Tajweed for Quranic Text

Fatimah Aldahan
Computer Science
Session 2012/2013

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 Summary

Tajweed refers to the rules that govern pronunciation of letters when reciting the Quran and it is only
applied to the Quranic text. Though the rules affect the pronunciation, they cannot be represented using the
language letters and simples. As a result, the colouring idea came to give the reciter a hint that there is a
Tajweed rule that needs to be applied.

The problem to be solved in this project is to take a regular Quranic Arabic text as the system input, then
convert it into coloured annotated text. In addition to this, translate the Arabic text to its English phonetic
transcription and apply the same principle of colouring to it to help non-Arabic speakers reading fluently
with Tajweed rules applied.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 The Project Aim ....................................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Project Objectives.................................................................................................................................... 1
1.2.1 Minimum requirements .................................................................................................................. 1
1.2.2 Possible Enhancements ................................................................................................................... 2
2. Understanding the problem ............................................................................................................................ 3
2.1 Background and Overview....................................................................................................................... 3
2.1.1 about Quran .................................................................................................................................... 3
2.1.1.1 Importance .................................................................................................................................. 3
2.1.1.2 History ......................................................................................................................................... 3
2.1.1.3 The Book division and characteristics ......................................................................................... 4
2.1.2 About Arabic Language.................................................................................................................... 4
2.1.2.1 Importance .................................................................................................................................. 4
2.1.2.2 History and characteristics .......................................................................................................... 4
2.1.2.3 Arabic language writing system................................................................................................... 5
2.1.2 about Tajweed science .................................................................................................................... 8
2.1.2.1 Definition and meaning ............................................................................................................... 8
2.1.2.2 Importance and History ............................................................................................................... 9
2.2 Reviewing Similar Problems .................................................................................................................... 9
2.2.1 Quranic Arabic Corpus ..................................................................................................................... 9
2.2.2 Quran Explorer .............................................................................................................................. 11
2.2.3 Easy Quran Store ........................................................................................................................... 12
2.2.4 Search Truth .................................................................................................................................. 13
2.2.5 Colour Coded Printed copy of the Quran ...................................................................................... 14
2.3 consulting Experts ................................................................................................................................. 14
2.4 Setting the Specifications of the solution.............................................................................................. 15
2.4.1 What is the product ....................................................................................................................... 15
2.4.2 Who are the users ......................................................................................................................... 15
2.4.3 Why to produce it .......................................................................................................................... 15
3. Planning and project management ............................................................................................................... 17
3.1 methodology ......................................................................................................................................... 17
3.2 initial plan .............................................................................................................................................. 17
3.3 consideration of time limitation ............................................................................................................ 18

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3.4 Justification of Changes ......................................................................................................................... 19
4. Preparation of Solution ................................................................................................................................. 20
4.1 Downloading Suitable data ................................................................................................................... 20
4.2 Designing for the solution ..................................................................................................................... 20
4.2.1 Designing Decisions ...................................................................................................................... 20
4.2.1.1 Programing Language to be used .............................................................................................. 20
4.2.1.2 Decoding/encoding type ........................................................................................................... 22
4.2.1.3 Output type to be produced...................................................................................................... 22
4.2.1.4 Program structure ..................................................................................................................... 24
4.2.2 Main Design of the System ............................................................................................................ 24
4.3 Choosing the set of Tajweed Rules to be implemented........................................................................ 24
4.3.1 Tajweed rules structure:....................................................................................................................... 24
4.3.2 Procedure Limitation ............................................................................................................................ 25
4.3.3 The System Targeted Users .................................................................................................................. 25
4.3.4 Convenience ......................................................................................................................................... 25
4.4 Studying the set of rules chosen ........................................................................................................... 26
4.4.1 The Rule of Qalqalah ..................................................................................................................... 26
4.4.2 The Rule of Tafkheem .................................................................................................................... 27
4.4.3 The rule of Noon and Meem Mushaddada ................................................................................... 27
4.4.4 The rule of Lam Sakinah ................................................................................................................ 27
4.4.5 The rules of Noon Sakinah and Tanween ...................................................................................... 27
4.4.5.1 Idhar........................................................................................................................................... 27
4.4.5.2 Idgham ....................................................................................................................................... 27
4.4.5.3 Iqlab ........................................................................................................................................... 28
4.4.5.4 Ikhfaa ......................................................................................................................................... 28
4.5 Colouring Procedure .............................................................................................................................. 28
4.5 Preparing a Prototype for the Expected Product .................................................................................. 29
5. Delivery of Solution ....................................................................................................................................... 30
5.1 Achievement of the Minimum Requirements ....................................................................................... 30
5.1.1 First program ................................................................................................................................. 30
5.1.1.1 The Input ....................................................................................................................................... 30
5.1.1.2 The Code ........................................................................................................................................ 31
5.1.1.3 The Output .................................................................................................................................... 32
5.1.2 Second Program ............................................................................................................................ 32

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 5.1.2.1 The Input ....................................................................................................................................... 32
5.1.2.2 The Code ........................................................................................................................................ 32
5.1.2.3 The Output .................................................................................................................................... 33
5.2 Implementation of Enhancements ........................................................................................................ 34
5.2.1 Alternative Viewing Option ........................................................................................................... 34
5.2.1.1 The Reason ................................................................................................................................ 34
5.2.1.2 The Implementation .................................................................................................................. 34
5.2.1.3 The Output................................................................................................................................. 34
5.2.2 The English Phonetic transcription ................................................................................................ 35
5.2.2.1 Considering Alternative ............................................................................................................. 35
5.2.2.2 The Implementation .................................................................................................................. 35
5.2.3 Description of the Rules ................................................................................................................ 39
5.2.3.1 Considering Alternatives ........................................................................................................... 40
5.2.3.2 The Implementation .................................................................................................................. 40
5.2.4 Implementing More Tajweed Rules .............................................................................................. 42
5.2.4.1 The set of rules ......................................................................................................................... 42
5.2.4.2 The implementation .................................................................................................................. 42
5.2.4.3 The Output................................................................................................................................. 43
5.2.5 Apply for the Whole Quran (would it really work) ........................................................................ 43
5.2.5 Appling the System to the whole Quran ....................................................................................... 43
5.2.6 The Website ................................................................................................................................... 44
5.2.6.1 The Home Page.......................................................................................................................... 44
5.2.6.2 The Chapters Catalogue ............................................................................................................ 44
5.2.6.3 The Verses Catalogue ................................................................................................................ 44
5.2.6.4 The Useful links page ................................................................................................................. 45
5.2.6.5 The Contact us Page .................................................................................................................. 45
5.3 Improvement of the Product Quality .................................................................................................... 45
5.3.1 The output table ............................................................................................................................ 45
5.3.2 Improving the website functionalities ........................................................................................... 46
5.3.3 Improving the rule description provided....................................................................................... 46
5.4 Encountered Challenges ........................................................................................................................ 46
5.4.1 Directionality of the Script.................................................................................................................... 46
5.4.2 Using of Diacritics ................................................................................................................................. 46
5.4.3 Contextually Variant Shapes of Characters .......................................................................................... 48

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 5.4.4 Involving Digits or Roman characters ................................................................................................... 48
6. Evaluation of the Solution ............................................................................................................................. 49
6.1 Evaluation Method ................................................................................................................................ 49
6.1.1 Self-Evaluation ............................................................................................................................... 49
6.1.1.1 Evaluating the result using sources ............................................................................................... 49
6.1.1.2 Comparing the produced solution with existing similar solutions ................................................ 49
6.1.2 User-Evaluation ............................................................................................................................. 51
6.1.2.1 Setting the Evaluation form ....................................................................................................... 52
6.1.2.2 Collect the result ....................................................................................................................... 52
6.1.2.3 Analyse the result ...................................................................................................................... 52
7. Conclution...................................................................................................................................................... 53
7.1 Lessons Learnt ....................................................................................................................................... 53
7.2 Possible Extensions................................................................................................................................ 53

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1. Introduction
This report is about Tajweed for Quranic Text project, it includes the planning and processing of the project
from the start to the productivity and evaluation supported with figures and screenshots. The report is
divided into seven chapters each of which is divided into section with headings where sections are also
divided into smaller sections with subheadings. The table of content is provided above in addition to
appendices in the end.

1.1 The Project Aim

This project aims to help people applying Tajweed rules to Quranic text. The project produces an annotated
colour coded Quranic text, where colours sare mapped to Tajweed rules. The idea of colouring can help the
reciter as there will be a limited set of colours 4 to 8 colours, and each is mapped to a Tajweed rule or sound.
Then, the reciter needs to note the different colouring and remember the meaning of each colour, this is
rather easier than remembering the full set of Arabic letters which contains 28 to 40 letters (Habash, 2010)
and which rule is applied to which letter.

1.2 Project Objectives

The objectives of the project are as follows:

Expand the knowledge and background about Quran, Arabic language and Tajweed science by
searching and reading.
Review and evaluate existing solutions and similar Tajweed projects.
Identify the method and the tools to be used in solving the problem.
Download suitable data to be used as input.
Create a product prototype.
Construct the system design.
Start the implementation of the system.
Evaluate the product produced by the system and compare with the projects previously reviewed.

1.2.1 Minimum requirements

The minimum requirements of the project are:

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 Building a system that converts a regular Quranic Arabic text into a colour coded Quranic Arabic text,
where colours mapped to Tajweed rules are applied to the text.
A colour coded Quranic Arabic text of one chapter of the Quran with four Tajweed rules applied to it
as the system output.
Report on the design and process of the system building and evaluation.

1.2.2 Possible Enhancements

Here is a list of possible enhancements that can be done to extend the minimum requirements:

Apply the rules for all the holy Quran not only one chapter.
Implement more than four Tajweed rules.
Add some description about how the Tajweed rules needs to be applied so it is not confined to the
sound or the rule name.
Translate the Arabic text to its English phonetic transcription form.
Apply the colouring principle to the English phonetic transcription.
Generate the IPA translation of the Arabic text and apply the colouring principle to it.
Present the output text with Quranic font.
Present the output in a web site to make it accessible and usable.

1.2.3 The Problem Relevance to NLP

Due to the Holy Quran size, its really difficult to process its letters manually in order to colour them based
on Tajweed rules. This difficulty created the need to automate the process using computer software thats
able to do natural language processing in order to apply the correct colouring scheme to the Quranic text.
From NLP research point of view The Quran is a perfect dataset for Arabic natural language processing
research. According to Atwell (2013) the Quran is very suitable as a dataset due to its availability for
everyone with no restrictions, the Quran expert community is very large and has existed for more than 1000
years, and has developed the linguistic standards and ontologies. Quran enormous users group would be
help greatly in giving the researches and products related to Quran a good impact and will provide the
required feedback for the researches.

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2. Understanding the problem
In order to understand the problem properly, four aspects are considered: background research, reviewing
similar problems, consulting experts and finally setting the specification of the project problem.

2.1 Background and Overview

Tajweed rules are specific to the Quran, which is revealed in Arabic language. In order to have a better
understanding, there is a need to have an overview that covers Quran, Arabic language and Tajweed science.
In this chapter of the report there is background section about each.

2.1.1 about Quran

2.1.1.1 Importance

According to Ali (2011), The Quran is the holy book for Muslims and the word Quran is an infinitive noun of
the Arabic root qaraa ( )meaning collecting things together and reading or reciting. It is considered as a
collection of religious teachings that guide humanity and it is the Muslims book that should be recited. In
fact, the Quran is the most widely read book all around the world (Ali, 2011). The Quran was revealed in
parts from God by the Angel to Prophet Muhammad. So, the Quranic words are the words of God, and the
Quran is sacred to Muslims and treated with upmost respect (BBC, 2011).

2.1.1.2 History

The Arabic Quranic text avilable today is the same text revealed since 609 CE (BBC, 2011). The Quranic text
has not changed from the time of the prophet life until now, and no one has the authority to change or alter
the Quranic words. So, all Muslims agree on one single Arabic text to be Quran revealed (Fatoohi, 2013). This
is an added responsibility to the programmer when processing the Quranic text, as accuracy should be
maintained to the highest level.

While the text of the Quran hasnt changed over time, the look of Quran copies has altered significantly. In
the time of the prophet, Quran was written without vocalisation marks. Then, vocalisation was added and
after that dots were also included. Now even Tajweed rules are coloured. All this is to help people recite
correctly and fluently (EasyQuranStore, 2012). So, as a programmer, processing the text and changing the
look or colouring of the text is allowed while maintaining the correctness of the wording.

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2.1.1.3 The Book division and characteristics

Copies of Quran available today present it as one volume, where the whole book consists of 114 chapters
known as surah and each chapter consists of a number of verses. The chapters length isnt equal; so
chapters are generally arranged in decreasing length order rather than the chronological order they were
revealed (Draz, 2000). This should be considered during processing and implementation as if one chapter is
chosen then it should be of moderate length, and if all chapters will be processed then changing of the
chapter or verse number should be considered and processed appropriately.

) , which called Basmalah and means

All chapters except one start with the same sentence (
in the name of God the most Gracious and the most merciful (Khalifa, 2007). As all chapters except one start
with this sentence then it might be dealt with especially in the processing and presentation of the output.

2.1.2 About Arabic Language

2.1.2.1 Importance

The Quran was revealed in Arabic, though later it is translated to more than 40 languages. Muslims are still
encouraged to learn and recite Quran in Arabic even if it is not their native language, as translations to the
Quranic text are not regarded as translations to the conventional sense of the Quran (BBC, 2011). This
means producing the English phonetic transcription to the Arabic text is acceptable, but it doesnt require
the same high level of accuracy as the Arabic text though it is needed and recommended.

2.1.2.2 History and characteristics

According to Versteegh (2001), the Arabic language belongs to the Proto-Semitic group of word languages.
And it is the most proto-Semitic language that preserved majority of the Semitic features (Bishop, 1998).

Bishop (1998) stated that the Arabic language is characterised as diglossia language, as modern Arabic
became almost two languages Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and colloquial Arabic. The Modern Standard
Arabic is the official language in the Arab World; it is used in the media and education but primarily written
not spoken. MSA is syntactically, morphologically and phonologically actually based on Classical Arabic that
is the language of the Quran. Arabs consider that, the Classical version of the language is the correct Arabic
language.

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2.1.2.3 Arabic language writing system

2.1.1.3.1 General

The Arabic language writing system is from right to left with a cursive script of alphabets. In this system
writing words involve two types of symbols: letters and diacritics (Habash, 2010). So, text alignment should
be considered when presenting the output. Also mapping is needed when presenting a mix of Arabic and
English text, for example in the case where English phonetic transcription is included. Arabic is written from
right to left, while the English is from left to right, and as a result the words will not be in their expected
order.

The two types of the Arabic symbols have similarities and differences from a processing point of view, and
this will be discussed in the implementation and challenges as it wasnt obvious in the internal stages of the
project.

2.1.1.3.1 Letters

Habash (2010) explained that Arabic letters consist of two parts: the letter form and the letter mark.

The letter form is the essential component in every letter, and in total there are 19 letter forms. Letter forms
are presented in the figure below

There are three types of markes: dots, that can be above or below the letter, the short Kaf, that is special to
be used with the letter kaf ( )marking specific shapes or the Hamza (),that can be above or below some
letters forms (Habash, 2010). Letter marks are shown in figure

This should not affect the processing of the text, as the letter marks are added to the letter forms
automatically. In other words, there is a key for every different letter in the keyboard, so this not to be
considered in the implementation.

Different combinations of letter forms and marks produce the 36 letters of the Arabic alphabet and some
will count it even to be 40. Some letters dont have letter marks others do (Habash, 2010).

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However, out of these combinations only 28 are considered as basic letters in the Arabic alphabet, and
because the script is cursive, 22 of these letters have different shapes depending on their position whether
they initial, medial, final, or isolated. The other six letters have only two possible shapes, either isolated or
connected from the right. The alphabet contains the vowel letters which are three letters ( , , )These
letters considered as long vowels (Bishop, 1998).

The table below is taken from A Student Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (Schulz, 2004) to clarify the
different shapes an Arabic character can have. It also contains the English phonetic transcription of the
characters.

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The different possible shapes of the character does effect the processing and colouring of the characters, in
the programing stage different cases are considered and exceptions are needed in some cases. But it is not
so sensible to explain it in this chapter, so it will be discussed later in the implementation and challenges
chapter.

2.1.1.3.1 Diacritics

According to Habash (2010), the second type of Arabic scripts symbols are the diacritics, which are optional,
unlike letters that always should be written. As a result, Arabic text can be either fully discretised, partially
discretised, or undiacritised.

Usually, Arabic texts are undiacritised apart from religious texts and childrens educational texts, and some
poetry that is fully discretised to ensure the proper pronunciation of words.

The Quranic text to be processed then should be fully discretised to maintain the reciters correct
pronunciation of the words when using the project output.

Diacritics are three types of: Vowel, Tanween, and Shadda.

Vowel diacritics represent Arabics three short vowels, which are: Fatha has the Arabic vowel sound and
is similar to an extended to the a sound, Damma has Arabic vowel sound that is similar to u sound and
Kasra has the Arabic vowel sound that is similar to i sound. In addition to these three vowels, there is
the diacritic Sukoon which means no vowel.

Tanween diacritics can only appear at the end of nominal words (nouns, adjectives and adverbs). They are
pronounced as a short vowel followed by an unwritten noon in Arabic has English n sound. And they look
like a doubled version of their corresponding short vowels. Their name are also have related to their
correspondents vowels.

Shadda diacritic come with another short vowel and it means the letter should ne pronounced as double.
Though it means the character is doubled, it is not replaced by another character even if the text undiacritise.

The figure below show the Arabic diacritics

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The diacritics and their sound will be needed in the English phonetic translation. They are also involved in
Tajweed science so there are many Tajweed rules depend on diacritics.

2.1.2 about Tajweed science

After having an overview about the Quran and Arabic language, it is sensible now to know about Tajweed and
its importance.

2.1.2.1 Definition and meaning

Tajwd (Arabic: tawd: IPA: [tdwid]) is an Arabic word for elocution, derived from the root -w-d
() . It refers to the rules that govern pronunciation of letters when reciting the Quran (krajinic, 2012). In
linguistic Tajweed means proficiency or make something well or better (Rashid, n.d.). Applying tajweed to
Quran means articulate every letter from its articulation point and give it its right and dues of characteristics.
The rights of a letter are those characteristics that never leave it (i.e. the letter has these characteristics in all
situations). The dues of a letter are the characteristics that are present in some situation but not in other
situation (About Tajweed, 2007)

To explain the meaning of Tajweed in simpler and clearer language, Tajweed rules are specific for Quranic
text which is revealed in Arabic. It is about the pronunciation of letters, so reciting the Quran is different
than reciting other Arabic texts. Tajweed has a relation with prosody and articulation. Letters of Quran may
be pronounced differently depending on the linguistic context, as tajweed rules need to be applied when
specified letters encountered. This means reciter need to consider letters in each side of the letter in order
to pronounce it correctly, as Tajweed rules may involve changing the letters sound duration, stress or even
adding special sound to the usual sound of the letter. In brief, it is the science of how to pronounce
sequences of letters or a single letter taking into account coarticulation rules which modify the
pronunciation of combinations of letters in the linguistic context.

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 The word Tajweed is Arabic by origin, but it is now a fully-British English loan word used by many British
English speakers. Though, its definition is not found in any of these English dictionaries: American Heritage
Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary, Oxford English Dictionary, the Collins English Dictionary and the Longman
Dictionary of Contemporary English, it is also not found in the 100-million-word British.

2.1.2.2 Importance and History

Learning Tajweed rules is important because the Quran was revealed from God by the angle to prophet
Muhammad with Tajweed rules applied to it. Quran contains the words of God so when reciting it, the
reciter needs to recite it as when it was revealed. So, the purpose of the tajweed science is to make the
reciter capable to recite Quran in a good and professional way (Rashid, n.d.). Putting the tajweed rules
prevents mistakes in Quran recitation and integrates the pronunciation of the Quran reader (About Tajweed,
2007).

2.2 Reviewing Similar Problems

Reviewing similar problems is an important task to understand the problem. And it needs to be done in early
stage in order to have a good idea about ways of implementations and output possibilities. In addition to the
exploration of what is available, this is an important way of finding improvements on what others have done
and see what is good to add to the system and what is bad to prevent it. So, this will help in the design and
implementation stages.

For this project the revision of similar problems was done by reviewing and analysing existing visual web
sites in addition to colour coded printed copy of the Quran. Each project or solution is evaluated in different
aspects and the discussed in a section below.

2.2.1 Quranic Arabic Corpus

http://corpus.quran.com/

At the start there was potential thought about extending the corpus project by adding a Tjweed rules section
to make the corpus complete and add to it more functionality. Also, the Quranic Corpus is so popular and
this means extending it will make better use of the data produced in this project as many people will access
it and make use of it. Then after reviewing the Corpus project it becomes clear that extending the corpus by
adding a Tajweed section will be difficult for these reasons:

- There is a need to take conformation from the developer (kais) and this is not garneted besides it is time
consuming. In other words, there is a potential need to set all the problem specifications and design in

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 addition to preparing a prototype of the expected product with explanation of the project to be sent
asking for a confirmation. So, time is needed to prepare and to wait for the confirmation then start
working or make changes if declined, such as the programing language to be used java or python.

- Also, if conformation is given, then it is better to use java as a programing language so it is easier to
integrate the two projects. But being not expert in java programing means more time is required to learn
the language. And in this case it is better to use the time in producing a better quality product and add
more features to it rather than learning a new language.

- Also the time to integrate the two projects should be considered especially that the two projects are
done by different people. In other words, integrating will require knowledge about how the other project
is implemented and what are the parts of the code that needs to be edited. In addition to this, in the early
stages of the project it is not clear how difficult the problem is and how long it would take to be solved.
So, a safer decision is to try solving the problem then add features and implement some enhancement
rather than solving it to be integrated with concerns that it will not be.

Good points:

Though the decision was to develop a separated project not extending the corpus project because of the
stated reasons, reviewing the Quranic Arabic Corpus was not waste of time as it provided the basic
knowledge and motivation to do the Tajweed project. Reviewing the code and packages available in the
corpus site gave some programming hints. It also was a guide to the sources needed for downloading the
Quranic text, in addition to the English phonetic transcription with Tajweed rules applied idea.

Problems:

While reviewing the Quranic Arabic Corpus project, the English phonetic transcription of the text noted to be
not so accurate in translating the letter lam in some cases when it is after and before a letter from a set
consists of 14 letters. The letter is always present in the Arabic text, but it is silent in the case mentioned. So,
if the transcription is generated for non-Arabic speakers with limited knowledge about the language then
they might not know about this Arabic language rule. As a result, they will pronounce it in all cases as it is
present in the English transcription.

To explain this is an example, in the word the letter lam ( the second letter from the right) should be
pronounced because it is followed by the other 14 letters of the Arabic Alphabet. The case that called lam
qammaryah while in the word the letter lam ( the second letter from the right) should be not be

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pronounced and this is called lam shamsiyah. So, noting this is one of the points that will be considered in
the Tajweed project.

2.2.2 Quran Explorer

http://www.quranexplorer.com/Quran/

Quran Explorer project is one of the best projects implementing colour coding for Tajweed rules found and it
is available only an can be freely accessed.

I have reviewed their site and spotted some good points to have in my project in addition to some problems
and limitations that I want to avoid in my implementation. There were also some points to consider and
think about.

Good point:

There are font options and the user can choose to view the text in Uthmani Quranic font, though after
checking a verse in scanned page of a printed Quran against the site, it appears that the fount provided is
not exactly as the printed Quran but it is similar to it with minor differences.

In the printed Quran there are some letter written in a special way different from usual fonts. The image
taken form islamicbourd.com on the left, shows an example of the differences in the font between scanned
or printed Quran and the font avilable in the Quran Explorer (in the right).

However, the special marks and characteristics of the Quranic font such as pauses marks, different styles of
tanween and sajdah mark are all presented which is good.

Limitation:

In this project, not all Tajweed rules are implemented but a set of main rules is implemented, where each
rule or sub branch of a rule mapped to a colour. From a point of view, mapping each rule to a colour means
that by knowing he colours the user will know the rule applied. On the other hand, this way of colouring tell
the reciter what is the exact rule applied but does not tell what the sound to be generated is. To explain, the

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Idgham (merging) is a Tajweed rule applied in Quran Explorer and mapped to the dark green colour. So, if a
charter coloured with a dark green then the rule of Idgham (merging) applied, but then there is no hint
about the sound to be generated when the rule of Idgham (merging) applied. Another colouring procedure is
to colour depending on the sound to be generated when applying the rule, meaning that if different rules
can be coloured with the same colour if they have the similar sound.

Merging the overlapped rules (the rules that have similar sound) so they mapped to one colour, can be a
better practice to help the reciter read more fluently. And specifying the rule can be dealt with by another
feature, and this is to think about and considered.

Problem:

The colouring of the characters is confusing, as it is done for some characters where it is not needed. It can
appear as if what is done is totally wrong, but after checking and analysing it is observed that the colouring is
done where it is needed but more characters are coloured. The figure below shows how the colouring is
done, here there is a rules needs to be applied for example in the word a rule applied on the letter
but the colouring done for the letter before as well. Another example is colouring the verse number when
there is a rule to be applied between the word at the end of the verse and the first word of the next verse.
Though this draw attention to the case of rules applied at end of the verses, whither to apply them or not, so
this is to be considered and the way of colouring to be avoided as it is seen as inaccurate and confusing.

Thinking about this, decision made to assume that the reader will stop at the end of each verse. One reason
is that though it is fine to continue reading and do not stop when the verse end, it is recommended to stop.
Another reason is that form programing point of view, implementing this would means that there is a need
to check first token of the next verse while processing the given verse. In other words, it will require more
processing where it is not necessary as people used to stop at the end of the verses, and only those experts
reciters do continue reciting without stopping. Thinking about the purpose of the project which is helping
people to apply Tajweed rules and learn more about them, it becomes clear that those will not stop at the
end of the verse are targeted users as the targeted users are ordinary people not the experts.

2.2.3 Easy Quran Store

www.easyquranstor.com

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This is an online store sells printed copies of the Quran. One of the products they offer is a printed copy of
the Quran with colour coded Tajweed rules. The scanned page below is presented in the stores site, and
found to be useful for reviewing purposes.

Good Points:

The way of colouring is good and clear, and the number of rules applied and colours used is reasonable.

2.2.4 Search Truth

http://www.searchtruth.com/quran_reading/quran.html?page=4&page_size=1&page_style=1

This is the only online website found that provides scanned copy of colour coded printed Quran to be viewed.
When reviewing this website, there were also, good and bad points to consider. Here they are:

Good point:

The site offer several search and view options, which is good.

Bad point:

13
The scanned pages of the colour coded Quran are cropped, so there is no colour bar to tell the reciter what
does each colour means. Below there are two images on the left an image of the same page of a printed
Quran, and on the right screenshot from Search Truth website. It is noticeable that fewer rules applied to
what is provided in the Search Truth, as the blue colour wich is mapped to the rule of Qalqalah is not
presented. So, what is the rules set of rules implemented can be expanded.

2.2.5 Colour Coded Printed copy of the Quran

Getting a printed copy of a colour coded Quran was a good idea. Though the book was not different than the
scanned pages available online, it makes the checking easier as while programing. To explain, the book is
needed to check against and ensure that the output produced is the expected output, as the book is a
guaranteed source. Also, the book has a table explaining the colour bar in different languages. So, it is useful
to include both the English and Arabic names of the rules so the output is usable by both Arabic and non-
Arabic speakers.

2.3 consulting Experts

Consulting experts expands the knowledge and contributes to a better understanding of the problem. As
Tajweed is a deep science and usually people take courses studying Tajweed, consulting a Tajweed teacher

14
was a good idea. The consultation led to a better understanding of Tajweed rules, in addition to discussion of
possible choices of rules to be applied.

2.4 Setting the Specifications of the solution

There are three important questions need to be considered before starting with the planning and designing.
Below there is a subsection for each question, as the answer of three questions will set the problem
specification.

2.4.1 What is the product

The product is a system that output a given Quranic text with Tajweed rules applied. At the start there were
thoughts about outputting a text file with the text coloured where there is a rule applied, but by searching it
is discovered that text files cant have colours. So, an alternative solution is to build a system that produce
HTML pages. Actually, the choice of HTML pages will not only help in terms of colouring the text but also in
terms of representing the data and make it usable. To clarify, if HTML pages created then the data can be
available online and people are able to access it easily for using or evaluation purposes.

2.4.2 Who are the users

The system targeted users, are the ordinary Arabic speakers with limited knowledge about Tajweed rules, In
addition to non-Arabic speakers generally and especially those wants to learn more about Tajweed.

2.4.3 Why to produce it

There are several reasons behind choosing the product that will be clarify here.
The first reason is the importance of Tajweed science and this is discussed earlier in the introduction chapter.
The Quran is the words of God, so Muslims want to recite it correctly as it revealed with Tajweed rules
applied.

The second reason is that a perfect colour coded Quranic text could not be found online. So, one goal is to
produce a better quality product in this project than what exists. To clarify, perfect printed copies of colour
coded Quran are available to buy and some scanned copies are available online, but the scanned copies
looks like static images that cannot be copied or paste as a piece of text. Furthermore, it is different to come
up with the text colour coded automatically by a system computation.

The third reason is that the idea of colour coding the text can be improved to produce better quality product
with more features. For example the system output can be produced in a way that useful for purposes other

15
than recitation such as analysis of Tajweed rules and statistical observations, which can in turn help
researchers or people in the Academic sector.

16
3. Planning and project management
3.1 methodology

The methodology used in this project is CRISP-DM, which is a standard methodology for data analysis
process. The stages of the methodology explain the project objectives:

1. Analyse and understand the problem and the overall goal.

2. Gathering and understanding the data, this involve finding suitable Quran data file to be processed and
choosing the set of rules to be applied.
3. Data transformation, which means converting the Tajweed rules from written books into computational
representation.
4. Modelling, that is to apply Tajweed rules to the Quranic text to generate the colour coded text.
5. Evaluation, this involves self-evaluation in the implementation stage of the project, then user
evaluation in addition to comparing the produced solution with existing similar solutions.
6. Writing the report, the report writing will begin at the start of the project and will continued during the
different stages as there is a need to record the different encountered issues in addition to the mid
report.

3.2 initial plan

As the time is limited and the project consists of many tasks and subtasks, then there is a need for a
schedule or a plan. The initial plan is presented in the table below which contains the major subtasks with
time estimated in days for each. The tasks in the table are presented in the expected working order.
Time
Duration
in days Task
18 First stage: Solving the problem for the Arabic text
5 Background reading and review previous attempts to solve similar problem and talk to experts
1 Choose method to solve the problem and justify the choice
1 Download suitable data to work with and collect possible Tajweed rules set
9 Write the program that convert the rules into computational form
1 Apply the program to Quranic Arabic text
1 Set user evaluation form and show some results to users
29 Second stage: Solving the problem for English phonetic translation

17
 6 Background reading and review previous attempts to solve similar problem and talk to experts
1 Choose method to solve the problem and justify the choice
3 Write the mid report
1 Download suitable data to work with and collect possible Tajweed rules set
14 Write the program that convert the rules into computational form
3 Apply the program to Quranic Arabic text
1 Set user evaluation form and show some results to users
26 Third stage: Write the final report
10 Complete writing the report
3 Collect user feedback and analyse them
4 Review the report and integrate parts
2 Self review
4 Prove reading
4 Consider suggestions and corrections
4 Fourth stage: The Presentation
2 Prepare the material
1 Prepare slides
1 Training
At all * Record what has been done and write any issue to build the report gradually
stages * Reading and searching are involved as needed

3.3 consideration of time limitation

Limitation of time means that task priority should be considered and managed. So, at the start the minimum
requirements should be achieved then the project enhancements can be done. And even with the
enhancements the priority is for the enhancements that can be done within the time limit rather than
choosing something cannot be completed in time. Considering this discussion, the searching and reading
should be divided between the different stages of the project as well as at the start of the project. In other
words, the background reading and similar problems searching should be done from the start. On the other
hand, reading about the chosen rules to convert them to computational form is needed in the
implementation phase. In addition, searching will be involved when needed to tackle problems or while
program debugging. And spending long time at the start of the project doing all the reading and searching is
not practical way of working, as not everything found would be used and.

18
3.4 Justification of Changes

After few weeks working on the project, some changes to the design of the first program has been done, as a
result the implementation was affected as well. The reason behind changing the design, is improving the
product utility. A better way of outputting the result found, and will be discussed in the next chapters.

In addition to this change, it is noticed that time is not planned for the presentation of the output. A decision
was to create a website besides developing the system to present the output and make it accessible by users.
This is not considered in the previous plan, so recalculation of timing is needed.

Furthermore, there are some tasks underestimated in time such as debugging which has taken longer than
estimated.

For these reasons beside that tasks in the initial plan are not restricted with start and end date, a new plan
version has been done and represented with Gantt chart with other details to help with time management.
21/1

25/3
28/1
04/2
11/2
18/2
25/2
04/3
11/3
18/3

01/4
08/4
15/4
22/4
29/4
06/5
13/5
20/5
setting the project aim and min requirements
background Reading (Quran, Arabic
Review and evaluate existing solutions
consulting Experts
Download suitable data to be used as input.
setting the specification and Identify the
Mid Report Writing
Create a product prototype.
Construct the system design.
Duration
Choosing the Tajweed Rules and study them
Flexibility
implementation of the system (program1)
implementation of the system (program2)
implementation of the English phonetic
implementation of the system (program3)
final Report Writing
creating the website
Evaluate the product produced by the system
compare with the projects previously reviewed.
final Report completion and proof reading
presentation

19
4. Preparation of Solution
4.1 Downloading Suitable data

Downloading a suitable data is an important step needs to be done from the start, as the designing and the
implementation depends on the data type found. While reviewing the Quranic Arabic Corpus, it is found that
the data processed in their project is from another project called Tanzil. By searching in Tanzil site, it is
discovered that there are several types of Quranic text in different formats available to download. Having
considered the different options and compare them using the Tanzil site investigator, the decision was to
download an Uthmani Quranic text with pausing marks. The reason is that Uthamani text is similar to the
printed Quranic text that people used to use. With regard the pausing marks, they are important and can be
considered part of Tajweed science. However, after starting in the implementation it is discovered that it
would be more usefule to have the text downloaded with chapter and verse number for outputting purposes.
So, a new version of Quranic text with chapter and verse numbers is downloaded.

4.2 Designing for the solution

4.2.1 Designing Decisions

In order to design for the implementation of the project, there is a need to make some critical decisions
such as the programming language to be used, type of encoding/decoding, the output, the program
structure.

4.2.1.1 Programing Language to be used

A critical design decision was choosing the programing language; here two choices were considered and
discussed java and python.

Points for java:

- There are packages available to use from the Quranic Arabic Corpus. So, some existing code can be used.
- Using java and some of the packages available means it is easier to integrate this project with the
Quranic Arabic corpus to improve utility of both.
- Learning new language, as not expert and didnt practice a lot with java before.

20
Points against Java:

- The existing code from the Quranic Arabic Corpus is complicated so will need long time and a lot of
effort to be will understood and used in the programming of this project.
- Possibility of integrating this project with the Quranic Arabic Corpus is minimal, as it requires
understanding even how the data of the corpus and HTML pages are presented in addition to the code,
which needs time that could exceed the project limit.
- practicing with new language while working with the project will be time consuming better to use this
time to do some enhancements or more features and functionality to produce a better product quality
rather than learning a programing language.
- There is no grantee that the existing code would be useful as what is needed to be done in this project is
different.

Points for Python:

- More comfortable and confident using it

- Faster in the implementation phase and human readable.
- Practicing more with known language to gain better experience, it can be considered a chance to
explore more and become well skilled.
- By searching found that Python has methods supports decode and encode of Arabic characters.
- It is not known how difficult the problem is and how long would it take to be solved, so it is safer to
choose a fast way of producing the solution and add more features if time permit rather than facing
two problems: the project problem to be solved in addition to learning the language to be used.

Points against python:

- Slow in processing as it high level programing language. However, this shouldnt be a problem as
running the program will be only during the implementation for testing purposes. In other words, the
system is not be run regularly or built for user personal use.
- If the system built with python then it is not so easy to integrate it with the Quranic Arabic Corpus or
other project as they might be built using Java. However, the project is an independent project and
integrating it with other projects will improve the utility of the projects but otherwise it cans standby
itself. Also, the chance of integrating at this time is minimal and even if java used in this project it will
not be so easy to integrate them as knowledge about the other project is required.
- Using python means losing the opportunity of learning Java. However, the project is not about learning
a new language; it is about producing a good solution and solving the problem. Also, there is an
opportunity of being expert in python.

21
After this discussion, decision was made to use python. And after making this choice, a search has been done
to determine which version of python to use. It is discovered that Python version 2 cannot deal with Arabic
text but allows using packages, while Python version 3 can deal with Arabic text but dont allow packages
usage. The decision here was version 3, as there is a need to process Arabic text, in addition the programs
will be written from scratch not by using packages.

4.2.1.2 Decoding/encoding type

Another design decision is to choose the decoding/encoding type as the Quranic text that will be processed
is Arabic text and cannot be dealt with directly. The choice made was to use UTF-8 decoding/encoding type
as the text file downloaded from Tanzil is in UTF-8 format.

4.2.1.3 Output type to be produced

Text files dont support colour coding, that is to say the text cant be viewed in different colours. So, though
the problem can be solved by processing the input text file and producing another text file, the result in the
text file cannot be represented visually. Hence, to improve the product produced the result should be
represented using another output type in addition to the text file. The output type chosen is HTML file for
several reasons mentioned here:

- From the revision of similar problems, there wasnt other possible visual ways. What is available
either printed copies, scanned pages of a printed copy or HTML pages. And as the problem is related
to computer science, it will be solved computationally with the choice of HTML pages.
- Achieving the project aim of helping people applying the Tajweed rules. In order to make the output
useful and accessible by ordinary people, it is sensible to present the output in HTML pages.
- HTML pages are a good choice in the evaluation phase, as they will allow remote evaluation.

After making the decision of generating a text file and HTML file, more details should be considered. At the
start the decision was simply to produce one HTML file generated by a python program, such that the input
is a quranic text downloaded from Tanzil website and the output is an html file contains the quranic text
coloured with Tajweed rules need to be applied. This is a reasonable solution, but it is not practical as there
is a plan to make the product accessible by the users. Producing one HTML file that contains the whole book,
means it will be very long and hard to view. It also means that the file will have limited features and utility.
So, to improve this situation, an HTML file should be generated for each chapter. And at the beginning the
minimum requirements can be reached by solving the problem for a chapter of the holy book. And to
improve the product utility more, an html file can be generated for each verse. The cost of doing this is that
it might be hard to track the files and it will need a huge memory space in addition more coding is required.

22
Looking at the details of the text files to be produced, the analysis of reviewing the Quranic Arabic Corpus
was useful. So, a decision was to produce a similar text file to that available in the Corpus, which is showing
in the screenshot below. The information needed in Tajweed project surly different, so it is just about the
format, while the columns will be: the location, Arabic part of the token, corresponding part in phonetic
English, the colour, the rule explanation.

The information needed in Tajweed project surly different, so it is just about the format, while the columns
will be: the location, Arabic part of the token, corresponding part in phonetic English, the colour, the rule
explanation.
The following table is prepared to show what the file expected to have, using an example verse. There is also
some description about the columns is written in the first row of the table.
Part location Arabic part English part colour Rule explanation
(chapter,verse,token) Arabic Phonetic The colour More information about the rule
characters translation this part of to be applied to this part
(enhancement the token (enhancement that is useful for
that is useful for supposed to people want to more about
non-Arabic be printed Tajweed)
speakers) in.
(144,4,4) l- black -
(144,4,4) kha Dark blue Tafkeem, emphatic
(one of )
(144,4,4) n green Gunnah, nasal sound (noon
mushaddah)
(144,4,4) si black -
(144,5,1) alladh black -
(144,5,2) yuwaswisu black -

23
4.2.1.4 Program structure

Thinking about the programs structure, there is a trade-off between a fast program and a well-structured
program. To clarify, using objects and function make the code elegant and easy to read, but it slow the
program down as calling the functions require more processing time than processing the general code
because of the overhead.

As the system is built for purpose of producing output for users not to be used by them and it is for personal
use not for a third party, a decision was made to build a program with loops and if statements. This might
causes copying pieces of code, but it will be fast in developing in addition to testing and debugging. Speed of
the system is priority particularly if it will be run for the whole book, as the nature of the problem requires
checking every char to check if there is a rule need to be applied or not.

4.2.2 Main Design of the System

The system is designed to consist of three programs. The first program takes the downloaded text file and
processes it to produce another text file that contains the table. The data presented in the table is separated
by tabs to create columns and each line represents a row. The second program takes the outputted text file
and processes it to generate two types of HTML pages. One type of HTML pages contains a whole chapter,
and the other type contains only one verse of a chapter. The third program takes the generated HTML pages
by the second program and presents them in one HTML page that works like a catalogues.

4.3 Choosing the set of Tajweed Rules to be implemented

Choosing the set of rules wasnt a strait forward task as there is a wide range of Tajweed rules, and for the
sake of this project there is a need to choose specific classification of the rules, and the way they will be
coloured. So, there are several aspects considers before choosing the set of rules to be implemented:
Tajweed rules structure, procedure limitation, targeted users, convenience.

4.3.1 Tajweed rules structure:

The structure of Tajweed rules adds complexity to the choice, as Tajweed rules can have branches. For
example there is a main rule called The Rules of Noon Saakinah and Tanween which is specific for one
Arabic letters noon that have no vowel mark and tanween which is a mark that letters at the end of nouns
can have. This rule has four branches each branch rule has a set of letter that the noon saakinah or
tanween is followed by. These branch rules can have sub-branches as well, for example the rule of Idghaam
(merging) is one of the four rules and it has two branches Idghaam with Gunnah and Idghaam without

24
Gunnah (Rashid, n.d.). Furthermore, the Gunnah (nasal sound) has four different levels Most Complete,
complete, incomplete and most incomplete (About Tajweed, 2007). So, decision need to be made on how
deep the system should be in detecting the rules and colouring them. It would be more useful if the system
applies the rules with details but it would be more complex not only from an implementation point of view
but also form user viewing point.

4.3.2 Procedure Limitation

Additionally Tajweed rules might overlap, in other words more than one rule can be applied to the same letter.
For example, a letter can be from Qalqala (vibration) rule set of letters and at the same time it can have the
Quality of tafkheem (emphitic) (About Tajweed, 2007). This means that it is not possible to represent all the
rules using the colour coding procedure. As a result, there should be priority in which rules to choose and
colour. Also, marking all the rules is not a good approach specially using colouring procedure for another
reason that the text will be over loaded with colours. The application will lose its usefulness when the text
become full with colours, as these colours will fail in warning the user when they are too many.

4.3.3 The System Targeted Users

Considering the system targeted users (ordinary people with limited knowledge), the set of rules chosen
should contains the main and essential rules with minimum level of details.

4.3.4 Convenience

Beside all aspects, it is necessary to consider what the rules people used to see and learn are. This can be
deduced from the revision of the similar problems and by asking an expert Tajweed teacher.

25
Looking at the different colour bars in the previous page which are from scanned copy, printed copy the
Quran Explorer websites respectively, differences can be noticed but still there is a common set of rules and
colours.

It is also worth asking an expert Tajweed teacher about the rules usually beginners learn to agree in a
suitable set of rules.

And having considering all these aspects, decision was made to choose this set of Tajweed rules: the rule of
Noon sakinah and Tanween with its four branches [Idhar, Idhgham, Ikhfa, Iqlab], the rule of Tafkheem
(emphitic), the rule of Qalqalah (vibration) and the rule of Meem and Noon Mushaddadah in addition to the
rule of lam shamsiyah because of its importance especially to non-Arabic speakers. The priority is to apply
four rules to achieve the minimum requirements then more the rest of the set and if time permits more
rules can be applied.

4.4 Studying the set of rules chosen

After choosing a possible set of Tajweed rules to be implemented, it was necessary to study the rules in
order to be able to convert the written text into program code. The set of rules is explained briefly in this
section from programing point of view text to code, thats to say the pronunciation and how the rule is
actually applied will not be covered here as it the project work.

The strategy was to study a rule then starts to implement it, so the information are clear and not confused
with other rules. In addition, this strategy helps managing the time. To explain, it is safer to study the set rule
by rule rather than spending the time studying the whole set without being sure that time will permit to
implement them all. So, at the start four rules are chosen to achieve the minimum requirements then the
reset of the rules are considered. The starting four rules were the rule of Qalqalah, the rule of Tafkheem, the
rule of Lam Shamsiyah and the rule of Noon and Meem Mushaddadah. The reason behind this choice is that
these rules less complicated so faster in the implementation besides they can be mapped to different
colours so the project idea will be clarified. The rule of Noon sakinah and Tanween with its four branches is
considered as an enhancement.

4.4.1 The Rule of Qalqalah

The rule of Qalqalah is applied to set of letter [' ',' ',' ',' ',' ]'when they have Skoon as diacritic. It is
also applied to the same set of letters when stopping at them even if they have a vowel. To illustrate, the
rule will be applied if the last token in the verse ends with a letter from this set and the reciter will stop

26
reciting as it is end of the verse. The set of letters can combined to form the Arabic term to help
people memorising them (Czerepinski, 2000).

4.4.2 The Rule of Tafkheem

The rule of Tafkheem is applied to the set of letters [' ',' ',' ',' ',' ',' ',']', regardless of their
diacritics or vowels. To make it easier for people memorising this set, the letters are combined to form the
Arabic term ( Czerepinski, 2000).

4.4.3 The rule of Noon and Meem Mushaddada

This rule is related to two letters noon and meem , it is to be applied when they have shadda as a
diacritic regardless of the vowel that comes with it. The rule applied when stopping at a token ending with
noon or meem mushaddada (Rashid, n.d.).

4.4.4 The rule of Lam Sakinah

This rule is related to the lam sakinah when it comes after alif wasal in the beginning of nouns
(Czerepinski, 2000). The rule is applied if the lam is followed by one of these letters [, , , , ,
, , , , , , , , ( ]Ali, 2006).

4.4.5 The rules of Noon Sakinah and Tanween

The noon sakinah in the Quran is noon without vowel or noon with the diacritic skoon and it comes in
the form noon with small meem as well. The Tanween is three types mentioned in the overview of the
Arabic language , and (Rashid, n.d.).

There are four rules related to the noon sakinah and tanween, each of which is explained below:

4.4.5.1 Idhar

The linguistic definition is clear, so when applied the letters should be pronounced clearly (Czerepinski,
2000). The rule applied when the noon sakinah or tanween is followed by a letter from the set
['','','','','','( ]'Rashid, n.d.).

4.4.5.2 Idgham

The linguistic definition of the Idgham is merging (Czerepinski, 2000). When applying the rules the noon
sakinah or tanween is merged with next letter. The rule of Idgham has to sub-branches Idgham with

27
Gunnah(nasal sound) and Idgham without Gunnah. The set of letters for the first branch is ['','','',' ]'can
form the Arabic token , while the letters of the other branch are and ( Rashid, n.d.).

The rule has an exception for four tokens in the Quran: , , and ( Czerepinski, 2000).

4.4.5.3 Iqlab

Iqlab means changing, and applying this rule means that the noon sakinah or tanween is changed into meem
and it is specific to only one letter ( Czerepinski, 2000).

4.4.5.4 Ikhfaa

The rule of Ikhfaa linguistic definition is hiding, and to apply the rule the noon sakinah or tanween is
pronounced in a way that is between the Idhar and Idgham with nasal sound (Rashid, n.d.). The set of letters
covered with the rule of Ikfaa is ['','','','','','','','','','','','','','','( ]'Czerepinski, 2000).

4.5 Colouring Procedure

After reviewing the similar problems and studying the rules, it is deduced that there are mainly two
colouring procedures: one that helps the user to identify which rule to apply, another that helps the user to
identify which sound to generate.

There are different Tajweed rules which share same sound when applying them, with minor differences due
to distinctive characteristics of letters. To clarify, the rule of Idgham (merging) and the rule of Ikhfaa (hiding)
for example are two different rules, but both when applied can have the Ghunnah sound (nasal sound)
(Rashid, n.d.) Hence, there is a choice of colouring the letters with the same colour in both cases as the
sound to be generated is the same, or colouring the letters differently in the different cases as the rule to be
applied is different.

The first choice will help the reciters to read more fluently as it tells what the sound to be generated is. On
the other hand, the second choice help the reciters learning the rules as it tells them what the rule to be
applied is. Considering the two choices, the first one is chosen which means the first procedure as the
limitation of this choice can be dealt with by adding the description of the rules included in a table as an
example. This solution will help reciters read fluently and learn about the rules applied to a given token by
looking to the corresponding description in the table.

Making this decision leads to choosing a similar colour bar to that used in the printed copies of the Quran for
several reasons. One reason is that is expected that the printed and scanned copies are widely used, as they

28
are older in terms of existence, more accurate, cover more rules and there is no chance they will be changed.
In contrast websites are changeable and the colouring might be error prone or less accurate as noted in
reviewed problems. In addition, couldnt find an existing project used the procedure of the printed copies
which gives a motivation to do it. Another reason is that the set of rules of the printed copies has better
utility, as it covers more rules using minimized number of colours to be remembered.

4.5 Preparing a Prototype for the Expected Product

This is a prototype of the product expected to be delivered, where the minimum requirements are achieved
in addition to some enhancements. The first figure represents an HTML page showing a whole chapter of the
Quran with colour bar in the bottom of the page. The second figure represents an HTML page showing one
verse with a colour bar in addition to a table that contains some description of the rules applied to the
tokens of the given verse.

29
5. Delivery of Solution
This chapter covers the implementation phase in the project which is mainly developing the three programs.
The chapter it is divided into sections and subsections to make it clear. The programing procedure followed
is generally writing a pseudo code then convert it into an actual code that is fully commented. The code is
written in part to make the debugging easier. During the testing, different parts of the input files are used,
depending on the part of the program to be tested. To illustrate, if the part to be tested is about the Qalqala
rule as an example then the input test file is checked to have a lot of occurrences of this rule. Here, a
general simplified explanation of the programs is provided in a level that is higher than the pseudo code.

5.1 Achievement of the Minimum Requirements

To achieve the minimum requirements, a system that produces a colour coded text of a chapter from the
Quran with four rules applied should be built. As explained in the design phase the system is built of three
programs, and by implementing the first two programs the minimum requirements will be achieved. Here
both programs are discussed.

5.1.1 First program

The first program is created to take the Quranic text file and produce the table discussed in the design phase.
A general explanation about the input file, the program developed and the output file will be discussed in
the coming sections.

5.1.1.1 The Input

The figure below is a screenshot shows a part of the text file processed, where each line of text represents a
verse from the holy book. The numbers on the left are for the chapter number and the verse number
respectively. The text is fully discretised Arabic text with some Quranic simples added.

30
5.1.1.2 The Code

At the beginning, the input file is opened to be read from, and an output file is also opened to be written to.
Then the input file is read line by line, and the lines (verses) are processed in a loop. In the loop as a first step
as the text processed is in Arabic alphabet, the line is decoded to be converted into a string that easier to be
dealt with in the python program. Then the decoded line is split into tokens, and the chapter and verse
numbers are captured using a regular expression. In addition a counter is set to count the number of tokens
in the given verse, as it will be needed in determining the location.

Inside the main loop, there is an inner loop which loops over the characters in the verse. And in this loop
there is a counter set to avoid processing chars when it is not need. In addition, the index of the char to be
processed and several chars before and after are also set. As in the checking of the rules can involve
checking characters before and/or after the char processed.

Then checks are started with a check that the current char is from the set of alphabet, as there it makes
more sense to check the actual chars not the vowels or diacritic. Then, the rules checks start considering the
rules priority. To explain, as the rules might overlap they must be prioritised so the checks are done in an
order where the rule that has a higher priority to be coloured is checked first. Then the counter of the
character that is coloured will be increased so it is not processed again which minimise the processing time.
The rules are checked in this order, the rule of Qalqalah, the rule of Tafkheem, the rule of Noon and Meem
Mushadadah and the rule of Lam Shamsiyah.

For each rule, several checks are done using if statements. These checks differ from rule to another
depending on the characters and vowels or diacritics specified to the rule. After making the required checks
and figure out that the rule is applied to the current character, several steps are completed. Firstly, the
location is updated with the token number, and then it is converted into a string so it can be printed to the
outputted file. Then, the diacritics of the char are added to it, and this requires some checks as an Arabic
character may have 0, 1 or 2 diacritics and this becomes more complicated with the processed Quranic text
as it has some Quranic symbols as well. After adding the diacritics to the processed char, the line to be
printed into the output file is prepared, which contains three columns at this stage of the project. Then, the
line is encoded and printed to the output file. And to finish of the processing of the char, the counter is
increased to indicate that the char has been processed and the number of the token is cleared from the
location tuple to make it ready for storing the location of the next char. And at the end of the program, the
output file is closed.

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5.1.1.3 The Output

The output of the first program is a text file, which is presented in the figure and explained below.

The data in the file presented as columns separated by tabs. The first column in the file show the location of
the char, where the first number is the chapter number, the second is the verse number and the third is the
token number. In the second column of the file, the Arabic char with its diacritics added. And the third shows
the colour that the char in same row should be printed with in the HTML page.

5.1.2 Second Program

In this sub-section the second programs input, code and output are described.

5.1.2.1 The Input

The input of the second program is the outputted file of the first program, which is discussed earlier.

5.1.2.2 The Code

At the start, the input file is open and an html file is created. The created file set by adding the required
script for encoding the content of the file and opening the needed tags. In addition, the needed
initialisations are done. Then in a loop the input file is processed line by line, each line taken is split by tabs
to enable storing and accessing the data in the columns.

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The first column is taken and split again by comma to get the number of the chapter, the verse and the
token. Then these values are decoded and stored in variables as they will be needed afterward. The char in
the second column is also decoded and store in a variable so it can be processed in the loop.

In the loop, the data in third column which contains the colour is checked. In the check, the HEX value is set
depending on the colour name found so the char can be printed in the HTML page. The char location is also
checked here, if the char has the same exact location as the previous char then belong to the same token so
they will be connected to each other. Otherwise, the chars will be separated by a white space. Another
check is done specifically to the verse number which is the second number in the location, when it is
changed then it will be written in bracts to indicate end of verse.

All the writing to the HTML file should be included in the appropriate tags and encoded. In addition, the
language and the fount size and style should be specified where need. And at the end all tags should be
closed in addition to the HTML file.

5.1.2.3 The Output

The program output should be an HTML file of a chapter of the holy book, where the letters are coloured as
specified depending on the rules applied. The figure below represents an example output file, which shows
the achievement of the minimum requirement.

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5.2 Implementation of Enhancements

There is a list of enhancements that can be implemented, from the list a selected set of enhancements has
been chosen and implemented depending on the priority. Each implemented enhancement is discussed in a
sub-section below, while the other enhancements are considered as possible extensions to the project so
they are discussed in the next chapter of the report.

5.2.1 Alternative Viewing Option

This was the first enhancement to be done, as it will enable the implementation of other enhancements.
Explanation of the reason and implementation is provided in this sub-section.

5.2.1.1 The Reason

The colour coded text produced is presented in one HTML page which contains all the verses of the given
chapter. Having another viewing option of the text will allow more enhancements and functionality to be
implemented. For example, if the phonetic English transcription of the Arabic text is generated then viewing
the result for the whole chapter in one page would not be easy. The reason is that mapping between the
Arabic token and its English phonetic transcription is needed for the reciter learning purposes. This mapping
might needs a table, so it will be huge and messy if it is done for the whole chapter. And this can be the case
with the enhancement of adding the rules description as well. For this reason, another viewing option is
considered, which is viewing each verse of the chapter in a separated HTML page.

5.2.1.2 The Implementation

Implementing this enhancement made changes to the second program only, where the first program is not
affected. In the second program, an HTML page for every verse is created inside the loop over the file lines in
the same way of creating the HTML page for the Chapter. Here, a new page will be created when the verse
number (the second number in the location) is changed. So, the page contains the tokens that have the
same chapter and verse number but different token number and the verse name written between bracts.

5.2.1.3 The Output

The outputted page contains the tokens that have the same chapter and verse number but different token
number and the verse name written between bracts. The figure below shows an example HTML verse page.

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5.2.2 The English Phonetic transcription

The English phonetic translation was one of the implemented enhancements as it had a high priority for
several reasons. One reason is to improve the product usability, as implementing will make the product
produced useful for both Arabic speakers and non-Arabic speakers. Another reason is that from
programming and problem solving point of view, implementing this enhancement will require different skills
than that what is needed to implement the minimum requirements, which will add to the project value.
Besides these reasons, none of the reviewed similar problems provide colour coded English phonetic
transcription. So, there will be motivation to work on it, as it differs than what exists. The alternative
considered and the implementation are discussed in the following sub-sections.

5.2.2.1 Considering Alternative

Before implementing the enhancement of the English phonetic transcription, the IPA (International Phonetic
Alphabet) is considered as an alternative. By comparing both, the English phonetic transcription
outperformed the IPA. The reason is that when implementing the English phonetic transcription, evaluating
is possible using the available in the reviewed project Quranic Arabic Corpus. Also, the English phonetic
transcription uses Latin alphabet which is easier to read and spot mistake while evaluating. Meanwhile, the
IPA uses invented symbols beside the Latin alphabet, and then the evaluation would not be easy with limited
knowledge about IPA. And from this specific case, expectation raised that the English phonetic transcription
can be more useful for people as the English language is widely used, while reading IPA needs specific
knowledge. The Quranic Arabic Corpus can be considered as an evidence of the usefulness of the English
phonetic transcription. To clarify, the English phonetic transcription is one of the most useful features
provided by the Corpus besides many other features, which makes the site be visited by 1.2 million visitors in
a year (Dukes and Atwell, 2012).

5.2.2.2 The Implementation

The implementation of this enhancement requires editing the first and second programs, the additions to
both programs is explained here.

5.2.2.2.1 Editing the First Program

5.2.2.2.1.1 Choosing the Scheme

To start with the implementation, there is a need to have the basis of the translation. The scheme chosen is
from Arabic Through the Quran by Alan Jones, which used in the Quranic Arabic Corpus as well. This choice
will allow evaluating the solution and ensure a good level of usefulness. In the next page, the figure shows a

35
table taken form the book. The characters translation is in the last column of the table, while the vowels
mentioned in the book but not included in the table.

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5.2.2.2.1.2 Choosing the Procedure

The implementation can be done using different programing procedures, the dictionary is chosen and the
others are eliminated. The different alternatives eliminated are: if statements checking in the first program
and processing the outputted file of the first program using a new program.

The first alternative is eliminated as it will require a lot of coding which will result in a messy and inelegant
code. In addition, it will be time consuming from a processing point of view as it can require more than 28
checks if the char processed will be checked against all the Arabic characters to be determined and
translated.

The second alternative is eliminated because it will require the use of one of the other methods as well. So,
using it will just double the processing time as the character will be processed by the first program as well as
the new program.

5.2.2.2.1.3 The programming

The implementation of this enhancement involved editing the first program as well as the second program.
The code added to both programs is discussed in this sub-section.

In the first program, a dictionary where the key is the Arabic character and the value of the key is the
translation is added. And a variable to store the English translation of the processed character is initialized to
be an empty string, then it is updated carefully during the loop checks. To illustrate, the processed chars
diacritics are added in the loop checks, so the variable should be updated with each add. The reason that it
cannot be updated once at the end is that the keys are provided for individual chars not for the chars with all
possible occurrences of diacritics. So, the variable is update with the char and then with the diacritic added.
Then the updated variable is added to the line that will be printed into the output text file, to represent the
second column in the file.

In addition, another variable is set to store a value that indicates whether the processed char has shadda
as diacritic or not. The reason is that the diacritic shadda means the char is doubled (Jones, 2005), so the
value of the key shadda cant be determined and added to the dictionary. So in all rules check, a special
check is undertaken for the diacritic shadda. If the char has a shadda as diacritic, then the initialized variable
value is updated to be bold. Then, this variable is added to the line to be printed into the output file and
will be presented in a separated column. Then, in the presentation these characters will be printed in bold.

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5.2.2.2.1.4 The output

The output of the first program at this stage looks like the figure below, where the third and fourth columns
are added. The third column is the English phonetic translation of the char and its diacritics, and the fourth
column is to indicate if the char has shadda or not.

5.2.2.2.2 Editing the Second Program

5.2.2.2.1.2 Choosing the Procedure

Mapping between the Arabic tokens and its corresponding English phonetic transcription is needed. Some
possible implementation procedures considered are: numbering, highlighting and presenting in a table.

In the first procedure, the location of chars can be used. To clarify, when printing the tokens into the file, the
number of the token should be printed as well so each Arabic token is mapped to its corresponding token.
This procedure is eliminated, because it requires the user to think and check the numbers, which can affect
the recitation fluency.

The second procedure is to highlight the token by clicking on it for example, and then its corresponding
transcription is also highlighted. This procedure has been eliminated because highlighting means colouring
differently and the characters are already colour coded. So, by highlighting the colouring of the characters
will not be clear and distinguishable as it is with the white background.

Hence, the third procedure has been chosen, because it is doable from programing point of view, simple
form users point of view and elegant form presentation point of view.

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5.2.2.2.1.3 The programming

As the English phonetic transcription tokens need to be mapped to their corresponding Arabic token, then
printing directly to HTML is not possible. As a result, two variables are initialised to store the Arabic and
English tokens. Later if the characters have the same exact location, they are added to this intlised variable.
And when the location changed this means end of the previous token. The stored tokens then appended to
lists which are created to store all the tokens of the verse, a list for the Arabic tokens and another list for the
English tokens.

To handle the mapping between the two lists, a function that prints a table into the verses HTML pages is
added. The function takes the two lists and creates an HTML with the specified format. In the table caption
the chapter number and the verse number are printed. Then, a new row is created and the tokens in the
Arabic list are looped over to print each token to a new cell of the row. And the same procedure is applied to
add the English tokens in the second row of the table. At the end, the table and the HTML file are closed.

5.2.2.2.1.4 The output

The table created by the function contains two rows, where the first row shows the Arabic tokens and the
second row shows the English phonetic transcription. The following figure shows an example outputted
HTML page.

5.2.3 Description of the Rules

Adding a basic description to the colour coded characters is one of the implemented enhancements, for
some reasons that are similar to the reasons behind generating the English phonetic transcription. From

39
usability point of view, adding the description will help the users learn more about Tajweed rules while
practicing. It will also overcome the limitation of the colouring procedure used, which sometimes tell the
user the sound to be generated not the rule to be applied. From programing and web development point of
view, the implementation of this enhancement can involve using different features. Beside these two
reasons, this wasnt implemented in any of the reviewed problems, so it can result in a unique product. The
considered alternatives and the implementation of this enhancement are discussed in the following sub-
section.

5.2.3.1 Considering Alternatives

To ways of presenting the description of the rules applied to each token are considered. The first way is to
add another table to the verses HTML page and write the description in it. The table should present only the
tokens that have Tajweed rules applied to it, and these tokens should be located by adding their chapter,
verse and token numbers. The reason is that it is useless to add all tokens, and locating is necessary in case
the verse have the token more than once but with different Tajweed rules applied. And in this case it would
be better to add the corresponding English phonetic transcription to the table. By including all these
information in the table, some information will be redundant as it is included in the table previously
produced. So, this seems to be not efficient way of presentation. Furthermore, Tajweed rules can be applied
between two tokens and in this case presenting each token in a row is not a wise way and presenting them
both in the same row can be confusing as each token will have different location and can have different rules
as well. For the reasons discussed above this option was eliminated and another option which is using the
cursor hover is chosen.
Viewing the description of the rules using the cursor hover over the colour coded characters is an alternative
technique that can be used. Applying this technique will keep the simple and clear view and it would
eliminate the reprocessing of the other information. It will also add to the project value as new feature is
used instead of using the table again.

5.2.3.2 The Implementation

The description used in the implementation, is written as a simplified description based on the rules studied.
The implementation requires changes to the first and second program. The changes for both programs are
explained in the two coming sub-sections.

5.2.3.2.1 Editing the First Program

Adding the description resulted in adding a new column in the outputted file by the first program. This was
done by writing the description in the checks of the loop. To clarify, in the Tajweed rules checks if the rule is
applied to the processed char and it will be coloured differently, then in same line which is to be printed into

40
the output file after adding the specified colour, a description of the rule is added. An example output file is
shown in the figure below.

5.2.3.2.1 Editing the Second Program

In the second program, if statement is added to check the length of the list return when the line is split by
the tabs. If list length is six, then description is available and then it is decoded and stored. After that, the
description is added to both the Arabic and the English characters using the courser hover technique. The
description is added to the HTML that contains the whole chapter as well as the verses pages. An example of
the output is presented in the figure below.

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5.2.4 Implementing More Tajweed Rules

5.2.4.1 The set of rules

The implemented set of the Tajweed rules is limited, so in order to improve the utility of the product
produced more rules has been implementd. As discussed in the design chapter the four rules of Noon
Sakinah and Tanween are chosen to be implemented. Generally implementing these four rules is more
complicated and time consuming than the other implemented rules. The reason is that these rules can be
applied in a single token or between two tokens, which require more coding and processing.

5.2.4.2 The implementation

The implementation of this enhancement would affect the first program, while editing to the second
program will be required only when more colours used to set their HEX value.

From the experience of implementing the first four rules, it is detected that there are parts of the code that
will be needed in every rules check. And as these parts become known from the previous attempt solving
the problem, they are covered in a function to be used in the implementation of these four rules. So, the
function mainly updates the English phonetic transcription of the char and checks then updates its related
diacritics. It also covers the bold condition of the diacritic shadda, in addition to updating the location of the
char. Finally it set the line to be printed into the output file, as it takes the char, the colour and the
description as arguments in addition.

In the program body and before the implementation of the other rules, a main check is done to determine
the three types of Tanween (, , ) and the two possible cases of Noon Sakina (in the middle or at the
end). Under this main check, the three next chars to the processed char are set depending on three possible
cases: the char being Tanween or Noon at the end of the token, the chat being Noon in the middle and the
char being Tanween or Noon followed by a small meem which the case when the rule to be applied is Iqlab
as deducted.

After that each rule of the four rules of Noon Sakina and Tanween is checked. The rules are checked by
checking the processed character belongs to the set of characters of the rule, if yes then it is taken and the
function is called. When the char finish processing and printed into the output file, the counter is increased
to avoid processing the char again and the initialised variables are cleared to be ready of the next char as
discussed earlier.

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5.2.4.3 The Output
Example output after the implementation of the four rules is shown in the below figure, though the used
colours are the same as the colours used previously except the orange.

5.2.5 Apply for the Whole Quran (would it really work)

5.2.5 Appling the System to the whole Quran

Applying the system on the whole Quran is an enhancement that considered later as it would increase the
project utility and allow better implementation to the website enhancement. Though it is not expected that
applying the system to the whole Quran would require more work beside the time and space it would need,
it does. To explain, applying it to whole Quran means that there is a need to create a page for each chapter
as well because it is not practical to present the whole book in one HTML page.

So, the implementation of this requires adding some changes to the second program. The procedure used is
similar to that used to generate an HTML page for every verse. In the loop, the chapter number is tracked so
when it is changed a new HTML page is created and the previous one is closed.

Furthermore the first program needed to be edited as well, because when processing the whole Quran new
Quranic simples appeared which are not in the dictionary of the English phonetic transcription. In addition,
when the system is applied to the whole Quran new cases are discovered and some bugs are detected.

43
These are could not be discovered during testing the system using parts of the input file. Debugging and
correcting was time consuming system and required a lot of effort.

However, the running time and the space needed were reasonable.

5.2.6 The Website

Developing the website is one of the implemented enhancements, because at the first place it enables
accessing the project result remotely which is makes it available for users to use and help in the evaluation
phase. In addition it involves using different skills, as more features than what has been used in the second
program will be required.

The website is designed to be simple and provides an adequate level of information and features. The
website consists of five main HTML pages in addition to the pages generated by the system. The main pages
are: the website home page, the chapters catalogue, the verses catalogue, the useful links page and contact
us. Each page of these will be described in a sub-section below.

5.2.6.1 The Home Page

The Home page contains a general description about the website and its functionality. In the top of the page
there is navigation bar contains the links for the other four pages of the website. A screenshot of the page is
available in the appendices (figure: 1).

5.2.6.2 The Chapters Catalogue

This page provides a link for each chapter of the Quran, where the links are presented in a list and ordered
by the chapter number. The provided links are for the HTML pages that are generated by the systems
second program, while the page itself is generated by developing a new program.

The third program of the system is developed to present the created HTML pages in one page. The program
creates a new HTML file, and then includes the needed header lines and specifies the encoding type. Then it
loops over the files in a specified folder to get the files that match a given format. When detecting a file, the
link of the file is created then it is written to the HTML file to be created as an item of a list. When the loop is
completed, the HTML file is closed.

A screenshot of the page is available in the appendices (figure: 2).

5.2.6.3 The Verses Catalogue

This page provides links to all verses of the Quran, where the verses of one chapter are presented in a single
table. So, in the page there is 114 tables one for each chapter.

44
The page generated by the third program developed, using a procedure that is similar to the one used to
generate the chapters catalogue. However, more coding and processing is needed here in terms of detecting
the files and presenting them. To explain, in the verses case more processing involved as another loop is
needed to create the links of the files because both of the verse number and the chapter number are
needed. In addition, presenting each link in a row within a table that is specific to a given chapter requires
more coding.

A screenshot of the page is available in the appendices (figure: 3).

5.2.6.4 The Useful links page

This page contains a selected useful links to learn Quran and Tajweed.

A screenshot of the page is available in the appendices (figure:4 ).

5.2.6.5 The Contact us Page

The Contact us page is added to allow users give feedback about the website and send their quires or
comments via the form provided. It also contains a link to an evaluation form.

A screenshot of the page is available in the appendices (figure: 5).

5.3 Improvement of the Product Quality

In addition to implementing the enhancement which mainly improved the product utility, some features can
be added to improve the product quality. Here there is a general explanation about such implementations
which are considered during the implementation of the minimum requirements or added to the
enhancements.

5.3.1 The output table

Choosing the format of the output table of the first program is considered as an improvement to the product
quality. The file presents each character of the Quran with its diacritics added in a line along with its location
and its English phonetic translation in addition to other notations, this can be considered as a corpus that
can be used for further developments or in another project.

For example, this text file allows adding more features in this project such as offering searching about a
given verse or a token or finding all occurrences of a specific Tajweed rule. In other projects, researchers or
academic can use the file to find out information that is helpful for teaching purposes. For example, finding
which rule has the highest frequency among the other rules to give it a high priority when teaching people
Tajweed rules.

45
5.3.2 Improving the website functionalities
The website has been developed as an enhancement, but more features can be added to improve its quality.
One of the features added is a navigation bar in top of every page, to provide easier navigation between the
pages. In addition, in the page of each verse a link to the next verse and the previous verse are added.

Furthermore, the chapter name in both languages (Arabic and English) is presented in all chapters and verses
pages besides the numbers. This is done by creating a dictionary, where the key is chapter number and the
value is the chapter name. The chapters names used to create the dictionary are taken from another project
Voice of Quran which allows using the material they present.

5.3.3 Improving the rule description provided.

The idea of the providing the rules description has been implemented as an enhancement, but
improvements to provide a better quality description can be done. Considering the targeted users of the
website, the description should remain basic but it can be provided in both English and Arabic languages. So,
an Arabic description is added between bracts to make the descrption useful for Arabic and non-Arabic users.

5.4 Encountered Challenges

In order to process the Arabic text encoding is needed, as a result of the differences between the Arabic
script and the Europeans scripts which are handled by default (Habash, 2010). Habash (2010) has noted that
the main challenges of processing Arabic text are: the directionality as the script is from the right to the left,
using of diacritics, the variant shapes of the characters which depend on the context and processing Arabic
text that involves some Roman characters or digits.

Encoding was needed in solving the problem and all the mentioned challenges are encountered, so they will
be discussed briefly.

5.4.1 Directionality of the Script

Directionality is need to be dealt with when writing to HTML files as it is from left to right be default. After
searching about the necessary step, the problem could be solved and the text is presented from right to left.

5.4.2 Using of Diacritics

The usage of diacritics was a challenge in two different aspects: Colour coding and maintaining accuracy.
Though the diacritics of the Arabic text could be processed just like characters, colouring them differently
when needed was not possible. This is might be the cause of the inaccuracy of colouring in the other similar
projects. The problem needed a lot of effort (coding), time (debugging) and thinking (finding a solution) to be
tackled, but then it has been solved successfully. The other similar projects reviewed were not helpful in

46
solving the problem as the sites found have the same problem, but this gave the motivation and
resoluteness to solve the problem. Trying to think creatively a solution is found, which is using the white
space and tatweel ( orthographic simple used to lengthen the previous letter, available in the Arabic
keyboard). The reason is that they can separate the diacritic from the previous character, and separating
them will allow the diacritic to be coloured differently without colouring the character. This solution result in
having separated lines in the output file for the diacritic tanween as it is needed to be coloured differently.
The choice of which one to use: the white space or tatweel, will be clarified in the next sub-section.

From the maintaining accuracy aspect, the usage of the diacritics adds complexity to the text. In other words
as the text processed is fully discretised, it is not easy to detect missing diacritics. As explained in the earlier
sections the Arabic character can have 0, 1 or 2 diacritics, so tracking them all is not an easy task.

The idea of tatweel is also used to solve another problem appeared as a result of the automated printing of
the name of Allah supported in the HTML pages. To explain, the name of Allah in the input file has and
as diacritics. So, when it is processed by the first program these diacritics are added to the character. The
problem is that other diacritics are added automatically in addition to those forms the input file. At the start
the solution considered is to not add the diacritics from the input file, as the one added automatically cannot
be controlled. However when the efficiency of tatweel discovered, decision made to use it as it requires less
processing. Using tatweel changes the structure of the word slightly, so it is not detected. In the (figure: ) the
first line the name of Allah has the diacritic twice, the second line is after applying the first solution and
the last line shows the tatweel solution.

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5.4.3 Contextually Variant Shapes of Characters

To clarify what is mentioned in the previous sub-section, tatweel cannot be used in all cases as there are
Arabic characters cannot be connected from the left. So, because of this checks need to be carried out and if
the previous character has this characteristic then the solution is to add a white space.

5.4.4 Involving Digits or Roman characters

The challenge of processing Arabic text that involves some Roman characters or digits is encountered during
the processing of the input file. In each line of the file, the chapter and the verse number are written in
addition the text Arabic characters, which can affect the indexing. In addition presenting both Arabic text
and English text in one HTML file, requires specifying the language before printing into the file.

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6. Evaluation of the Solution
6.1 Evaluation Method
The project is evaluated using both self-evaluation and user-evaluation, each method is discussed below.

6.1.1 Self-Evaluation
Evaluating the result against some sources in addition to comparing the product produced with what exists
are considered under this sub-section.

6.1.1.1 Evaluating the result using sources

During the implementation phase, testing and debugging of the programs developed was necessary. So, the
programs are tested using appropriate input to check that the output produced is what is expected. Also, the
different possible cases and occurrences of the characters are considered. The result of the system is
checked against three sources that are found suitable and trustful: the downloaded file from Tanzil to ensure
that the Arabic characters and diacritics are correct and complete, the Quranic Arabic Corpus to check the
English phonetic translation of the Arabic tokens and a colour coded printed copy of the Quran to check the
colouring after applying the Tajweed rules.

After several runs where each involves a correction, the final result of the system found to be correct and
accurate from a self-evaluation point of view. Overall, the accuracy of the Arabic text is maintained, the
colouring of rules is clear and correct though more rules can be applied and the English phonetic translation
can be improved by considering some special cases.

6.1.1.2 Comparing the produced solution with existing similar solutions

The comparison of the produced solution with existing solution can covered different aspects: the accuracy
of the colouring, colouring procedure, the colour bar, the Tajweed rules set, viewing and display options,
the other features and functionalities. In this section the project produced solution is compared to the
reviewed similar problems solution.

6.1.1.2.1 Quranic Arabic Corpus

The Quranic Arabic Corpus is one of the reviewed problems, but it doesnt provide solution that is related to
the Tajweed problems. So it can only the last aspect can be compared, as both projects provide the English
phonetic transcription of the Quranic text. Comparing the two solutions, there are some differences for
example the transcription of the shadda. In the corpus solution it is sometimes converted to the character
doubled other times the character is kept single and the reason wasnt clear or indicted though the correct

49
pronunciation is maintained. In this project solution the shadda is indicated by making the character bold in
all cases. Another difference is lam shamsiyah discussed earlier, in this project the problem solved by
applying the rule which colours the lam with grey as not pronounced. Though these two examples may
shows that the two solutions can be equivalent, there is a special case not considered in this project solution
due to time limitation but it is covered in the Corpus. The special case is the transcription of the
disconnected letters, which are presented at the start of 29 chapters of the holy book and should be
pronounced individually as the pronunciation of their alphabet rather than as one morphologic token
(Nguyen, 2012). So, it can be conclude that the solution of the Corpus is better and more accurate, but it also
worth considering the time limitation as the Corpus is a huge project done during longer period.

6.1.1.2.2 Quran Explorer

This project is solving the same problem, so more aspects can be compared. The comparison aspects are
discussed below:

The accuracy of the colouring:

The colouring of this project solution is much more accurate than the solution exists, this is discussed in the
revision of the similar problem section.
The colouring procedure:
The colouring procedure is discussed before, in this project anther colouring procedure is implemented and
expected to be better for the reasons mentioned.
The colour bar:
The colour bar of the existing solution is clear and the colours chosen are distinguishable, but it only in
English. So, this project solution outweighs the existing solution.
The Tajweed rules set:
The existing solution applies two rules not implemented in this project, but this project also implementing
another two rules that is not implemented in the existence.
The viewing and display options:
The existing solution provides better viewing and displaying options.
The other features and functionalities:
The existing solution provides the English translation of the verses, while this project provides the English
phonetic transcription of the verses.

Overall, it can be considered that in terms of solving the problem this project solution is better more
accurate than the compared solution, it is also better than many other existing solutions that are not

50
discussed here because similarity. The aim of the project is colour coding the text and the website is an
enhancement that is done to make the product publicly available.

6.1.1.2.2 Easy Quran Store

If a compression will be carried out then then the aspects considered are:
The accuracy of the colouring:
The level of accuracy is nearly the same.
The colouring procedure:
The same procedure used.
The colour bar:
The existing solution provides a very good colour bar but it is only in English.
The Tajweed rules set:
They provide an excellent set, which covers more rules than what is provided in this projects solution.
The viewing and display options:
Is is a scanned copy of a printed Quran so it has no displaying options, but then it is not publicly available.
The other features and functionalities:
It lacks of the English phonetic translation, which is provided colour coded by this projects solution.

Actually, the solution provided is not produced computationally, so the comparison is not so sensible.
Similarly this would be the case with Search Truth and the printed copy of the Quran. So, in general the
colour bar is cropped in the solution provided by Search Truth as discussed in the revision section but the
solution is publicly available and the different viewing options are provided. The printed copy has the colour
bar but not publicly available. Both of these existing solution provide more a larger set of rules than this
project solution, but they both lack the English phontic translation.
To conclude, this project solution can be considered a competitor solution that provides an accurate solution
in implementing Tajweed rules with an adequate level of additional features.

6.1.2 User-Evaluation
After making the solution publicly available by developing the website, some users are asked to evaluate the
solution. Though the hole book is presented in the website, one chapter is selected for evaluation purposes.
The chapter chosen is the chapter number 56 - Al-Waqia because it is of moderate length and
contains all the Tajweed rules implemented. In the sub-sections below, the evaluation from and the
evaluation results are discussed.

51
6.1.2.1 Setting the Evaluation form
In order to get a specific feedback from the users about the different features provided, an evaluation form
was need. In the beginning an evaluation form is prepared, which consider these different aspects: the
Accuracy of the Arabic Quranic text, the English phonetic transcription, the colouring of the letters, the
description of the Tajweed rules and the websites presentation and usability. The evaluation form is also
translated to the Arabic language and sent to different groups. The users are asked to answer the questions
in the form by giving grades from 1 to 5, and then send it via the website form or by email.

After few days it is noted that creating the form using Google documents will make the evaluation easier for
the users. In addition, tracking and collecting of the result will not be needed as the data will be collected
automatically, which make analysing the results easier.

So, An English/Arabic form is created with the website link in the header (figure 6), and distributed again. By
using the electronic form more users gave their feedback, but without comments like when they send it via
the site form.

6.1.2.2 Collect the result

The results of two forms are collected, 12 evaluation forms are received via the website while another 17 are
send it via the electronic form. The users evaluation that is received via the website form is available in
appendix (E), and the evaluation received via the electronic form is shown in the figure (7).

6.1.2.3 Analyse the result

The feedback received form the evaluators is impressive. The majority of them find the product to be good
and useful and some evaluators gave a valuable feedback and suggestions. Overall, the solution produced is
evaluated to be good or very good by 29 evaluators.

52
7. Conclution
The project was a success, the minimum requirements are achieved and several enhancements are
implemented. In terms of solving the problem, the solution produced found to be useful and accurate, and
this is proven by users evaluation. It can be considered unique in comparison to other existing solution as it
provides many different good features.

7.1 Lessons Learnt

From this experience it can be conclude that choosing a project of interest, is important as this give the
motivation to work and the joy while working. One form the lessons to learn is to add margins for the major
tasks, as there will be always something out of the plan.

7.2 Possible Extensions

The product produced give motivation to complete the work and add more features and functionalities. So,
the website might be hosted with a permanent host as there is a personal objective to extend the work by
implementing some of the possible extensions below or alternatively donate the website.

Display the result using Quranic Font

implement More Rules
Add Audio Recordings
Improving the Website Functionality
Improving the English Phonetic Transcription
Add the IPA translation
Produce a Colour Blended Version

53
References:

Ali, M., 2011. The Holy Quran English Translation and commentary [e-book]. USA: Ahmadiyya Islamic
Society. Available at: Google Books [Accessed 25 February 2013].
BBC, 2011, The Quran [online] Avilable
At:<http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/texts/quran_1.shtml >[Accessed 23 February 2013]
Bishop, B., 1998. History of the Arabic Language. [online] Brigham Young University, Department of
Linguistics. Available at: <http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/arabic.html > [Accessed 2
February 2013].

Draz, M A, 2000. Understanding the Qur'an: Themes and Styles. London: I.B. Tauris & CO Ltd.
Dukes,K. and Atwell,E., 2012. LAMP: A Multimodal Web Platform for Collaborative Linguistic Analysis.
Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC). Istanbul, Turke.
Fatoohi, L., 2013, Abrogation in the Quran and Islamic Law [e-book]. UK: Routledge. Available at: Google
Books [Accessed 25 February 2013].
Habash, N., 2010, Introduction to Arabic Natural Language Processing [e-book]. Morgan & Claypoolgh.
Available at: University of Leeds [Accessed 25 February 2013].
Jones, A., 2006. Arabic Through the Quran [e-book]. UK: Cambridge. Available at:
<http://aryabima.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/arabic-through-the-quran.pdf> [Accessed 14 February 2013]
Khalifa, R., 2007. Quran - The Final Testament [e-book]. USA: united community of submitters. Available at:
Google Books [Accessed 25 February 2013].
Martin, 2012. A Study on the Disconnected Letters of the Quran. [online] Available
at:<http://islamicana.com/2012/10/27/a-study-on-the-disconnected-letters-of-the-quran/> [Accessed 4
February 2013]
Sharaf, A. and Atwell, E., 2012. QurAna: Corpus of the Quran annotated with Pronominal Anaphora. LREC
2012; Pp 130-137.
Versteegh, K., 2001, The Arabic Language [e-book]. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Available at:
Google Books [Accessed 1 February 2013].

54
Appendix (A): Personal Reflection

The Experience gained working on the project is valuable and different skills have been used and developed.
Project and time management is one of the most important skills needed when working on project, this skill
have been improved while working on the project. Programming and software development is also another
important skill, which was fundamentally used and dramatically developed specially that the data set used in
the project was an Arabic text. Also, the implementation of the enhancements helps to gain better
knowledge about creating HTML pages and websites designing and development. In addition, the problem
nature gave a chance to expand the knowledge about NLP.

55
Appendix (B): External Material

The Quranic Arabic text file from Tanzil

http://tanzil.net/#19:12
The chapter names from voice of Quran
http://www.voiceofquran.com/q_list.php?zaban=e&q=qrpt

56
Appendix (C): Ethical Issues

No ethical issues has been addressed for this project

57
Appendix (D): Figures
Figure 1

Figure 2

58
Figure 3

59
Figure 4

Figure 5

60
Figure 6

Figure 7

61
Appendix (E): Users Evaluation

a. The Arabic Quranic text

1. Is the wording and diacritics are correct and accurate?
I don't know, they look like Arabic but I cannot read Arabic

b. The English phonetic transcription

2. Does it help non Arabic speakers to recite Quran?
4 yes I think so, I can read the roman phonetic transliteration,
BUT I don't understand Tajweed so cannot apply the rules

3. Is it easy to read and follow?

4 as far as I can work out...

c. The colouring of the letters

4. Does it help learning Tajweed?
4 I guess it does, but I dont really know for sure

5. Is it a good way to help you practicing applying the rules?

3 It doesnt help ME but I see it might help if I understood tajweed

6. Is it correct and accurate?

3 I dont know

7. The description of Tajweed rules

8. Is the description provided with the curser hover over letters useful?
4 it looks useful, BUT I don't know Tajweed

9. Does it help you learning more about tajweed?

3 not a lot but then I dont know the Quran or Tajweed that well anyway

d. The website and presentation

10. How is the way chosen to present the system output?
4 I like the simple, clear design of website - trminds me of Google start-page,
just the basic info and no frills.

11. How good the content and style of the site is?
4 this question (and answer) seems to be the same as Q10

12. How easy the navigation?

4 The only navigation I could see was "next verse" and "previous verse"
and the header links; this is simple and minimal, so I am not likely to get lost.

e. Usability of the Site

13. Is the site usable by Arabic and non-Arabic speakers?
4 yes, but I am not sure what non-Arabic speakers could use it for...

14. Can the site be used to recite the Quran?

3 not sure, I think you need good understanding of Arabic and Tajweed

15. Is it helpful in learning Tajweed?

4 again, not sure, i think you need to understand Tajweed rules first; then
the site in effect gives lots of practice.

Eric Atwell <E.S.Atwell@leeds.ac.uk>

62
Website feedback from http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~fy09f2ha/contact%20us.html

query:
from 1 to 5
where 1 very bad, 2 bad, 3 no opinion, 4 good, 5 very good.
You comments are also welcomed if you have any.
a. The Arabic Quranic text
1. Is the wording and diacritics are correct and accurate? (5)
b. The English phonetic transcription
(4)
2. Does it help non Arabic speakers to recite Quran?
(5)
3. Is it easy to read and follow?
(4)
c. The colouring of the letters
4. Does it help learning Tajweed?
(5)
5. Is it a good way to help you practicing applying the rules? (5)
6. Is it correct and accurate? (3)
7. The description of Tajweed rules
8. Is the description provided with the curser hover over letters useful? (5)(I
think you should tell the user about this feature because I didn't know about
it)
9. Does it help you learning more about tajweed?
(5)
d. The website and presentation
10. How is the way chosen to present the system output?
(5)
11. How good the content and style of the site is?
(4)
12. How easy the navigation?
(5)
e. Usability of the Site
13. Is the site usable by Arabic and non-Arabic speakers?
(5)
14. Can the site be used to recite the Quran?
(5)
15. Is it helpful in learning Tajweed?
(5)

Good job ma sha'a allah.. I really like the idea and the execution of it.

name:
Marwa Alhawaj

email:
fy11mza@leeds.ac.uk

63
mashallah impressive

>>a. The Arabic Quranic text

>>1. Is the wording and diacritics are correct and accurate? 3
>>
>>b. The English phonetic transcription
>>2. Does it help non Arabic speakers to recite Quran? 4
>>3. Is it easy to read and follow? 4
>>
>>c. The colouring of the letters
>>4. Does it help learning Tajweed? 4
>>5. Is it a good way to help you practicing applying the rules? 5
>>6. Is it correct and accurate? 3
>>7. The description of Tajweed rules 5
>>8. Is the description provided with the curser hover over letters useful? 5
>>9. Does it help you learning more about tajweed? 4
>>
>>d. The website and presentation
>>10. How is the way chosen to present the system output? 4
>>11. How good the content and style of the site is?4
>>12. How easy the navigation?5
>>
>>e. Usability of the Site
>>13. Is the site usable by Arabic and non-Arabic speakers? 3 (it think
>>it is quite easy to follow for Arabic speakers but am not sure for
>>non-Arabic as I said before some letters are diconnected so it might be
>>a bit difficult for them to read)
>>14. Can the site be used to recite the Quran? 4
>>15. Is it helpful in learning Tajweed? 5
>>
>>
>>Additional comments:there are lots of letters missing am not sure
>>whthere that due to the broswer or writing mistakes for instance:
>>- the letter (N= noon) is not available to see as in ayah number 11 (
>>&#1649;), ayah number 96 ( &#1648; ) and ayah number
45.
>>- in ayah 81, there should be two (meem) letters but only 1 is availabe in the
ayah
>>()
>>- in ayah (16+20) the letter (Meem) is missing
>>
>>also,I got distracted by the colours as I jump to the first bright
>>colour I saw to see the Tajaweed behind it.
>
> Zainab Alsadah
>----- End message from fy09zaa@leeds.ac.uk

64
Dear Fatimah,

It is a pleasure evaluating your lovely work, great idea and very helpful website in deed.

Here are the answers to your questions:

a. The Arabic Quranic text

1. Is the wording and diacritics are correct and accurate?
5
But I would say that in verses 16, 20, 23, 32, 54, 55 the Alif that is placed above some words is not very clear to

see. For example, in verse 16 the word ?????????????? has an alif above the
word but it is not very clear to see. May be if you add an extra blank line between
the chapter verses, that letter (the alif) will be clearer.
b. The English phonetic transcription
2. Does it help non Arabic speakers to recite Quran? 5
3. Is it easy to read and follow? 5
c. The colouring of the letters
4. Does it help learning Tajweed? 5
5. Is it a good way to help you practicing applying the rules? 5
6. Is it correct and accurate? 5

7. The description of Tajweed rules

8. Is the description provided with the curser hover over
letters useful? 4
9. Does it help you learning more about tajweed? 5

d. The website and presentation

10. How is the way chosen to present the system output? 5 (I like it very much, well done!)
11. How good the content and style of the site is?5
12. How easy the navigation? 5

e. Usability of the Site

13. Is the site usable by Arabic and non-Arabic speakers? 5
14. Can the site be used to recite the Quran? 5
15. Is it helpful in learning Tajweed? 5 (very much)

The only remark is: could you remove bissmi Allah alrahman al rahem to a seperate line before the chapter verses or
even change it's colour.

Best of luck to you and a very well done!

Nora Abbas <noorhanabbas@yahoo.co.uk>

65
Hi Fatimah,

I think you done a good and useful project.

I've evaluated the project based on your method and questions, and there are some
comments I have added to the evaluation.

EvaluationofFatimahAldahansProject

By Abdullah Alfaifi

Item Score Comment

a. The Arabic Quranic text

1. Is the wording and diacritics are correct and accurate? 4 C 1

b. The English phonetic transcription

2. Does it help non Arabic speakers to recite Quran? 4 C 2

3. Is it easy to read and follow? 3

c. The colouring of the letters

4. Does it help learning Tajweed? 5

5. Is it a good way to help you practicing applying the rules? 5

6. Is it correct and accurate? 5

7. The description of Tajweed rules (I think this may be a sub-title, not a

question, is that correct?)

8. Is the description provided with the curser hover over letters useful? 4 C 3

9. Does it help you learning more about tajweed? 4

d. The website and presentation

10. How is the way chosen to present the system output? 4

11. How good the content and style of the site is? 5 C 4

12. How easy the navigation? 5

e. Usability of the Site

13. Is the site usable by Arabic and non-Arabic speakers? 4 C 5

14. Can the site be used to recite the Quran?

15. Is it helpful in learning Tajweed? 4 C 6

C1

1. You adopted the original wayofwritingQuranOthmanisketch,whilethistypeit

not fully supported by normal fonts, so some words appear distorted such as following:

66
Your text The original Othmani text

2. Tanwin was mostly added on the wrong character, it should be on the last letter while

it is currently on the one before. This caused wrong form of some words:

Your text The original Othmani text- 2 -

C2

It would be helpful for reciting Quran in general, but for following Tajweed rules there is

nothing in the transcription to indicate the exact way of reciting. It would be better if

there are audio examples which can be heard and followed by readers, particularly nonArabic speakers (NAS).

C3

When I go by the mouse pointer over a coloured character, the description of Tajweed

rule appears in hint box and then disappear in a short while, this did not give me an

adequate time to read the description entirely, so I was needed to go over the letters

again.

C4

I like simple and clear design of web pages; they are easy to read, to find links, and to

find information you need.

C5

Of course it is usable by Arabic speakers (AS), but you should be careful about NAS, as

some of them may not be able to read Arabic characters, especially those who recite

Quran rarely.

As I know, Eric is working with some scholars on a project with an aim of development

and evaluation of software for generating a phonetically-transcribed, stressed and

syllabified version of the entire text of the Quran using the International Phonetic

Alphabet (API). I think such project (adapting API) could be helpful for NAS.

C6

Although the website covered some of the important Tajweed rules, there are other still

needtobeincludedsuch Prolongation, Nnskinahand

tanwn,etc1

Abdullah Alfaifi <scayga@leeds.ac.uk>

67
Website feedback from http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~fy09f2ha/contact%20us.html

query:
Q1: 3 (See below)
Q2: 5
Q3: 5
Q4: 4
Q5: 5
Q6: 5
Q7: 4
Q8: 5
Q9: 2
Q10: 4
Q11: 4
Q12: 3 (see below)
Q13: 5
Q14: 4
Q15: 5

Some of the ayat (alwa8e3ah: 12, 16,45,47,51,54) had some mistakes in or, not all
the letters were shown, although I used internet explorer.

Finding swar is fairly easy. However, I find the verses list is too long to
navigate, so maybe if there was first a choice of the Sorah, then the verse
or a searching link (for ayah, sorah, verse... etc) it would be much easier to
find what is needed.

There are no e6'har or E5fa2 of tajweed

There is no Mad, and no Shadah emphasis

In general I think it needs time to get used to the website, but otherwise, the
website is very Good Mashallah. Good job.

name:
Fatimah Altayeb

email:
blue_ocean_2009@live.com

68
Website feedback from http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~fy09f2ha/contact%20us.html

query:
a. The Arabic Quranic text
1. Is the wording and diacritics are correct and accurate?
5
b. The English phonetic transcription
2. Does it help non Arabic speakers to recite Quran?
5
3. Is it easy to read and follow?
4
c. The colouring of the letters
4. Does it help learning Tajweed?
5
5. Is it a good way to help you practicing applying the rules?
5
6. Is it correct and accurate?
5
d. The description of Tajweed rules
7. Is the description provided with the curser hover over
letters useful?
4
8. Does it help you learning more about tajweed?
3
e. The website and presentation
9. How is the way chosen to present the system output?
4
10. How good the content and style of the site is?
4
11. How easy the navigation?
4
f. Usability of the Site
12. Is the site usable by Arabic and non-Arabic speakers?
5
13. Can the site be used to recite the Quran?
4
14. Is it helpful in learning Tajweed?
5
15. give yourself a score out of 5 in Quran and Tajweed.
4.5

name:
Zahra'a hussin AL dahan

email:
zozo-7lwa@hotmail.com

69
Website feedback from http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~fy09f2ha/contact%20us.html

query:
a. The Arabic Quranic text
1. Is the wording and diacritics are correct and accurate? 5

b. The English phonetic transcription

2. Does it help non Arabic speakers to recite Quran?5
3. Is it easy to read and follow?5

c. The colouring of the letters

4. Does it help learning Tajweed?5
5. Is it a good way to help you practicing applying the rules?3
6. Is it correct and accurate?5

d. The description of Tajweed rules

7. Is the description provided with the curser hover over letters useful?5
8. Does it help you learning more about tajweed? 5

e. The website and presentation

9. How is the way chosen to present the system output? 4
10. How good the content and style of the site is? 5
11. How easy the navigation?5

f. Usability of the Site

12. Is the site usable by Arabic and non-Arabic speakers?5
13. Can the site be used to recite the Quran?4
14. Is it helpful in learning Tajweed?5

15. give yourself a score out of 5 in Quran and Tajweed.1

name:
zainab

email:
zzzzzzzzzz_009@hotmail.com

70
Website feedback from http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~fy09f2ha/contact%20us.html

query:
a. The Arabic Quranic text
1. Is the wording and diacritics are correct and accurate?
5
b. The English phonetic transcription
2. Does it help non Arabic speakers to recite Quran?
5
3. Is it easy to read and follow?
4
c. The colouring of the letters
4. Does it help learning Tajweed?
5
5. Is it a good way to help you practicing applying the rules?
5
6. Is it correct and accurate?
5
d. The description of Tajweed rules
7. Is the description provided with the curser hover over
letters useful?
5 very useful, i liked
8. Does it help you learning more about tajweed?
5
e. The website and presentation
9. How is the way chosen to present the system output?
3
10. How good the content and style of the site is?
4
11. How easy the navigation?
5
f. Usability of the Site
12. Is the site usable by Arabic and non-Arabic speakers?
5
13. Can the site be used to recite the Quran?
4
14. Is it helpful in learning Tajweed?
5
15. give yourself a score out of 5 in Quran and Tajweed.
4

name:
your mother

email:
t.aleskafi@hotmail.com

71
Website feedback from http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~fy09f2ha/contact%20us.html

query:
(1) 4: the superscript Alif is not so clear and sometimes it is written in the
wrong place like it is written over the letter Dal while it must be
between the Dal and the noon. There is also missing Alif in the the verse
( ).

(2)5: very helpful I like the way that each verse is written in arabic followed
by the english. It would be more helpful if the meaning of verse is translated to
english.

(3)5

(4) 5

(5) 5

(6) 5: I have not checked every verse.

(7) 5

(8) 1: it is only very basic rules. I would rather publich the web site to to
beginners or childern (Sorry). In addtion, the first lesson in Tajweed must be
learning the exits of letters ( ). Just a picture of that in
the first page is recommended.

(9) 5

(10)5

(11) 5

(12) 4

(13)5

(14)5

(15) 3

Overall, very excellent.

name:
Fatimah Al Turki

email:
cdpne_2009@windowslive.com

72
Website feedback from http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~fy09f2ha/contact%20us.html

query:
I am Arabic speaker
I give myself score of 4 in Tajweed
a.The Arabic Quranic text
1. Is the wording and diacritics are correct and accurate? 5
b. The English phonetic transcription
2. Does it help non Arabic speakers to recite Quran? 5
3. Is it easy to read and follow? 5
c. The colouring of the letters
4. Does it help learning Tajweed? 5
5. Is it a good way to help you practicing applying the rules? 5
6. Is it correct and accurate? 5
7. The description of Tajweed rules 5
8. Is the description provided with the curser hover over
letters useful? 5
9. Does it help you learning more about tajweed? 5
d. The website and presentation
10. How is the way chosen to present the system output? 5
11. How good the content and style of the site is? 5
12. How easy the navigation? 5
e. Usability of the Site
13. Is the site usable by Arabic and non-Arabic speakers? 5
14. Can the site be used to recite the Quran? 5
15. Is it helpful in learning Tajweed? 5

name:

email:

73
a. The Arabic Quranic text
1. Is the wording and diacritics are correct and accurate? 4
b. The English phonetic transcription 5
2. Does it help non Arabic speakers to recite Quran? 4
3. Is it easy to read and follow? 5
c. The colouring of the letters 5
4. Does it help learning Tajweed? 5
5. Is it a good way to help you practicing applying the rules? 5
6. Is it correct and accurate? 5
7. The description of Tajweed rules 4
8. Is the description provided with the curser hover over letters useful? 5
9. Does it help you learning more about tajweed? 5
d. The website and presentation 3
10. How is the way chosen to present the system output? 4
11. How good the content and style of the site is? 3
12. How easy the navigation? 2
e. Usability of the Site 4
13. Is the site usable by Arabic and non-Arabic speakers? 4
14. Can the site be used to recite the Quran? 4
15. Is it helpful in learning Tajweed? 5

Luluh Aldhubayi <ml11lbma@leeds.ac.uk>

74