Good Blogs

I've been laughing a lot during my blog-hunting these days, mostly due to:

ARIDO [ARABIC]

Ahmed Khalaf al-Musawi is an Iraqi atheist from a southern Shi'i background, who is well known in the Arab online atheist community as some sort of a godfather, his writings have a style that I daresay would rival Shalash al-Iraqi's in quality, his style is unique: complete disregard of punctuation that gives an impression of a classical Arabic book, complete ignorance of spelling, and a very flowing narrative filled with an extraordinarily surreal sense of words.

It somehow seems to me that Iraqi Atheists are the largest of all the Arab atheist communities, well, after what's going on in Iraq, who could blame them.

أرشيف طالب عجوزي Diaries of a Lazyass Student [Arabic]

a rather typical Iraqi blog for a college student in his early twenties, except that he can be extremely funny. don't miss احداث فتحت لاصحابها بوابة...الاردن

Less funny but more in the vein of mainstream Iraqi blogs is the serious and brooding is Baghdad Kassakhon [Storyteller], written by a journalist living in Baghdad.


Iraqi Interpreter is a great blog written live from where the action is by a 20-year-old Iraqi interpreter, giving us a much needed firsthand insight in the trials and tribulations of Iraqi interpreters, he is honest, angry and we get to watch him toughened by his life experiences.

Topik 80: Jawaban Pertanyaan

Bismillahirrahim.

Wah, tumben pagi ini saya terima Email di mailbox saya. Ada yang nulis di bagian Comments (dibawah) bertanya, pada posting terakhir 1 bulan yang lalu. Memang sudah agak lama saya tidak menulis di Blog ini. Tetapi karena ada pertanyaan, saya sempatkan menuliskan jawabannya.

Yang ditanyakan:
Apa fungsi wazan تفاعل - tafaa 'ala
Apa fungsi wazan استفعل - istaf 'ala
Dan apa beda keduanya.

Oke deh. Rasanya sudah pernah saya bahas, di topik-topik yang lalu ya.

1. Apa fungsi wazan تفاعل - tafaa 'ala

Secara teoritis nahwu, fungsi wazan tafaa 'ala: menunjukkan pekerjaan itu terjadi antara 2 belah pihak (makna saling).

Contoh:
تحاصم الكفار - tahaa-shoma al-kuffaaru : orang-orang kafir itu saling bermusuhan

Atau contoh di AQ: Surat An-naba'
عم يتساءلون - 'amma ya-tasaa-aluun : tentang apakah mereka saling bertanya?

Akan tetapi dalam beberapa hal, wazan ini juga berfungsi untuk:

a. Menunjukkan pengertian pura-pura. Contoh:
تمارض الكسلان - tamaaradha al-kaslaanu : orang malas itu pura-pura sakit

b. Menunjukkan pekerjaan yang terjadi berangsur-angsur. Contoh:
توارد الزائرون - tawaarada adz-dzaa-i-ruuna : para pengunjung itu berangsur-angsur datang.

c. Menunjukkan pengertian aslinya. Contoh:
تعالى الله - ta-'aa-lallahu : Allah ta-'aalaa. Kata ta-'aala disini sama maksudnya dengan 'alaa (Maha Tinggi).

d. Menunjukkan akibat dari suatu perbuatan. Contoh:
باعدت خالدا فتباعد - baa-'ad-tu Khoolidan fa tabaa-'a-da : aku menjauh dari Kholid, maka dia(pun) menjauh.

Oke sekarang pertanyaan ke 2.

2. Apa fungsi wazan استفعل - istaf 'ala

Secara teoritis nahwu, fungsi wazan istaf 'ala: menunjukkan pekerjaan yang meminta sesuatu ke pihak lain.

Contoh:
استغفرت لله - istaghfartu lillahi : Aku minta-ampun kepada Allah

Akan tetapi dalam beberapa hal, wazan ini juga berfungsi untuk:

Memiliki sifat atau menganggap. Contoh:

هو استحل الحرام - huwa istahalla alharaama : dia mengganggap halal (sesuatu yang) haram itu.

Dan beberapa fungsi lainnya. Sementara kita cukupkan sampai disini dulu, pembahasannya.

Remember Allah

The great Sufi Master Dhu al-Nun al-Misri has said that the man who remembers Allah in the full sense of the term forgets everything else, and that, in reward of such a total absorption, Allah Himself takes care of all his concerns, and grants him something far more valuable for everything he loses.Similarly, the blessed Companion Mu'adh (رضى الله تعالى عنه) has remarked that in so far as winning

Serendipity

A new blog by two new bloggers: Surreal and Ammar Kanno.

Surreal:

I was born here where am living now! in the eighth of May 1986, my name is..., its not important, "silliest things we hold are our names" NIZAR QABANI

I know him and I'm telling you, he's one humorous, helpful and intelligent man, and he looks very good in his black suit, red shirt and red tie that he wore to his graduation party! :)

Ammar Kanno:

"A very ordinary man..."

..whom I do not know.. but he seems to have such a talent as a poet.

They have very recently started to blog and so there's no telling how the blog is going to turn out.. Hopefully however, it's going to last as long as they can breathe!
That's what you told me Surreal and I'm not going to forget it ;)

Enjoy

Exams

For many of us these months will be stressful as it is the exam periods in schools and universities as well as many Madrassahs. It is during these months that we will be examined and ranked and informed as to what we have done and achieved during the year that has just past.Read the full post on Exams here.

Getting Started

Hi welcome to Egyptian Arabic online lessons. Due to the popularity of my other blog Arabic Song Lyrics and Translation at arabicmusictranslation.com, I have launched this site to help readers use music to learn Egyptian Arabic dialect. Music is a great way to access colloquial Arabic because unlike newspapers and books, it is predominantly composed in colloquial Arabic, Egyptian being the most popular dialect to use. This allows users to hear the words as well as read them, and music is optimized for memorization. Moreover, the songs use a limited vocabulary, which allows one to access all the aspects of grammar and speech with out being bogged down by lots of new vocabulary.

Egypt is the largest speaking Arabic country and the Egyptian dialect has become widely known in the Arab world thanks to Egypt's movies and music. Thus, it is a useful dialect not just in Egypt, but in all Arabic speaking countries.

First I will make clear: I am not Egyptian. I was born in the United States and have been learning Arabic as a second language for a few years now. I don't claim to know everything about Arabic, let alone a dialect like Egyptian. This being said I will only publish content here that I am confident is accurate. I spent a short time in Egypt, but most of my knowledge of the Egyptian dialect was learned entirely through music, so you will see that you can learn a lot just from memorizing some songs and their meanings!

To use this site properly, one should have some knowledge of Standard Arabic and mastery of the Arabic alphabet. If you don't know the alphabet, don't give up! I have made some accommodations to help the motivated learner transition into using exclusively Arabic alphabet. The first lesson is intended for even beginners to be able to follow. Although the site is self-contained, A Dictionary of Egyptian Arabic by El-Said Badawi is an excellent reference for learning dialect, especially for understand the differences between colloquial and Standard Arabic.

In addition to the lessons, I will provide and continually update a "vocabulary" that contains important words and phrases.

This site is a blog, which means users can leave comments. If you have any comments or questions about the lesson or other related questions feel free to use the comment function to do so.

To begin learning Egyptian Arabic, click here to see the Egyptian ABCs!

Introduction: السلام عليكم

New Vocabulary

as-salaamu 3aleekum (السلام عليكم) - Peace be upon you (greeting)
wa-3aleekum as-salaam (وعليكم السلام) - And upon you peace (response)
yalla bina (يلله بنا) - Let's go!
ta3aala (تعالى) - Come on!
Habiibi (حبيبي) - my darling, my beloved
al-salaam (السلام) - peace, a greeting

sallam (سلّم) - to say hi
Habb (حب) - to love

Before moving into some of the songs and breaking down their sentences, it will be nice to enjoy this video and get a simple introduction to Egyptian Arabic as well as Egyptian music. This song by Hakim is entitled "as-salaamu 3aleekum (السلام عليكم)" which means "Peace be upon you." This is a common way of saying hi in Egypt as well as much of the Muslim world. The response to "as-salaamu 3aleekum (السلام عليكم)" is "wa-3aleekum as-salaam (وعليكم السلام)" which should be said whenever anyone greets you saying "as-salaamu 3aleekum (السلام عليكم)." The verb "to say hi" or "to say salaam" is thus, "sallam (سلّم)."

The musical style in this song is shaabi, which means "folk" or "people's" music but refers to a certain style of pop music driven by the distinct kind of rhythm you'll find in this song optimized for dancing with lyrical emphasis on repetition of catchy lines.

Depending on your level of Arabic you may or may not understand much of this song. Try to focus on reading along and making out the words, picking out the few phrases and vocabulary I've highlighted above. Also, enjoy the video, which depicts various potential Cairo scenarios.

اس اس السلام عليكم
طب اس اس السلام عليكم
اس اس السلام عليكم
طب اس اس السلام عليكم
السلام عليكم السلام عليكم
السلام عليكم السلام عليكم

بعد السلام يحلى الكلام
نسهر ندوب حب و غرام
الحياه حلوه يالله بينا يالله نحضن الأيام

السلام عليكم السلام عليكم

انا قلبي سلم يا حبيبي رد السلام
و افتحلي قلبك يا حبيبي و انسى الخصام

حب و ارقص غني و أوعى تبعد عني
حب و ارقص غني و أوعى تبعد عني
هات ايدك يالله دا السلام لله و لا كفايا عناد

السلام عليكم السلام عليكم

ما تضم شوقك على شوقي قرب يا واد
و احلوي يا دنيا و روقي بعد البعاد

من رموشك خذني او تعالى في حضني
ضحكة مع غمزة نظرة مع همسة
كلو يبقى تمام

السلام عليكم السلام عليكم

انا بس عايزك تديني شوية حنان
و بأحلى حب تنسيني مر الزمان

لو غلطت عاتبني مش تروح و تسبني
لو غلطت عاتبني مش تروح و تسبني
يالله يا واحشني عيش و عيشني ليه تبات زعلان

السلام عليكم السلام عليكم

بعد السلام يحلى الكلام
نسهر ندوب حب و غرام

Aside from the line "as-salaamu 3aleekum (السلام عليكم)" you may not have understood very much of the song. That's ok, because with a little explanation, you'll soon find that comprehension is not as difficult as it seems. Just take these coming lessons one at a time and learn all the target vocabulary and grammar explanations and you'll understand Egyptian shaabi songs like this in no time! Yalla, Lesson 1: ما خلاص