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

Prophetic Language      


© 2004-2002,  Dara O. Shayda