Do I have to be a salesman to get someone to join me here?
Bismillahir rahmanir rahim,
Alif Lam Miim
Ghulibati al-rum...
I've now read the surah twice and listened to it three times in Arabic (which is purely for the beauty of hearing it, seeing as I don't speak Arabic).
I am working on taking the words, finding the root word, and translating it using an arabic dictionary. Then, I am going to look at the words and try to make sentences out of it. Then I got my grammar books to verify my understanding.
InshaAllah, this process will help me learn both the meaning of the Word of Allah and new insight to the Arabic language.
I wish I had a stick to poke some people to join me....
Ghulibati comes from ghulaba, to defeat. Al-Rum is Rome. Defeat Rome?
Either Rome is defeating someone or Rome has defeated someone. Or Rome will defeat someone. Or vice versa, someone will defeat Rome, rome has been defeated, etc....
Well, starting at Wikipedia (and the AYA Qur'an), a little background will explain the historical background of this Surah and shed light on the meaning:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith_...in_Sura_al-Rum.
This Surah contains a miracle of prophecy! Is that enough of a sell to entice someone to join me in this search for understanding?
We could also interpret the meaning of the ayah by examining the Arabic language from a grammatical standpoint, but I am not certain of the ins and outs of Arabic grammar. I'm sure that the word "ghulibati" signals past tense etc.
If no one joins me, then I'm just going to do it myself, inshaAllah, and I will post up the progress of some white kid learning Qur'an.