Sufi Solfege
In the Name of Allah the Most
Beneficent the Most Merciful
Prophet Mohammad Peace Be Upon
Him was raised from amongst a
nomadic illiterate people who took immense pride in their language,
oral
tradition and poetic rivalry. The Arab of that period possessed, from
childhood
terrific memorization faculties unparallel by any known culture in the
history
of mankind. Although he could not read or write, he could listen to a
long
speech and reproduce from memory, verbatim, all the words years later
on. The
listener would first memorize what was heard, then analyzed the content
in
order to comprehend the depth of the discussion, as opposed to today
where first we
understand the conversation and perhaps later on may memorize or
recollect
parts of it. Children were trained in this fine art of oral tradition
and this
was commixed with the evolution of Arabic as a language suitable for
such
oratory & poetic applications.
Arabic language, developed
over thousands of years in the
isolation of the Arabian Desert, is a phonetic spoken language as
opposed to
English, which is a non-phonetic written language. The pride in this
language
has penetrated the hearts of millions living in the region to the point
that
being an Arab is not by race or nationality but by the mother’s tongue
being
Arabic.
In this treatise we are
attempting to revive the poetic
language of the Prophet and people of his time, this time in English,
focusing
to bring about a new class of Sufi literature more suited for English
writers
and readers and of course that is by Allah’s Grace.
Additionally we propose to use
the same methodologies Farsi
poets used to incorporate the Arabic art into their non-Arabic poems as
well as
the same underlying additions to the language to better the prospects
of
innovative Sufi poetry in English. This Arabic-to-Farsi blueprint shall
serve a
guide to enlighten the future Sufi writers/translators by Allah’s
Grace.
The goal of this compilation
is not to make another
doorstopper dictionary. The purpose is to make it easy for future Sufi
English
writers who need to learn the depth of the language to produce their
distinctive works.
Please
Allah complete this with blessings.
Prophetic Language
© 2004-2002,
Dara O. Shayda