms the readers’ right to share this book for personal, non-commercial purposes.

Introduction

This book is an introduction to Quranic Arabic which begins by teaching the Arabic alphabet. It uses the unique LTSDR method to familiarize learners with the Arabic language without overwhelming them with unnecessary technical details. A highly developed and detailed transliteration system is used to help learners know the exact pronunciation of each Arabic word even before mastering the alphabet.

LTSDR (Learning through Stimulated Decipherment of Representations) is a method of language learning that I invented after I became dissatisfied with educational books on human languages, computer languages and mathematics. Many teachers are under the impression that highly structured books, with long lists and tables, facilitate learning. Many language books delve into technicalities like grammar and ignore the fact that in the real world people successfully learn languages all the time without knowing anything about grammar.

I used this method to teach myself many computer languages in very short time. I went on to write many successful educational books on learning computer languages like JavaScript using this method. I have now adapted it to teaching Quranic Arabic. LTSDR breaks down any complex topic into small, easily digestible pieces that the brain easily picks up and remembers.

I hope that you will have as much joy learning from this book as I had in writing it.

This book has been enriched by numerous works of Quranic exegesis (tafsīr) and Quranic linguistics (iʿrāb), such as the Quran commentaries of al-Ṭabarī, al-Wāḥidī, al-Qurṭubī and al- Bayḍāwī, and the works of Quranic linguistics al-Jadwal fī Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān of Maḥmūd al-Ṣāfī and Mujtabā min Mushkil al-Qurʾān of Aḥmad al-Kharrāṭ.

How to Use This Book

This book is training book designed to help you understand Quranic Arabic and train your ability to read it and comprehend it. Once you have learned the alphabet, do your best to read the Arabic and understand it, and use the translation and transliteration to help you when you need it. Difficult as it may be, it is essential that you do your best to struggle to understand the Arabic on its own. This is where your learning takes place.

Memorizing the meaning of the words is not as important as being able to understand the structure of the language. You can always look up the meaning of a word later during your normal reading of the Quran. What you should gain from this book is the ability to understand the structure and patterns of the language.

There is no way to make language learning effortless. Hundreds of hours of training are needed to gain a basic grasp of any language. Thousands of hours are needed to gain some expertise in it. This book is designed to help you get some of that training. To get the full benefits, once you finish the book, come back to the beginning and do all of the Lesson Reviews again. This will refresh your memory of things that will slowly escape your mind if you let them, while also helping you get a fuller grasp of the language’s grammar.

You know you are ready to move on when the material in the Lesson Reviews becomes so familiar that you can effortlessly read through them without having to use the transliterations and translations underneath the Arabic script.

Lesson 1: al-Fātiḥa

Above is the first verse of the Quran, which translates as “In the name of God: the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.” This verse is part of the first chapter of the Quran. The chapter’s name is al-Fatiḥa (“the Opening”). The Arabic word for a chapter of the Quran is sūra. We will use the word “chapter” in this book.

Below is the first part of the verse:

The above phrase is made up of only three letters: b-s-m, which means “In the name of.” Arabic is an abjad language, meaning that the focus of the writing system is largely on consonants. Normal written Arabic lacks most vowels. A person simply learns to fill in the vowels as they progress in their learning. But important books like the Quran are written specially with all of the vowels filled in to help readers avoid misreading the text. Below is the same phrase with the vowels filled in:

While the b-s-m remains, the additional marks known as ḥarakāt now tell us that the b-s-m should be read as b(i)-s-m(i). The singular of ḥarakāt is ḥaraka (“vowel mark”).

Below is the first letter of the earlier phrase:

The above is the letter bāʾ, which is pronounced exactly the same as the English letter “b”. Below is the same letter with the vowel mark added:

The diagonal line underneath the bāʾ is a kasra, which is a vowel mark that stands for the sound “i” as in the English word “sit”. The “b” sound above is now followed by a “i” sound, becoming “bi”. The sound bⁱ is now a full word that means “with”, “in” or “by”. The meaning changes depending on the context.

Below is the next letter:

The above is the letter sīn, which sounds exactly like the letter “s” in English. Below is the same letter with the vowel mark added:

The circle above the sīn is a vowel mark known as sukūn, which tells us that there is no vowel here. It looks like the number zero; you can think of it as “zero vowels here.” By having a sukūn above it, the “s” sound remains a “s”. While most Arabic fonts represent the sukūn as a circle, calligraphic fonts can represent it as follows:

That is a stylized sukūn and it is not used in ordinary Arabic writing.

The next letter is a mīm, which sounds exactly like “m” in English:

Below is the same letter with the vowel added:

Now it reads like mⁱ.

Below is the full phrase again:

The bⁱ at the beginning is a word that means “with/by/in” as mentioned, while the smⁱ means “name of”. The whole phrase is read as bⁱs-mⁱ. Even though the “s” is part of the second word, during reading it is conjoined with the first word simply because this is the easiest way to pronounce it. Saying bⁱ-smⁱ feels unnatural, it is much easier on the tongue to say bⁱs-mⁱ.

The sm means “name”. It is a shortened form of the Arabic word ism that we will see later.

Even though the phrase bⁱs-mⁱ means “in the name of”, we see no obvious word that stands for “of”. That is because the “of” is inferred from the context. You just know it is there when you see a word end with a “i” sound in certain contexts.

The lessons in this book are not meant to be memorized. Readers are meant to pick up a few useful things from each lesson while casually moving on to the next one. Important concepts will be explained many times in different lessons until they become fully clear.

Lesson 2: Allāh

In this lesson we will move onto the second word of the first verse of the Quran, which is the word Allāh. This is the Arabic word for “God” that is used by Arabic-speaking Muslims, Jews and Christians.

The word Allāh begins with a letter known as hamza. This letter makes a sound that is produced by a constriction of the throat, it is the same as the “u” sound in “umbrella”, but only the first part of the “u” sound (only the throat constriction).

The hamza, when it is at the start of a word, is generally represented as a vertical line:

Next we have two occurrences of the letter lām, which is pronounced the same as “l” in “language”:

One lām by itself looks like this:

After the two lāms we have a shadda which stands above the second lām:

The shadda mark simply duplicates the sound it stands above. It is not a vowel mark; it deals with consonants. Since it is above a lām, it causes a new lām to be created. It is therefore as if we now have three lāms. Therefore the following:

has the same meaning as the following:

When reading the word, all these lāms get merged into a single “l” sound as in the English word “ball”. Depending on the context, the “l” sound in Allāh can also be pronounced as “l” in “language”.

Let us now take another look at the word Allāh:

Above the shadda there is a short vertical line, stylized to make it look curvy. This line represents an alif, a letter which sounds similar to the “a” in “car”. This letter is normally a vertical line. We differentiate it from a hamza by the fact that it only occurs in the middle or end of a word, and by special marks that are placed on the hamza when needed. But here the alif is not written in the normal way. A few special Arabic words are written in a way that does not follow the ordinary rules of spelling.

The final letter of the word Allāh is a hāʾ, which is pronounced the same as the “h” in “hill”:

We are now ready to cover the full phrase “In the name of God”:

As mentioned earlier, the first phrase above is bⁱs-mⁱ. Now that the word Allāh comes after it, the pronunciation changes. The whole phrase is pronounced as bⁱs-mⁱl-lā-hⁱ. We say hⁱ because the hāʾ has a kasra underneath it (the final vowel mark in the above picture). The first “l” sound of Allāh is merged with the “mⁱ” before it, becoming “mⁱl”. The hamza at the beginning of Allāh completely disappears.

In Quranic calligraphy, these silent hamzas are written with a special mark above them, as follows:

Muslims often say bⁱsmⁱllāh when starting something in hope of gaining God’s blessing, for example when leaving or entering a house. When this phrase is by itself, there is no kasra underneath the final hāʾ . But when the phrase is in context, for example in a verse of the Quran, there it will have a kasra.

Lesson 3: al-Raḥmān

We are still covering the first verse of the Quran. We will now move on to the “the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful” part.

Above is one of the names of God in Islam, al-R^aḥmān, which is often translated as “The Most Gracious”. The word begins with an “al”, which in Arabic means “the”. Below is the “al” part by itself:

Next is the letter rāʾ, which is pronounced as the “r” in “random”:

Above the rāʾ there is a shadda which duplicates it:

Above the shadda there is a slanted line that is known as a fatḥa (pronounced f^at-ḥ^a). This is a vowel mark that indicates a sound that is akin to the “u” in “cup”. The vowel mark does not apply to the original rāʾ but to the duplicated one. The first rāʾ remains unvowelled, as if it has a sukūn above it. Therefore the following:

is identical with the following:

The shadda is just a shorthand that helps us avoid having to write the same letter twice.

Let us take another look at the word we are working on:

The next letter is a ḥāʾ:

Notice the way this letter is not joined with the rāʾ before it. That is because some letters are joined and some letters are not. Over time it should become clear which ones are joined and which ones are not.

The letter ḥāʾ is also exists in the popular name Muḥammad. To find out how it is pronounced, I recommend that you do a search for “how to pronounce Muhammad” on websites like YouTube. Until you learn how to pronounce it, you can pronounce it like an “h”. In fact Persians, despite using common Muslim names like Muhammad, pronounce it exactly like an “h” due to the fact that their language does not have the ḥāʾ sound.

The next letter is one that we have already seen. It is a mīm. Earlier we saw a mīm that looked like this:

The current mīm looks like this:

The reason is that this mīm is joined to another letter both at the beginning and at the end. Arabic letters can look different depending on what they are joined with.

There is a fatḥa above the mīm, as follows:

This turns the “m” sound into a “mu” as in the English word “must”.

The last letter of al-R^aḥmān is a nūn, which sounds exactly like the English letter “n”:

There is a hidden alif between the mīm and the nūn, which is why we say al-R^aḥmān (no need to worry about hidden letters, only a few words are like this). We do not pronounce the fatḥa above the mīm, since it is difficult to say al-R^aḥm^a-ān. The fatḥa is thrown away and only the hidden alif is pronounced, leading to the pronunciation mān.

Lesson 4: al-Raḥīm

Bⁱsmⁱ (in the name [of]) allāhⁱ (God) al-r^aḥmānⁱ (the Most Gracious) al-r^aḥīm (the Most Merciful).

We will now move on to the final word, al-R^aḥīm (“The Most Merciful”):

The only new letter above is the yāʾ before the final mīm. This letter acts like the English letter “y” and the English digraph “ee” as in “see” depending on the context. The appearance of this letter changes greatly depending on where it is. Since the ḥāʾ before it has a kasra and the yāʾ has a sukūn, the resulting sound is “ḥī”. The two names of God together are pronounced thus: al-R^aḥ-mā-nⁱl-R^a-ḥīm.

However, there is a complication here. Arabs say ar-R^aḥ-mā-nⁱr-R^a-ḥīm. The “l” sound becomes an “r” sound with a shadda when it comes to certain types of letters that come after “al”. This is something that will become clear over time. The full verse is pronounced thus: bⁱs-mⁱl-lā-hⁱr-R^aḥ-mā-nⁱr-R^a-ḥīm. There is a kasra on the last letter al-Raḥīm in the Quranic verse, as follows:

This kasra is ignored because it is at the end of the verse. It would have been pronounced if there was something after it.

Lesson 5: al-Fātiḥa 2

Praise is for God, Lord of the Worlds
Transliteration: al-ḥamd^u lⁱ-llāhⁱ rabbⁱ al-ʿālamīn
Pronunciation: al-ḥam-d^u lⁱl-lā-hⁱ rab-bⁱl-ʿā-la-mīn

Al-ḥ^amd^u (praise [is]) lⁱ-llāhⁱ (for God) r^abbⁱ (Lord [of]) al-ʿāl^amīn (the worlds).

An essential part of your learning is to try to read the Arabic while using the transliteration to help you figure out the letters you do not know. Take a minute to do that at the beginning of each lesson.

We will now move on to the second verse of the Quran (chapter 1, verse 2). The first phrase of the verse is al-ḥamd^u, which means “praise is”. The word ḥamd means “praise”, but not just any kind of praise. It means grateful praise; praise directed at someone who deserves it and has earned it by doing us a favor. The verse starts with al-ḥamd rather than merely ḥamd because in Arabic the “al” also serves the function of making the meaning of a word more general. If the word lacked “al”, it would have meant “a praise”, which sounds strange.

Above is the phrase al-ḥamd^u. The letters are all familiar except for the last one. That is the letter dāl, which is the same as the English letter “d”. There is a vowel mark above it. This mark is known as the ḍamma, which makes the same sound as “u” in the English word “put”.

As mentioned, al-ḥamd^u means “praise is”. The context tells us that this is an “is” context. This is figured out by looking at the words that come after it. There is no shortcut to learning how this works; you just have to keep reading and learning until your brain starts to pick up the patterns.

The next word is lⁱllāhⁱ, “for God”:

The beginning lⁱ is a word by itself that means “for”. The rest of the phrase is the word Allāh. The word is compressed due to the context. Originally it was lⁱ-Allāhⁱ, but it is easier on the tongue to throw away the A and say lⁱllāhⁱ.

Rather than writing

we write

The next word in the verse is rabb, which means “lord”, “master” and “mentor”:

The first letter is a rāʾ (which makes the “r” sound). We have seen it before, but here it looks different due to the fact that it is not joined to anything. The next letter is a bāʾ which makes a “b” sound. The shadda on the bāʾ duplicates it, as if the word was as follows:

The next word is al- ʿāl^amīn, which is often translated as “the worlds”:

The first letter of ʿāl^amīn is the letter ʿayn, which has no equivalent in English. Watch a video on how to pronounce the Arabic name Umar, which begins with an ʿayn, and you will get an idea about how it is pronounced.

There is a hidden alif after the ʿayn, which is why the fatḥa on the ʿayn is ignored. If you look at a modern Arabic book, the alif would be there:

It is just a peculiarity of the Quranic text that it lacks the alif. I use the symbol ʿ to represent the letter ʿayn in my transliteration system.

The rest of the letters should be familiar. Let us look at the full phrase:

Note that there is a kasra underneath the bāʾ in rabb, so that it is actually rabbi. The ending “i” sound functions as an “of”, so that the full phrase is “Lord of the worlds”.

Lesson 6: al-Fātiḥa 3-4

The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Transliteration: al-R^aḥmānⁱ al-R^aḥīm
Pronunciation: al-R^aḥ-mā-nⁱr-R^a-ḥī-m

Al-R^aḥmānⁱ (the Most Gracious) al-R^aḥīm (the Most Merciful).

The third verse of the Quran is merely a repetition of the names of God from before: al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm (“the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful”). We will therefore move on to the next verse:

Translation: Sovereign of the Day of Repayment
Transliteration: mālⁱkⁱ y^awmⁱ al-dīn
Pronunciation: mā-lⁱ-kⁱ y^aw-mⁱd-dīn

Mālⁱkⁱ (Sovereign [of]) y^awmⁱ (the day [of]) al-dīn (repayment).

The fourth verse of the Quran starts with the word is mālⁱk (“sovereign”, “keeper”).

The first letter is mīm (making a “m” sound). There is hidden alif right after it which would be shown in standard Arabic writing:

The next letter is a lām (making a “l” sound). The final letter is a kāf which makes a “k” sound. The symbol above the kāf is part of the letter; it is not a special mark. It is only written when the kāf is at the end of a word.

The second word of the verse is y^awm, which means “day”.

The first letter is a yāʾ, which as mentioned functions as the English “y” or “ee” depending on its context. Here it functions as a “y”. Since it has a fatḥa above it, we say “y^a”. The “a” is a short “a”, pronounced as the “u” in “cup”. In the transliteration system I use in this book, the long “a” sound (as in “car”) has a line above it: ā.

The second letter of the word y^awm is a wāw, which functions as the English “w” or “oo” depending on context. Here it functions as a “w”. It has a sukūn above it which tells us it is unvowelled.

The final letter of the word y^awm is a mīm. It looks like that because it is not joined with anything.

The mīm has a kasra underneath it, so in context (when reading it as part of the verse) we say y^awmⁱ, and this tells us that it means “day of” rather than merely “day”.

The final word of verse four of the Quran is the word dīn, which means “religion”, “creed”, “repayment”, “recompense”. In this particular verse it means “repayment”, “recompense”.

After the “al” there is a dāl (“d”) with a shadda above it, which duplicates it. When we pronounce the word with the “al” before it, we say ad-dīn similar to the way we said ar-Raḥmān (“the Most Gracious”). After the dāl there is a yāʾ with a sukūn above it, making the sound “ee” as in “see”. This long “ee” sound is represented in my transliteration system by the “i” with a line above it: ī.

This full phrase y^awm al-dīn (pronounced y^aw-mⁱd-dīn) means “Day of Repayment”, meaning the Day of Judgment.

Lesson 7: al-Fātiḥa 5

You we worship and You we ask for help
Transliteration: Iyyāk^a n^aʿb^ud^u w^a-iyyāk^a n^ast^aʿīn
Pronunciation: Iy-yā-k^a n^aʿ-b^u-d^u w^a iy-yā-k^a n^as-t^a-ʿīn

Iyyāk^a (You) n^aʿb^ud^u (we worship) w^a-iyyāk^a (and You) n^ast^aʿīn (we ask for help).

The first word of the fifth verse of the Quran is iyyāk^a, which means “you” (singular). This is not an ordinary “you”; it is only used to express high regard for the addressed person. It almost means “your highness”.

Above, the vertical line at the beginning is a hamza as has been mentioned. The symbol underneath it indicates that this hamza is pronounced “i” rather than “a”. If the symbol was above the vertical line, it would have told us that it is pronounced “a”. The kasra is additional help that tells us the word starts with a “i” sound, but it is not necessary because whenever you see the special hamza symbol underneath the vertical line, you immediately know there is a kasra underneath whether it is written or not. Many Arabs when writing omit both the hamza symbol and the kasra, as follows:

One simply learns to figure out the meaning and pronunciation based on the word and its context.

The fourth letter (the vertical line after the yāʾ) is an alif. Here we finally see a proper alif, which is a vertical line that can be joined with what comes before it. The vertical line in the middle or end of a word is always an alif rather than hamza unless it has the special symbol of the hamza underneath or above it, in which case it becomes a hamza.

The second word is naʿb^ud^u, which means “we worship”:

The third letter is a bāʾ (“b”), which we have seen before.

Next we have the phrase w^a-iyyāk^a, which means “and you”:

The first part of the phrase is w^a, which is Arabic for “and”. There is no space between this wāw letter that means “and” and the word after it. The special hamza mark and kasra appear to be underneath the wāw, but they actually belong to the vertical line and form part of the word iyyāka (“you”) that we saw earlier.

The final word is n^ast^aʿīn^u (“we ask for help”):

The only new letter here is the third one, which is a tāʾ and makes a “t” sound:

If this letter is at the beginning of a word, it looks like this:

Lesson 8: al-Fātiḥa 6

Guide us to the Straight Path
Transliteration: Ihdⁱnā al-ṣⁱrāt al-m^ust^aqīm
Pronunciation: Ih-dⁱ-nāṣ-ṣⁱ-rā-t^al-m^us-t^a-qīm

Ihdⁱnā (guide us) al-ṣⁱrāt (the path) al-m^ust^aqīm (the straight).

The first word of the sixth verse of the Quran is ihdⁱnā (“guide us”):

The second letter is a ḥāʾ which makes a “h” sound as in “hill”. We have seen as the last letter of the word Allāh. It looks different here because it is not joined with anything before it. You recognize it by the double holes or “eyes”. When the ḥāʾ is in the middle of a word, it looks like this:

The next word is al-ṣⁱrāt, which means “the path”:

There are two new letters in this word. The first one after the “al” is a ṣād. This has no English equivalent; you can pronounce it as an “s” for now. You can look up “how to pronounce Mustafa” online to find out how the letter sounds (the “s” in Mustafa is a ṣād). In the Quranic text, the alif is missing and is represented by a short vertical line. Here I have chosen to place a full alif.

Do not confuse ṣād with ḥāʾ:

The letter on the left is a ḥāʾ, while the one on the right is a ṣād. The ṣād has no sharp edges while the top part of the ḥāʾ has a sharp angle, although calligraphers may soften the angle a little as seen above.

The last letter of al-ṣirāt is a ṭaʾ. This letter looks like a ṣād with a vertical line at its end:

The letter ṭaʾ has no English equivalent. For now you can pronounce it as a “t”. The “t” in the name Mustafa is a ṭaʾ.

The final word in the verse is al-m^ust^aqīm, “the straight”:

The first letter after the “al” is a mīm. Some fonts show an “eye” for the mīm, as follows:

But other fonts represent the mīm without an eye. In some fonts, as in the earlier image, the mīm is directly beneath the letter that comes before it, in this case the lām, while in the image right above the lām is elongated for a bit before the mīm.

The one new letter in this word is the second before last, a qāf:

The qāf looks like a mīm with two dots above it. It has no English equivalent. The country name Iraq has a qāf at the end.

Let us now look at the full phrase “the Straight Path”:

The first means “the path” while the second one means “the straight”. But when they are together, the meaning is “the Straight Path”. The second word, al-m^ust^aqīm, is an adjective or ṣifa—it describes the word that comes before it. In Arabic, the adjective follows the format of the word before it. If the previous word has an “al”, the adjective must have an “al” too.

Lesson 9: al-Fātiḥa 7a

We are now at the final verse of the first chapter of the Quran. Due to its length, we will break it up into multiple parts:

The path of those whom You bestowed your favor upon
Transliteration: Ṣⁱrāt^a all^adhīn^a anʿ^amt^a ʿ^al^ayhⁱm
Pronunciation: Ṣⁱ-rā-t^al-l^a-dhī-n^a an-ʿ^am-t^a ʿ^a-l^ay-hⁱm

Ṣⁱrāt^a (path) all^adhīn^a (those whom) anʿ^amt^a (You bestowed) ʿ^al^ayhⁱm (upon them).

The first word is ṣⁱrāt (“path”), which we saw in the previous lesson. In this verse it lacks an “al”. However, its context makes it definite, as if it has an “al”. This will be explained further in future lessons.

The second word is all^adhīn^a (“those who”, “those whom”).

The “al” at the beginning is part of the word—it is not the usual “al” that means “the”. The third letter is a dhāl, which is pronounced exactly like the “th” in “that”. In my transliteration system I use dh to represent it. The word all^adhīn^a is the plural form of all^adhī (“he who”, “he whom”):

That is used when referring to a masculine item. When referring to a feminine, we say all^atī (“she who”, “she whom”):

And when referring to a plural feminine, we say allātī (“those who”, “those whom”):

Back to the Quranic verse, the third word is anʿ^amt^a (“you bestowed”):

The first letter is a hamza. This hamza has the hamza symbol above it. This tells us that this particular hamza cannot be neglected even when reading it in context (the same is true when the hamza symbol is beneath the vertical line). If you remember, the word Allāh would become lⁱ-llāh if it had a lⁱ before it (the A would disappear). But when you see the hamza symbol, you know this cannot happen to it. So even if we place the emphatic word l^a (“truly”) before anʿ^amt^a, it becomes l^a-anʿ^amt^a (“You truly bestowed”). It does not become l^anʿ^amt^a.

The final part of the part of the verse we are working on is ʿ^al^ayhⁱm (“upon them”):

The first letter is an ʿayn which we have already seen. This is what it looks like if it is at the beginning of a word. To refresh your memory, here is what it looked like when it was in the middle of a word:

The ʿayn can also have an eye depending on the font, as follows:

The way we differentiate it from a mīm is that the ʿayn has sharper angles, looking somewhat like an inverted triangle.

The letter before last of ʿ^al^ayhⁱm is a ḥāʾ. Here it is stylized in a way that makes it lack any eyes.

Above are four examples of the shapes the letter ḥāʾ can take. The one on the right is the shape it takes when it is alone by itself at the end of a word.

Lesson 10: al-Fātiḥa 7b

Below is the second part of the final verse of the chapter we are in:

Not those who have evoked anger and not the misguided
Transliteration: gh^ayrⁱ al-m^aghḍūbⁱ ʿ^al^ay-hⁱm w^a-lā al-ḍālīn
Pronunciation: gh^ay-rⁱl-m^agh-ḍū-bⁱ ʿ^a-l^ay-hⁱm w^a-l^aḍ-ḍā-līn

Gh^ayrⁱ (not) al-m^aghḍūbⁱ ʿ^al^ay-hⁱm (those upon whom anger is directed) w^a-lā (and not) al-ḍālīn (the misguided [ones]).

The first word of this fragment is gh^ayrⁱ, which means “except for”, “not [that thing]”, “apart from”:

The first letter is a ghayn which has no English equivalent. It is present in the city name Baghdad. You can pronounce it as a “g” in “girl” until you learn how to pronounce it accurately. Below are some of the different shapes this letter takes:

The second word is al-m^aghḍūbⁱ, which means “thing that is experiencing someone’s anger”, something that someone is angry at. There is no simple English word for it, and it makes more sense when read with the word after it:

After the “al” the first letter is a mīm. The next letter is a ghayn which we just saw above. The third letter is a ḍād, which we have not seen before. This letter has no English equivalent. You can pronounce it as a “d” for now. If you try to say “d” while making your whole tongue touch the roof of your mouth, you would be close to making the correct sound. Below are the different shapes this letter takes:

The next letter is ʿ^al^ayhⁱm (“upon them”). We already covered this phrase in the previous lesson. The full phrase al-m^aghḍūbⁱ ʿ^al^ayhⁱm means “those upon whom is anger is directed”.

The next phrase is w^a-lā (“and not”):

The above letters are all familiar. After the wāw there is a lām and then an alif. Here is another way of writing it to clarify it further:

The word lā is Arabic for “no”, “not”, “do not”, the meaning depends on the context.

The final word in the current fragment is al-ḍālīn (“the misguided [ones]”):

Lessons 1-10 Review

At the end of each there will be a Lesson Review meant to help you practice your learning. Do your best to read the Arabic text and make sense of it. Use the transliteration and translation underneath it to help you when you need it.

According to LTSDR theory the act of comprehension is the act of learning. Your efforts to “decipher” the meaning of each word is what helps your brain learn, this is what the “D” in LTSDR stands for. Trying to decipher words in a language you do not speak is very taxing on the brain, but by performing it you force your brain to build new neuronal connections that cause the new language’s vocabulary and grammar to be embedded in your brain (i.e. to be learned). Doing the deciphering at the end of each lesson is therefore essential; it is in fact the most important part of the learning you will get from this book.

Bⁱsmⁱ (in the name [of]) allāhⁱ (God) al-r^aḥmānⁱ (the Most Gracious) al-r^aḥīm (the Most Merciful).

Al-ḥ^amd^u (praise [is]) lⁱ-llāhⁱ (for God) r^abbⁱ (Lord [of]) al-ʿāl^amīn (the worlds).

Al-R^aḥmānⁱ (the Most Gracious) al-R^aḥīm (the Most Merciful).

Mālⁱkⁱ (Sovereign [of]) y^awmⁱ (the day [of]) al-dīn (repayment).

Iyyāk^a (You) n^aʿb^ud^u (we worship) w^a-iyyāk^a (and You) n^ast^aʿīn (we ask for help).

Ihdⁱnā (guide us) al-ṣⁱrāt (the path) al-m^ust^aqīm (the straight).

Ṣⁱrāt^a (path) all^adhīn^a (those whom) anʿ^amt^a (You bestowed) ʿ^al^ayhⁱm (upon them).

Gh^ayrⁱ (not) al-m^aghḍūbⁱ ʿ^al^ayhⁱm (those upon whom anger is directed) w^a-lā (and not) al-ḍālīn (the misguided [ones]).

Lesson 11: al-Ikhlās

We will now move on to another short chapter of the Quran—chapter 112. The name of this chapter is al-Ikhlās (“sincere devotion”) and it has only four verses.

Muslims pronounce the the basmala (the phrase “In the name of God: Most Gracious, Most Merciful”) at the beginning of the recitation of every chapter of the Quran (except chapter 9), therefore we will placed at the top of the start of each new chapter we deal with. While the basmala is part of the first chapter of the Quran, when it comes to the rest of the chapters it is placed ahead of them outside the chapters.

Verse 1

Say: “He is God, [Who is] One.”
Transliteration: q^ul h^uw^a Allāh^u aḥ^ad
Pronunciation: q^ul h^u-w^al-lā-h^u a-ḥ^ad

Q^ul (say) h^uw^a (He is) Allāh^u (God) aḥ^ad (One/Individual).

The first word is q^ul, which is a command that means “Say!” The second word is h^uw^a, which means “he [is]”. The third word is Allāh, and the fourth word aḥad, which means “one”, “individual”, “solitary”. The word for the number one in Arabic is actually wāḥⁱd. The word aḥad emphasizes the individuality of the thing described.

Verse 2

God: the Eternal
Transliteration: Allāh^u al-ṣ^am^ad
Pronunciation: Al-lā-h^uṣ-ṣ^a-m^ad

Allāh^u (God) al-ṣ^am^ad (the Eternal, or the Absolute).

The second word al-ṣ^am^ad, which means “eternal”, “absolute”.

Verse 3

He did not beget, and he was not begotten
Transliteration: l^am y^alⁱd w^a-l^am yūl^ad
Pronunciation: l^am y^a-lⁱd w^a-l^am yū-l^ad

L^am (did not) y^alⁱd (He begets) w^a-l^am (and did not) yūl^ad (He gets begotten).

The first word is l^am, which means “did not”. The second word y^alⁱd means “he begets”. Next, the phrase w^a-l^am means “and did not”. The final word yūl^ad means “he gets begotten”.

Verse 4

And there was not to Him any equivalent
Transliteration: w^a-l^am y^ak^un l^a-h^u k^uf^uw^an aḥ^ad
Pronunciation: w^a-l^am y^a-k^un l^a-h^u k^u-f^u-w^an a-ḥ^ad

W^a-l^am (and did not) y^ak^un (was/existed) l^a-h^u (for Him) k^uf^uw^an (an equal) aḥ^ad (one/anyone).

We are now at the final verse. The word y^ak^un means “was”, “existed”. But it can refer to an action or state that continued from the past to the present. For this reason this verse is often translated as “And there is not to Him any equivalent.”

The phrase l^a-h^u is made up of two words: l^a, which means “for”, and h^u, which is a pronoun that means “him”. If it was referring to a female, it would have been l^a-hā (“for her”):

And if it was referring to a plural male group, it would have been l^a-h^um (“for them”):

As for a plural female group: l^a-h^unn^a (“for them”):

The tiny wāw after l^a-h^u in the Quranic text is to help with recitation. It tells the reciter that the sound before it should be voiced for double the time of a normal sound:

The reason the lām has a shadda above it is that when reciting it in context, according to the rules of Quran recitation (the art of tajwīd), the letter before it can be omitted and the lām can be doubled. Instead of saying y^ak^un l^a-h^u the reciter says y^ak^ul l^a-h^u. This is not essential for understanding the Quran therefore there is no need to be concerned about it.

The word k^uf^uw^an (“an equal”, “an equivalent”) starts with the letter kāf. Here it does not have the special kāf symbol which we saw in the past: because that symbol only shows up when the kāf is at the end of a word:

The second letter of the word k^uf^uw^an is a fāʾ which makes a “f” sound. It looks like a qāf but it has only one dot instead of two:

The wāw after the fāʾ has a double slanted line above it that we have not seen before:

This symbol is known as a tanwīn. It creates a vowel sound followed by an “n” sound. There are three types of tanwīn, each corresponding to one of the vowel marks:

The one on the right is tanwīn al-fatḥ: it creates the sound ^an. The one in the middle is tanwīn al-kasr and creates the sound ⁱⁿ. The one on the left is tanwīn al-ḍamm and creates the sound ^un. The tanwīn performs various grammatical functions, one of which is to turn a word into its singular form. For example, below is the word b^ayt, which means “house”:

Below is the same word with a tanwīn al-ḍamm at its end, making it b^ayt^un:

Now the meaning is “a house” rather than just “house”. All of the tanwīns can perform this function of turning a name into a singular instance.

In the Quranic verse, k^uf^uw^an means “an equivalent”. Notice that this word has an alif at the end:

The alif is only written when it is tanwīn al-fatḥ, which is why b^ayt^un above has no alif. The reason why an alif exists here is that this alif is pronounced when the word is at the end of a sentence. If there had been nothing after k^uf^uw^an, or if we paused here before going on, we would have said k^uf^uwā, taking away the ^un sound and replacing it with a long ā. The meaning remains the same; it is just the reading that changes.

As for the other types of tanwīn, if the word is at the end of a sentence or if someone pauses at them, the tanwīn becomes a sukūn. For example, below is Arabic for “a tall man”:

If this phrase is part of a longer sentence, you would say r^aj^ul^un (“a man”) ṭ^awīl^un (“a tall [one]”). But if it is at the end of a sentence, you would ignore the tanwīn and say r^aj^ul^un ṭ^awīl.

The second letter above is a jīm, with sounds like the “j” in “juice”. It looks exactly like a ḥāʾ except that it has a dot underneath it:

The last word of the verse is aḥ^ad (“one”), which we have already seen.

Lesson 11 Review

Q^ul (say) h^uw^a (he is) Allāh^u (God) aḥad (one/individual).

Allāh^u (God) al-ṣ^am^ad (the Eternal, or the Absolute).

L^am (did not) y^alⁱd (he begets) w^a-l^am (and did not) yūl^ad (he gets begotten).

W^a-l^am (and did not) y^ak^un (was/existed) l^a-h^u (for him) k^uf^uw^an (an equal) aḥ^ad (one/anyone).

Lesson 12: al-ʿAṣr

In this chapter we will move on to chapter 103 of the Quran, which is called al-ʿAṣr (“time”, “the age”, the word age has the same meaning as the “age” in “the Middle Ages”). This chapter has only three verses.

Verse 1

[I swear] by the age
Transliteration: w^a-alʿ^aṣr
Pronunciation: w^al-ʿ^aṣr

The first letter of this very short verse is a wāw, which usually means “and”. Here, however, it means “by”. It is used to express an oath, as when you say “By God, I did not do that!” Here God swears by the age.

Verse 2

Indeed, humanity is in loss.
Transliteration: inn^a al-insān^a l^a-fī kh^usr
Pronunciation: in-n^al-in-sā-n^a l^a-fī kh^usr

Inn^a (truly) al-insān^a (humanity) l^a-fī (truly in) kh^usr (loss).

The first of this verse is inn^a, which is used for emphasis. It means “truly”, “indeed”, “verily”. The second word is al-ⁱnsān, which literally means “the human”. As has been mentioned, the “al” before a word sometimes functions to make the meaning of a word more general, therefore while the word literally means “the human”, we know it actually means “humanity”, “mankind”.

There is a hidden alif after the sīn in al-insān in the Quranic calligraphy. The short vertical line, known as a dagger, represents this alif. In standard Arabic writing the alif is present:

After the “al” at the beginning of the word, there is a hamza with a hamza symbol and kasra beneath it. Below is a different way of writing the same word in order to clarify it:

To clarify further, below I have separated the “al” completely from the word:

The next phrase in the verse is l^a-fī (“truly in”):

The l^a is used for emphasis, it means “truly”, “verily”. The word fī means “in”. Notice that the yāʾ at the end has two dots underneath it, while in the Quranic calligraphy the dots are missing. The dot is not essential, it merely helps readers know this is a yāʾ. Calligraphers may avoid them for stylistic purposes.

The final word of the verse is kh^usr, which means “[a state of] loss”.

The first letter is a khāʾ, which we have not seen before. It is present in the city name Khartoum. You can pronounce it as a “k” until you learn the correct pronunciation. Below are the different forms this letter takes:

Notice that there is a tanwīn al-kasr at the end of the word. Since the word is at the end of a verse, this tanwīn is ignored and is treated as if it was a sukūn. We say kh^usr rather than kh^usrⁱⁿ unless we continue the recitation to the next verse without pausing, it which point we would pronounce the tanwīn.

Verse 3, part 1

We are now at the third and final verse. Since it is a little long, we will break it up into two fragments:

Translation: Except those who have believed and done righteous deeds
Transliteration: illā all^adhīn^a ām^anū w^a-ʿamⁱlū al-ṣālⁱḥāt
Pronunciation: il-l^al-l^a-dhī-n^a ā-m^a-nū w^a-ʿa-mⁱ-lūṣ ṣā-lⁱ-ḥāt

Illā (except) all^adhīn^a (those who) ām^anū (they believed) w^a-ʿamⁱlū (and they did) al-ṣālⁱḥāt (good deeds).

The word illā means “except”. The second word all^adhīn^a (“those”) is familiar.

The third word is ām^anū (“they believed”, “they acquired faith”). It starts with a hamza followed by an alif. The vertical line is not above the hamza because that would make it part of the hamza. It is written to its left to tell us that it is an independent letter.

In standard Arabic, this word would be written as follows:

The two have exactly the same meaning and pronunciation. Standard Arabic uses the letter you see at the beginning to represent a hamza that has an alif after it.

The alif at the end of the word is not pronounced. It is only there in past verbs referring to a plural masculine. Its only purpose is to help us know that the word is a plural verb rather than a plural noun. Instead of using an alif, they could have used any other symbol for this purpose, but they settled on an alif. If you forget to write the alif, this would suggest that the word ām^anū is a noun rather than a verb, which is nonsensical. As you progress in your learning, you will come to recognize these silent alifs.

To turn this verb into the singular masculine, we say ām^an^a (“he believed”):

As for a singular female, we say ām^an^at (“she believed”):

For a plural female group, we say ām^ann^a (“they believed”):

And if you wanted to say “I believed”, you would say ām^ant^u:

To say “we believed”, you would say ām^annā:

These different verb forms all follow a familiar pattern that you will pick up over time.

The next word of the verse is w^a-ʿamⁱlū (“and they did”, “and they performed”):

Similar to the previous word, there is a silent alif at the end. In Arabic past verbs can refer to actions or states that continue to the present, which is why this verb is translated as “those who have done righteous deeds”, and similarly the previous verb is translated as “those who have believed”. One determines from the context whether the action started and ended in the past or whether it is implied that the action continues to the present.

The next word is al-ṣālⁱḥāt (“righteous deeds”, “good deeds”), literally “the wholesome [things]”:

In the Quranic calligraphy shown earlier both the alif after the ṣād and the alif after the ḥāʾ are hidden, while above I have written them both in their usual places. The word al-ṣālⁱḥāt is the feminine plural of al-ṣālⁱḥ (“the sound [one]”, “the wholesome [one]”, “the good [one]”, “the pious [one]”):

To say “The pious man,” we say al-r^aj^ul al-ṣālⁱḥ:

To say “The pious woman”, we say al-m^arʾ^at^u al-ṣālⁱḥ^a:

The word al-m^arʾ^at^u (“the woman”) ends with what is called a tāʾ marbūṭa or closed tāʾ. It looks like a hāʾ but has two dots above it, and it only occurs at the end of words to indicate the feminine:

The closed tāʾ is only pronounced if there comes something after it. If we had “the woman” without anything after it, we would not pronounce it:

The above is pronounced al-m^arʾ^a. The word al-ṣālⁱḥ^a (“the pious”) also has a closed tāʾ because in Arabic adjectives must follow the pattern of the word they describe. Since “the pious” is applying to a female, al-ṣālⁱḥ acquires a closed tāʾ at its end to becomes al-ṣālⁱḥ^a in order to match the word it describes.

Verse 3, part 2

We will now move on to the second and last fragment of the final verse of chapter 103:

And advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience
Transliteration: w^a-t^awāṣ^aw bⁱ-al-ḥ^aqqⁱ w^a-t^awāṣ^aw bⁱ-al-ṣ^abr
Pronunciation: w^a-t^a-wā-ṣ^aw bⁱl-ḥ^aq-qⁱ w^a-t^a-wā-ṣ^aw bⁱl-ṣ^abr

W^a-t^awāṣ^aw (and they recommended to each other) bⁱ-al-ḥ^aqqⁱ (by the truth) w^a-t^awāṣ^aw (and they recommended to each other) bⁱ-al-ṣ^abr (by patience).

The word t^awāṣ^aw means “they recommended to each other”, “they advised each other”, but it has no exact equivalent in English.

The phrase bⁱ-al-ḥ^aqqⁱ is made up of the word bⁱ (“with”, “by”) and al- ḥ^aqqⁱ (“the truth”). The last phrase is bⁱ-al-ṣ^abr. We again have the word bⁱ followed by al-ṣ^abr (“patience”).

Lesson 12 Review

W^a-alʿ^aṣr (by the age).

Inn^a (truly) al-insān^a (humanity) l^a-fī (truly in) kh^usr (loss).

Illā (except) all^adhīn^a (those) ām^anū (they believed) w^a-ʿamⁱlū (and they did) al-ṣālⁱḥāt (good deeds).

Illā (except) all^adhīn^a ām^anū (those who believed) w^a-ʿamⁱlū al-ṣālⁱḥāt (and did good deeds).

W^a-t^awāṣ^aw (and they recommended to each other) bⁱ-al-ḥ^aqqⁱ (by the truth) w^a-t^awāṣ^aw (and they recommended to each other) bⁱ-al-ṣ^abr (by patience).

W^a-t^awāṣ^aw bⁱ-al-ḥ^aqqⁱ (the recommended the truth to each other) w^a-t^awāṣ^aw bⁱ-al-ṣ^abr (the recommended patience to each other).

Lesson 13: al-Ḍuḥā

We will now move on to the 93^rd chapter of the Quran. This chapter has 11 verses and is called al-Ḍuḥā (“the forenoon”, “the [time of] the morning brightness”). It refers to the part of the morning where the sun has risen for a while so that it has become very bright.

Verse 1

By the [time of] the morning brightness
Transliteration: wa-al-ḍuḥā
Pronunciation: wad-ḍu-ḥā

The verse begins with the letter wāw. Like we saw before, the letter means “by” (for oaths) rather than having the usual meaning of “and”. The one new thing above is the final letter, which is actually an alif. This alif is known as alif maqṣūra (“shortened alif”). It looks like a yāʾ but has nothing to do with a yāʾ. Some Arabic words simply end with an alif that is written in this way. In the Quranic calligraphy a dagger is placed above it to hint that it is an alif rather than a yāʾ.

Verse 2

By the night when it covers
Transliteration: w^a-al-l^aylⁱ idhā s^ajā
Pronunciation: w^a-al-l^aylⁱ idhā s^ajā

W^a-al-l^aylⁱ (by the night) idhā (when) s^ajā (covers with darkness).

After the oath-taking wāw, the first word is al-l^ayl (“night”). The word idhā means “when”. The word s^ajā means “it covered”, for example when you cover something with a blanket. The full verse therefore means “I swear by the night when it covers [the world like a blanket].” The word s^ajā also ends with a shortened alif. The word s^ajā is in the past tense format, but due to the fact that there is an idhā before it, we know it is referring to the present tense. The word idhā turns the past tense into the present tense.

Verse 3

Your Lord has not abandoned you, and He has not detested [you]
Transliteration: mā w^add^aʿ^a-k^a r^abb^u-k^a w^a-mā q^alā
Pronunciation: mā w^ad-d^a-ʿ^a-k^a r^ab-b^u-k^a w^a-mā q^a-lā

Mā (has not) w^add^aʿ^ak^a (abandoned you) r^abb^u-k^a (your Lord) w^a-mā (and has not) q^alā (detested).

The word mā means “has not”. The phrase w^add^aʿ^ak^a means “abandoned you”. It is made up of two words: w^add^aʿ^a (“[he] abandoned”) and k^a (singular “you”). The wāw at the beginning of w^add^aʿ^a is part of the word—it is not the independent wāw that means “and” or “by”. If we wanted to say “abandoned you” directed at a female, we would say w^add^aʿ^akī:

Arabic differentiates between a plural made up of only two people and a plural made up of three or more people. If we said “abandoned you” and the speech was directed at two males or two females, or a male and a female, then we would say w^add^aʿ^ak^umā:

In this unique case, there is no differentiation between speech directed at males or females. But if the speech was directed at a group of males (three or more), we would say w^add^aʿ^ak^um:

As for a group of females, we would say w^add^aʿ^ak^unn^a (“he abandoned you [O group of females]”):

The next phrase of the verse is r^abb^uk^a (“your Lord”, “your Master”), made up of r^abb (“lord”, “master”) and k^a (singular “you”):

Below are different versions of this word all of which mean “your Lord”. From right to left: directed at one female, at two males or females, a group of males, and a group of females.

Next we have the phrase w^a-mā (“and has not”):

The final word of the verse is q^alā, which ends with a shortened alif and means “he detested”:

Verse 4

And truly the Hereafter is better for you than the first [life]
Transliteration: w^a-l^a-l-ākhⁱr^at^u kh^ayr^un l^a-k^a mⁱn^a al-ūlā
Pronunciation: w^a-l^al-ā-khⁱ-r^a-t^u kh^ay-r^un l^a-k^a mⁱ-n^al-ū-lā

W^a (and) l^a (truly) l-ākhⁱr^at^u (the Hereafter) kh^ayr^un ([is] better) l^a-k^a (for you) mⁱn^a (than) al-ūlā (the first).

The phrase w^a-l^a-al-ākhⁱr^at^u is made up of three words: w^a (“and”), l^a (“truly”), al-ākhⁱr^at^u (“the Hereafter”). The “al” of al-ākhⁱr^at^u merges with the l^a that comes before it, as follows:

The hamza at the beginning of al-ākhⁱr^at^u disappears, so that we say l^al-ākhⁱr^at^u. Above, I have used the standard letter to represent the ā, while in the Quranic calligraphy above a hamza symbol is used, followed by an alif. As has been mentioned, the two things have the same meaning.

The next word is kh^ayr^un (“better”, “best”). In Arabic the comparative and the superlative forms of adjectives are the same word. We determine whether “better” or “best” is meant from the context. The rest of the verse shows us that here “better” is meant.

Above, I have used the usual symbol for tanwīn al-ḍamm on the end of the final letter, while in the Quranic calligraphy another symbol is used that looks like two small wāw letters. This was done by the calligrapher for decorative purposes; it is still a tanwīn al-ḍamm.

The next word is l^ak^a (“for you”):

In the Quranic calligraphy the lām has a shadda:

The reason is that according to the art of Quran recitation (tajwīd), a person can duplicate the lām and merge it with the sound before it, saying: kh^ayr^ul l^ak^a (note that the “n” sound of the tanwīn has now become a “l” sound).

The final two words of the verse are:

The first word is mⁱn^a (“than”, “from”), while the second one is al-ūlā (“the first one”), which refers to the life of this world. Notice that the hamza symbol on al-ūlā is directly above the vertical line, which means that the vertical line along with the hamza symbol together make up a single letter: a hamza. But if you look at w^a–l^al-ākhⁱr^at^u in the Quranic calligraphy, you see the hamza symbol is in the middle between the lām and vertical line rather than hovering at the tip of the vertical line:

That tells you that the hamza does not belong with the vertical line. It is independent and the vertical line is a different letter (an alif) that follows it. Below I have broken down w^a–l^al-ākhⁱr^at^u so that you can see the independent hamza, while on the right you can see the way the hamza of al-ūlā belongs with the vertical line:

Verse 5

And your Lord is going to give you, and you will be satisfied
Transliteration: w^a-l^a-s^awf^a y^uʿṭī-k^a r^abb^u-k^a f^a-t^arḍā
Pronunciation: w^a-l^a-s^aw-f^a y^uʿ-ṭī-k^a r^ab-b^u-k^a f^a-t^ar-ḍā

W^a (and) l^a (truly) s^awf^a (will) y^uʿṭīk^a (give you) r^abb^uk^a (your Lord) f^a (then) t^arḍā (you will be satisfied).

The first phrase of the verb is made up three words: w^a (and) l^a (truly) s^awf^a (will). The second phrase is y^uʿṭīk^a, made up of the verb y^uʿṭī (“gives”) and k^a (“you”). The word y^uʿṭī is a verb (fiʿl) in the present tense, known as the muḍāriʿ tense. To turn it into the past (māḍī) tense we say aʿṭā (“he gave”):

Below are other forms of this verb:

From right to left: aʿṭ^at (“she gave”), aʿṭ^ayā (“they [two of them] gave”), aʿṭ^aw (“they [male plural] gave”, aʿṭ^ayn^a (“they [female plural] gave”).

When I place the different permutations of a word, they are not for memorization, but for exposure to the way the language works. Try to read each word and make sense of it. As you continue doing this throughout this book, the patterns of the language become embedded in your mind so that you get an intuitive sense for how it works.

Notice the way the alif at the end becomes a yāʾ in the word second from the right. That is the reason this type of alif is written to look like a yāʾ.

Below, all four are shown in their present tense:

The hamza at the beginning of the word disappears according to the rules of Arabic grammar. This is something that becomes familiar as you continue your learning.

Moving onto the last part of the verse:

The first word is r^abb^u-k^a (“your Lord”). The second item is a phrase made up of f^a (“then”, “and then”) and t^arḍā (“you will be satisfied”).

The symbol at the end of the very last word of the verse is there to tell reciters to elongate that final ā sound.

Verse 6

Did He not find you an orphan and then give [you] refuge?
Transliteration: a-l^am y^ajⁱd-k^a y^atīm^an f^a-āwā
Pronunciation: a-l^am y^a-jⁱd-k^a y^a-tī-m^an f^a-ā-wā

A-l^am (did not) y^ajⁱd-k^a (He found you) y^atīm^an (an orphan) f^a (and then, so) āwā (gave refuge).

The phrase a-l^am means “is it not the case that…?”, “is it not true that…?” It is made up of a, which is a hamza used for asking questions, and lam (“did not”, “is not”).

The word y^ajⁱdk^a means “he found you”. Therefore the full phrase a-l^am y^ajⁱdk^a means “Is it not true that He found you…?”, “Did He not find you…” L^am y^ajⁱdk^a means “he did not find you”; adding the a to the beginning turns it into a question.

The word y^atīm means “orphan” while y^atīm^an means “an orphan”. The last part of the verse is f^a (“then”, “and then”) and āwā (“gave refuge”). Below are the two different ways of writing this phrase:

In the Quranic calligraphy the letter fāʾ is joined with the alif and the hamza symbol is placed above the joined area.

Verse 7

And He found you lost and then guided [you]
Transliteration: w^a-w^aj^ad^a-k^a ḍāl^an f^a-h^adā
Pronunciation: w^a-w^a-j^a-d^a-k^a ḍā-l^an f^a-h^a-dā

W^a (and) w^aj^ad^a-k^a (He found you) ḍāl^an (a lost one) f^a (and then) h^adā (he guided).

The first wāw is an “and”, while the second one is part of the verb w^aj^ad^ak^a (“he found you”). The word ḍāl means “lost”, “misguided”. We already saw this word in its plural form: ḍālīn (“misguided ones”).

Verse 8

And He found you poor and made [you] self-sufficient.
Transliteration: w^a-w^aj^ad^a-k^a ʿāʾⁱl^an f^a-aghnā
Pronunciation: w^a-w^a-j^a-d^a-k^a ʿā-ʾⁱ-l^an f^a-agh-nā

W^a (and) w^aj^ad^a-k^a (he found you) ʿāʾⁱl^an (a poor one, a poor person) f^a (and then) aghnā (he made [someone] rich, he made [someone] self-sufficient).

Notice that in the transliteration of ʿāʾⁱl^an (“a poor one”) there is a new symbol: ʾ. This stands for a hamza and faces in the opposite direction to the ʿayn symbol. The standard way of writing this word is as follows:

In the Quranic calligraphy the hamza symbol is underneath. The wavy symbol above the second letter of ʿāʾⁱl^an merely tells the reciter to elongate that sound. In the Quranic calligraphy it never stands for the hamza–alif combination that is used in standard Arabic writing.

Verse 9

So as for the orphan: then do not oppress [him]
Transliteration: f^a-ammā al-y^atīm^a f^a-lā t^aqh^ar
Pronunciation: f^a-am-m^al-y^a-tī-m^a f^a-lā t^aq-h^ar

F^a (so) ammā (as for) al-y^atīm^a (the orphan) f^a (then) lā (do not) t^aqh^ar (you oppress).

The f^a at the beginning is the same as the one from the previous verse, but here it is more correct to translate it as “so”. The word ammā means “as for”.

Verse 10

And as for the asker, so do not repel [him].
Transliteration: w^a-ammā al-sāʾⁱl^a f^a-lā t^anh^ar
Pronunciation: w^a-am-mal-sā-ʾⁱ-l^a f^a-lā t^an-h^ar

W^a (and) ammā (as for) al-sāʾⁱl^a (the asker) f^a (then) lā (do not) t^anh^ar (repel).

The word al-sāʾⁱl means “asker”, both one who asks a question and one who asks for something. Here it is generally considered to refer to one who asks for material assistance.

Verse 11

And of the favor of your Lord, then speak
Transliteration: w^a-ammā bⁱ-nⁱʿm^atⁱ r^abbⁱk^a f^a-ḥ^addⁱth
Pronunciation: w^a-am-mā bⁱ-nⁱʿ-m^a-tⁱ r^ab-bⁱ-k^a f^a-ḥ^ad-dⁱth

W^a (and) ammā (as for) bⁱ-nⁱʿm^atⁱ (of the favor) r^abbⁱk^a (your Lord) f^a (then) ḥaddith (speak).

The phrase w^a-ammā still means “and as for”, but now that there is an “of” right after it, in English it sounds strange to say “And as for of the favor”, therefore in the translation I wrote “And of the favor”. The word nⁱʿm^a means “favor”, “blessing”, “bounty”, something that is bestowed by someone on someone. Since it ends with a closed tāʾ, we simply say nⁱʿm^a if we say the word by itself. But in context we read the closed tāʾ, saying nⁱʿm^atⁱ r^abbⁱk^a. The final phrase is f^a-ḥ^addⁱth (“then speak!”). The final letter is a thāʾ which is pronounced the same as the “th” in “thing”. In this book I always use th to represent this letter, while using dh to represent the “th” sound in “that”.

The words in the Quranic verse are arranged to create a poetic effect. Below I have rephrased them to make them sound more like ordinary Arabic:

The above says f^a-ḥ^addⁱth (“then speak”) bⁱ-nⁱʿm^atⁱ (“of the favor [of]”) r^abbⁱk (your Lord).

While there is no “of” in “the favor of your Lord”, the phrase bⁱ-nⁱʿm^atⁱ r^abbⁱk “favor [of] your Lord” tells us there is an “of” there based on the way the vowels are placed.

Lesson 13 Review

Wa-al-ḍuḥā (by the morning brightness).

W^a-al-l^aylⁱ (by the night) idhā (when) s^ajā (covers with darkness).

Mā (has not) w^add^aʿ^ak^a (abandoned you) r^abb^uk^a (your Lord) w^a-mā (and has not) q^alā (detested).

W^a (and) l^a (truly) l-ākhⁱr^at^u (the Hereafter) kh^ayr^un ([is] better) l^ak^a (for you) mⁱn^a (than) al-ūlā (the first).

W^a (and) l^a (truly) s^awf^a (will) y^uʿṭīk^a (give you) r^abb^uk^a (your Lord) f^a (then) t^arḍā (you will be satisfied).

A-l^am (did not) y^ajⁱd-k^a (He found you) y^atīm^an (an orphan) f^a (and then, so) āwā (gave refuge).

W^a (and) w^aj^ad^a-k^a (he found you) ḍāl^an (a lost one) f^a (and then) h^adā (he guided).

W^a (and) w^aj^ad^ak^a (he found you) ʿāʾⁱl^an (a poor one, a poor person) f^a (and then) aghnā (he made [someone] rich, he made [someone] self-sufficient).

F^a (so) ammā (as for) al-y^atīm^a (the orphan) f^a (then) lā (do not) t^aqh^ar (you oppress).

F^a–ammā (so as for) al-y^atīm^a (the orphan) f^a-lā t^aqh^ar (then do not oppress).

W^a (and) ammā (as for) al-sāʾⁱl^a (the asker) f^a (then) lā (do not) t^anh^ar (repel).

W^a ammā (and as for) al-sāʾⁱl^a (the asker) f^a-lā t^anh^ar (so do not repel).

W^a (and) ammā (as for) bⁱ-nⁱʿm^atⁱ (of the favor) r^abbⁱk^a (your Lord) f^a (then) ḥaddith (speak).

Lesson 14: al-Sharḥ

We will now move on to chapter 94 of the Quran, known as al-Sharḥ (“the expansion of the chest”, “the opening of the heart”), referring to the feeling of open-heartedness a person feels when they finally accept something and open their heart toward it.

Verse 1

Did we not expand your chest for you?
Transliteration: a-l^am n^ashr^aḥ l^a–k^a ṣ^adr^ak
Pronunciation: a-l^am n^ash-r^aḥ l^a-k^a ṣ^ad-r^ak

A-l^am (did not) n^ashr^aḥ (we expand) l^a-k^a (for you) ṣ^adr^ak (your chest).

A-l^am means “is it not true that…?” while n^ashr^aḥ means “we expand”, “we cause to be open-hearted”. The sīn-like letter with three dots above it is a shīn which makes a “sh” sound as in “should”. I use “sh” to represent it in the transliteration. The full phrase Al^am n^ashr^aḥ then means “Did we not expand…?”. The word ṣ^adr^ak literally means “your chest”, metaphorically referring to a person’s heart.

Verse 2

And we removed from you your burden
Transliteration: w^a-w^aḍ^aʿ-nā ʿ^an-k^a wⁱzr^a-k
Pronunciation: w^a-w^a-ḍ^aʿ-nā ʿ^an-k^a wⁱz-r^ak

W^a (and) w^aḍ^aʿ-nā (we removed) ʿ^an-k^a (from you) wⁱzr^a-k (your burden).

The first phrase is w^a-w^aḍ^aʿnā (“and we removed”). The verb w^aḍ^aʿnā (“we removed”) is the first person plural of w^aḍ^aʿ^a (“he removed”):

The phrase ʿ^an-k^a is made up of ʿ^an (“from”) and k^a (“you”). The phrase wⁱzr^ak (“your burden”) is made up of the noun wⁱzr (“burden”) and the pronoun k^a (“you”).

I have written wⁱzr^ak rather than wⁱzr^ak^a in the transliteration because the word is at the end of the verse, meaning that its final vowel is not pronounced. The second letter of wⁱzr is a zāy, which is pronounced like the “z” in “zebra”. It looks like a rāʾ with a dot above it.

Verse 3

The one which weighed upon your back
Transliteration: all^adhī anq^aḍa ẓ^ahr^a-k
Pronunciation: al-l^a-dhī an-q^a-ḍa ẓ^ah-r^ak

All^adhī (which, the one which) anq^aḍa (weighed upon) ẓ^ahr^a-k (your back).

The verb anq^aḍa means “it weighed upon”. The phrase ẓ^ahr^ak means “your back”. The first letter is a ẓāʾ, which is pronounced like a “z” but with the back part of the tongue lifted up. It is presented in the city name Abu Dhabi (the “Dh”).

Verse 4

And we raised for you your repute
Transliteration: w^a-r^af^aʿnā l^a-k^a dhⁱkr^ak
Pronunciation: w^a-r^a-f^aʿ-nā l^a-k^a dhⁱk-r^ak

W^a (and) r^af^aʿnā (we raised) l^a-k^a (for you) dhⁱkr^a-k (your repute).

The verb r^af^aʿnā is the first person plural of r^af^aʿ^a (“he raised”):

Above, on the right is the past tense r^af^aʿ^a (“he raised”), while on the left is the present tense y^arf^aʿ^u (“he raises”).

Above is the past and present for the plural form: r^af^aʿnā (“we raised”) on the right and n^arf^aʿ^u (“we raise”) on the left.

The phrase dhⁱkr^ak means “your repute”, “your mention”, “your remembrance”.

Verse 5

Then truly with hardship is relief
Transliteration: f^a-inn^a m^aʿ^a al-ʿ^usrⁱ y^usrā
Pronunciation: f^a-in-n^a m^a-ʿ^al-ʿ^us-rⁱ y^us-rā

F^a (then) inn^a (truly is) m^aʿ^a (with) al-ʿ^usrⁱ (hardship) y^usrā (relief).

The meaning of the verse is that relief always follows after hardship. The word inn^a is used for emphasis, it means “truly is”. I have written y^usrā at the end of the verse even though it has a tanwīn because the tanwīn is not pronounced when it is at the end of a sentence or verse, and instead the alif is pronounced.

As we progress, there will be fewer explanations for each verse since their contents will become familiar.

Make sure to do all of the Training Points, since that is where most of your learning will take place. Do your best to read the Arabic and understand it, using the transliteration above it for help when needed.

Verse 6

Truly with hardship is relief
Transliteration: inn^a m^aʿ^a al-ʿ^usrⁱ y^usrā
Pronunciation: in-n^a m^a-ʿ^al-ʿ^us-rⁱ y^us-rā

Inn^a (truly is) m^aʿ^a (with) al-ʿ^usrⁱ (hardship [is]) y^usrā (relief).

The sixth verse is a repetition of the previous verse. The only difference is that this verse does not start with a f^a (then).

Verse 7

So when you finish [your work] then devote [yourself to worship]
Transliteration: f^a-idhā f^ar^aght^a f^a-inṣ^ab
Pronuncianation: f^a-i-dhā f^a-r^agh-t^a f^an-ṣ^ab

F^a (then) idhā (when) f^ar^aght^a (you finish) f^a-inṣ^ab (then devote!).

F^ar^aght^a means “you finish”, “you become free [from whatever busies you]”.

The command f^a-nṣ^ab (“then devote!”) is made up of f^a and ins^ab. The hamza at the beginning of ins^ab is silent when there is a vowel before it, which is why we say f^a-nṣ^ab.

Verse 8

And to your Lord turn with longing.
Transliteration: w^a-ilā r^abbⁱ-k^a f^a-irgh^ab
Pronunciation: w^a-ilā r^ab-bⁱ-k^a f^ar-gh^ab

W^a (and) ilā (toward) r^abbⁱ-k^a (your Lord) f^a (then) irgh^ab (turn with longing).

The word ilā means “to”, “toward”. The word irgh^ab (the hamza at the beginning is silent in context) means “turn [toward something] with desire”, “turn [toward something] with longing”. The past tense is r^aghⁱb^a (“he turned [toward something] with longing”):

On the right is the past tense, while on the left is the present tense y^argh^ab^u (“he turns [toward something] with longing”).

Lesson 14 Review

Al^am (did not) n^ashr^aḥ (we expand) l^ak^a (for you) ṣ^adr^ak (your chest).

W^a (and) w^aḍ^aʿ-nā (we removed) ʿ^an-k^a (from you) wⁱzr^a-k (your burden).

All^adhī (which, the one which) anq^aḍa (weighed upon) ẓ^ahr^a-k (your back).

W^a (and) r^af^aʿnā (we raised) l^a-k^a (for you) dhⁱkr^a-k (your repute).

F^a (then) inn^a (truly is) m^aʿ^a (with) al-ʿ^usrⁱ (hardship) y^usrā (relief).

Inn^a (truly is) m^aʿ^a (with) al-ʿ^usrⁱ (hardship [is]) y^usrā (relief).

F^a (then) idhā (when) f^ar^aght^a (you finish) f^a-nṣ^ab (then devote!).

W^a (and) ilā (toward) r^abbⁱ-k^a (your Lord) f^a (then) irgh^ab (turn with longing).

Lesson 15: al-ʿAlaq Part 1

We will next move onto chapter 96 of the Quran. This chapter is named al-ʿAlaq (“the Clinging Substance”), which is a reference to a fetus in the womb. This chapter is considered to be the first chapter of the Quran revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

Verse 1

Recite in the name of your Lord who created
Transliteration: iqr^aʾ bⁱ-smⁱ r^abbⁱ-k^a all^adhī kh^al^aq
Pronunciation: iq-r^aʾ bⁱs-mⁱ r^ab-bⁱ-k^al-l^a-dhī kh^a-l^aq

Iqr^aʾ (read) bⁱ (in) smⁱ (name [of]) r^abbⁱ-k^a (your Lord) all^adhī (who) kh^al^aq (He created).

The verb iqr^aʾ is a command that means “read!” or “recite!” There is a hamza at the end that is always pronounced. You know that because it has the hamza symbol. You do not say iqr^a, you say iqr^aʾ with a “throat constriction” at the end.

Above on the right is q^ar^aʾ^a (“he read”) and on the left is y^aqr^aʾ^u (“he reads”).

The final word is kh^al^aq^a (“he created”). Below is its present tense y^akhl^uq^u (“he creates”):

The dots of the yāʾ are stylized in a way that makes them appear underneath the khāʾ, which can be confusing to beginners. Below is the same word written to take away the stylization:

Verse 2

He created the human from a clinging substance
Transliteration: kh^al^aq^a al-insān^a mⁱn ʿ^al^aq
Pronunciation: kh^a-l^a-q^al-in-sā-n^a mⁱn ʿ^a-l^aq

Kh^al^aq^a (He created) al-insān^a (the human) mⁱn (from) ʿ^al^aq (a clinging substance).

While al-insān literally means “the human”, note that here it is used as a generic reference to all humans. It means “humanity”, “mankind”.

Since the tanwīn at the end of ʿ^al^aq is tanwīn al-kasr, it becomes a sukūn when the word is at the end of a verse or sentence, so we say ʿ^al^aq rather than ʿ^al^aqⁱⁿ.

Verse 3

Translation: Read, and your Lord is the Most Generous
Tranlsiteration: iqr^aʾ w^a-r^abb^u-k^a al-akr^am
Pronunciation: iq-r^aʾ w^a-r^ab-b^u-k^al-ak-r^am

Iqr^aʾ (read) w^a (and) r^abb^u-k^a (your Lord [is]) al-akr^am (the Most Generous).

The word akr^am means “more generous”, “most generous”. From the context we know that “most generous” is meant here.

Verse 4

The One Who taught by the pen
Transliteration: all^adhī ʿ^all^am^a bⁱ-al-q^al^am
Pronunciation: al-l^a-dhī ʿ^al-l^a-m^a bⁱl-q^a-l^am

All^adhī (the One Who) ʿ^all^am^a (taught) bⁱ (by) al-q^al^am (the pen).

The verb ʿ^all^am^a means “he taught”, “he imparted knowledge”. That shadda is part of the verb. Without the shadda the word would become a completely different word ʿ^al^am^a which means “he placed a marker on it”. It also means “he dominated [another person] in knowledgeability” (he was more knowledgeable than another person).

And if we turn the fatḥa on the second letter into a kasra, it again becomes a different word that means “he knew”:

The noun al-q^al^am means “the pen”. It does not refer to a particular pen, it just means pens in general. However, some interpretations of the Quran assume it refers to a particular metaphorical/theological “pen”.

Therefore the vowel and shadda on the second letter of a verb are highly important and determine its meaning.

Verse 5

He taught the human that which he did not know
Transliteration: ʿ^all^am^a al-insān^a mā l^am y^aʿl^am
Pronunciation: ʿ^al-l^am^al-in-sā-n^a mā l^am y^aʿ-l^am

ʿ^all^am^a (he taught) al-insān^a (the human) mā (what, that which) l^am (did not) y^aʿl^am (he knows).

The final word is y^aʿl^am (“he knows”), which is the present tense form of ʿ^alⁱm^a (“he knew”):