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."