About Recitation with Correct pronunciation

for those who think reading Quran with the arabic pronunciation is mandatory.

It  isn't utterly about  the way that you pronounce

whether your words sound flat or whether they bounce

Reading arabic like Arabs isn't everyone's game

So don't be embarrassed since it isnt the aim

Here's the thing about it mate, just let me explain

it's not 'how do you read' but rather 'how do you gain'

Amount of stuff you apprehend, that's all what counts

whether you read it plain or fancy, doesn't matter an ounce

under the sermon of 1st august 2015

contact me via twitter: @reehadeeasfa

A CHATTER-BOT PHILOSOPHY

“can computers think?

The answer to this very question depends on how you interpret it, and to me answer to this question explains what type of thinker are you fundamentally.
A superficial one
Or One with practical approach


Pretty philosophical right?
Objective:
Building an intelligent chatterbot.

How it Works:
First looking at how it works fundamentally …
Chatterbot is something that is able to “Chat” to you endlessly without getting bored. Obviously computers tend to be the only thing with the ‘never getting bored EVER!’ capability. So we got to build a computer program for that. And here I’m going to put forward my thought on building one with code examples in python.
Basically the application works as:
Bot says something.
User replies to it
Bot answers that
User replies
Repeat!
Using basic statements we can build a structure for that.
print "question?"
answer = raw_input()

Above stated code just prints a string that is actually a question in a natural language , in this case English (natural languages are languages that humans speak, languages we built for computers are formal languages e.g PHP ,C++ or python itself!) and takes an input from the user through raw_input() and stores it in a variable ‘answer’.
But that’s very short piece of conversation and our bot doesn’t answer so let’s try make it an answering one

print "question?"
answer = raw_input()
print "comment on answer"

fair enough!
Similar structure but it should answer based on user’s input. That’d make it a better bot right?  So choice making in it would require if , elif , else conditionals in the code.
And some “or”s or many “or”s though.
Here it’d look something like this


print "question?"
answer = raw_input()
if answer == " this ":
    print " this stuff"
elif answer == "this second possibility of stuff that user might enter":
    print "bot's second answer"
elif answer == "this thing" or answer == "this thong maybe":
    print "bot's answer any of both statements"
else:
    print "bot too smart to understand ur dumb crap loool"


you get the basic idea for it that is , asking for user’s input and making intelligent choices from the answers that the programmer already put into the programmed database thus making the bot seem Intelligent and that it “thinks”
In order to build an intelligent bot we need to think like a bot.
Such as consider yourself a chatter bot and you have to chat to a person who speaks Chinese, you don’t recognize Chinese alphabet or anything but you’re given a set of words\sentences\ questions written in Chinese and some possible responses to them.
Every time a user enters something all you (as a chatterbot) do is to match his words from the stuff that you’re given and respond in the way it is directed to you
And that’s pretty much it!
And in order to make you a better chatterbot your programmer needs to provide you with more and more Question\statement possibilities that user might enter and obviously answers to those as well.
Conclusion that’s derived here is


“MORE THE DATABASE BETTER THE BOT”
(Betterment here also refers to the extent to which it resembles a human  i.e. giving right answers and keeping up with the subject as a human would )
Here im gonna elaborate what I mean by “MORE THE DATABASE BETTER THE BOT”
To make the bot fundamentally better we need to look at a small chunk of (possible) conversation between bot and human and improve it by thinking of questions which can be thrown at a bot (who doesn’t recognize alphabet but the notion of strings) by the user (who is FAAR more intelligent than the bot and has great understanding of that specified natural language ).
And there are numerous possible ways the user can enter the easiest question\comment with words that are different yet equivalent in meanings .
Lets take a super simple chat chunk where bot asks user’s name , user replies and bot makes a comment based on user’s input .
Possibilities for the user input are endless

Bot:stare your name!

possibility 1: AARON ( user just enters his name)
possibility 2 : my name is aaron ( user enters name along with some other words, bot needs to recognise which one of them is the user's name)
possibility 3: What's your name? (user instead asks the bot something)
 possibility 4 : Why so curious? (user hold up an argument like a human would)

so on so forth..


.My target here is not to actually state ALL the possibilities but to give you the idea that what can happen.
Actually if you think about it , it is what you yourself do as well while tackling some input (question asked by someone etc) but you are very used to it that you don’t realize you do it while you do it.
You don’t realize that your brain has those endless patterns for statements and questions and enormous amount of vocabulary as well .that is actually the “DATABASE” you have , but think about how well you will perform in the scenario of you chatting to someone Chinese.youll definitely not do so well .But you can do well on that if you’re give these two things
Endless amount of data base
Super fast speed to match the patterns.

Computers have that !!!
But the most fascinating thing here is  our brains have them both even if we don’t realize it.also to consider the fact that natural languages have taken eons and eons of time to evolve into the way they are right now and they are still evolving i.e. database is still adding . human level provided the speed and database . Which requires a lot of time to add in the directory of the program.
Thus in conclusion , in my opinion Yes it is possible for a computer program (chatterbot) to reach


[p.s I know better scripting is possible by the use of lists and word search thingys  and loops and everything maybe using AIML but my target is about the theoretical thinking related to making a chatterbot not actually writing the formulas here thanks !]

One minute definition of Science

A little rant about what science really is.I mean whats the definition of science.
I'd like to state a beautiful definition of science or scientific method that come from a very famous physicist called Richard Feynman.
well I recommend you read his books.He was a brilliant teacher , brilliant lecturer and a nobel prize winning Physicist, and he gave this lecture, I think it was v=back in the 1960s.Just a one minute definition of what scientific method is.

so we'll look into how we come up with a law? well first we guess it! (yes laughing is okay!)then we compute the consequences of the guess, see what would it imply.Then we compare results with the experiment.Comparing directly with observation to see if it works.

if it disagrees with the Experiment its WRONG!

it doesnt make any difference how beautiful your guess is ,It doesnt make any difference how smart you are who made the guess or what your name is. If it disagrees with the experiment WRONG! .Thats all it is to it.

(Richard Feynman)

now thats a beautiful definition of what science is, It really is the application of common sense.

what it is, is looking at the universe , looking at nature, guessing about how it works , what consequences of that guess are then testing it against the nature and thats the beauty of science , it doesnt matter who you are , there's no such thing as 'authority' in science.

If your guess disagrees with the nature its wrong.

contact me via twitter at @reehadeeasfa

:)

ISLAM AND PEACE

(A little essay, references in the end)

ISLAM AND PEACE

Whenever one wishes to speak about Islam as a religion of peace, the question

naturally springs to mind that whereas there are so many religions in the world such

as Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc., when it comes to finding out

whether Islam is a religion of peace, why should Islam be the odd one out? 

One reason for this is that a few years after the beginning of Islam, anti-Islamic

powers began a propaganda that Islam is a religion of extremism and violence and

wants to compel others into belief by means of the sword. This, of course, is

incorrect. In the beginning, the Muslims of Makkah suffered persecution but they

remained silent. Finally, they migrated to Madinah but there too the disbelievers

hounded the Muslims and forced upon them a battle to which I will revert later. The

proof against those opponents who allege that Islam was spread by the sword is that

although the disbelievers of Makkah raised all sorts of objections, yet history stands

witness to the fact that the people of Makkah themselves never complained that the

Muslims had used the sword against the disbelievers to compel them to change their

faith.

Secondly, what has given Islam a bad name is an ugly and awful image of extremism

presented, whether knowingly or unwittingly, by some Muslim groups and o rganisations, and these groups unfortunately had

personal vested interests. 

In order to see a religion’s beauties or its defects, justice

requires that you should make its teachings or its holy

scripture the anvil by which to judge it, otherwise

everyone would accuse every other faith willy-nilly. For

instance, the teaching of Christianity, according to the Holy Bible is,

‘But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone

strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other

also.’

(Matthew: 5:39) 

But, in Bosnia or Iraq or other countries, America and the
other Western powers, resorted or are resorting to
aggression. If, however, we say that the Christian teaching
is that if anyone raises his head against you, you should use
all your might to trample it to death, this would be a grave
injustice. In the same way, to find out the true teachings of
Islam, we would have to study the Holy Qur’an and see
what it says and not base it on the actions of some Muslims
who have forgotten the teachings of the Holy Qur’ a n


 let us first see what the Holy Qur’an commands
us to do in order to establish peace. God Almighty says in
the Holy Qur’ a n ,
 

Whosoever killed a person – unless it be for killing a

person or for creating disorder in the land – it shall be

as if he had killed all mankind.

(Al Maidah, Ch.5: v. 33)

Explaining this verse,
     ‘ A person who kills a person unfairly or who kills
someone who had neither rebelled, nor became a source
of violating peace amongst the people nor created
disorder in the land, it is as if he has killed the whole of
mankind. In other words to kill a person without any
cause is, according to God A l m i g h t y, like the murder of
the entire human race. It is obvious from this verse, how
big a sin it is to take the life of another person without
reason. ,
(Lecture Chashma-e-Ma’rifat pp 23-24)

Thus, this is the beautiful teaching of Islam that the
unlawful killing or the shedding of innocent blood of
someone is like the killing of the entire human race, that
is to say, the taking of a single life is like the massacre of
thousands of innocent lives. Now, everyone can very well
imagine what kind of sentence would be passed on
someone who is found guilty of the taking of thousands of
innocent lives. So this is the beautiful teaching given to us
by God Almighty in the Holy Qur’an. Whosoever acts

against this, acts against the teachings of Islam

 I shall briefly explain some of the countless examples of
kindness we find in the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad(sa)
and how concerned he was about the condition of his people.

If someone is kind to some person and wants to see his or her
betterment, then the person will try his best to do something for
him or her. The Holy Prophet( s a ) was so kind and anxious for his
people and prayed for them even though they believed in so many
gods that it is beyond our imagination. God Almighty has
promised that He would most surely punish those who associate
others with God. Now, this thought that God Almighty would
never forgive one who associates partners with God, used to make
the Holy Prophet( s a ) restless so much so that he would bow down
repeatedly in prayers. He had a burning passion in his heart for the
reformation of his people that he had become weary with worry
for his people. Finally, God Almighty had to tell him not to grieve
himself to death for sorrow after them (Ch.18:v.7) and that his
mission was only to give them the message. We can judge his
prayers from the following Tradition.

The Holy Prophet(sa) prayed for his enemies:

'O Allah! Guide my people because they know not (do not

know the truth)'

So this was the anxiety in him for kindness and for humanity. He

never said that he was going to compel them into belief by use

of the sword but in fact refrained from any malediction or

uttering any curse that an evil befalls his enemy.

‘The pagans of Makkah exiled the Holy Prophet(sa) from Makkah and gave him no respite in Madinah but whenever he met them, the Holy Prophet( s a ) dealt with gracious kindness towards them. After the migration of the Holy Prophet(sa) to Madinah, the people of Makkah had to suffer a severe drought so much so that they had to live on dead meat and bones. Then in utter helplessness, Abu Sufyan, the leader of the Makkans, had to approach the Holy Prophet Muhammad(sa) and said: “O Muhammad! You command treating one’s own relatives well. Your people are dying. Pray to your God in our favour (that this famine passes away) and it begins to rain lest your people perish.” To bring Abu Sufyan down to earth, the Holy Prophet(sa) remarked that you are very brave and courageous that despite the transgression by the Makkans, you demand a prayer on their behalf. But the Holy Prophet(sa) did not refuse to pray because he was mercy personified and he could have never wished that his people should perish. Then the people observed that his hands went up in prayers immediately and the Holy Prophet’s prayers for an end to the famine and the heavens to open up was duly accepted. It rained so much that the days of ease and abundance returned for the Quraish of Makkah. But, at the same time, their denial and opposition grew rapidly.’ (Bukhari: Kitabul Tafseer Sura Al-Rum lidukhan)

Now after this who can say that he gave a teaching of extremism

and terrorism and after this anyone says that Islam is not a religion of peace, it would be a grave injustice.

ref:Lecture By Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad atba at  UNIVERSITE D’ABOMEY- CALAVI COTONOU, BENIN,

Poetry? my thing?

I had always been told poetry was a gifted talent.One could'nt just learn to do it.
Earlier this month while tuning to National ijtema UK & USA I stumbled upon a heart touching piece of poetry.
One of the lines were about 'creating new ground and new sky' , A thing from the promised Messiah's  (A.S) writings quoted in the latest friday sermon aired from germany.It immediately became my favourite nazm of the month.No time passed without me humming it under my breath.A couple of days later I saw one of my followers tweet the lyrics to it.That's when I found out who actually wrote that poem.It surprised me it was not only from a waqf-e-nau but he was younger than I had anticipated.(if you wonder which one it goes as 'safeer e mohabbat hey rahbar hamara- Khalifa hamara Khalifa hamara' written by Mr Ata-Ul-Haye Nasir)
that brought so much motivation to me, to myself give it a try .
Next friday Hudhur gave an analogy of pebbles Prophet (p.b.u.h) threw in the battle of Badr in the direction of the disbelievers which were accompanied by fierce wind from God , which blinded them.I immediately knew what I wanted to write
I knew It was my first time so I made Dua for it in Isha and started writing.
here I present thee what I finally managed to write.

 PEBBLES OF BADR

Like the pebbles he threw in the battle of Badr

Those little rocks that made the enemy shudder

Not just pebbles but what had followed

A fierce wind, and the enemy was swallowed

O ye who reads! just let me reveal

It was God's hand behind it, concealed

So must we invest our time in Ramadan

Praying and praying for the triumph of Islam

For God may make us those pebbles of Badr

Those little rocks that made the enemy shudder

(ameen)

my twitter @reehadeeasfa

Mr Ata-Ul-Haye Nasir's twitter: @_AUHNasir_