Arabic Series 1

In this Arabic Series, I will address some common question about Arabic and how to answer them. The questions was answered by Brother Nouman Ali Khan in his video. You can watch the video by clicking on the link.

1."What's the point of learning the Arabic language if there are already so many translations of the Qur'an already available?"

It's a very common question. Simplest answer, we have to take into consideration about what is lost in translation. Basically two things lost in translation. Certainly the content is lost, meaning the Arabic language has a lot of words for the same thing. 'Anger' has 10 to 12 different words for it. The word 'person' has 10 to 12 different words for it. Even the word 'human being' you can say 10 to 12 different ways in Arabic. Each one of those ways carry a different connotation. But when I translate them to English, if I use words A, B, C, D or E for human being, the english translation just can say human being. So, certainly something lost in translation as far as contents.

On the other side, there's a matter of style. When Allah speaks in the Quran, He speak in incredibly articulate fashion. It's profoundly creative speech. And when human being translate what Allah says, maybe they can get some of the content but certainly the creativity and the uniqueness of the words is entirely loss.

Just like when you try to translate poetry or song, from one language to another, maybe you can translate the word but you couldn't translate the creativity and the beauty.

Video #1

2. "If I don't read the Quran or don't understand the Quran in Arabic or don't learn Arabic, am I lesser Muslim? Am I sinful?"

It is actually an inappropriate question. The fact that you are not Arab or you do not know Arabic, even that itself isn't a sin. Vast majority of Muslims that belong to this Ummah aren't Arabs. So, even that itself the lack of knowledge in Arabic is not the problem. The problem however is when one doesn't feel the desire to learn the language of the one who created them.

You know, the question that should be asked instead in this place is "Am I a lesser Muslim if I have no desire to learn this language even when Allah said that He made it easy" . He is the one who himself send the Quran, "with no doubt we make the Quran easy for remembrance". So, if Allah guarantee that the learning of the Quran is easy, then I should be motivated automatically to learn it. InsyaAllah

Video #2

3. "The Qur'an calls itself clear, so why do I have to learn this complicated language to understand the Qur'an? Why Can't I simply read the translation?"

Now, the answer to this question is very simple. It's a confusion between two different words. The Quran calls itself clear and clarifying. The Arabic word is "Mubin" which mean clear and clarifying. But that doesn't mean that it is simple. The Quran does not saying that it is simple.

You know, if there's a very difficult calculus problem and I write a really clear solution to that problem, there is no guarantee that the answer to that problem is simple. But it is a guarantee that it is clear. The Quran deal with complex issues. Sometimes very intricate one. It's response and guidance towards those issue is clear. But it doesnt necessarily mean that it self explanatory is simple. So, the two words shouldn't be confuse to each other.

Video #3

Arabic? Anyone?

Last time I came across this video. It's about why study Arabic?



I didn't mean to watch it in the first place. I just suddenly click it and listen to it. I am glad to watch the video since it made me realize about something that I just take for granted before this.

The speaker is Brother Nouman Ali Khan.

"Why Arabic is important?"
Generally, for average Muslims, doesn't matter where they come from, the answer were pretty much the same,
"Arabic is important because of QURAN"

When we come to Rasulullah saw, the final messenger, What do Allah give him?
Allah give him message, we call them Quran..
Allah give him miracle, what do we call them ? QURAN..
Quran is the message and Quran is the miracle. Two things at the same time..
There is a fundamental different between what Allah gave to the other messengers and what Allah gave to Rasululah saw, the final messenger.

Isn't that unfair?
Other messenger got all sorts of cool stuff..
eg: dead man come to alive...
cane turn into a snake...
a river completely apart...
and all we got is a book...?

Allah put 2 things in the Quran
-The message and the miracle..

Quran is a book that demand the reciter to read over and over again to UNDERSTAND
we cant reat it once and claim that we understand..
It's not that cheap the understanding of Quran.
You have to pay for it with TIME n EFFORT.
NOT just by reading it casually.

The translation, even the very best translation, the most we can get is only the message but not the miracle..
The miracle of Quran is only in the words of Allah.

Those are snippets that I quote from the video. Watch the video for yourselves for more input. You'll get something InsyaAllah.

Lets learn Arabic. In the next post, I'll address some of common questions about Arabic language and how to answer them.

Tiga bulan mulia

Farhana Annuar Mushadad: Tiba lagi bulan Allah, bulan yang berkah, bulan haram yang sendirian. Bulan berlakunya isra` dan mi'raj Junjungan Nabi SAW,bulan berubahnya qiblat muslim. Pada bulan itu, terungkap pelbagai kisah kecintaan, nikmat berkasihan, rahmah perjuangan mengerjakan cinta. Marilah kita mempertingkatkan amalan sholeh kita, amalan yang menjadi sebab bagi kita memperolehi rahmat Ilahi, amalan yang menjadi teman yang menyenangkan dalam kubur nanti, sebelum disenangkan dengan kesenangan abadi dalam syurga yang penuh kenikmatan. Salam kembali Tiga bulan mulia yang namanya itu Rejab, Sya’ban dan Ramadhan. Selamat berusaha buat diri dan semua rakan-rakan, sama-sama kita du’a amal yang terbaik buat semua umat islam.

Bicara tentang "gerak"

Assalamualaikum w.b.t

Kulsem pagi tadi berbicara tentang "bergerak". Apa yang anda faham dengan bergerak? Semua orang pasti ada gambaran masing-masing tentang apa yang dimaksudkan dengan bergerak. For me, "Bergerak" ni kalau dilihat dari aspek tersirat ialah menyeru kepada kebaikan dan mencegah daripada kemungkaran. Atau dengan erti kata lain amar makruf nahi mungkar. Atau lebih ringkas lagi, dakwah.

Jadi, adakah kita "bergerak" selama ini? Bukankah "bergerak" itu merupakan tanggunggjawab yang dituntut ke atas kita selaku hamba-Nya. Saya percaya, setiap orang ada cara "bergerak" yang tersendiri untuk menggerakkan apa yang patut digerakkan. Kadang-kala, kita juga perlu digerakkan untuk menambahkan ilmu di dada, merungkaikan kekeliruan dan merapikan kekusutan.

Salah satu persoalan yang dibangkitkan oleh e c a h h u s s i n , "rasenye, sape yg kene bergerak, n siapa perlu digerakkan, n untuk siapa kite bergerak?"

Kita semua perlu bergerak demi DIA. Mungkin kita rasa kurang yakin dengan apa yang hendak dikatakan dan rasa takut untuk "bergerak". Bagaimanakah melahirkan rasa yakin itu? Kata 'aisyah imail, "yakin datang dari iman".

"matlamat asal kene jelas.. ble dh faham.. then akan yakin
kyakinan bukan datang memswine buta
memswine=membabi buta"

Melalui diskusi ini, saya lihat ada tiga golongan:
1. Golongan yang tidak bergerak kerana takut apa yang disampaikan tidak betul dan dilabel, "Eleh, macam taw sangat je."
2. Golongan yang bergerak tapi apa yang disampaikan tidak tepat (dan dengan harapan ada pihak yang akan membetulkannya, InsyaAllah)
3. Golongan yang bergerak dan tahu apa yang disampaikannya (dan dapat menimbulkan kesedaran dalam diri kumpulan sasaran)

Kita di mana? Selama ini, saya mungkin berada dalam golongan yang pertama. Sentiasa mendengar dan terus mendengar tanpa menyampaikan atau mengaplikasikan. Bila difikirkan semula, sayangnya menjadi golongan yang pertama. Jika bergerak, setidak-tidaknya, kalau apa yang disampaikan salah, ada juga orang yang membetulkan. Mungkin iman dalam diri ini belum betul-betul utuh dan mantap. Namun, jika itu yang ditunggu, sampai bila ingin terus berdiam. Mungkin dengan "bergerak", akan lahir iman yang dicari.

Bergerak tidak semestinya bijak melontarkan kata-kata.
Bergerak tidak semestinya bercakap berjela-jela.
Bergerak juga tidak semestinya perlu ada nama.

Jika ada semua ini, itu satu advantage. Namun,sesiapa sahaja boleh bergerak. Dan cara untuk bergerak itu terpulanglah kepada setiap individu as long as tidak keluar dari jalan-Nya.

Alhamdulillah, akhirnya terbit rasa untuk melaksanakan satu anjakan. Anjakan ini mungkin kecil dan tidak begitu signifikan. Bukankah sekecil-kecil zarah kebaikan yang kita lakukan tetap dikira.

Wassalam...

Nota: Pesanan untuk diri sendiri supaya sentiasa menjadi yang lebih baik dalam usaha menjadi hamba-Nya yang beriman dan sentiasa memperbaiki diri untuk terus "bergerak". Mohon tunjuk ajar kalian.

Ujian

Asmak Nabihah: “Allah ta’ala akan sentiasa menguji antum pada titik terlemah antum. Orang yang lemah dalam masalah harta, namun kuat dalam masalah pangkat dan wanita, tidak diuji dengan wanita dan pangkat. Orang yang sentiasa mudah tersinggung dan pemarah, akan diuji oleh Allah dengan dipertemukan dengan orang-orang yang sentiasa membuatnya tersinggung dan marah. Seseorang yang sentiasa berlambat-lambat dalam dakwah kerana alasan ‘isteri, mertua, tetamu’ akan sentiasa dihadapkan dengan alasan-alasan itu, ‘mertua datang, tetamu datang silih berganti,’ yang akan terus menundanya untuk bersegera menghadiri program dakwah, sampailah dia boleh mengutamakan agenda dakwah dalam kehidupannya” (K.H. Rahmat Abdullah,Episode Cinta Sang Murabbi)