For the student
Resources
المصادر
What the student takes away with him: the handouts of this site set out to be printed, and the texts he is told to read — named, described, and graded by where they sit on the road.
Handouts
Each of these is this site's own material, printed to paper: nothing is linked here that was not written here, and nothing is offered that does not download.
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The Study Path
The four stages, and the texts taken at each one, in the order the scholars taught them — from the Madinah books to the Alfiyya. The printed form of the study path on this site.
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Glossary of Terms
Every term in the glossary — the Arabic, the transliteration, the English rendering, the definition and one worked example — set out to be printed and kept beside the text.
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Encyclopedia A–Z Index
Every published entry filed by its initial letter, in both scripts — the index of the encyclopedia as it stands, for the student who works from a printed list.
There are no audio downloads here: the recorded lessons are published to the Shaykh’s channel, and they are catalogued and played on Lectures.
The reading list
The texts of the Arabic sciences in the order they are taken — the primer before the commentary, and the commentary before the Alfiyya. Each is described for what it is and for how it is read; a text is not a book to be bought and shelved.
FoundationNo Arabic assumed. The alphabet is assumed; nothing else is.
- دروس اللغة العربية لغير الناطقين بهاDurūs al-Lugha al-ʿArabiyya li-Ghayr al-Nāṭiqīn bihāLessons in Arabic (the “Madinah Books”)
Where a non-Arab begins, and the reason he begins there: the grammar is never stated as a rule to memorise but built up out of sentences the student can already read. Three volumes. Take it with a teacher, and do the exercises — they are the course, not an appendix to it.
- المقدمة الآجُرُّوميةal-Muqaddima al-ĀjurrūmiyyaThe Ajurrumiyyah
The first matn of Nahw, and the shortest: a few pages that name every chapter the science has. It is meant to be memorised, and it repays it — every later text is read as a commentary on what this one lists.
- التحفة السَّنِيَّة بشرح المقدمة الآجروميةal-Tuḥfa al-Saniyya bi-Sharḥ al-Muqaddima al-ĀjurrūmiyyaThe Tuhfa al-Saniyya — commentary on the Ajurrumiyyah
The commentary the Ājurrūmiyya is normally read with: it fills out each ḥadd with examples and drills the iʿrāb line by line. Read it alongside the matn, not instead of it.
- الأمثلة التصريفيةal-Amthila al-TaṣrīfiyyaThe Conjugation Tables
The patterns of the verb, tabulated: the thirty-five forms drilled until they come without thinking. It is not read so much as recited — a text for the tongue before it is a text for the mind.
- النحو الواضحal-Naḥw al-WāḍiḥClear Grammar
A modern school text, and openly so. It is included because it does one thing the classical primers do not: it gives the student enough exercises to make the rule stick. Use it as a drill book beside the matn.
IntermediateFor the student who has finished a primer and can parse a simple sentence.
- قطر الندى وبَلّ الصدىQaṭr al-Nadā wa-Ball al-ṢadāQatr al-Nada
The step up from the Ājurrūmiyya, and where Nahw stops being a list of names: the chapters are argued, the exceptions are stated, and the author's own commentary on it is part of the text. Do not open it before the first matn is memorised.
- شذا العَرْف في فنّ الصرفShadhā al-ʿArf fī Fann al-ṢarfShadha al-Arf — the art of Sarf
The standard text of Ṣarf after the tables: the mīzān, the sound and the weak verb, iʿlāl and ibdāl, each rule with the reason behind it. Taken in the same term as the Ājurrūmiyya, not after it.
- البلاغة الواضحةal-Balāgha al-WāḍiḥaClear Rhetoric
The way into Balagha: maʿānī, bayān and badīʿ, each one taught from a line of poetry the student is made to feel before he is made to name. Balagha is taken last of the three sciences, and this is where it starts.
AdvancedThe long texts, read with their commentaries: the Alfiyya and the sciences of eloquence.
- ألفية ابن مالكAlfiyyat Ibn MālikThe Alfiyya of Ibn Malik
A thousand lines of rajaz that hold the whole of Nahw and much of Ṣarf. The end of the road, and a year of it at the least: it is memorised, and then it is unpacked with a commentary — nobody reads the Alfiyya alone.
- شرح ابن عَقِيل على ألفية ابن مالكSharḥ Ibn ʿAqīl ʿalā Alfiyyat Ibn MālikIbn Aqil’s commentary on the Alfiyya
The commentary the Alfiyya is read with in nearly every ḥalaqa: it takes the line, states what it means, and then parses the shāhid that proves it. This is where a student learns to read a shāhid rather than take it on trust.
- أوضح المسالك إلى ألفية ابن مالكAwḍaḥ al-Masālik ilā Alfiyyat Ibn MālikAwdah al-Masalik
Ibn Hishām reading the Alfiyya: less a commentary than a re-arrangement of Nahw around it, in his own plain and merciless order. Read after Ibn ʿAqīl, or alongside him where a chapter resists.
- مغني اللبيب عن كتب الأعاريبMughnī al-Labīb ʿan Kutub al-AʿārībMughni al-Labib
Not a primer and not read cover to cover: the reference a grammarian keeps open — the particles, one by one, and the hard cases of iʿrāb that nothing else settles. Consulted for the rest of a student's life.
- جواهر البلاغةJawāhir al-BalāghaJawahir al-Balagha
Balagha at its full extent: the three sciences set out with the definitions of al-Sakkākī and al-Qazwīnī behind them, and enough shawāhid to argue from. Taken once al-Balāgha al-Wāḍiḥa is finished.
The order these texts are taken in is not a matter of taste. It is set out in full on See the study path.