Pronounciation Matters

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" Once an Arab was invited to Hyderabad as a chief guest (of some program). At the start of the program a hyderabadi person gave the 'welcome speech' and he welcomed the Arabian guest by reading a verse from arabic poetry, which meant " your presence in this congregation is like the presence of the moon (al-qamaru) in sky"!

But due to wrong pronounciation he pronounced AL-QAMAR as AL-KHAMR !!

And this is the meaning of what he said !!"

Al-Khamru means The Wine

This is an example of how the meanings can change due to errorneous pronounciation. So what if we read the Qur'aan with the same errors!! This is a matter which requires attention.

It is obligatory upon us to learn the correct pronounciation of each arabic alphabet. In your free time go through this site, you may find it useful.

http://www.abouttajweed.com/tidbitarchive.htm

What does 'TAMREEN' means?

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See if you can match the arabic words given below with there meanings. In the meanwhile observe the Shamsi and Qamari letters. After you are done just answer these two questions:

1) Which of these words here will have 'TANWEEN' on its last alphabet? (The last alphabet has been intentionally left without any vowel, now you must decide what it should have (u or un)!)

2) What is the meaning of 'TAMREEN' here?

I AM WAITING FOR YOUR REPLY!

Sun and Moon

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Now carefully look at these two words.

AL-QAMARu (remember it is u and not un) is normal, but when reading

AL-SHAMSu, the LAAM is skipped and SHEEN is read twice (i.e, Tashdeed is added to it).

Based upon this there are two kinds of alphabets in Arabic

1) SHAMSI : Which demonstrate the behaviour of SHEEN. These are:

2)QAMARI : Which demonstrate the behaviour of QAF. These are:

You need not memorize it, it will come by practice.

Five minutes with Arabic 'THE'

As Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullaahi Wa Barakatuhu




The answer for the question for the last post is here: Hint given was Opening of Qur'aan, i.e first surah first word after bismillaah, what it is? Al Hamdu...

Hamdun means 'PRAISE' .... so what does AL means? It means 'THE' and here it gives the sense of ALL, i.e The (All) praise belongs to Allaah.



Wait a minute! What happened to TANWEEN ? It is Al Hamdu and NOT Al Hamdun.

Answer is that AL and Tanween CAN NOT come together on the same word. It seems there is some enmity between them !!




So remember two important things about AL

1) 'AL' is enemy of every TANWEEN (no matter it is spoon or stick, i.e, un, an or in sound), they can not co-exist.

2) Whenever 'AL' enters a word it becomes MA'RIFAH (known, eg: The book)(It can never be NAKIRAH ).



Now keeping these two things in mind and example above, tell me how will you say the following things in Arabic:



THE BOOK

THE BED

THE PEN

THE SHIRT

THE CHAIR

THE MASJID

THE HOUSE

THE DOOR

THE MOTHER

THE FATHER

THE CAMEL



Do you find it difficult to remember, if so then try recollecting the hints! This should make it easy. If you are unable to recollect even now then visit the blog for quick refrence. But I am positive that, Insha Allaah, you will not need it! Do send your replies!

What is in Name?

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Do you know what is the word for NAME in arabic? It is ISMUN.

So with whose name do you begin doing Wudhu (# wazu # ablution)? With Allaah's name, right?

What do you say then (do pronounce it)? Yeah! That's right!

BISMILLAAH

Can you see ISM there? (Wait a minute! What happened to Alif? It is hidden)

This was to make it easy for you to remember it. Now, let us proceed...

There are two kinds of ISM :

1) Which is general and doesn't points to a particular entity.

For example, consider this statement: Bring me a book.

Which book is being talked about? It's not clear, it can be any book, right!

This kind of ISM is called ISMun NAKIRATUN (if you stop at last alphabet it will be pronounced as ISMUN NAKIRAH).

NAKIRun means something Not known or little known (observe the N, for easy remembrance).

2) Second type is one which is known or points to a definite entity.

For example: MUHAMMAD(un), MANSOOR(un), THE BOOK, THE CAMEL.

Note that 'THE' makes a general ISM particular, i.e when you say 'THE BOOK' you know about which book you are talking about.

So BOOK or CAMEL here is no more NAKIRun but has become MA'ROOF (known) (A' is for Ain) due to ' THE '.

This kind of ISM is called ISMun MA'RIFATun (if you stop then ISMun MA'RIFAH).

By the way what is the word for 'THE' in arabic? Can you guess?

(Answer in next post, Insha Allaah. Hint: Opening of Qur'aan)

This diagram summarizes what we have learnt in this post...

Camel

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I have read in a dictionary that the word CAMEL has been derived from an arabic word, after all it is an animal of desert! Can you guess what the word is?

It is : JAMALUN just replace CA with JA and add un s0und.

A Puzzle

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You know what is this right? MASJIDun

BAITun A HOUSE

Some Creativity

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What do you call DOOR in arabic?

Can you guess?

It's written in the image itself, can you see it?

Okay! hint is to use the highlighted parts of image below.

Did you get it? Use your creativity!

Yeah!! Thats right!
Place those two handles horizontally to form BA and the line between them vertically to form ALIF. Like this ...



So next time when you hold the handle (or knob) of your door do remember that word for DOOR is BAABun

Lets do some mathematics

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Lets use some mathematics to learn two very important words, namely Mother and Father!

What is the word in urdu (with simple pronounciation)am I correct? Okay then let us ARABIFY the word Ma. In the first step, we will pass the word through Arabic Filter (AF), which will filter out non-arabic alphabets.

(since PA sound is not there in Arabic)

Now take the inverse of this outcome.

But since mother is more emotional, add a TASHDEED to Meem and RAF' (Oo sound) to Alif, so we get UMMUN and ABUN (ofcourse the un sound is default).

Did you find it difficult? Go through it again, is easy!

Correcting a mistake

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What do you call them?

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Do you know what are these things called in Urdu? Pronounce their name as you scroll down.

Yes! you have got it right!

This is what they are called in urdu..

KURSI, QALAM and KAMEEZ.

Can you guess what it is called in Arabic?

Its very similar, only thing you need to do is make a note of its SPELLING.

So here it is....

Note that shirt is QAMEES (slight change in pronounciation). And don't forget the Tanween at its end (the un sound).

SAREER

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Can you read this Hindi word ? Yes! Perhaps all of you can read it and know what it means! Right?


Incase you can not, then it is pronounced as SHAREER and it means BODY in Hindi.





So what does our body requires after a tedious day? You know it right!



What do we call it in Arabic ?













It is



So you see it is simple -- Replace the of body with to get A BED.



So you now know what is the word for bed in arabic. It is






Ofcourse do not forget the un sound at the end. So if pronounced completely it is SAREERUN and it means A BED.

Kitaab

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As we know that in Urdu means book. But have you ever heard this in Arabic as well? Yes, ofcourse! In fact many times while reading Qur'aan we encounter this word and it has been adopted from Arabic into Urdu.

So now you know what does Kitaab means, isn't it?

Let me tell some thing more. What are those two spoons or sticks, which you find at the end of most of the arabic words? These are called TANWEEN. Strike a steel spoon against other and you will get the sound they produce. (t)un, (t)an, (t)in.

Spoon is default tool for eating Maggi (unless you are Chinese), so is un sound default ending for most of arabic words (unless there is a reason to change it to stick(s) or an exeption).

So if you pronounce Kitaab completely, you will pronounce it as Kitaabun and it will mean A BOOK.