Re: Volunteers, Unicode, previous examples and things

[Abdalla Alothman <abdalla at pheye dot net>]

Asalamu alaikum wa rahmatullaah (Peace)

On Thursday 30 June 2005 23:29, Julie Devall wrote:
> Dear Mr. Alothman and all
> 
> I didn't mean to be insensitive to the nature of Quran, pardon my ignorance 
> of this.

The issue is a little bit subtle, and many Muslims tend to get confused with
it. I learned to distinguish between the MuSHaf and the Quran three years ago
only. I'm 35 years old, by the way :)
 
> Just wondering, what sorts of functions will people want from this encoding 
> of the Quran?

A lot of functions. There are indeed a lot of patterns inside the Quran
that could to be dug out. I say this not out of speculation, but a humble
experience.

The development of software is a very flexible process that requires
a thorough understanding of the discipline the software is trying to
serve. If the software solves problems related to accounting, a great
deal of accounting knowledge needs to be studied.

When it comes to the Quran, the Quran is backed up with an intensive
discipline called "The Sciences of the Quran."  This science includes
other disciplines as well such as  logic, grammar, exegesis and so on.
In addition to the disciplines, the Sciences of the Quran include more
than one branch. The inimitability, is an example of a branch that includes
several sub-branches of which the numerical inimitability is one. An example
of the numerical inimitability is the aaya that says:

[Quran 3:59] Verily, the likeness of 'Iesa (Jesus) before Allâh is the
likeness of Adam. He created him from dust, then (He) said to him: "Be!"
- and he was.

Recently, researchers found that this likeness carries more than one face:
The word Jesus appears in the Quran 25 times, and so does the word "Adam."

I have a set of classes that I made in the near past -- with the help and
guidance of some of my brothers -- that applies simple mathematical routines
on the Quran.

The latest was permutating over the letters that appear on some suras (Alif
Laam Meem: Surat Albaqara <#2>, Surat Aal Imraan <#3>, Surat Luqmaan <#31> etc.,
Haa Meem: Surat Aldukhan <#45>, Surat Alzukhruf <#43>, etc.
Kaaf Ha Ya 'Ayn Saad: Surat Maryam, #19.
Alif Laam Meem Saad
Alif Laam Ra
Alif Lam Meem Ra
Ya Seen
Taa Haa
etc.

The idea was to permutate (a very consumable computational operation) and
go through the results searching for meaningful words or phrases. The results
were amazing, but might be misleading. Because the operation consumes a lot
of computer power, the results are also incomplete. It's just an attempt that
could be improved by holding some letters as constants as suggested by a dear
brother; This would reduce the amount of time and produce entries for each
set of constant letters.

As for "encoding" the Quran, I think a great effort by many people, including
Arabeyes, has been made, and it needs to be appreciated. I think very little
work needs to be done just to have a complete standard.

Wishing you and your family peace and good health.

Salam,
Abdalla Alothman