Quran 001:002-007

Verses

2. [ro] Laudă lui Allah, al lumilor Stăpânitor
[en] All praise is due to God, the Lord of the Universe;
ستایش مخصوص خداوندی است که پروردگار جهانیان است.
[ru] Хвала Аллаху, Господу миров,

[ge] Lob sei Gott, dem Herrn der Welten,

3. Cel Milostiv, Îndurător,
the Beneficent, the Merciful;
(خداوندی که) بخشنده و بخشایشگر است
Милостивому, (и) Милосердному
Dem Erbarmer, dem Barmherzigen,

4. În Ziua de Apoi Stăpânul Cârmuitor,
Lord of the Day of Judgement.
(خداوندی که) مالک روز جزاست
(Единственному) Царю [Правителю] Дня Воздаяния!
Der Verfügungsgewalt besitzt über den Tag des Gerichtes!

5. Numai pe Tine Te adorăm, numai la Tine cerem ajutor,
You alone we worship, and to You alone we turn for help.
تنها تو را می‌پرستیم؛ و تنها از تو یاری می‌جوییم
Тебе мы служим  и  к Тебе обращаемся за помощью
Dir dienen wir, und Dich bitten wir um Hilfe.

6. Pe drumul drept Tu fii-ne Călăuzitor,
Guide us to the straight path:
ما را به راه راست هدایت کن
Веди (Ты) нас Прямым Путем,
Führe uns den geraden Weg,

7. [ro] Drumul celor cu care fost-ai Tu dăruitor, nu al celor pe care Tu Te-ai mâniat, nici al rătăciților.
[en] the path of those You have blessed; not of those who have incurred Your wrath, nor of those who have gone astray.
راه کسانی که آنان را مشمول نعمت خود ساختی؛ نه کسانی که بر آنان غضب کرده‌ای؛ و نه گمراهان.[fa]
[ru] Путем тех, которых Ты благом одарил, (а) не (путем) тех, которые под (Твоим) гневом, и не (путем) заблудших.
[ge] Den Weg derer, die Du begnadet hast, die nicht dem Zorn verfallen und nicht irregehen.

Words

- Laudă - Praise - ستایش - Хвала - Lob
- Lumi (pl.) - Worlds (plural of "world"; in this translation "world" is translated as "universe") - جهانیان (plural of "جهان") - миров (plural of "мир") - der Welten (plural of "die Welt")
- Stăpânul ("Stăpânitor" in the verse, "stăpân" is the dictionary form and can be interchengable with "domn", depending on the context) - Lord - پروردگار - Господу (Dative form of "Господ") - dem Herrn (obviously also in the Dative case)
- Ziua de Apoi - Day of Judgement - روز جزا - Дня Воздаяния - den Tag des Gerichtes!
- drumul drept - straight path - راه راست - Прямым Путем - den geraden Weg
- mânie - wrath - غضب - гневом ("гнев", dictionary form, masculine, has no plural) - dem Zorn ("der Zorn" dictionary form)
- rătăcit - (those who have gone) astray - گمراهان - заблудших ("заблу" is the dictionary form, "to lose one's way") - irregehen ("gehen" = to go ; "Irren" = to be wrong ; "irr" = lunatic, mad). 

Meanings

For this section I based my analasys mostly on the commentaries of Ali Unal, Turkish author, member of the Gülen movement. We can look at this Sura as having two parts (could also be considered three), it seems that God, through the prophet said “The half of al-Fātihah belongs to Me, while the other half to My servant”. The first part is composed of verses 1 to 4 and consists of praise to God, while verses 6 and 7 are the worhiper's prayer for guidance. The fifth verse belong both to God and to his servant.

There are a couple of key words and concepts here, including: the Worlds, the Day of Judgement, the Straight Path, the blessed, those who have incurred His wrath and those who are astray. As you can see, in the Wahiduddin Khan edition I have used, the word Universe takes the place of worlds. The reason I chose this translation is because it's easier to understand by most people, although it might diminish its meanings. I say this because, as Ali points out, the worlds mentioned in the Quran are not only limited to our physical universe. Borrowing from Sufi cosmology, he cassifies the levels as: Lahut (the High Empyreon, the region of pure light and fire, the highest heaven); Jabarut (another of the immaterial worlds where the Divine Realities which exist in the Lahut are manifested in their pure immaterial form); Malakut (the world of the pure inner dimension of existence) ; Mithal ("the world of the symbols or ideal, immaterial forms of things"); Shahadah ("the corporeal world, including the visible world and the firmaments"). 

The Day of Judgement can also be found in other religions like Christianity and Zoroastrianism although with greater or lesser differences. Ali Unal writes: "He (God) has included in the 'dough' of our existence certain elements that, however seemingly negative or destructive, will, when disciplined, cause us to rise to higher ranks of perfection."

The Straight Path "is the middle way, having nothing to do with any extremes", "in educating people, it disciplines and ennobles the intellect, saving it from the extremes of demagogy, cunning and stupidity, and so leads to sound knowledge and wisdom". The true importance, difficulty and beauty of this path can not, obviously, be summed up in a simple phrase, it's the first step in our development to reach our potential and taking it requires great responsibility and patience.

Grammar

To understand the meaning of a phrase we should know the cases. Romanian, Russian and German all share a number of four cases, English has only Genitive and Nominative (of what I know) while Persian basically has none.
The Nominative marks the subject of a verb, the Accusative indicates the direct object of a verb, the Dative indicates the indirect object and Genitive is a possessive case.

Reference

Quran versions:
Romanian: - George Grigore
                      - The 5-th edition published by the Islamic and Cultural League in Romania
English:  - Yusuf Ali
          - Sahih International
          - Reformist version
          - Wahiduddin Khan
Persian:  - مکارم سیرازی
                  - مجتبوی
Russian:  - Абу Адель
German:   - Abu Rida
          - Amir Zaidan
          - Adel Theodor Khoury

Links

A great German <> English dictionary

Quran 001:001

Introduction to the series

We will begin learning the Quran in five languages, English, Romanian, German, Persian and Russian (or use the Quran to learn five languages, depends on your perspective).

Why the Quran?

Well, first of all, I am not a Muslim, in the sense that I was not born into a Muslim family and haven't testified my faith in the traditional manner (I'm not saying that I would not, I'm just saying that I have not done so). I was bapthised, this making me a Christian, however I don't actually consider myself a Christian. I believe in the one true God and no matter what I do on this Earth, I will never come close to knowing His true Glory. Another thing I wish to say is that God gave us a mind with which to do a great deal of things, among which to search for Him, to examine every piece of this Universe and know it's laws, and, to understand ourselves. A true believer is a rational believer but because we live in a world where rationality is becoming synonymus with arrogance, very few people will understand the meaning of the phrase. At the moment I am studying the Quran so this is the main reason for starting with it here, with time we will be researching other books including the Bible and various ancient philosophical texts.

 

Why the five languages?

Romanian is my first language and the one I use the most in daily activities while English I use mostly to read, write and think. I started to learn Persian (Farsi) around two years ago and at present I use it to read news from Iran along with poems and various literary and philosophical texts. German is a language I began to learn a couple of years ago but sadly had to give up due to lack of time while Russian... well, I've just began with this one. As you see, this will be a learning experience for me also, that is why I would like this series to be more interactive, let's share knowledge (use the comment box). If some of you would like to exemplify with other languages, please feel free to use the comment box.

Note: By using five languages which can be traced to a common Proto-Indo-European root while in the same time being of different branches (maybe with a small exception regarding English and German) this will offer us the opportunity of not being too unfamiliar with them (even if Persian is nothing like Russian) while in the same time offering the degree of difference needed in order not to confuse one another (which would be the case with learning Romanian, Italian and Spanish at the same time).

Note 2: Get familiar with all of the languages first. At the bottom of the article I will give you some links. The grammar will slowly be discussed here also. 

The verse

Surat Al-Fatiha 1:1
[ro] În numele lui Allah Cel Milostiv, Îndurător
[en] In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
[fa] به نام خداوند بخشنده بخشایشگر
[ge] Im Namen Gottes, des Gnädigen, des Barmherzigen.
[ru] Во имя Аллаха, Милостивого, Милосердного!

Words

- name (en) = nume (ro) = Namen (ge) = имя (ru) = نام (fa)

This is the word "name" in all five languages. What you will probably observe first is that the words "name", "nume", "namen" are relativelly similar, that is because of their Latin ancestor "nomen". "имя" on the other hand is traced directly to the Proto-Slavic "*jьmę". As for the Persian "نام", the word can be traced back to the Old Persian cuneiform "𐎴𐎠𐎶" (nam). All the five languages have a common descendent which is from Proto-Indo-European, "*h₁nḗh₃mn̥".

- God (en) = Dumnezeu (ro) = Gott (ge / "Gottes" in Genitive) = бог (ru / "бо́га" in Genitive) = خداوند (form of خدا).

- beneficient (en) = milostiv (ro) = gnädigen (from the noun "Gnade" plus the sufix "-ig" used to make adjectives out of nouns) = بخشنده (fa) = Милостивого (ru).

- merciful (en / "mercy" + "-ful" used to form adjectives out of nouns) = îndurător (ro) = Barmherzigen (ge / "Barmherzigkeit" is the noun "mercy") = بخشایشگر (fa) = Милосердного (ru)

- in (en) = în (ro) = im (ge) = Во (ru) ≠ به (fa) / I want to point out the fact that the preoposition "in" has a different meaning here, it's not like "in the house", it does not indicate a place or a time interval (ex: "in three hours"). This is the reason why in Persian we don't also say ("در" = in) but "به" (usually translated as "to" or "according to" = "به گزارش" / where "گزارش" is the noun "report, story").

Meanings of the verse

This is called the Basmala which in Arabic is "بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم". This phrase is recited before each sura (chapter) with the exception of the ninth. Some scholars believe it to be the first verse of all but the ninth sura while others consider it as coming before the first verse. 


From wikipedia:

"The three definite nouns of the Basmala—Allah, ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim—correspond to the first three of the traditional 99 names of God in Islam. Both ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim are from the same triliteral root R-Ḥ-M, "to feel sympathy, or pity". According to Lane, ar-raḥmān is more intensive (including in its objects the believer and the unbeliever) and may be rendered as "the Compassionate", while ar-raḥīm has for its peculiar object the believer (considered as expressive of a constant attribute), and may be rendered as "the Merciful".

The Basmala has a special significance for Muslims, who are to begin each task after reciting the verse."

Links

Russian grammar reference

Persian Grammar Reference
Also, there are some articles on Thoughts in Perspective

German grammar reference
Basic German Grammar

Romanian language

Basic English grammar

PS: Feeling the enormous weight of this task? That's good, this is exactly what you should be feeling, but don't be scared, it's achievable. If you only know English, try to go through the links above, slowly and give yourself a number of consecutive days to acquaint with each language at a time, if you wish, you can also concentrate only on one or two and then come back to the rest. There will be two weeks in which you should slowly familiarize yourself with basic gramar and phonetics of the languages you choose after which we will continue with the verses and talk a little about grammar using the verses as examples.

Persian Lesson 04 - Adjectives

We use adjectives in order to assign various values to a noun, this may not be the standard definition but neither is this lesson the standard lesson. When we say blue water we assign to the noun "water" another word that links with it and gives us knowledge regarding that particular noun, in our case, the color blue. In Persian, adjectives are added after the noun and connected vocally through an "e". This "e" is only pronounced, not written, so we will have:

آب آبی  ab-e-abi

خوب  good

کتاب  book

کتاب خوب   ketab e chub


We know how to say good book but how to say "the book is good"? Well, this is how (here we no longer pronounce that "e") :
کتاب خوب است

For this we used Simple Present Tense which we will discuss in the next lesson. "Ast" is for third person singular.
To say "this" and "that" in Persian you say:
این  'in'
آن   'an'

این کتاب خوب است  this book is good
آن کتاب خوب است  that book is good

Now it's time for comparative and superlative. For comparative we use تر  and for superlative we add the suffix ین   after the comparative suffix. For example:

زیباتر    more beautiful (than)
زیباترین  most beautiful
or:
جوانتر  younger
جوانترین  youngest

Now let's make some sentences, there is nothing new to learn of how to write a superlative, yet the comparative needs a few things to be mentioned.
این کتاب از آن کتاب خوبتر است
"This book is better than that book". You guessed it, از  is the key to creating a comparative sentence. از  is usually translated as: of, from.

Bellow you have a short list of adjectives, read them, use them, learn them. Till next time,
خداحافظ

Short list of adjectives:

خوب  good

بد  bad

بلند  tall

کوتاه  short

بزرگ  big/large

کوچک  small

تازه  fresh

جوان  young

پیر  old

گران  expensive

ارزان  cheap/inexpensive

سفید  white
 
سیاه  black

قرمز  red

آبی  blue

سبز  green

زرد  yellow

قهوهای  brown

Persian Lesson 03 - Compound Verbs

City of Firuzabad (Gur), Iran,
 founded by Ardashir I

خوش آمدید . Like I said in lesson 2 we will now learn about compound verbs, the vast majority of which are constructed using کردن , like in کار کردن which means to work.
The Simple Present Tense for this verb ( کردن  = to do/create ) is created by deleting the ن , just like in the case of simple verbs. So we will have:

من کار کردم

تو کارکردی

او کار کرد

ما کار کردیم

شما کار کردید

انها کار کردند

As you see only کردن accepts suffixes, other examples:

to call (phone call, phone +to do)	تلفن کردن
to heal (good + to do)	خوب کردن
to cool (cold + to do)	سرد کردن

What you should do now is repeat what I did earlier but with this verbs instead. Try to make sentences after. Here are some more words:

friend = دوست

mother = مدر

father = پدر

sister =خواهر

brother =برادر

sick = بیمار

fruit = میوه

As a bonus I will show you how to say my (something), your (something), etc.
My mother for example will be either مادر من (mader-e-man) or مادرم (maderam).
Your father would be  پدرت  .
His/her brother  برادرش.
I will stop here, no use to go into plurals now. Notice the "e" pronounced but not written when saying "mader-e-man", that is the ezafe, we will talk more about that in another lesson.

With what I showed you previously you can now write phrases like:

او برادرم خوب کرد - He healed my brother.

After you practice this It's time for some more compound verbs.

شدن means "to become". So we can create verbs that have this "becoming" meaning. For example:

to grow up (big + to become)	بزرگ شدن
to get old (old + to become)	پیر شدن
fall in love (love + to become)	عاشق شدن

The last verbs for now are created using دادن which means "to give".

to pay (money + to give)	پول دادن
to kiss(kiss + to give)	بوس دادن
to answer (answer + to give)	جواب دادن

خداحافظ

Persian Lesson 02 - Introduction to Simple Past Tense

 

Image depicting Muhammad, notice
his face is blanked out and
the fire around his head.

Persian verbs are of two types, simple and compound. Simple verbs are like رفتن , to go (infinitive). Compound verbs are usually composed out of two words, we will talk about them in the next lesson, but to satisfy your curiosity I will give the example of: to work: کار کردن.

What is Simple Past? In our case it is: (I, you, he/she/it, we, you, they) went. In Persian the pronouns are (in the same order as before, remember, read from right to left): من . تو . او . ما . شما . آنها . These are read man, to, u, ma, shoma, anha.

To say I went you write من رفتم . Notice that the letter ن  is removed and instead  م  is added. The 'm' letter is to indicate that the one who does the action is 'I', that is why you are not obligated to write  من رفتم and can usually limit yourself to writing: رفتم.

You (singular) went:تو رفتی    -   we add ی
She/he/it went: او رفت   -    we don't add nothing
We went: ما رفتیم    -    we add یم
You (plural) went: شما رفتید    -    we add ید
They went: آنها رفتند    -    we add ند

Learn the suffixes and do the same thing as above to these other verbs:
to see: دیدن
to speak:گُفتن 
to have: داشتَن
to take: گِرِفتِن

Till next time, goodbye (chodahafez): خداحافظ

Persian Lesson 01 - Vowels

Image from Isfahan Bazar

Persian, or Farsi as it is called when referring to the language spoken in Iran, is beautiful and surprisingly easy to learn, once you master the alphabet. It is an Indo-European language, just like almost all European languages (which spread all over the world). Although it makes use of the Arabic alphabet, the two are rather different, Arabic coming from a totally different tree, the Semitic. Persian is considered for centuries, a noble language, mainly because of the impressive poetic and philosophical works written in it.

There are many Persian language lessons on the web, I went through most of them and although my understanding of this language is still rather limited due to vocabulary issues, I decided to share with you some things I discovered along the way. I repeat that I am not a professor of this language and I will only write things I know, which should be enough for beginners and for the intermediate.

First of all, the most difficult part for me have been the vowels. Sure, there are vowels in Persian, here they are:  
- و  -  u, o, and which is actually the letter v. At the beginning of a word it is written after the 'a' (with the 'a' letter not pronounced), for example:  او  which means 'he/she/it' and is pronounced 'u' ;

- ا , آ  -  a, the first form (the one on the left) is used at the beginning of words and it is read 'a', the second form is used at the beginning of words while it can also be used in the middle. When at the beginning it is pronounced more like an 'e/i' or not pronounced at all. For example:  امروز   which means 'today' and is pronounced 'emruz'

- ی -  i, this is the final form of the letter, unlike the first two letters presented here, 'i' can be linked with another letter to the left. For example دیروز   which means 'yesterday' and is pronounced 'diruz' and  آبی (notice the آ )  which means 'blue' and is pronounced 'abi'. In the first case, the letter 'i' is linked with the letter 'r' and in the second example the letter 'i' is presented in its final form.

Now comes the difficult part, Persian, like I said earlier, is an Indo-European language that uses a form of the Arabic alphabet and the result is that not all vowels are written in a word, but they are nonetheless pronounced.

Tajrish bazar, Tehran

Let's try a verb now so I can explain what I mean. 'To go' is  رفتن   and is pronounced 'raeftaen', something more like 'raftan', this is the infinitive form. As you see there are two vowels not written, the one between 'r' and 'f' and between 't' and 'n'.  رَفتَن  See the lines above the 'r' and 't' letters? These help you tell that after the 'r' you will say 'a' and after that 'f', these are not really letters, but more like "short vowel markers" and are rarely used, so be careful. There are another two such signs and I will use the letter 't' to show them.
تِ = t(e)
تُ = t(o) 
We will now make a sentence, anxious?  

او به بازار دیروز رفت

This translates as 'He to bazar yesterday went' or, adapted to English: He went to the bazar yesterday. [U beh bazar diruz raft]. Observe the structure: Subject - Object - Time - Verb. It is in Simple Past Tense

I think it's time to stop now, let me know what you think about this first lesson in the comment box, it is, after all, my first.