Saturday, April 17, 2010

Qur'an: Searchable Arabic Qur'an and Tafsirs, Searchable Translations, and Indices in English and Arabic

al-Mu'jam al-mufahras an online index in Arabic of every word in the Qur'an, organized according to root (from the site www.qurancomplex.org ). It includes features such as the number of times a particular root configuration has been used in the Qur'an. In addition, if one clicks on a particular form of the root, all Qur'anic instances of it will appear in context. Up to this point, this online index is comparable to the famous al-Mu'jam al-mufahras of Fu'ad 'Abd al-Baqi. Nevertheless it supercedes it because if one clicks on the word in the verse that is its Qur'anic context, a window appears giving options such as the recitation of the verse, such as seeing what major Sunni Qur'an commentaries say about the verse in question, seeing translations of that verse in a variety of languages, and seeing any discussion of that verse in Qur'anic literature, such as in the genre of asbab al-nuzul (circumstances of revelation) or in the genre of gharib al-Qur'an (rare words in the Qur'an).
Search the Qur'an in Arabic at al-tafsir.com.
Search Numerous Tafsirs in Arabic at al-tafsir.com One can also go directly to the English Translation of the well-known brief commentary Tafsir al-Jalalayn.
Translations--however inspired they may be--are only shadows of the original. They should always be read with a healthy dose of skepticism concerning the degree to which they reflect the original. The gulf between the original and the translation is an important reason why Muslims must recite the Qur'an only in Arabic for the required daily prayers. A translation of the Qur'an is not the Qur'an; it is simply one person's interpretation of the Qur'an. To a limited extent, however, translations can shed light on the meaning of the Qur'an.
By comparing a few Qur'an translations verse by verse, one can often get a fuller sense of the Arabic original. The following Translations of the Qur'an site uses side by side translations of Pickthall, Yusuf Ali, and Shakir. You can search these Qur'an translations as well.
Qur'an Translation Search Engine (No longer online.) Developed by Richard Goerwitz, then at Brown University, this search engine searched the Pickthall, Yusufali, Shakir, and Sher Ali translations of the Qur'an. This engine is more powerful than the previous engines, but in order to see all of the translations side by side, first search for a word, phrase, or particular verse in one of the translations (eg. Pickthall, which is the default). Then click on one of results in the "passage list" and beneath the full passage, among the various options click on "all." -->
The M. H. Shakir translation can be searched by this powerful search engine at the University of Michigan. It can perform three types of searches: a simple search for a word or phrase throughout the Qur'an; a search for two or three words or phrases in close proximity to one another; a Boolean search for the occurence of two or three words in any verse. One of the virtues of this engine is that the results are displayed in the context of the aya (s) in which the word or words are found.
The Message of the Qur'an by Muhammad Asad is an excellent translation and commentary on the Qur'an. His commentary is drawn largely from traditional and 19th century commentaries.
Subject Index of the Qur'an (fixed 22 December 2005) This subject index is hyperlinked with the Qur'an, so that after choosing a particular subject, the reader can simply click on the various Qur'anic verse (ayah)numbers, which will then lead to the text of that verse in which the chosen subject is found.
Introductions to Each Qur'anic Sura, by Mawdudi
Online Qur'anic Recitations
The Qur'an: Arabic text and recitation (Link fixed 22 December 2005) The recitation is by Shaykh Khalil al-Husari (one of the finest Qur'an reciters) and is considered to be ideal for learning the proper pronunciation of the Qur'an. Real Audio is needed in order to hear this. If you do not have it, you can download it for free by clicking on this Real Audio link. (Changed to free audio links Sept. 24, 2003.)
The Qur'an: Arabic recitation by Shaykh al-Minshawi (one of the finest Qur'an reciters). (Changed to free audio link, Sept. 24, 2003.) Hear the entirety of the Qur'an, sura by sura (chapter
by chapter),
recited by different reciters. You will need Real Audio 3.0 for this.
(Offline, Sept. 3, 2000.) -->
Surat al-Fatiha, the opening surah of the Qur'an, is recited here by Shaykh Khalil al-Husari. (Real Audio)
Rules for Reciting the Arabic Text of the Qur'an Qur'anic recitation (tajwid) is regarded as one the Qur'anic sciences. Some of these rules are indicated in the Arabic text of the Qur'an by means of Arabic abbreviations. The article here discusses such abbreviations as well as the other rules, providing clear examples to illustrate the rules.
Free Qur'ansA Free Qur'an can be obtained from the Islamic Affairs Division of the Saudi Arabian embassy. In the box that says select the requested items, click on and hold down the arrowhead on the right and choose Qur'an -- With English translation: Yousef Ali.
Free Qur'an either send Free Qur'an.org your address by email or simply call toll free 1-800-747-8726 (1-800-74QURAN).
A Free Qur'an is offered as a service at this website.
Obtain A Free Qu'ran (link fixed 17 August 2005) The Online Islamic Bookstore offers free Qur'ans to any interested non-Muslim who is willing to pay the $3.00 shipping cost. (No longer offered, Oct. 26, 2002.)
TafsirMuslims regard the most reliable Qur'anic commentary as being contained in the Qur'an itself. In other words, the ways in which certain ayat clarify other ayat are regarded as being the most significant form of commentary. A second form of Qur'anic commentary is how the Prophet interpreted the Qur'an. And his comments on the Qur'an (as well as everything he ever said or did) are recorded in the hadith collections. After these two forms of commentary, knowledgeable companions and later generations of pious and learned Muslims expressed their view of the meaning of various ayat. It was on this foundation that the science of Qur'anic commentary was built.
Foundations of the Science of Qur'an Interpretation (tafsir) (link fixed 22 December 2005) written by Shaykh Muhammad Zakariya Kandhalvi.
'Ulum al-Qur'an: An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'an Written by the Muslim scholar, Ahmad Von Denffer, this on-line version of the first six chapters of his book expresses a Sunni perspective on the various fields of scholarship related to the Qur'an.
'Ulum al-Qur'an: An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'an is another online version of Ahmad Von Denffer's work.
The Principles of Tafsir of the Qur'an is a well-formatted version of ch. 6 of Von Denffer's 'Ulum al-Qur'an. It contain's diacritical marks in transliterated Arabic terms, which are highlighted in bold.
Qur'anic Studies contains a variety of online scholarly articles dealing with Qur'anic grammar and rhetoric, literary style, and orthography.
Tafsir of Selected Surahs The Muslim woman scholar A'isha Bewley has translated and compiled from traditional sources useful commentaries on Surat al-Tawbah, selected ayahs from Surat al-Nur, and Surat al-Mulk.
In the Shade of the Qur'an (Fi Zilal al-Qur'an) (link fixed 22 December 2005) is the well-known 20th Century tafsir written by Syed Qutb, the Egyptian Muslim activist and major figure of the Muslim Brotherhood. This online section consists of the commentary from Surah 78 until the end of the Qur'an.
Al-Mizan (link fixed 17 August 2005) is the voluminous Qur'an commentary of the 'Alamah Taba'taba'i, the highly regarded 20th century Shi'ite scholar. Here is the translation of his commentary on the Fatihah (the opening surah of the Qur'an), part of the second surah (Baqarah), and part of the third surah, (Al 'Imran).
The Message of the Qur'an by Muhammad Asad is an excellent translation and commentary on the Qur'an. His commentary is drawn largely from traditional and 19th century commentaries.
Altafsir.com is the most comprehensive Qur'anic resource on the web. A project of the Aal al-Bayt Foundation for Islamic Thought, Altafsir.com has put online the Qur'an in Arabic recited by six of the most highly regarded Qur'anic reciters, numerous Qur'anic commentaries in Arabic, as well as translations of the Qur'an into 16 languages and many important texts in Arabic of the traditional Qur'anic sciences ('ulum). In the works are translations into English of some of the commentaries along with a new translation of the Qur'an.
Comprehensive Downloadable Arabic Library for Research in Primary Islamic SourcesThis invaluable free service includes all the major hadith texts (and many of the minor ones) as well as works of hadith criticism, some important tafsirs, dictionaries, and works of fiqh. These can be downloaded --not read online-- from the Al-Muhaddith Islamic Library and Search Program (link fixed 22 December 2005). They are essential for university libraries as well as for scholars who wish to pursue original research in Islamic primary sources.
In addition to the hadith collections, one can also download various Arabic tafsirs such as Tafsir Jalalayn,Suyuti's al-Durr al-manthur (which uses hadith to clarify and expand on the meaning of the Qur'an), and an abridged version of the Tafsir al-Qurtubi.
The library includes as well a number of important general dictionaries such as Ibn Manzur's Lisan al-'Arab and Fayruzabadi's al-Qamus al-muhit; Ibn al-Athir's dictionary of rare words used in hadith, al-Nihayah fi gharib al-hadith; Asfahani's dictionary of the Qur'an, Mufradat alfaz al-Qur'an; and even an Arabic-English and English-Arabic dictionary.
A PC running Arabic Windows95 is necessary in order to read the texts, although Arabic Windows98 is recommended.
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