Dr. Pasha's Arabic Language and Cultural Immersion Sessions -- Lesson 28
Explaining the Assignment Process:
How My Assignments Work
All Assignments require total Participant Commitment and Involvement.
All Assignments require that you report back to me correctly and truthfully on your Performance and Progress as soon as you are able, and continually thereafter.
I am not working to perform a duty, or chore, I am doing whatever I do to get results. I want to and need to see results, which will only happen when you report to me on a regular basis.
That is the only Feedback I ever require or expect from anyone in any of my sessions.
Don't forget that this is a question of basic Integrity and Character -- Sadaaqat and Amaanat.
And that is a Character Trait or Condition that must exist in people before they expect to ascend to the ranks of Islam.
If people will not talk to me frankly, truthfully and honestly, I do not want them within 100 miles of anything I do. Because then they are just making a fool of me and I am not sure I like that very much.
But if they are having trouble with the Assignments, or have not had the time to do them, I understand that. And I will inshallah do all I can to help them.
Till I realize that some of these folks are habitual or chronic slackers, in which case I will have to refocus my attention and energies elsewhere.
Do understand that my Assignments, generally speaking, are not Data Mining sessions. So cannot do them by hitting the Computer in a reflexive manner and collect blindly whatever information and data the Computer feeds you.
It is important that you first read the Assignment -- Every Assignment -- letter by letter, word by word. Then do the Assignment step by step.
The Idea is, first of all, to get your Eyes used to Arabic Letters and Words. And, then, after that, to get those Letters and Words firmly set and planted in your mind.
And all this Visually, which will only happen through your constant Eyeballing those Letters and Words.
If initial reaction is a "Blank," and a bit of Panic, that is be expected.
Just dive and let that wave wash over you -- for Ocean Swimmers among you. You will be amazed how, soon enough, those very same Letters and Words begin to leap at you, without even giving you prior notice.
That is a bit of Learning Theory for you.
Because the people who are in my sessions are primarily, if not entirely, English Speaking people. Their Mother Tongue is English. They have been born and brought up in the West and, in most cases, the only language they know is English. Unless they have taken a second language at school such as French, Spanish or Chinese or Korean.
These Assignments, therefore, are a Drill and an Exercise for you to Train Your Eyes -- and your Mind -- into an entirely Different Language Pattern -- the Arabic Language.
Meaning, getting you to stare at Arabic Words and thus slowly Training Your Eyes -- and Brain Cells -- to pick them up Faster and Faster as you go along -- over time.
That is why it is critical you do not, under any condition, use Transliteration.
Use Translations of Aayaat as you need them. Use Multiple Translations if you can. But be keenly aware that Translations are just Translations and they are not the Qur'an.
Personally, I consider Color Coding of the Script of the Qur'an for ease of reading, and for commercial purposes, a form of Interpolation -- Tahreef -- in the Qur'an and, therefore, Haraam at some level.
In my view, Reading Transliterations in lieu of reading Qur'an in Arabic Script is also Haram, because there is no earthly way for anyone to render the Divine Words of the Qur'an, which are in Arabic, in Transliteration form in any other language of the world.
It will come out wrong -- every time.
As a result, every time you read Transliteration, you are almost certain to make an error and say the Divine Words of the Qur'an wrong, and thus, distort the meaning and, thereby, invoke Divine Wrath upon yourself -- and upon the world.
END
