Why Mushaf E-aalim?
E-aalim is an institute working in the field of teaching the Holy Quran for the non-native speakers of Arabic Muslims living in the western and European countries. Since its establishment in 2008, the E-aalim has had a vast and profound experience in the field. The E-aalim is not just an educational institute, rather it is a cultural institution concerned with providing the educational and cultural service that guarantees the spiritual welfare for Muslims worldwide.
1) The E-aalim lifelong dream.
2) The brilliant solution found at last.
3) More details, more fun.
4) The magical solution.
5) More syllables, more colors.
6) The stressed short and long syllables.
7) The deeper you delve, the more pearls you get.
8) The secrets of the Holy Quran.
1) The E-aalim experience
For more than fifteen years, the E-aalim have been working in the field of teaching the Holy Quran online. The E-aalim has been mainly interested in teaching the Holy Quran for kids as well as for adult Muslims. This has gained them a rich experience. Through these previous years, the E-aalim have noticed the bad need for Muslims to get more familiar with the Holy Quran. They have realized the importance of the Holy Quran for the Muslims living in the non-Muslim west.
2) The E-aalim lifelong dream:
Ever since they got into contact with Muslims worldwide, especially the non-native speakers of the Arabic language, the E-aalim have dreamt of enabling those dear Muslims to read, decode and recite the Holy Quran in an independent way. So, the E-aalim team of researchers and think tanks have worked very hard to solve this problem and satisfy this urgent need. Thy spent long days and sleepless nights . They dedicated hole weeks and months to come up with a clever solution. They consulted advisors, scholars and men of knowledge in that devine quest and mission.
3) The brilliant solution found at last:
As a result of that long and scrutinizing study of the nature of the Quranic and Arabic words, the E-aalim have reached the conclusion that the Quranic as well as the Arabic words consist of syllables. A syllable consists of a consonant sound letter followed or preceded by a vowel sound letter. These vowel sound letters can be either short vowel letters or a long vowel letter.
The Arabic three short vowels:
We call the short vowels in Arabic Harakat. There are three short vowel sounds or Harakat in Arabic. We call the three Harakat in Arabic Fatihah, Dammah and Kasrah. The Fatihah represents the short English / a / sound. We represent it by drawing a short tiny slanted line over the given letter. So we pronounce the Arabic / كَ / letter as / ka /. The Dammah represents the short English vowel / u / sound. We represent by writing a tiny / و / letter or a Dammah over the given letter. So we pronounce the Arabic / كُ / letter as / ku / or / ko /.
The Kasrah represents the short English vowels / e / or / i / sounds. We represent it by drawing a short tiny slanted line under the given letter. So we pronounce the Arabic / كِ / letter / ke / or / ki /. In this case, / كَ / / كُ / and / كِ / are no longer separate Arabic consonant sounds, rather for more accuracy, they are called three Arabic short syllables. Furthermore, the short syllables constitute the majority of syllables in the Holy Quran and the Quranic words. For this reason, the Eaalim have decided to leave the short syllables uncoloured. In other words, the black coloured syllables represent the short syllables in the Holy Quran and the Quranic words.
4) More details, more fun:
Words don’t consist of only short syllables with short vowels. Words can also have long syllables with long vowels. We call the long vowels in Arabic Madd vowel letters. There are three Madd vowel letters in Arabic. There is the Madd Alif vowel letter which is equal to the long / a: / vowel in English. So we pronounce the Arabic long syllable / كا / as / ka: / in English. Likewise, we pronounce the Arabic long syllable / كي / as / ki: / in English. Similarly, we pronounce the Arabic long syllable / كو / as / ku: / in English.
5) The magical solution:
Languages are not only verbal or oral spoken words. There are numerous and diverse ways to convey meanings . So, we can say with confidence that motion is a language. When some creatures dance or move in a specific way, they convey certain meanings. We consider smell a language. When some animals and plants secrete certain smells, they convey certain meanings. When some animals and plants show specific and certain colors, they express certain meanings.
In addition to the short syllables in the Quranic and of course Arabic words, there are also some other syllables which vary in nature and building. We have just discussed the long syllables which consist of one consonant sound letter followed by a Madd or long vowel sound letter. The E-aalim have decided to color the long syllables in the red color. That is why the red color represents the long syllables in the Holy Quran and the Quranic words.
6) More syllables, more colors:
The Quranic words don’t consist of only short and long syllables. When Kasrah, Fathah or Dammah don’t follow a consonant sound letter, iWe call it a Sakin letter. So, we pronounce the Arabic / كْ / sound letter as / k / only. So, we pronounce the Arabic word / يَكْتُبُ / as / jaktobo / in the English transcription. We have decided to color the Sakin syllables in blue in the E-aalim Mushaf Quranic words.
What is the Arabic Tanween?
There is an additional grammatical rule in the Arabic languages. Indefinite nouns and adjectives can have Tanween on the last letter of the words. Tanween is to add a final syllabic / n / sound or an Arabic / noon / or / ن / sound at the end of the given word. However this / ن / or / n / sound doesn’t have a Haraka on it so we call it a / ن /, / noon / Sakinah.
However, we don’t represent the idea of Tanween by writing an additional or superflous Arabic / ن /. We represent the idea of Tanween by drawing double slanted tiny short lines over the given final letter. We call it Tanween bil-Fath in that case. So, we call the Arabic / كً / / Kaff tanween or Munawanah / and as / kan / in English.
We rwepresent the idea of Tanween is also by drawing or writing double slanted tiny short lines underneath the given final letter. We call it Tanween bil-Kasr in that case. So we call pronounce the Arabic / كٍ / letter and sound Kaff tanween bil Kasr and as / ken or kin /. Similarly, we represent the idea of Tanween also by drawing double Dammahs or two tiny waw or Arabic / وو / letters over the given final letter. So we can pronoune the Arabic / كٌ / letter as / kon / or / kun / in English.
For this reason, the blue color represents Sukoon and Tanween in The E-aalim Mushaf.
7) The stressed short and long syllables:
In almost all languages, there are stressed syllables and unstressed syllables. So far, we have discussed unstressed short and long syllables. A stressed sound, letter or syllable is that whose pronunciation requires more power and duration. The idea of stressed sounds and letters is called Mushaddad in Arabic. However, a Mushaddad letter or sound basically consists of a double consonant sound, the first of which is Sakin and the latter of which has one of the three Arabic Harakat; Fatihah, Kasrah or Dammah. The idea of stressed letters and sounds is represented by writing a tiny / w / English letter over the given Arabic letter.
So, there is Shaddah plus fatihah / كَّ /, Shaddah plus Kasrah / كِّ / and Shaddah plus Dammah / كُّ / The mentioned bove is called a simple or short stressed letters or syllables. The E-aalim have decided to color such syllables in light green.
8) The deeper you delve, the more pearls you get:
The Mushaddad letter or sound can be combined with a Tanween or a long vowel or Madd letter or sound. In such a case, the Mushaddad letter or syllable differs in nature from the simple short Mushaddad letter or syllable. The idea of Mushaddad plus Tanween and Mushaddad with a long vowel is represented by coloring the given syllable or letter in dark green. So, the Arabic syllables: / كًّ /, / كٍّ /, / كٌّ / ,/ كَّا / ,/ كًّو / and / كِّي / can be colored in dark green. So, the dark green color in the E-aalim Mushaf represents the Mushaddad long syllables and the Mushaddad syllables with Tanween.
9) The secrets of the Holy Quran:
The Holy Quran is undoubtedly the word of Allah. It is not like any other book and its words are unlike all other words. Therefore, there are endless secrets of the Holy Quran that make the human intellect stunned with astonishment. The hostile critics of the Holy Quran cand ignorantly claim that such Quranic linguistic phenomena are mistakes and errors in the Holy Book of Allah. Such false allegations and groundless accusations prove how great the Holy Quran is and how trivial the knowledge of its skeptic holistic foes is as well. So, there are what we can call silent letters or syllables in the words of the Holy Quran.
The Holy Quran was revealed over twenty-three years and it was revealed more than one thousand, four hundred years ago. Languages naturally develop and change. Even some if not many languages have disappeared. Meanwhile many other languages have come into being out of nowhere, or developed as dialects from older languages. This is not the case with the Arabic language. The Arabic language owes a lot in its survival over centuries to the Holy Quran and the prophet’s Hadith or tradition. However, some words which used to be written in a certain way long ago, are no longer written in the same way. The E-aalim have decided to color the silent letters or syllables in the orange color. So, the orange color represents the few silent letters and syllables in the Holy Quran.
