Re: libquran data

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

--- Maher Ben Moussa <maher_dev hotmail.com> wrote:
> Mohammed Yousif wrote:
> > I know about quran.en.xml and quran.id.xml,
> > (The first is by mosque.com and the second is provided by
> > Mohammed Damt) you can use them freely but you can't change
> > the texts in them, however I'm not sure about the rest,
> > Hatem Yacop provided me with them and thus, he knows better
> > about their licence. 
> 
> Yousif, I just saw that the translations of Quran have been removed. I
> understand that you did that, because you're not sure of it source and
> licenses. We have to contact Hatem Yacop for more information about
> these files. If there source and licenses are trusted and can be used by
> us, then we recover the XML files. I don't know the email address of
> Hatem. Can you contact him?
> If we can't use these data, we should them try to port the English
> translation found in muhaddith.org to libquran

Myself and a number of others were on IRC talking to M.Yousif about this
issue when the decision was made to remove the XMLs.  The issue is rather 
complicated but what warranted the removals was the questioning of the
source of all those files and whether they had been inspected/certified
or looked into in any great detail for content/correctness, etc.  The
following suggestion was put forth - "why not go to the Al-Azhar and
actually talk to someone in the know who could lead us to proper locations
to find 'accepted' translations ?"  I'm not sure if this will happen, but
certainly its an option worth pursuing (I'm also sure we can get advice
from the various online websites that offer Q&A/discussion-forum sections).

I also suggest we use info that is posted of reputable sites and that are
cross-posted (meaning, the info is available from multiple locations and
so there is a level of safety in that).  Some sites that I can suggest
(and they ought to be contacted to see how best to proceed and whether
they themselves have any info on "proper" Quranic translations),

  http://islamicity.com/mosque/quran/
  http://quran.al-islam.com/Default.asp  (note right menus)
  http://www.al-sunnah.com/quran.htm
  http://www.quraan.com                  (note top-left menu)
  http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/
  http://www.islamonline.net/surah/english/quran.shtml
  http://www.islamway.com                (site was down at time of writing)

As I'm sure there are others -- the point is to make sure that the
translations are proper (and have been looked into by someone as I'm confident
there is a proper authority that looks at these things - I'm just unsure
who it is - there are plenty of online sites to ask for such info) and to
develop either a license which bars modification and/or that clearly states
whom to contact and where the data came from.  To ease life for all, I'd
suggest the entire data set be uniform in its "license".

Just some thoughts/suggestions...

Salam.

 - Nadim

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