It’s Ramadan and we are all trying to intensify our Quranic recitation, internalise its powerful message, and deepen our connection with it. In this pursuit, I would like to share a short note on a beautiful verse that I believe can serve as a source of inspiration in our Quranic journey.
Continue reading “The Qur’an, with its true recital”7 Mobile Apps that will make your Ramadan (Arabic, English, Yoruba and Turkish)
As Ramadan approaches, Muslims around the world are busy preparing themselves mentally, physically, and financially for the holy month. We pray to Allah to make us witness the month and accept our worship. It is well-known that Ramadan is the month of the Qur’an, as Allah said, “The month of Ramadan, in which the Qur’an was revealed”. For many Muslims, Ramadan marks the beginning of a renewed commitment to the Qur’an, be it through studying, reading, memorisation, or changing their attitude towards it.
To aid you in your journey with the Book of Allah, I have compiled a list of helpful Qur’an-related apps. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced reader, these apps will provide you with valuable resources during Ramadan and beyond.
Continue reading “7 Mobile Apps that will make your Ramadan (Arabic, English, Yoruba and Turkish)”Resources and Games for Qur’an and Arabic learning
This page is designed to be a resource for interested parents, guardians, and teachers looking for tools to assist them in teaching their students Arabic and the Qur’an. I intend for this page to be a repository for various digital aids, and I will be updating it on a regular basis.
Continue reading “Resources and Games for Qur’an and Arabic learning”Kıraathane: The worst semantic change?
One of the worst semantic shifts I have encountered in the Turkish language is in the word Kıraathane.
The word combines the Arabic word for “reading” Qirā’at and the Persian word for “house,” H̱ane, to mean “reading house.”
Historically, a kıraathane has served as a gathering spot for bookworms, casual readers and coffee drinkers alike. Thus, a kıraathane provides reading materials like gazettes, magazines and books to its customers.
But nowadays, when you hear the name ” Kıraathane,” you probably think of a tearoom where young people congregate at night to play board games and where retirees spend the better part of the day.
Trying to concentrate on a book in a Kıraathane today would take a lot of perseverance with all the clattering of game tiles.
Meanwhile, Kahvehane (Coffee house) is another name for Kıraathane, but ironically most customers actually prefer tea to coffee, and some Kahvehane may not even serve coffee at all.
What’s more intriguing is that the Kahve, the Turkish word for “Café,” is the most common name for these spots. The dictionary defines a Kahve as a place where people gather to consume alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, smoke, and play games.
Kahve, çay, ıhlamur, bira, nargile içilen, hafif yiyecekler bulunduran, tavla, domino, bilardo, kâğıt vb. oynanan yer, kahvehane, kıraathane
(TDK)
Even though the dictionary says that Kahve is synonymous with Kıraathane, you won’t find a book in most Kahves.
More than a semantic change🤔
Importance of learning and understanding the acts of worship in Islām
This is a summary of a lecture delivered at the launch of Mallam Musa Abdulhameed Atanda’s book titled “Voluntary Fasting in Islam” on 4TH December 2022 (10th Jumada al-Awwal, 1444) on Zoom.
Continue reading “Importance of learning and understanding the acts of worship in Islām”The male child, as a teenager and youth in the society
An edited transcript of my discussion at Looming Disasters (Unnurtured Males), an online workshop organized by Ogbenese Writes in collaboration with Julaybeeb Initiatives.
I begin in the name of Allah, who created human from one soul and created from it its mate, then dispersed from both men and women. I salute you all present and those that will be reading later. I thank the organizers of this e-workshop for considering the theme to be worthy of discussion and deeming me fit to discuss this session. I pray that we all benefit from it.
I have gone through previous posts and I would like to commend the writers. They have paved the way for me already and I am sure their articles will ease my discussion. Thus, I will not bother to buttress the problems of “unnurtured males” again. Instead, I will focus on the expectations and solutions.
I will be using visual illustrations to discuss. Continue reading “The male child, as a teenager and youth in the society”
Adım Sıddık ama…
Adım Sıddık ama bu benim ne tek adım ne de ilk adım olur. İlk adım İfeoluwa, bundan başka adlarım da var. Bizde isim, kimlik ötesinde bir olgu gibidir. İsim birinin kişiselliğini anlatır. Birinin nasıl bir aileden geldiği, dinleri, bazen memleketleri ve meslekleri isminden anlaşılabilir. Ayrıca birinin doğum zamanında ailesinin durumunu öğrenmek istersen onun ismini bilmen yeterli. Yani bizde isim küçücük bir otobiyografi gibidir. Bir de atalarımız, “Çocuğun ismi hayatını etkiler”[1] der. O yüzden ki orúkọ yani isme çok önem verirler.
Benim adım İfeoluwa, Rab’ımızın sevgisi demek. İsmin anlamı güzel ama bana bu ismi kimin verdiğini tam olarak bilmiyorum. Çünkü bizde isimler bağışlanıyormuş gibidir. Anne “bu isim güzel” diyor. Baba “bu isim de fena değil” diyorken anneanne bu ismi seçsenize diyor. Hepsi de kabul edilebiliyor. Continue reading “Adım Sıddık ama…”
Class speaks :What Ramadan means to me
We don’t want to be left behind in the joy and excitement that comes with Ramadan!
Last week, I asked my students to share their thoughts on this month of mercy and blessings. My students? Yes, my ESL students who are beginners in English language. I started teaching them some months ago, at a weekend English Language lesson organized by the Kayseri International Students’ Organization.
So far, these youngsters have done so well. They are learning with dedication and perseverance that comes with learning a new language. I am proud and excited to share these short essays written as answers to “write a composition about the month of Ramadan”. Continue reading “Class speaks :What Ramadan means to me”
Press club in my secondary school (Nostalgia)
From the views generated by my previous article, I discovered many people (I guess teachers) are curious about secondary school press club. Thus, they search this online daily. Consequently, I decided to share a more beneficial post on this.
11 years ago, I joined my secondary school press club. That was a decision that would influence me a lot. We were just like any other high school students, but as a teacher now, I agree we did awesome things.
Basically, our activities were student-centred, and some of those beautiful activities includes:
- Weekly news report:
These were some paragraphs from notable newspapers read in front of the assembly by two students on a chosen day of a week, then it used to be Wednesdays. My school was a boarding school, and mobile phones were contraband. But thanks to the press, the students were as updated as any other citizen. We would make orders for newspaper every week, extract basic and relevant items to draft our “national news”. Then, the “local news” were reports of news worthy activities and policies in school. We would start with “Headlines for this week are….”.
- Press board (wall-gazette)
This was a glass covered board on which we attached news materials and interesting short articles. Continue reading “Press club in my secondary school (Nostalgia)”
Yorkish episode 4: Interlingua Homonyms in Turkish and Yoruba language
Basically, homonyms are words which have the same spelling or pronunciation, but have different meanings. For example, the word “lie” in English language could mean “untruth” as well as “recline”. In the case of Interlingua homonyms, one of the most interesting I have come across is the word “kafa” which means “head” in Turkish and “leg” in Hausa language.
In this episode, I will like to share with you certain words that appear in both Turkish and Yoruba language. We may call them homonyms but interestingly some of them coincidentally have similar meanings. I wish you a good read! Continue reading “Yorkish episode 4: Interlingua Homonyms in Turkish and Yoruba language”
Ifeoluwa Siddiq Oyelami 