Topik 26: Surga Tidak Berlari

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Sebelum kita lanjutkan dengan topik latihan Surat Al-Fatihan, ada baiknya kita selingi dengan topik kiriman dari rekan Noor Ihsan sbb:

Dalam Al-Quran, kata surga yang dalam bahasa arabnya 'jannah', disebut sebanyak 65 kali. Dengan kata yang lain, 'jannaat', bentuk plural dari jannah disebut sebanyak
61 kali. Total 126 kali Allah sebut surga di berbagai surat. 32 kali kata surga diikuti kata mengalir sungai di bawahnya.

Hanya sekali dalam Yunus : 9, Allah menyebut kata mengalir sungai di bawahnya sebelum kata surga. Jangan sampai kita salah membacanya, maksud saya, usahakan jangan berhenti saat kata tajri, misal '...yudkhilhu jannaatin tajri. min tahtihal anharu khalidiina...'

Artinya akan berubah menjadi '...Dia akan memasukannya ke dalam surga yang berjalan, di bawahnya ada sungai, mereka kekal di dalamnya....'

Dalam bahasa Arab, suatu kata yang berasal dari akar yang sama akan memiliki arti dan makna yang dekat.

Kata islam berasal dari 3 huruf, sin lam dan mim yang memiliki makna asli keselamatan, penyerahan diri. Bentukan kata dari 3 huruf ini akan memiliki arti yang
mirip. Misal, salamah atau keselamatan. Rasul bersabda, Muslim itu adalah orang yang mana muslim lain selamat dari keburukan lisan dan tangannya.

Atau kata mar'ah (wanita) yang berasal dari ra hamzah alif yang memiliki makna asli melihat. Mar'ah adalah tempat jatuhnya pandangan.

Atau kata An-nas (manusia) yang berasal dari kata nun sin alif yang memiliki makna asli lupa. Rasul bersabda manusia tempatnya salah dan lupa.

Begitu juga kata jannah, berasal dari 3 huruf, jim nun nun yang memiliki makna asli tertutupi atau tersembunyi. Bentukan kata darinya seperti junun (gila), janin, junnah (pelindung), dan jin memiliki arti yang dekat yaitu tertutupi.
Orang gila tertutupi akalnya, janin tertutupi oleh perut, jin tertutup dari pandangan kasat mata manusia.

Surga pun tertutupi dari manusia, dari matanya, dari akalnya, dari pendengarannya, dari perasaannya.

Sabda Rasul dalam hadis qudsi dari abi hurairah riwayat Bukhari
: Aku siapkan untuk hambaKu yang shalih apa yang belum pernah dilihat mata, belum pernah didengar telinga, dan tidak pernah terbersit sedikitpun dalam hatinya.

Maha benar Allah dengan firmanNya
'Falaa ta'lamu nafsun ma ukhfiya lahum min qurrati a'yun'
As-sajdah : 17

Wallahu a'lam

Topik 25: Mari Berbahasa Nabi

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Ini adalah surat dari seorang teman (namanya Noor Ihsan Jundulloh), ajakan untuk lebih giat belajar bahasa Arab. Saya kutipkan untuk kita semua:

Seandainya Nabi Muhammad masih hidup di sisi kita, siapakah yang bisa bercakap-cakap dengan beliau tanpa perantara?

Seandainya para sahabat, tabi'in, Imam mazhab, dll, dibangkitkan oleh Allah hari ini, siapakah yang akan mudah berbincang-bincang dengan mereka dan mendapat pengajarannya secara langsung?

Menurut saya, jawabannya adalah orang yang mengerti Bahasa Arab. Karena, bahasa yang mereka gunakan, sama dengan bahasa yang ada saat ini. Tidak berubah. Khususnya bahasa Arab resmi/fusha.

Arab sendiri artinya adalah padang pasir, tanah gundul, gersang. Hal yang wajar ketika penamaan yang diberikan pada sesuatu sesuai dengan kondisinya.

Bahasa Arab punya sifat isytiqoqiyah (bentukan). Maksudnya, suatu kata terbentuk dari kata lain yang memiliki asal yang sama. 'Asal' di sini bisa dibaca susunan
huruf yang sama. Sehingga, dalam kesehariannya, bahasa Arab lebih siap menghadapi perkembangan zaman.

Contoh, dulu pesawat belum ada. Mobil belum ada. Penamaan kata pesawat, diambil dari kata 'thaa ra' yang artinya terbang. Pesawat sendiri dalam bahasa Arab
disebut thaa i rah, artinya sesuatu yang terbang.

Tidak berbeda jauh dengan burung yang dalam bahasa Arabnya disebut thaa ir.

Begitu juga dengan mobil. Bahasa Arabnya sayyarah. Diambil dari kata saa ra yang memiliki asal kata yang sama dengan sirah, yang artinya perjalanan. Sayyarah pelaku dari kata sirah.

Banyak contoh-contoh lain yang bisa kita sebutkan nanti. Beberapa kata dari Bahasa Arab juga sudah menjadi kata dalam Bahasa Indonesia, alhamdulillah. Ketika awal mula mempelajari bahasa Arab seperti ini, seorang teman pernah berkata, 'bahasa kita ini unik ya,'

'unik gimana?' tanya saya

'orang Inggris bilang camel, orang Arab bilang jamal,

ga beda jauh kan? Lha, di kita jadi onta.'

'trus' katanya, 'orang Inggris bilang cat, orang Arab bilang qittun, ga beda jauhkan? Di kita jadi kucing.'

'unik kan?' katanya dengan semangat.

Topik 24: Latihan Al-Fatihah ayat 4

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Alhamdulillah, ditengah kesibukan saya, saya teruskan untuk membahas ayat 4. Alhamdulillah juga ada akhi dari Jawa Timur, yang mengatakan mengikuti dari topik 1 sampai 23. Senang rasanya, tulisan saya ada yang membaca. Saya teringat hadist Riwayat Muslim: Rasulullah SAW bersabda, siapa yang berbuat kebaikan, dia akan dapat pahala. Dan jika kebaikan itu dicontoh/dikerjakan orang, dia akan mendapat pahala dari orang itu, tanpa mengurangi pahala buat orang itu. Subhanallah...

Oke kita lanjutkan ke pelajaran berikutnya ayat 4.

Eitt kok ayat 3 dilewati Mas? Oh iya, sengaja, karena ayat 3 itu bagian dari ayat 1. Arrahmaan Arrahiem. Jadi pembahasannya sama dengan ayat 1.

مَـالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ - maaliki yaumi ad-dien

Insya Allah kita bahas satu-satu ya... Oke..

Kata مالك : yang memiliki. Asal katanya ملك - malaka artinya memiliki. Hmmm... Kata ini sepertinya diserap ke bahasa Indonesia ya... Coba lihat kata ملك - malaka, ini adalah kata past tense (KKL), sedangkan KKSnya يملك - yamliku, kalau ya kita buang maka menjadi mlik, di bahasa Indonesia disebut milik.

Oke ملك -malaka, ini adalah kata kerja yang artinya memiliki. Nah, kita disini akan mempelajari membentuk kata-benda pelaku dari sebuah kata kerja. Dalam bahasa Arab ini disebut isim fa'il. Gimana caranya Mas? Insya Allah guampaaang....

Oke caranya:
1. Jika kata kerjanya 3 huruf, maka
2. Tambahkan alif setelah huruf pertama

dah... gampang kan... Contoh kata: نصر - nashoro (artinya menolong). Orang yang menolong? Guampang... tambahkan saja alif setelah nun, menjadi ناصر - naashirun, atau naashir (orang Indonesia sering menyebut nasir)... eh jadi ingat teman saya waktu SMA, namanya Nasir. Dulu saya suka manggil dia: Nasir, Nasir, darimana aja elo [pakai bahasa minang tentunya...] (sekarang setelah belajar bahasa Arab, jadi ingat dia... Pantesan ya si Nasir itu dulu suka menolong saya). Kalau yang menolong naashir, kalau orang yang ditolong apa dong? Insya Allah guampang juga. Tinggal tambahin mim didepan nun pada نصر dan tambahkan waw sebelum ro. Jadinya منصور - manshuurun (orang yang ditolong). Nah kalau ingat Mansur ini ingat penyanyi zaman saya SMP dulu. Sekarang kita jadi tahu ya... bahwa nasir sama mansur itu 2 orang dalam satu kejadian. Satu penolong (nasir), satu yang ditolong (mansur).

Oke deh, kembali ke MALIK... kalo gitu kata kerja ملك -malaka, artinya memiliki. Kalau saya buat seseorang yang memiliki berarti saya tinggal tambah alif setelah م yang menjadi مالك - maa li kun (orang/sesuatu yang memiliki). Oh gitu... hmmm... tapi Mas kok bacanya maalikun? Kok gak maalakin, maalukun, maalikan, dll?

Hmm ini sebenarnya ada topik yang membahasnya, sebutlah topik tinggat Advance gitu deh.... Tapi biar gak pusing, gini saya saya kasih ciri-cirinya:
1. Kata kerja 3 huruf, setelah ditambah alif, maka harokatnya adalah:
2. Huruf kedua (setelah alif) adalah kasroh.

Jadi, yang betul maalikun, bukan maalakun.

Oke. Lalu kenapa maalikun, bukan maaliku? Nah ini ingat lagi pelajaran awal-awal mengenai isim (kata benda). Aslinya kata benda itu, akhirannya dhommahtain (akhiran un). Sedangkan jika dia mendapatkan tambahan alif lam المالك , maka akhirannya dhommah, sehingga dibaca al-maaliku.

Oke, balik lagi ke ayat:

مَـالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ

Ada 3 kata disini. Ke 3 nya kata benda (isim). Yaitu: maaliki yaumi addien.

Kata maaliki artinya yang memiliki. Lho, katanya yang betul maalikun. Kok sekarang jadi maaliki. Nah, ada 2 sebab kenapa maalikum menjadi maaliki:
1. Perhatikan, karena huruf kaf berharokat kasroh (mali- ki), maka kita mencurigai ada huruf jar di depannya. Artinya ayat ini merupakan lanjutan ayat sebelumnya yang ada huruf jarnya. Kalau dilihat ayat sebelumnya ada huruf jar Li pada Lillahi rabbil 'aalamin. Inilah yang menyebabkan kata maalikun menjadi maalikin.

2. Perubahan dari maalikin menjadi maaliki, karena kata ini merupakan kata majemuk (mudhof). Ingat rumus mudhof sbb:
KB1 (tidak pakai tanwin) + KB2 (alif-lam+kasroh)
Contoh: Rasul (milik) Allah = Rasulu Allahi atau dibaca Rasulullah.
رسول الله

Bukan dibaca Rasulun Allahi, atau Rasuulun Allaha, dsb

Oke kembali lagi ke ayat:

مَـالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ :

Maaliki = yang memiliki
yaumi, berasal dari yaumun artinya hari. Menjadi yaumi, karena dia mudhof-ilah (bagian dari kata majemuk).
Ad-dieen, berasal dari daa-na yang berarti tunduk, sedangkan kata bendanya ad-dien, artinya agama.

Perhatikan harokat terakhir juga kasroh, karena dia ini mudhof-ilaih (bagian dari kata majemuk).

Sehingga ayat ke 4 ini jika diterjemahkan:
(2&3:segala puji bagi Allah Tuhan semesta Alam, yang Rahman, yang Rahim), yang memiliki hari agama.

Hari-agama ini menurut ahli tafsir, artinya hari pembalasan. Hari dimana waktu itu manusia akan dibalas semua amal-amalnya. Hari pembalasan ini juga disebut, yaumul-qiyaamah, yaumulhisaab, yaumuljazaa' dsb. Masya Allah, bagaimana ya nasib kita nanti dihari ad-dien ini?

Allahu a'lam. Insya Allah kita lanjutkan nanti.

Understanding the Deen

Understanding the Deenby Maulana Ahmad Ali

Writing codas, from Sylhet to Winnipeg

In Greek-based scripts (like Latin or Cyrillic), unless a consonantal letter is followed by a vowel letter, it is assumed not to be followed by a vowel. This seems natural enough if you're used to it; but if you look at it differently, it's rather wasteful. The commonest sound to follow any given consonant is usually a vowel, not another consonant, so if you allow a single letter to represent a consonant plus a vowel you're saving space and effort.

But if you do that, then how do you represent the fact that a consonant is not followed by a vowel? Different writing systems use different solutions. In alphabets that have stuck more closely to their Canaanite prototype, like Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, or (traditional) Tifinagh, you normally don't bother: a consonant may be followed by a vowel or may not, and you rely on the reader to figure it out. However, sometimes the reader needs additional cues: maybe the word you're writing is obscure, or two words have the same consonants, or it's very important that the text be read exactly right with no possibility of error. In that case, in Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac, you mark what follows each consonant with a little sign above or below the letter - one sign for "a", say, another for "i", and another to indicate that nothing follows it. Such a sign is necessary if you're still mainly using the system with no vowel marking, because if you left the letter unmarked it would mean not that the letter had no vowel but that what vowel, if any, followed the consonant should be deduced from context.

Typical Indic scripts, such as Devanagari (the script used for Hindi and Nepali), adopt a rather different solution. A consonant letter on its own is to be read with a default vowel, short a ([ʌ]); a consonant followed by a consonant is written as a single "conjunct" letter, formed in any of several ways, but usually by either putting the second letter underneath the first or taking away a line on the right of the first letter and joining it to the second. On the plus side, this yields much of the compactness of a vowel-optional system without any of the ambiguity, and means that each letter is pronounceable on its own; on the minus side, this means fonts have to include a much larger number of letter forms.

Sylheti Nagri is an Indic script formerly (up to the 1950s or so) in use in the district of Sylhet, in eastern Bangladesh. Like Devanagari, it represents consonant-consonant sequences using conjuncts. However, its users were often also familiar with the Arabic script, where letters could be combined into ligatures whether or not they had vowels between them. This may have inspired them to do something rather unusual for an Indic script: develop vowel-consonant conjuncts, such as a+m, a+l, i+n... and consonant-vowel-consonant conjuncts, like pi+r, mo+t... In fact, judging by the examples in the Unicode proposal, it seems that, for at least some historic users, Sylheti did not have a conjunct system at all, just a ligature system.

One very nice solution is that adopted in Canadian Syllabics, the family of writing systems used by a number of Native American tribes in Canada. The name is potentially misleading: I prefer to reserve the term "syllabary" for writing systems like hiragana, where different syllables differ from each other unpredictably. In Canadian Syllabics, for example Cree, the shape of a symbol represents the consonant, while its orientation represents the vowel that follows it, and length or labialisation may be represented by dots. If no vowel follows the consonant, then the base shape is simply written small and superscripted, using the a-orientation, or for labialised consonants the u-orientation.

Why I want to learn Arabic

It seems that throughout my time in the Middle East Arabs are surprised by my desire to learn Arabic and often ask me, “Why do you want to learn Arabic.” I’ve answered this question in Egypt, Syria, Kuwait, Bahrain, almost wherever I go in the Arab world. Arabs are so surprised by my desire and motivation to learn Arabic that I’ve decided to answer this question thoroughly and set it down in writing.

I can understand why I am questioned about my reasons for learning Arabic. In the Middle East and perhaps most of the developing world, English language skills are highly prized as they allow people to advance in the job market. One example will suffice. I met a Syrian woman who was born and raised in Damascus. With proficiency in English, she was able to obtain a job in the Four Seasons Hotel at the reception desk where English was necessary to communicate to guests. From there she moved up through different positions until she was finally offered the opportunity to transfer to work in Dubai in the Emirates, a much richer city with more opportunities compared to Damascus. Thus, when English is the international language of trade, and I possess native fluency in it, Arabs wonder why I would want to learn their language when they desire so much for economic reasons to learn mine.

The first two of three reasons, which are the foremost and primary, for why I desire to learn Arabic is due to family and religion. I will discuss family first. I was born in Kuwait and lived there close to five years until I moved to the US where I spent the rest of my childhood, graduating from high school and university. My mother was Kuwaiti and spoke to me in the Kuwaiti dialect of Arabic. Hence, the first language I learned to speak was Arabic. I even attended the first year of kindergarten in Kuwait where I was just beginning to learn how to read and write. I still remember sitting at a desk bathed in the desert sunshine streaming through the windows learning how to write my name and a few other words such as ‘camel.’ Additionally, much of my childhood in Kuwait was spent with my grandparents, aunts, and uncles with whom I spoke Arabic. Of course I learned English as well to communicate with my father, but Arabic was my first and primary language. Consequently, when I moved to the US I was an Arab and considered myself a Kuwaiti.

Though I may have left my birth country, my mother insured that we kept our link with our family in Kuwait by traveling to Kuwait almost ever two years for a period of one to two months. However, I experienced a dramatic decline in my Arabic proficiency. My mother told me that my brother, who is a year and a half younger than me, and I switched to speaking in English 6 months after moving to the US. Although every trip to Kuwait would result in a little gain in Arabic, the overall trend was a loss in proficiency to the point that when I was 14 and visiting Kuwait when my grandfather was visibly dying, I could not communicate with him as he didn’t know English. That was the last time I was to see my grandfather as he passed away about three months later.

My grandfather was the strongest male figure in my family who had the greatest influence on me. He was born a Sunni Muslim in the south of Iran where he attended an Islamic school and studied the Quran. He moved from his small village in Bandar Lengeh to Bahrain and then Kuwait. In his youth in Iran he heard about the Baha’i Faith which he investigated before converting to it. He was a Muslim who was willing to choose the path of faith rather than comfort and ease, for he investigated Baha’u’llah’s claim to be a new messenger of God and accepted it regardless of the consequences which at that time in Iran could have been fatal. He was the only one in his family to become a Baha’i and his new faith strained relations with some members of his family. Nevertheless, he did not choose to simply follow the religion of his forefathers.

They say: “We found Our fathers following a certain religion, and We do guide ourselves by their footsteps.” Just in the same way, whenever We sent a Warner before thee to any people, the wealthy ones among them said: “We found Our fathers following a certain religion, and We will certainly follow in their footsteps.”
He said: “What! even if I brought you better guidance than that which ye found your fathers following?” They said: "For us, We deny that ye (prophets) are sent (on a mission at all)."
So We exacted retribution from them: now see what was the end of those who rejected (Truth)!
(The Qur’an, Surah 43:22-5)

My grandfather was an embodiment of the following verse from Baha’u’llah’s writings:

O FRIENDS!
Abandon not the everlasting beauty for a beauty that must die, and set not your affections on this mortal world of dust.
(Baha'u'llah, The Hidden Words)

Thus, at the age of 14 when I was entering into adolescence and becoming more conscious of the world, I sought during my last visit with my grandfather that fateful summer to know more about his life and upbringing. I wanted to know about his childhood, the things he enjoyed, the sufferings he endured, and most importantly, I wanted him to share with me the pearls of wisdom that he accumulated over a lifetime with regards to life and religion. Yet my wish was not to be granted for my time with my grandfather was limited as he was too weak and my Arabic nonexistent. My last memory of my grandfather was of him lying on his bed, slowly dying, with a great stack of books in Arabic opposite to him, all of which he had read. He was an avid reader who built a dedicated personal library in a room of his house with books neatly stacked in cupboards and bookcases from the bottom of the room to the ceiling. In the end, my grandfather had grown tired of this mortal realm and sought the eternal life of the world beyond. He had lived a poor and hard life and sought his rest from it.

A few years later, my aunt recounted to me how my grandfather wished for me to become a bridge between the East and the West, as I am born of both worlds. As a result, the impression left on me by my grandfather; my desire to speak Arabic again with my family in Kuwait and Arabs; and the chance and hope to become a bridge between two worlds, East and West; from these was instilled within me a burning motivation to learn and study Arabic that would compel me to undergo the hours necessary to strive for proficiency.



Yet, religion is probably a stronger motivator in my study of Arabic for it is the language of revelation in which the Quran and the majority of the Bahá’í Writings have been revealed. Baha’u’llah refers to Arabic as the eloquent tongue. Growing up I learned that no translation can truly render the full and entire meaning from the original revelation in Arabic to English or any other language for that matter. And after studying Arabic I can agree with this statement since for any language some words can be used with dual meanings that when translated one of the meanings is lost or obscured. Translators may likewise err in their translations as they may translate a word with multiple meanings using an unintended meaning. I also noticed that those who read the original religious scriptures in Arabic were accorded a greater share of credibility and authority, especially in Muslim communities, when explaining certain verses since their understanding was not obscured by any translation.

Thus, as I seek to know the truth unobscured and clear, perhaps a trait from my grandfather, I desire to learn Arabic to gain greater religious truth by reading the original revelations of the Bahá’í Writings and the Quran. Additionally, I noticed that the Bahá’í Faith is in need of skilled translators between Arabic and English and this may be a way I can serve my faith when I advance in Arabic.

My third and final reason I wish to learn Arabic is for career purposes which also ties into my desire to be a bridge between the West and the East. Arabic is spoken to varying degrees and abilities from Morocco to Iraq making the Arab world a large cultural center. Knowing Arabic, especially since the demand for Arabic speakers after the terrorist attacks of September 11 has risen, will make me a more marketable worker, especially among governments and international organizations such as the UN. Thus, I hope learning Arabic will provide me with more career opportunities and allow me to be a positive force of communication and understanding between East and West.


These are the ideals that I aspire to and God willing I will be made successful.

The Sunnah

A beautiful analogy which Maulana Yakub, a visiting scholar to my local Masjid, gave in the talk he delivered. Whilst these aren’t his exact words, this is what I understood from them.When a man has £50 in his pocket and he misplaces or loses that money, he will ask those around him about it, including his family, and will seek it high and low and in every place he can think of. On the other hand

Baccouche on Darja

Just found an interview with Taieb Baccouche, preparing a Linguistic Atlas of Tunisia - the interview isn't actually that interesting, but I definitely want to see that atlas.

Topik 23: Latihan Al-Fatihah ayat 1 & 2

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Sepertinya, kita perlu memperbanyak latihan dan saat ini mengurangi tempo untuk teori. Dan menurut sebagian orang, lebih baik latihannya dari surat-surat pendek yang biasa dibaca dalam sholat. Agar hafalan kita nambah dus, pengertian kita terhadap surat tsb menjadi lebih baik (karena bisa menerjemahkan).

Oke baiklah... Insya Allah kita mulai dengan surat Al-Fatihah.

بسم bismi

bi ب : dengan. Ini adalah huruf jar (kata depan). Ingat di topik-topik awal, kata setelah huruf jar adalah kata benda.

smi سم : asal katanya dari samaa سما (memberi nama), dan kata bendanya ismun إسم yang artinya nama. Mestinya ب dengan إسم menjadi بإسم bi-ismi, tapi karena huruf jar ب maka hamzahnya lebur, sehingga menjadi بسم bismi.

Apa arti bismi? Bi = dengan, smi = nama, dengan demikian bismi = dengan nama.

Oh ya ingat lagi sifat huruf jar, yaitu dia menasab-kan (istilah me-nasabkan ini sering dipakai dalam tatabahasa arab, yang artinya membuat harokat huruf akhir menjadi kasroh (baris bawah)). Dengan demikian, yang benar membacanya:

bismi,

bukan bismu, atau bisma.

Kata selanjutnya: الله . Sehingga بسم الله artinya dengan nama Allah.

Oh ya perlu dilihat disini harokat terakhir dari Allah, adalah kasroh. Dengan demikian dibaca:

Bismillahi,

bukan bismillahu, atau bismillaha.

Perlu ingat lagi (sudah dibahas ditopik kata majemuk), bahwa kalau 2 kata benda bertemu dan kata benda kedua berharokat kasroh, maka 2 kata itu adalah kata majemuk (dalam bahasa Arab disebut Mudhof).

Oke, jadi bismillahi, artinya dengan nama Allah.

Kalau kita urutkan dari asal-asal katanya:

ب إسم الله bi ismi Allahi, dibaca: bismillahi

Bagaimana kalau kita baca bismillahu? Dalam bahasa arab jika kata benda berharokat dhommah, maka dia menjadi pelaku. Sehingga kalau kita baca: Allahu, dalam bismillahu, maka artinya akan berobah, dimana Allah menjadi subject dan bismi menjadi prediket. Dengan demikian arti dari bismillahu, adalah Allah untuk nama, atau Allah dengan nama. Inilah fungsi i'rob dalam tatabahasa Arab, karena salah i'rob (harokat akhir) akan merubah arti.

الرحمن الرحيم

Arrohman, lihat ada alif lam, tandanya ini kata benda. Arrohiim, juga ada alif lam, tandanya ini kata benda. Hal kedua adalah, i'rob (harokat akhir) arrahmaan dan arrohiem adalah kasroh, sehingga ditulis arrahmaani, bukan arrohmaanu, atau arrohmaana. Dan arrahiemi, bukan arrahiemu, atau arrahiema. Apa artinya ini?

Perhatikan sebelum arrohman ada kata Allah, yang juga kasroh. Ini berarti kata - kata ini adalah kata kata majemuk (mudhof)

Dalam tatabahasa arab :

ب إسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Kalimat diatas hanya terdiri dari 2 pola:

Huruf jar ب + Mudhof إسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Arrohmaan berasal dari kata رحم rohima: mengasihi
Arrohiem berasal dari kata yang sama dengan arrohmaan, yaitu رحم : mengasihi, atau memberi ampunan.

Akan tetapi karena ada tambahan alif dan nun pada Arrohmaan, maka artinya berubah, menjadi sifat yang maha, artinya الرحمان artinya Maha Pengasih. Dan kata Arrohiem, karena ada tambahan ي maka artinya berubah menjadi sifat yang extensif dan terus menerus, yang sering diartikan Maha Penyayang.

Demikianlah kita telah selesaikan latihan menerjemah Surat Al-Fatihah ayat 1.

Sekarang kita masuk ke ayat 2:
الحمد لله رب العالمين

Kata الحمد alhamdu. Asal katanya adalah حمد hamida yang artinya memuji. Ada alif-lam berarti dia adalah kata benda. Kata حمد ini mempunyai masdar (kita belum pelajari ini) hamdun, yang artinya pujian.

Kata lillahi, لله , ini terdiri dari 2 kata, yaitu ل li (yang artinya untuk atau kepunyaan/milik) dan الله Allah. Seharusnya tertulis ل الله tetapi karena alif lebur ke li, maka menjadi ل لله dan karena li lebur kepada lam pada kata Allah, maka menjadi لله lillahi.

Perhatikan bahwa ل li adalah huruf jar. Sesudah huruf jar, adalah kata benda. Sehingga lillahi artinya untuk Allah, atau kepunyaan Allah. Sehingga:

الحمد لله alhamdu lillahi artinya segala puji milik Allah, atau segala puji untuk Allah.

Mengapa ada kata (segala)? Al-hamdu sendiri artinya pujian atau puji. Tetapi karena ini dilekatkan kepada Allah, maka maknanya meliputi semua hal pujian. Oleh karena itu Alhamdulillah biasa diterjemahkan segala puji milik Allah.

رب العالمين rabbul 'aalamien.

رب rabbu artinya Tuhan. العالمين berasal dari عالم yang artinya alam (karena ada tambahan ين maka artinya sesuatu yang banyak, atau sangat luas atau sering disebut semesta alam).

Perhatikan bahwa rabbu al-'aalamien ini juga kata majemuk (mudhof).

Dengan demikian pola kalimat

الحمد لله رب العالمين menggunakan pola

Subject (الحمد) + keterangan (لله) + keterangan (رب العالمين)

Apa tanda-tanda subject? Berulang kita katakan bahwa tanda Subject adalah adanya i'rob Dhommah. Lihat Alhamdu, bukan al-hamda, atau al-hamdi. Tandanya Al-Hamdu ini adalah Subject.

Sehingga ayat ke 2 ini: Segala puji milik Allah Tuhan semesta alam.

Insya Allah kita akan lanjutkan ayat berikut dan diteruskan dengan latihan surat-surat pendek lain.

Shipwreck

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island...He prayed feverishly for Allah to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements and to store his few possessions.But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home

Language endangerment in Yorkshire

Several members of the British Parliament took a few minutes out from worrying about issues like Iraq, the housing shortage, and global warming to put together an Early Day Motion expressing their concern about the fate of the Yorkshire dialect:

That this House is concerned at the recently published research indicating that words are disappearing from the Yorkshire dialect because of the influence of the internet, social mobility and globalisation; and furthermore supports the work of the Yorkshire Dialect Society in continuing to promote what is, after all, the best English regional accent in the world.

The amendments proposed are also worth a look, featuring such phrases as "a slow national convergence towards the monochrome mush of effete estuarial English". For what it's worth, I am rather inclined to agree that Yorkshire may have "the best English regional accent in the world" - although two MPs proposed to amend this to "after the Lancashire accent" - and I'm glad to see a bit of appreciation for dialectologists, but I find it difficult to be all that concerned about the loss of a few well-documented local words (supposedly due to people watching national media and getting out more) in a fairly widely spoken dialect of one of the world's most flourishing languages, when whole languages are disappearing virtually undocumented every month due to factors like kidnapping children or beating them when they speak their language.

Lord of the Rings

We are now Oop North, in Lincolnshire, and I have got a cold. Our week in London was terrific: usually when we go there it's only for a few days and we never get to see anything, but this time we were in full tourist mode and we still didn't get to see a fraction of what's on offer.

BetterArf was determined that we should see at least one West End show, but the so-called 'half-price' tickets booths around Leicester Square seemed to only have the more expensive tickets at half-price, and half of £100 is way too much for our budget. On our last full day, she went direct to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and bought the cheapest tickets for Lord of the Rings. These were on the front row of the balcony - you had to lean forward over the parapet to actually see the stage.

When we arrived for the show we headed to the downstairs bar and ordered 3 glasses of wine plus another 3 for the interval. 'Thirty six pounds', said the barman in all seriousness. Ouch! We climbed the stairs to the balcony (no lift!) and realised that we would have to repeat the performance during the interval to get our extremely expensive drinks. Fortunately there is a little bar beside the balcony and the ushers very kindly arranged for the drinks to be delivered there.

The entire front half of the theatre was decked out like a forest, with branches extending in front of the boxes and across the ceiling. This production was originally staged in Toronto, but has been revamped, rewritten and partially re-cast for the London season. The design, lighting and special effects were all stupendous, but some of the actors were a bit naff. The plot and characterization were, of course, lousy (blame Tolkein), but on the whole it was a really good show. It's worth seeing just for the revolving stage with segments that can be raised and lowered independently, and for the flying elves and bouncing orcs. If the Theatre Royal can sort out the a/c and install a lift for the balcony, I'd be very happy to see the show again.

Harun ar-Rashid and the Golden Apples of the Hesperides

I recently heard a rather good folk tale from my father about the adventures of (a completely mythologised) Hārūn ar-Rashīd during his foreordained seven years of hardship, living as a poor man dressed in goatskin nicknamed Bou-Krisha (بو كريشة). One element of the story fits nicely with the previous two posts' theme of cultural survivals from the classical era. The king gathers his sons-in-law and his would-be son-in-law Bou-Krisha, and tells them that he is terribly ill, and to cure him they must go and bring him:

ət-təffaħ ən-nifuħ التّفّاح النّيفوح
əlli yṛədd əṛ-ṛuħ اللي يردّ الرّوح
m-əs-səb`a jbal مسّبعة جبال

the fragrant apple
that restores the soul
from the Seven Mountains

For the tale's purposes, of course, all that matters about this evocative phrase is that it refers to something that it will take a long and arduous quest to get. But the historically minded listener may be excused for speculating on the phrase's origin.

Etymologically, the phrase is mildly interesting. nifuħ is unexpected, and possibly distorted to fit the rhyme - a more normal term, with obvious Classical Arabic origins, would be nəffaħ; it might have arisen by contamination from əlli yfuħ “which smells” (especially since əlli in Kabyle is ənni.) But it may be possible to look deeper.

Ceuta (Arabic səbta سبتة) is an ancient Moroccan port town at the edge of the Straits of Gibraltar which has been part of Spain since 1668. Its name derives from a longer Latin one - Septem Fratres, the Seven Brothers, said to be a reference to seven hills around the city; it was a wild area, among the last places in North Africa where elephants were found (as noted by Pliny.) And the region around the Straits of Gibraltar is where the gardens of the Hesperides were supposed to be located - where the Golden Apples grew. Is ət-təffaħ ən-nifuħ one of the Golden Apples?

The Buzz

The Buzzby Ahmedinspired by a talk given by Shaykh Ahmed AliEveryone is seeking to find‘The buzz’, contentment and peace of mindSome seek it in pubs and barsOthers try to find it in flash carsSeveral try and find it in womenWhile others in Drugs, again and againWith these the buzz you may gainNot lasting long, your efforts in vainThe truth is this is not where it can be foundSo stop all this

Hackneyed

Hi fans. Here we are in sunny Hackney, east Lahndahn, where we've been staying with our son since we arrived. We're having a grand ole time with sunshine, rain, more sunshine, real live haraminals at the City Farm, and lots of other stuff. Will do a proper post eventually - this is just a quickie from an Internet Caff to let you know we arrived OK.

And thanks for all the luvverly comments on the previous post.

Topik 22: KKT I, dan KKT II

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Kita telah menyelesaikan bentuk KKT I. Dan dampak dari KKT I itu yaitu lahirnya pola DSK. Kita review sedikit ya.

KKT I, yaitu bentuk Kata Kerja Turunan I. Bentuk ini didapat dengan menambahkah Alif didepan. Contoh yang sering kita bawa adalah:

KKD (Kata Kerja Dasar): nazala, artinya turun. KKT I nya adalah anzala, artinya menurunkan. Perhatikan:

KKD نزل - nazala: turun
KKT I أنزل - anzala: menurunkan

Fungsi dari KKT I ini adalah membuat kata yang tidak perlu objek menjadi perlu objek. Ingat kembali, kata "turun" adalah kata kerja tidak perlu objek. "Saya turun". Tapi kata "menurunkan" perlu objek. "Saya menurunkan buku, dari rak dilantai 2". Kata "buku" adalah objek dari kata "menurunkan".

Kita flash-back lagi, bentuk KKT I ini dalam bentuk kata kerja lampau (KKL), sedangkan bentuk kata kerja sedang (KKS) nya berpola DSK.

Contohnya:
KKT I, bentuk KKL: أنزل - anzala: dia (telah) menurunkan
KKT I, bentuk KKS: ينزل - yunzilu : dia (sedang) menurunkan --> Pola DSK

Sekarang fokus kita adalah KKT II, yaitu bentuk Kata Kerja Turunan jenis ke dua.

KKT II

Bentuk ini adalah bentuk yang secara fungsi hampir sama dengan KKT I, yaitu menjadikan kata kerja yang tidak perlu objek menjadi objek. Contohnya di Al-Quran surat 2 ayat 97, yaitu kata nazzala, yang artinya sama dengan anzala yaitu menurunkan.

Jadi kata أنزل - anzala: menurunkan, dalam bentuk KKT I, bisa juga نزّل - nazzala: menurunkan, dalam bentuk KKT II.

Artinya sama, sama-sama menurunkan (sesuatu).

Demikianlah telah kita bahas sepintas bentuk KKT II. Ingat KKT II ini dibentuk dengan cukup mudah, yaitu, kata kerja dasar (KKD) 3 huruf, maka huruf kedua di tasydid.

Insya Allah akan kita lanjutkan topik ini...

Berberised Afro-Latin speakers in Gafsa

One reader of my last post asked how late Latin (or some descendant thereof) continued to be spoken in North Africa. The answer is, pretty late: the latest attestation I came across on short notice seems to be in the major medieval geographer Al-Idrisi (12th century) who, describing Gafsa in southern Tunisia, notes that:

وأهلها متبربرون وأكثرهم يتكلّم باللسان اللطيني الإفريقي.
Its inhabitants are Berberised, and most of them speak the African Latin tongue.

He even gives one word of their dialect:

ولها في وسطها العين المسماة بالطرميد.
In the middle of the town is a spring called the ṭarmīd (perhaps to be related to Latin thermae).

One interesting thing to note about this statement is that he said that the town was Berberised - in other words, that, in the very century when the Banū Hilāl were rapidly spreading through Tunisia and Libya (a subject he has fairly harsh things to say about), Berber culture was prestigious enough to be adopted by members of other cultures, in particular the remaining Roman or Romanised towns, in the area. Gafsa, of course, speaks Arabic now, but several nearby villages still spoke Berber in the 1800s, and two, Sened and Majoura, well into the 1900s.

Altering Your Head to Fit a Cap?!

by Usama MahmoodOur honourable Shaykh was sitting once in the masjid and sitting near by was a child. Shaykh, in a playful manner, took off the cap of the child’s head and asked the child if he would let him keep it. Shaykh then addressed the gathering: “This cap can not fit my head because of its size and the size of my head.He then said “Deen is like the head of person and the cap is us. Deen

Chenanith b'Libya - in the 11th century AD?

Anyone interested in North African languages who doesn't speak Dutch should immediately check out Bulbul's posting on Latino-Punic. The Phoenicians brought their language with them to North Africa when they founded Carthage and other cities. Carthage was destroyed, of course, but many other cities continued to speak Phoenician for longer; however, like Arabic in more recent times, it changed a lot under Berber influence, and this later dialect is usually called Punic. This language was spoken by St. Augustine, who quotes a number of Phoenician words, such as salus (< shalu:sh < shalo:sh < shala:sh < thala:th) "three", in his works. In eastern Libya, as it happens, Punic continued to be written even after the Phoenician alphabet was forgotten; this body of inscriptions, using the Latin alphabet to write Punic, is called (logically enough) Latino-Punic, and a comprehensive database of such inscriptions is available from Leiden. Recently, as Bulbul points out, a thesis was submitted at Leiden on Latino-Punic and its Linguistic Environment; I would love to read it.

The twist in this tale is that Phoenician may have survived into the 11th century AD! Al-Bakri (whom I've mentioned before) enigmatically says of the inhabitants of Sirt in Libya that:

لهم كلام يراطنون به ليس بعربي ولا عجمي ولا بربري ولا قبطي ولا يعرفه غيرهم
‍They have a speech in which they jabber which is neither Arabic nor Ajami (by which he probably means Latin but might mean Persian) nor Berber nor Coptic, which no one but them knows.

The location (in eastern Tripolitania) is about right for it to be Punic, and if it were Greek you would expect him to know, considering he cites (more or less correctly) the Greek etymology of طرابلس (Tripoli) in the next page. So was Punic still spoken in the 11th century? Your guess is as good as mine, but it looks plausible.

Salud, Euros y amor. Y el tiempo para gozarlos*

*Health, money and love. And the time in which to enjoy them.

The movers are coming today, and DEWA will be disconnecting the electricity. So I don't know when I'll get back online.

But thanks to all of you for reading my blog - it's been a blast! Of course I'll still be blogging from Europe, and I might start a new blog or rename this one. Or both. Damn, it's tough being a Libran.

Adios Amigos.

Galileo's sociolinguistics and free software

Just came across an interesting quote from a law professor in the free software movement on Europe's shift away from diglossia:

[W]ith the name Galileo Galilei, we associate two of the most important cultural responses to the quandary of possessed physics.

The first is an insistence upon freedom from censorship, that is "e pur si muove" -- determination to prohibit the ownership of physics by an entity rich enough and powerful enough to define its physics as the only permissible physics, the only available physics, for most ordinary people. And second, the first significant attempt in the history of the West to write scientific literature at the state of the art in a vernacular language, accessible to everyone.

Galileo Galilei's decision to publish in Italian is as important as his decision to risk confrontation with the Church, for what it says about the fundamental pillars of free science in the history of the West. Not merely, in other words, an insistence upon the freedom of ideas to work their will in skilled hands, but a determination that the ideas which motivate the world, which explain its behavior and which render it controllable, should be universally accessible to people regardless of their ability to acquire enough social surplus to have Latin.

I'm not sure whether the details of his account are accurate, but this has always been one of the strongest arguments against diglossia. The availability of universal free education goes a long way to mitigating the problem; but it's still not cost-free, since all the time devoted to learning the high language is time that could have been devoted to learning something else. (Of course, there are also practical issues regarding the quality of teaching provided - but that's another story.)