" Don't confuse fame with success. Tamer Hosny is one; Al Waleed Talal is the other ".

Arabic Language by Hafiz Ibrahim

December 22, 2009

This poem is written by Hafiz Ibrahim titled (اللغة العربية تنعي حظها بين أهلها) which focuses on Arabic Language. He was born in 1872 and known as one of the most popular poets from Egypt with the title "Sya'ier Al-Neel" (شاعر النيل‎), means the Poet of the Nile. He also was one of several poets that revived Arabic poetry during the latter half of the 19th Century. His late father was from Egypt and his late mother from Turkey. His father, Ibrahim Fahmi died while he was four. He was then adopted by his uncle. While he was young, he had strong passion for learning and studying and believed that his destiny was to become a great poet someday. Unfortunately he couldn’t finish his study when he was in High School for some reason.

His strong passions had guided him to continue exploring a light of knowledge. He spend most of his young time studying at Ahmadi Mosque in Tanta, Egypt. He studied a lot to gain his knowledge, especially in field of Fiqh Lughah, Syariah and Arabic. His passion more into Arabic since he loved to memorise and write poems. Most of the Syeikhs there were impressed with his efforts.

In the 20th century, there were some of Arab poets asked for a new evolution in education and writing system. They wanted to change the writing format from Arabic Fosha to Arabic Amiya (Colloquial Arabic). They wanted to use Arabic Amiya widely in their life as a new education system development. Some of the pure poets like Hafiz made a protest of that new system. They were worried that it would destroy the beauty of Quranic language. He wrote a poem ( القصيدة ‎) to object others who did dispute the credibility of Arabic Fosha. He died when he was 60 years in 1911 without having any marriage. This poem is perhaps the most famous and widely read of his works. His literary influence, however, derives largely from his numerous innovations of writing poems on political and social commentary.

( اللغة العربيه تنعي حظها بين أهلها )
رجعت لنـفسي فاتهمت حصاتي # ونـاديت قـومي فاتسـبـت حيــــاتي
رموني بعـقم في الشباب وليتنـي # عقمت فلـم أجـزع لـقول عــداتي
ولدت ولمـا لم أجــد لعـرائســي # رجـالا وأكـفــاء وأدت بـنــــاتــي
وسعت كتـاب الله لفظا و غايـة # وما ضقت عـن آي به وعـظـات
فكيف أضيق اليـوم عـن وصف # ألة وتنسيق أسـمـاء لمـختـرعــات
أنا البحر في أحشائه الدر كامن # فهل سالوا الغواص عن صـدفاتي

Author : حافظ إبراهيم
Title : اللغة العربية
Reference Book : نصوص مختارة من الادب الحديث

1st Verse :
I remember back what had happen to me in the time, when everyone was increasingly neglected and leaved me away. They doubted myself and consider me as useless in their life. I urged my community to comeback and activate me. But unfortunately, they ignored me. I pray Allah to save me.

The author tries to describe how Arabic Language feels when Arab Community has been fading it away by using Arabic Colloquial in their life. Day after day, Arabic language become useless, static and undeveloped. So “I” there refers to "Arabic Language". The author narratives and characterizes Arabic as a human who could talk and expressing his feelings with words, to make the readers understand deeply and clearly the desired meaning . “My community” ( قـومي ) refers to Arab world.

2nd Verse : My enemies accused me that I was unproductive and "infertility" or “sterile” ( عـقم ) due to my lack of producing new words, aphorisms, proverbs and language styles ( أساليب اللغة ). They hoped I always be static and backward among others. Nevertheless I wasn’t sad and frustrated or even effected with their accusations because I knew who I was and I knew it wasn’t true.

“The Enemies” there refers to other language that was developing on that time and the word “sterile” ( عـقم ) is used to illustrate the circumstance where Arabic failed to develop itself. Actually, Arabic already had a ton of words power and beautiful proverbs. It became unproductive on that time because the lack of using, not because of “sterile” as what other languages claimed. If Arabic hadn’t had words power and beautiful proverbs, it would have been suitable enough to be labelled as sterile language.

3rd Verse : I’m not sterile language since I had a lot of words power and beautiful proverbs. I created them with great partners (synonym & antonym), with heart (semantics & pragmatics) , with soul (phonology), but unfortunately they were sinking and buried because there was nobody or even qualified people stayed behind and saved me.

“Nobody” refers to Arab people who have ignored to use it in their life and “qualified people” refer to everyone who in Arabic field especially Scholars, Teachers, Poets and Writers that have been writing most of their writing in Colloquial Arabic.

4th Verse : Al Quran is proof of my existence. I’m proud my self takes part in Al Quran. I express the words widely in Al Quran with the desired meaning. I’m bold enough to elaborate and describe each of the sentences in the Al Quran.

5th Verse : Thus, I asked them back. Am I strong and independent enough to help my community for identifying new things nowadays?

6th Verse : I am such an ocean which has a lot of diamonds come from the center of the earth. Just like my circumstance, I have a lots of undiscovered words and vocabulary in my body. Do they ask the right people to explore them?

Arabic is a strong and unique language, there are a lots of words power and linguistics structure that undiscovered yet. Only who are acknowledge will get the shines of Arabic language by exploring and asking to the right people and right resources - Arab scholars.

A Collaboration with : Muhammad Hosnee Bin Zainal Abidin

Be a realist

December 18, 2009

I used to be an idealist person, wishing things were different, wishing bad things had never happen and wishing I lived in my own world where everything always turns out right. After all, I had woken up from dreaming. I realized that I shouldn’t wait for everything to be perfect before I start taking action by my own self. It’s pretty hard to know who is gonna be with you while you have a hard time, even your “best friends” also might run away. So face it, stand still and deal with that circumstance by your own self. No one will help you. Yes, maybe there are a few friends, who are loyal with you, do all the things together but for how long? They also have their own life right?

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Are you still dreaming?

Be a realist. There is no success without hardship. It's simply a matter of doing what you do best and not worrying about what your friends are going to do. If you fail, just resolve to do better, then move on, forgetting the past. View every failure as a step on the way to ultimate success. It doesn’t mean that you have to ditch your friends in your life. Everybody needs friends, everyone has their own best friends and I have mine too. I'm really thankful to have such great friends like them. But what I’m saying is you have just to be a realist, there is no one will always help you. It’s time to stand on your own foot .

Just remember, there are always some people out there who are jealous with your success. As long as you are in your element, ditch those people! lol. Good luck friends. May Allah grant you the blessing of success in your studies:)

Colloquial Arabic - Verb To Have

November 28, 2009

The equivalent of the English verb "To have" is expressed by using the word "Andi". The pattern for them is demonstrated in the following examples by changing the appropriate possessive pronoun (notice the letters written in Red):

1) Positive Statement

عند
Have (Root Verb)
I (أنا)
عندي
Andi
I have
We (احنا)
عندناAndina
We have
You - Masc (إنت)
عندك
Andak
You have
You - Fem (إنتي)
عندك
Andik
You have
You - Plural (انتو)
عندكوAndaku
You have
He (هو)
عندهAnduhu
(Silent "Hu" sound)
He has
She (هي)
عندها Andaha
She has
They (هم)
عندهم
Andahum
They have

2) Negative statement by putting "Ma" at the beginning + verb "To have" with appropriate pronoun + "Sh" at the end. Let see the pattern bellow :

عند
Have (Root Verb)
I (أنا)
ماعنديش
Ma Andish
I haven't
We (احنا)
ماعندناشMa Andinash
We haven't
You - M (إنت)
ماعندكشMa Andaksh
You haven't
You - F (إنتي)
ماعندكشMa Andiksh
You haven't
You - P (انتو)
ماعندكوشMa Andakush
You haven't
He (هو)
ماعندوشMa Andush
He han't
She (هي)
ماعندهاش Ma Andahash
She hasn't
They (هم)
ماعندهمشMa Andahumsh
They haven't


Examples:
1) Andak ashab?
Do you have friends? - عندك اصحاب


2) Ana andi meshkela
I have a problem - انا عندي مشكله

3) Lau andaku sur hatuha hina
If you guys have photos, bring them here - لو عندكو صور حطوها هنا

4) Indak ayyi sual?
Do you have any questions? - عندك اي سؤال

Russell's The Real Player on Survivor Samoa

November 23, 2009

I love survivor series especially this latest season, Survivor Samoa. Of course my favourite cast is Russell Hantz from Texas. Seriously folks, I think he is the only one who really knows how to play the game, period!...yeah, although being still rather evil and sneaky. You can’t believe that someone actually has the brain power to find an idol without any clues??? He was 100% right when he logically stated that it has to be hidden next to, beside, with, inside, on top of something. Can you imagine that? I believed that Russell was just that good.

But since he has found the immunity idol for the 3rd time, I was thinking maybe Russell was tipped off by someone on the crew because the idol has often been buried in the sand and the only way to find it was to dig all day or actually follow the clue, not as easy as the way Russell has used. Perhaps, the idea that it ‘has to be hidden by something’ is absurd. Somehow I just read what Jeff Probst (Survivor Host) said on his blog :

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Of course the idol has to be somewhere that is somewhat easy to find, because we want it to found. If we hid it in the middle of nowhere people wouldn’t find it even with 20 clues. We just have never had anybody take the initiative to start looking without the clue. It’s really quite brilliant. Like it or not, the pirate with the missing tooth continues to reinvent the game.
by Jeff Probst
Yeah, it does make sense. They don’t want it to be too hard because they want the idol to be in play, that’s when it’s actually interesting and mixes the game up. Last two episodes have been two of the best ever….total blindside two weeks in a row, gotta give Russel credit this week, and Natalie last week. Glad Russell is still there, or else it would be dead boring and predictable lol.

The Colloquial Arabic Present Tense

November 22, 2009

In this lesson, we are going to learn about verbs, the present tense particularly. Verbs in Arabic Amiya have tree different forms only. These are Present, Past and Imperative. A typical practice is to memorize the three forms of each verb.

1) Simple Present Tense
Now we will focus on the present form/tense. Like in French and many other languages, the verb changes according to the subject and it's different to compare with English and Bahasa Malaysia. The pattern most verbs follow in the present tense is demonstrated in the following examples (notice the letters written in Red):

لعب
Play (Root Verb)
I (أنا)
ألعب
Il'ab
I Play
We (احنا)
نلعب
Nil'ab
We Play
You - Masc (إنت)
تلعب
Ti'ab
You Play
You - Fem (إنتي)
تلعبي
Til'abiy
You Play
You - Plural (انتو)
تلعبوا
Til'abu
You Play
He (هو)
يلعب
Yil'ab
He Plays
She (هي)
تلعب
Til'ab
She Plays
They (هم)
يلعبوا
Yil'abu
They Play


How do we use the Simple Present Tense?
A) the action happens all the time, or habitually in the past, present and future or the statement is always true.
-Ana akol bil lail (I eat at night) - اناأكل بلليل

B) General questions
- Tishrab eih? (What do you want to drink?) - تشرب إيه

C) Giving directions or making suggestions
- Timsyi min hena - (You could walk from here) - تمشي من هنا


2) Present Continuous Tense
Turn "Simple Present" to "Present Continuous" by putting "Ba" before present verb.

Ba + Present Verb
ب + نلعب

How do we use the Present Continous Tense?

A) For action happening exactly now
-Ana basrab al-qahwah (I'm drinking coffee) - أنا باشرب القهوة

B) Questions for current action
- Enta bi-ta'mil eih? (What are you doing right now?) - إنت بتعمل إيه

Common Phrases of Colloquial Arabic

November 21, 2009

Seeing I have been staying and living in Egypt for years, I ought to speak Arabic Amiya when I have something to deal with Egyptian. Well, at the first time I came here in 2008, I couldn’t even to understand this kinda language, let alone to use it although I already have a basic knowledge about Arabic as I have been studying in Arabic faculty in Malaysia and quite familiar with Arabic-grammar structure (Nahu) but frankly speaking, I didn’t know that they don’t use Arabic Fosha in their daily communication.


Shops are also the language school for foreign people

I felt so lost when I had conversation with Egyptian and sometimes I got dumped with someone due to my lack of knowledge about this language. Just for one time in my life, I felt like I was a baby who tried so hard to explain to his father about his feeling while his father didn’t even understand the sign.lol

Well, time goes by so fast and I have learned lots about Amiya. So here are the some useful words that I am gonna share with you guys, good luck and haz sa3d.

Allah Yusamhak - May Allah forgive you
Use this phrase to someone who does disrespect you for no reason. Surprisingly, they will close their mouth just a second.(perhaps)

An Iznak (M), An Iznik (F) /3diy - With your permission
Be polite, never show your bad attitude to someone when you excuse yourself before leaving. Treat others the way you want to be treated back, don't you think?

Wahashti niy (M), Wahashtiy niy (F) - I miss you (you've made me miss you)
If you had been apart for a while with your friends and at the some time you met them back, It's nice to say this phrase to mention you miss them. It has been used widely for friendship and also for your special one, indeed. lol

Aha / Khara - Shit
In Egypt, we consider it as a bad word for using but frankly speaking, it's commonly used by Egyptian when get angry or something.

Min fadhlak / Lau Samath - Excuse me, pardon me.
These phrases are used as an apology for interrupting a conversation, bumping into someone, asking a speaker to repeat something, politely disagreeing with something said.

Rouh Fiy Sittin Dahiyah - Go to hell
Although it sounds rather devil than it should, it's widely used for joking among Egyptian. For instance, when someone asks you - "where are you going?", and you can simply answer to them, "Ana rouh fiy sittin dahiyah". *chuckle*

Yanhar Aswad - Slang - Damn it! (What a dark day!)
Like the word "Aha", this phrase is often used to add emphasis more than to add meaning, for example," Yanhar Aswad!, ana naset ana 3ndiy shoghol ennharda ", meaning : Dam it! I totally forgot I have work to do today.

Yanhar Abyad - Exclamation - Whoa (What a lovely day)
Same like above but with different meaning and using. For instance, " Ana gebtu thalabat tawzif min England enharda....yanhar abyad! ", meaning : I got a job application offer from England today..whoa!

Looking forward

February 24, 2009

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Everyone talks about the "Slumdog Film", it makes me more excited to watch this movie, have you watched it? This movie got high rating from all around the world, and latest this movie won 8 awards on Oscar.

Considering the fact that over 250 million in India still live below poverty line, the film also gives a shots of urban Indian slum life, which is especially appealing to western audiences. Made with a budget of just $15 million, not even half of Bollywood blockbusters, SlumD, succeeds in strongly conveying its message.
Slumdog Millionaire, which had its East Coast Premiere at the 2008 Hamptons International Film Festival, captured the Best Picture Oscar at last night’s Academy Awards ceremony. In addition to the top prize, the film garnered a total of 8 trophies, including Best Director (Danny Boyle), Best Cinematography (Anthony Dod Mantle), Best Screenplay (Simon Beaufoy), and Best Song (”Jai Ho”).