Surah Fatiha (lesson 7)

Today's word:

Sirat alazina
صراط الذين

Sirat صراط we have already discussed means straight wide path (like a motorway) without turns and twists.

Alazina الذين and Alazee الذى are most frequent occurring words in Qur'an. They mean the same i.e. "Those Who"
وه جو

Alazina is a combination of two words: Alazee and Na
Alazee الذى means "وہ جو"
When we attach Na ن after a word it refers to a group of people (More than two people). So Alazina means "Those people".

Whereas Alazee الذى means "that person who"

Hence:
Sirat Alazina صراط الذين means "راستہ ان لوگوں کا جو"
"The way of the people (on which)"

Notice (which) is in brackets. This is because Arabic does not have these conjunctions. You will have to put them yourself according to context. Next inshAllah we will discuss who are / were those people. Surah Fatiha gives three attributes of these people with three most interesting words.

Next word is انعمت Anamta. In simple Urdu it means انعام Inaam (gift). This word belongs to the Arabic root NaAaMa ن ع م
It means comfort, satisfaction, contentment, smoothness and free from any discomfort tension pain and stress. Other words that are derived from this root are:
Naymat نعمت
This is simply the noun of the root نعم Na Aa Ma. It means something which gives you comfort, satisfaction, contentment and free you from pain, discomfort and stress. Some derived words are used as common names.
Anum انعم which is the plural for نعم
Naima نعمة : a lady who lives a happy life of contentment
Naeem نعیم : higher degree of نعم

Hence today's word انعمت anamta is a combo of two words انعم anum and تا Ta.

When Ta تا  is attached after a word, it means "you did". Simply put, it means
انعام رکھا تو نے

Next word is عليهم alaihim. It's a combo of two words:
Ala'a على
Him هم

Ala'a على means ON Top (above / Over something)
(کسی چیز کے) اوپر
The closest Urdu word is Aala اعلی meaning "above everything else" or "on top of everything". Figuratively it means "Best". But literally it means "On top of everything"
Him هم (sometimes read as hoom) means THEM. So combined alaihim عليهم means "On Them". Other frequent combinations of this word are:
Alaikum عليكم meaning "On You (All)"
As we say in
اسلام عليكم
Kum كم means You All
Alaika عليك Means "on you (singular)"
Ka  ك when attached after a word means "You (One Person)"
Alaina علينا Means "On Us"

Recall the word iyyaka اياك meaning "Only You (singular)". Also recall the word ihdina اهدنا meaning "Guide Us (All)"

Summarizing:
Anamta Alaihim
انعمت عليهم
انعام (رکھا) تو نے اوپر ان کے
Rewarded You On Them

May Allah help us understand the Qur'an.
رب ذدنى علما
Rabbe Zidnee ilma

Surah Fatiha (lesson 6)

بسم الله الراحمن الراحيم

Today's word is صراط مستقيم Sirat e Mustaqeem. Siraat صراط aik aisay rastay ko kehtay hain jo chora wasee'h ho aur seedha ho. Itna seedha keh door tak nazar aye. It is a road without turns that you can see where its going for a really long distance. You would have heard about پل صداط Pull Sirat. Jiss par say har kissi ko guzar kay Jana hoga.

Mustaqeem مستقيم here is used as adjective, describing صراط. Mustaqeem belongs to the root ق ى م QaYaMa which means Balance. This is a very interesting word. Words that are made from this root are:
Qiyaam قيام  stand in balance / straight
Qeemat قيمت balance of payment / balance amount to be given in return of buying something
Qiyamat قيامت the moment when things would be put in a weighing balance. It could be named so because everybody would stand up قيام from the dead Wallaho Alam

Another controversial word which belongs to the same root is Qawwamoon قوامون. Qur'an says Men are Qawwamoon over Women (4:34). Many scholars say it means hakim. But some say it belongs to the root of QaYaMa ق ى م and hence it means somebody who does justice to them by providing for them. Justice = Balance
Wallaho Alam
Maqaam مقام a place to stand
Woh jaggah jehan par qiyam قيام keeya jaa sakay
Quyyum قيوم a name used for الله meaning qaim قاءم rakhnay wala
Qur'an calls itself Qutubun Qaeeyima كتب قيمة (98:3) the book of balance)
And at another place it refers to Islam as Din Al Qaeeyima دين القيمة (98:5) Balanced Deen
We say in Aqamat أقامت (the Standing up) the following words:
Qamatis Salaat قامة الصلاح meaning Salaat has stood up
Allah says "We have created man in Ahsan e Taqweem احسن تقويم" (95:4)
Ahsan simply means Best
Taqweem تقويم My best guess is "the process of Balancing"
Urdu ka lafz Qom قوم bhi issee root say belong karta hai. It means set of people who stand together.

Recapping:
اهدنا الصراط المستقيم
Ihde nasirat almustaqeem

The most important dua that we make many times in a day. It means guide us (هدايت) towards صراط (straight path) which is مستقيم (balanced).

Please say this dua at the end so that you won't forget whatever you read.

رب ذدنى علما
Rabbe Zidnee ilma

And remember me in your prayers tonight.

Happy قيام الليل (Qiyam Al-lail ) 

Surah Fatiha (lesson 5)

بسم الله الراحمن الراحيم

 

Last part of Surah Fatiha is a dua which starts with the word "ihdena" meaning "hidayat day humain". The "Na" means "We/Us" as previously discussed in نعبر  (Na'budu) and نستعين (Nasta'een).

The first part of the word اهر (ihde) belongs to the root ه ر ى (ha da ya) which is simple Urdu meaning hidayat هرايت. Notice the same root in هرايت. Strictly speaking Arabic root HaDaYa means نمایاں. Jo keh door say nazar aye and gives you direction from far away.

Example 1: هاربة Hadiya - meaning pani main ubhri howee chattaan jo door say nazar aye. Sailors used to find their way by the help of Hadiyas.

Example 2: هرية Hadya - meaning a return gift which is given in advance of the original gift.

Example 3: هادي Haadi - the front part of anything which can be seen from far away. Urdu main we call this حد the border...  the front part of a country.

Haadi hence is also used in the sense of راه نما Rah Numa or Raah ko numayan karnay wala. The same function which Hadiya is doing for Sailors / Travellers trying to reach their destination. So when we say اهرنا before the start of the Qur'an, we mean to get hidayat / Rah Numaee from it. The Qur'an calls itself
هرى للمتقين
Huda-lil-muttaqeen immediately after Surah Fatiha.

رب ذدنى علما
Rabbe Zidnee ilma

Surah Fatiha (lesson 4)

بسم الله الراحمن الراحيم

In the second part of Surah Fatiha we make two promises to Allah.
إياك (Iyyaka)
When a KA (kaaf zabar) is attached at the end of a word it means "You". So إياك (Iyyaka) holistically means "Only You". When KUM كم is attached after a word it means "You All"
Example:
إسلام عليك (alaika)
إسلام عليكم alaikum) a)
Peace be upon you (singular)
Peace be upon you all (plural)

Next word is نعبر  (na'budu). It belongs to the Arabic root عبر  (aa' baa daa) which means "Worship". The rule is whenever theres a ن (noon) before a word it means "We do". So   نعبر  (na'budu) means
"We worship". The root  عبر  (aa' baa daa) is also simple urdu when used as عبارت. Both are also Arabic words meaning: Worship
عبر verb
عبارت noun
عبار (Ibaad) Ibadat karnay Walla.
As we saw on the third day
حمر حمار
Jaisay Hamd say Hamid banaya thaa waisay Abd say Aabid bana saktay hain. Jaisay hamd say Hameed banaya thaa waisay Abd say Abeed bana saktay hain.
حمير jiss ki Hamd ki jaye
عبير jiss ki ibadat ki jaye
نحمر (nahmado)
Humne Hamd ki
نعبر (na'budu)
Humne ibadat ki
Ya hum ibadat karta hon

Next word is نستعين (nasta'een) which means  "We ask for help". The Noon ن in the beginning of the word means "We". Ta'een تعين belongs to the Arabic root ع و ن (aa wa na) which means "help". We use this root in Urdu in many ways and forms. For example: تعاون Ta'wwun meaning "help". (Try identifying the root in each word)
Mu'awanat معاونت "Help" (noun)
Mu'awin معاون Helper
Moeen معين Helper
Wow و is a weaker part of root and dissappears in some words. Whenever there's a و wow in a root expect it to disappear in some word forms which is exactly why it is called Weak root.

Lets revise the 3 words. We have made two promises to Allah.
إياك نعبر
إياك نستعين
You-only (do) we-worship
You-only (do) we-seek-help (from)

This ends the second part of سورة فاتح

رب ذدنى علما
Rabbe Zidnee ilma

Surah Fatiha (lesson 3)

Today's word is Malik-e-Youm-id-Din. Three words. All of them are simple Urdu.
Malik is owner
Youm is Day
Din is Religion.
Literally it means
"Owner(of the) Day (of) Religion"
Figuratively it means
"Owner of the Day Of Judgement" (Qiyamat).

Surah Fatiha has three parts. In the first part Allah is described.
1. Alhamdolillah
2. Rab-al-Aalamin
3. Malik-e-Youm-idDeen
Today we have finished the  first part.
In the second part we make promises to Allah.
In the third part we make dua.
Rabbe Zidnee Ilma.

Surah Fatiha (lesson 2)

Today's word is Rabul Alamin. Both words are simple Urdu again. Rab and Aalamin. Rab means sustainer (Paalnay wala). Aalameen is plural of Aalam meaning World and AL in Rab-AL-Aalamin means THE, which we have already seen previously. Hence Rab-AL-Aalamin means "Sustainer (of all) The Worlds"

Question: Where did 'of all' come from ?
Answer: I mentioned before that there's no OF in Arabic. There are no conjunctions in Arabic. It's a very efficient language in that way. AL (alif laam) means THE. In the sense of "All Of The". For example Al-Hamd would mean "Sab Tareefain". It is used in exhaustive sense. It means "jitnee bhi tareefain hain woh siraf aur siraf Allah kay leeyay hain. Kissi aur ki tareef nahin kee jaa saktee". Which is why hum jab bhi kissi ki tareef kartay hain we should say Mashallah. Otherwise Allah naraz ho jatay hain aur uss say who cheez cheen laitay hain. Similarly Al-Alamin means all of the worlds exhaustively.

Today we'll look at two most powerful Arabic words: Ar-Rahman & Ar-Raheem. Both are Allah's names. The Qur'an refers to Allah with 99 different names, each name refers to one of His attribute / quality. Since Allah has used them to describe himself nobody is sure exactly what they mean. But many scholars give different opinions about their meaning. 
Both these names belong to the root "Ra Ha Ma" (Ray Hay Meem) which directly translates into Urdu as Reham meaning "Mercy".
So although both Rehman and Raheem mean "Merciful"..  we're not sure about the fine difference between them. 
One scholar which appealed to me most thinks that one means "limitlessly merciful (in amount of mercy) " and the other means "continuously Merciful (unlimited in time and frequency)".
While requesting for forgiveness in dua call Him by the name of Ya-Rahman Ya- Raheem. 

Don't forget to say dua for yourself after every session. Rabbe Zidnee Ilma

Surah Fatiha (Lesson 1)

I'll start with Surah Fatiha because that is the opening of the Qur'an and also because we recite this in every rakaat. As we learn, try to feel the meaning of each word in Namaz.Iss say revision bhi hotee rahay gee aur namaz main jaan bhi aye gee. Today we'll see the meaning of Alhamdolillah.

AL-hamd-le-Allah

It constitutes of two words Hamd and Allah. Both are Urdu words. Hamd belongs to the root Ha Ma Da (hay meem daal). Other words belonging to the same root are Hamid Hammad Hameed. Notice all three have the same root Ha Ma Da. Hence the meaning would also be similar. With practice you should learn to extract the root from every Arabic word. Once you can identify the root, you will be able to know the meaning. Every Arabic word belongs to a root. A root is a three letter combination with a generic meaning. Many words are derived from a single root. Generic meaning of all of them would be same. Specific meaning would be a little different from each other. This is the secret of knowing the Arabic language. For example the root HaMaDa (hay meem daal) means "praise". Hamid means "Hamd karnay wala". Hammad means "bohat Hamd karnay wala". Hameed means "jiss ki Hamd ki gayee ho". Same grammar rule would apply on all words and roots. Like we made Hamid from HaMaDa. We can similarly make Rashid from RaShaDa (Ray Sheen Daal). Root RaShaDa means  "hidayat"..  hence Rashid means "hidayat paanay wala". We'll talk more about the rules governing roots and how to make words from them. InshaAllah.

There are two grammar rules in AL-hamd-Le-Allah. Whenever there's AL (Alif Laam) attached before a word it litetally means "The". Figuratively here it is meaning "(All of) The". Second grammar rule in AL-hamd-Le-Allah is the use of letter Le (Laam) when attached before a word simply means "For" (sense of belonging).

Rabbe Zidnee Ilma.

Ae Rab mujhe zyada ilm dei.

Amin.

Bismillah (lesson 2)

So lets begin the lesson 2 with a question that was posed to Humbal.

Question:

Normally when we read Bismillah in english its "In the name of Allah ....". You said Bay means "With". So does this mean that "in" and "with" have the sames meaning/use in Arabic?

Answer:
Every language has its own way of saying things.In English we start a task IN the name of Allah. In Urdu hum Allah Kay naam SAY (from) shuru kartay hain. Naam Kay ander (in) say nahin hai. Similarly in Arabic hum Allah kay naam kay saath (with) shuru kartay hain. I will be focusing on literal meaning of words. Leaving everybody to deduce the figurative meaning themselves. And that is when the Qur'an starts speaking with every individual.

Lesson 2:

In lesson 1 of Bismillah we learned one Arabic word and one grammatical rule.  The Arabic word we learned was ISM meaning "name". The Grammatical rule we learned was the use of Arabic letter BAY when attached before another word would mean "With".

Today we'll look at two most powerful Arabic words: Ar-Rahman & Ar-Raheem. Both are Allah's names. The Qur'an refers to Allah with 99 different names, each name refers to one of His attribute / quality. Since Allah has used them to describe himself nobody is sure exactly what they mean. But many scholars give different opinions about their meaning.
Both these names belong to the root "Ra Ha Ma" (Ray Hay Meem) which directly translates into Urdu as Reham meaning "Mercy".
So although both Rehman and Raheem mean "Merciful"..  we're not sure about the fine difference between them.
One scholar which appealed to me most thinks that one means "limitlessly merciful (in amount of mercy) " and the other means "continuously Merciful (unlimited in time and frequency)".
While requesting for forgiveness in dua call Him by the name of Ya-Rahman Ya- Raheem. 

Rabbe zidni ilma
My Lord! Increase me in knowledge.
 Amin.

Bismillah (lesson 1)

Today's word is Bismillah. This is all simple Urdu. It consists of three words:

Ba-Ism-Allah

In Arabic grammar whenever you put the letter BAY before a word it means "With".

As in Urdu we say:
"ba maa' Ahl O Ayyaal" meaning "With Family"

ISM is also an Urdu word meaning Noun. Bachpan main Ism ki iqsaam parhtay thay Urdu mai. In Arabic it means "name". Arabic people used to have long names. We only have first name and family name but the Arabs have Ism, Laqab, Nasab, Nisbah and Dynasty. Out of these ISM is the personal name. The name most closest to you.

So Be-ISM-Allah literally means "with Name (of) Allah"

Notice there's no arabic word for "OF". Arabic being a very efficient language, unlike Urdu and English, conveys meaning beautifully without redundant use of words. Even letters have meaning. Like the use of letter BAY we saw today.

Rabbe zidni ilma
My Lord! Increase me in knowledge.


Amin.

Welcome & Introduction

Bismillah Arrahman Arrahim

Few months back I was talking with my friend Humbal Tariq on whatsapp and was mentioning how most of us have been taught Quran in Arabic and we do not even know what it means when we are reading it. I was mentioning to him how I don't think this is the right way to do it for our kids. He told me that he is teaching his daughter by teaching her an Arabic word and its meaning every day. So by the time she will be done she will even understand what she is reading. So I requested him to teach me as well.

This conversation made him start a Whatsapp group with lots of people in it. We have been learning a little at a time. This blog will be the most useful and helpful to people who know Urdu as most of the Quranic words have something similar in Urdu and that's what he references in his lessons.

I am starting this blog to share his lessons.

Below is how Humbal started teaching us for the first time:

"Most effective way to learn the Quranic Arabic is to directly start the Quran. Instead of learning the complex grammatical rules and word meanings. If you can learn the meaning of only 150 words, you will be able to understand half of the Qur'an. I will try my best to link each word with Urdu InshaAllah.This will create a pnemonic in your mind and will become easier to remember the meaning."