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