Hibernate and suspend (stand-by) now work in Ubuntu on my HP Compaq 8710w
I don’t know what the Ubuntu comunity has done about it, or what have I done with the configuration of my Ubuntu (9.04 Jaunty) system, but hibernate and suspend seem to work now. This in addition to the somewhat tweaked nVidia Quadro FX 1600M (rev a1) graphic card. Alhamdulillah. I have been using Windows XP for a while because of this.
Still, the graphic driver is not that good. Moving of the cursor, as I write this, is quite slow.
Arabic-English lexicon (dictionary) by Edward William Lane
There’s a huge Arabic-English lexicon (dictionary) by Edward William Lane available online for free. The following site has a very useful browsable interface to the individual pages and word roots:
http://www.tyndalearchive.com/TABS/Lane/
via http://www.studyquran.co.uk/ArabicDictionaries.htm
There’s also an stale ongoing project at the Distributed Proofreaders site concerning the lexicon. Go check it out.
SMS: “Tim Gowers – Computational Complexity and Quantum Compuation”
Computational complexity is the study of what resources, such as time and memory, are needed to carry out given computational tasks, with a particular focus on lower bounds for the amount needed of these resources. Proving any result of this kind is notoriously difficult, and includes the famous problem of whether P = N P . This course will be focused on two major results in the area. The first is a lower bound, due to Razborov, for the number of steps needed to determine whether a graph contains a large clique, if only “monotone” computations are allowed. This is perhaps the strongest result in the direction of showing that P and N P are distinct (though there is unfortunately a very precise sense in which the proof cannot be developed to a proof of the whole conjecture). The second is Peter Shor’s remarkable result that a quantum computer can factorize large integers in
polynomial time. In order to present these two results, it will be necessary to spend some time discussing some of the basic concepts of computational complexity, such as the relationship between Turing machines and the more obviously mathematical notion of circuit complexity, and an introduction to what a quantum computation actually is. For the latter, no knowledge of quantum mechanics will be expected, and scarcely any will be imparted during the course: it is possible to understand quantum computation in a very “pure mathematics” way. The reason this is a graduate course rather than a Part III course is that I intend to give several lectures in an informal style that would be hard to examine. It is not because the material will be more advanced: indeed, my aim will be to make allowances for the fact that people will not be working on it with an exam in mind, and to make the course as easy to follow as I can. Having said that, the main results will be proved in full: the informal discussion will be with a view to making these proofs more comprehensible.
The collection will have 12 graduate level lectures which are currently being given during the Easter term 2009. Many thanks to Adrian Callum-Hinshaw for his help with these video lectures.
via SMS: “Tim Gowers – Computational Complexity and Quantum Compuation”.
The Reality of Truthfulness (Sidq)
via:
http://www.marifah.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2265&pid=9488&mode=threaded&show=&st=&
The Reality of Truthfulness (Sidq)
As for truthfulness (sidq), Allah says:
“O you who believe! Have fear of Allah (taqwa) and be with the truthful.” (9:120)
“Be among the truthful” because the one who sits with someone is influenced for good and evil. Nature is a thief. A man copies the one he mixes with a lot, even if he is not aware of it. Tarafa said,
Do not ask about a man. Ask about his close companions.
Every man imitates his close companions.
This is the best path to travel for someone who wants to discipline himself. It is to mix with the perfect man so that his nature and good habits flow to him. The influence of actions is absolutely stronger than the influence of words.
Al-Qushayri noted, “Truthfulness is the basis of the matter and it is made perfect by it, and it is commanded.” He said, “The least truthfulness is when what is secret and what is public are the same.”
Sahl said, “The scent of truthfulness has not been smelt by any person who flatters wither himself or another person.”
“Truthfulness is the sword of Allah,” said Dhu’n-Nun al-Misri. “It is not applied to anything but that it cuts right through it.”
Al-Harith al-Muhasibi said, “The truthful man is the one who does not care if his entire worth in the hearts of men should vanish away if it is for the sake of putting his heart in harmony. He does not like people to know about his least good actions, and he does not dislike people being aware of his bad actions. If he dislike that, it is proof that he desires to be greater in their eyes. This is not sincerity of the truthful ones.”
It is said that if you seek truthfulness from Allah, He will give you a mirror in which you can see the baseless falsehood of this world and the Next.
The master, Abu’l-Qasim al-Junayd, said, “The truthful man is turned about forty times a day, while the show-off is fixed in the same state for forty years.”
By this, he means that the truthful man changes direction with the truth, no matter what it is. When sees something in the Shari’a which is considered to be excellent, he promptly does it, even if it is at variance with his customary habit. If something arises in the Shari’a which is more important, but he cannot combine the two things, then he moves to the better one. He continues to behave like that. In a single day, he may have a hundred different states, or a thousand or even more, according to his mastery of gnosis, and the manifestation to him of fine points and subtleties.
The show-off, on the other hand, clings to one state alone, and if something arises which the Shari’a considers more important in some states, then he will still not do that important thing. He will hold fast to his state, because he is showing off his worship and his state to creation. He fears that people will stop loving him if he changes. He is very careful to ensure that their love continues. But the truthful one desires only the Face of Allah by his worship. Whenever the Shari’a gives greater weight to a certain state, he goes to that state, and does not turn to creation.
-Imam Abu Zakariyya Muhyi’d-din ibn Sharaf an-Nawawi, The Garden of the Gnostics (Bustan-ul-Arifeen)
Murid’s Log: Moulay Abd as-Salam ibn Mashish
The Shadhili Tariqa is built on the foundations of Shukr and Mahabba, gratitude to Allah, and love for him. Moulay Abd as-Salam ibn Mashish summed up the way of the Tariqa that his greatest student was to found in his famous advice to the brethren:
“Seek four things after four things:
Love for Allah,
Satisfaction with the Decree of Allah,
Indifference of the heart towards worldly things, and
Reliance on Allah.
Attain these four, after these four:
Performing Allah’s commands,
Avoiding Allah’s prohibitions,
Patience and fortitude from everything that does not concern one, and
Abandoning everything that distracts and diverts one.”
Were this admonition the only piece of knowledge we had of the Sheikh, it would be enough to prove the truth of his immense understanding, and his lofty status before Allah.
SunniPath Blog – » Common Sense has died
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn’t always fair, and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children, are in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Panadol, sun lotion or a sticky plaster to a student but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; by his wife, Discretion; by his daughter, Responsibility; and by his son, Reason. He is survived by three stepbrothers: I Know My Rights, Someone Else is to Blame, I’m A Victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not join the majority and do nothing.
Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques – IDF fashion 2009 – Haaretz – Israel News
Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children’s graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques – these are a few examples of the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these days to print on shirts they order to mark the end of training, or of field duty. The slogans accompanying the drawings are not exactly anemic either: A T-shirt for infantry snipers bears the inscription “Better use Durex,” next to a picture of a dead Palestinian baby, with his weeping mother and a teddy bear beside him. A sharpshooter’s T-shirt from the Givati Brigade’s Shaked battalion shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a bull’s-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, “1 shot, 2 kills.” A “graduation” shirt for those who have completed another snipers course depicts a Palestinian baby, who grows into a combative boy and then an armed adult, with the inscription, “No matter how it begins, we’ll put an end to it.”
via Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques – IDF fashion 2009 – Haaretz – Israel News.
Typesetting professional Islamic articles/books with XeTeX
Last edit: October 20, 2009. Note that this article is a work in progress. Feel free to comment.
Masha Allah, XeTeX has come a long way!
For those that don’t know, XeTeX is a TeX typesetting engine (i.e. software) supporting Unicode and modern font technologies such as OpenType or Apple Advanced Typography. Together with LaTeX, it lets you create beautiful and professional looking PDFs, with support for a lot of natural languages/scripts. And, you can get it for free, because it’s Free/Open Source software.
A typical XeTeX document contains plain text and looks something like this:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xltxtra}
\newfontfamily{\arabicfont}[Script=Arabic,Scale=1.5]{Traditional Arabic}
\usepackage{arabxetex}
\begin{document}
\section{\textarab[utf]{العربية}}
\textarab[utf]{السلم عليكم و رحمت الله و بركته}
\section{Legacy syntax}
When he goes---``Salamun alaykum!''\\
She replies—“Wa alaykumus-salam, dear!”
\end{document}
Actually, the text above is a LaTeX document with XeTeX (i.e. Unicode) support. LaTeX is a full-fledged markup language for typesetting, built on top of TeX, which is a programming language for very low-level typesetting. A pretty rough analogy would be that LaTeX is the equivalent of barebone HTML/CSS, while TeX is like JavaScript, enabling you to fine-tune the visual appearance.
Being a programming language, TeX/LaTeX offers a lot of packages that extend its core functionality. Packages are written by ordinary users and uploaded to The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN) or some other place, where anyone can download them.
The downside is that it takes time to get used to (La)TeX. Some parts of the syntax are very weird. Installing TeX and friends can be a real pain. Fortunately, there’s plenty of documentation online, as well as some mailing lists where you can get help from (Xe)TeX experts. Packages come with their own documentation, usually in a PDF file. This can be a problem when it comes to searching for what you need, because some PDFs generated with XeLaTeX can be unsearchable, even from within Adobe Acrobat Reader.
What’s wrong with MS Word?
Word (or the freely available equivalent OpenOffice) is OK for documents with a small number of pages, although even then the results are suboptimal. With larger documents it’s definitely better to switch to something more suited to professional typesetting. TeX and friends are one solution.
Installing XeTeX on Windows
Enough words, let’s do something useful. If you’re using Windows, I recommend installing MiKTeX. MiKTeX is a free TeX/LaTeX/XeTeX distribution for Microsoft Windows. It comes with a great package manager that automatically downloads and installs packages from CTAN. You can even update the packages when new versions come out. It adds the directory with all the executables (e.g., C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.8\miktex\bin) to the default search PATH for executables so you can invoke it directly from the command prompt (cmd.exe). There’s even a completely portable USB stick ready version of XeTeX. Really well done!
There are some screencasts out there that show you how to install and use MiKTeX. One even goes to explain ArabTeX which I don’t recommend using (there’s ArabXeTeX now). More on that later.
Text editors for Windows
When you install MiKTeX, it doesn’t come with a text editor. While you can use Notepad as your editor for LaTeX, it’s better to use something that has at least syntax highlithting for TeX.
Unfortunately, the problem with editors on Windows is Unicode support, which can be pretty bad. Notepad has decent Unicode support. When I say Unicode, I mean UTF-8 which is the only sane text encoding that should be used for writing multilanguage (plain text) documents. There’s also the problem of a good monospace font that supports Arabic.
After experimenting a bit, it seems that the best free LaTeX editor on Windows is Texmaker. It has to be tweaked a little – by default, it isn’t set-up to save files in UTF-8, and for generating PDFs with the “Quick Build” button, one should use xelatex, instead of pdflatex. You can also change the default Courier New font to Traditional Arabic.
When you click on “Quick build” inside Texmaker, especially the first time, it can take a while. This is even more so on Windows, where MiKTeX has to download the packages needed to build the document. It’s probably better to use the xelatex command from the command-line (cmd.exe) the first few times.
Here are some pics:
Update: now I think that on Windows Gedit is the best choice for the average user. Still, I prefer to use Emacs (my text editor of choice) even on Windows (see also EmacsW32). Emacs currently doesn’t display correctly Right-to-Left (RTL) languages (work is under way), so I don’t recommend it for texts with lots of Arabic.
Related to TeX(t) editing is the process of viewing the generated PDF. Just recently, Evince, a GNU/Linux document viewer has been ported to Windows. Evince has a very useful feature of automatically reloading the PDF every time it’s changed, and that’s why I recommend it.
Installing it on GNU/Linux – Ubuntu
You can install XeTeX on Ubuntu with:
sudo apt-get install texlive-xetex
ArabXeTeX isn’t packaged for Ubuntu, but you can add it to your home texmf dir. There are a lot of editors available on GNU/Linux systems, Texmaker included.
Note that, at the time of writing, Ubuntu is is still supporting only the TeX Live 2007 version. TeX Live 2008 is the latest stable version, while the 2009 version is in pretest stage. You can easily install them on your local system, even as a non-root user. In fact, I removed the original Ubuntu package(s) completely. I have installed TeX Live 2008 to /home/edin/texlive2008 and created a shell script (~/bin/texlive2008.sh) with the following content:
export PATH=~/texlive2008/2008/bin/i386-linux:$PATH
It can be invoked with bash --rcfile ~/bin/texlive2008.sh
Installing it on Mac OS
I don’t have a Mac, but XeTeX was initially developed for the Mac platform so you should have no problems installing it.
Arabic support for LaTeX
XeTeX enables you to use Unicode fonts in your LaTeX documents, but for smooth Arabic (i.e. RTL) experience you have to install the bidi package. I suggest you also install ArabXeTeX. ArabXeTeX is the XeTeX compliant successor of ArabTeX, which works without XeTeX, i.e. with plain TeX. ArabTeX doesn’t allow you to use your OTF/AAT fonts and there are rumors that the code underlying it is ugly.
In addition, ArabXeTeX provides a nice plain ASCII transliteration mechanism, so you can write Arabic using an English keyboard.
Update: I have been working a bit with ArabXeTeX and it has had a problem with positioning of harakats on the lam-elif ligature. Now I’m sticking to plain XeTeX with \newcommand{\ar}[1]{\RL{\arabicfont#1}}.
There’s a video from TUG 2009 entitled “Arabic typography: Past, present, and TeX”. There are also some other Arabic related packages: arabi, alqalam. As far as I know, alqalam is packaged only for Debian-like GNU/Linux distributions and isn’t uploaded to CTAN. There’s also FarsiTeX.
Fonts
For some nice free Arabic fonts, I suggest you visit the SIL page dedicated to Scheherazade and Lateef fonts.
Khaled Hosny is working on a fork of Scheherazade as part of his raqm project. He plans to add many ligatures to the font, and could use your help. With the freely available FontForge this shouldn’t be difficult. There’s also an easy to install (i.e. unpack) Windows version of FontForge.
There are also some free fonts that contain calligraphic symbols/sentences: Allah, bismilla etc. We could use some more.
For some other fonts see the (whole) thread: List of free Unicode fonts in the XeTeX ML archive, the somewhat old WAZU JAPAN’s Gallery of Unicode Fonts, and the ArabEyes font page.
An example
There’s a mercurial repository of the XeTeX version of the ongoing discontinued? series of articles by Al-Kakazai: “Sharh Aqidah al-Awam of Sayyid al-Maliki”.
You can download the resulting PDF files here:
The sharh of the aqidah, The aqidah without the commentary
Ask Imam :: Fatwa regarding tasawwuf, tariqas etc.
“Other peculiar forms of spiritual exercises include making loud dhikr with bodily motion whether standing, as in the case of hadrah as performed by the Shadhilīs, or sitting, as performed by the Chishtīs. Other exercises include certain breathing exercises like pās anfās as performed by the Chishtīs and various forms of murāqabah (meditation) as done by the Naqshbandīs etc.
The inherent permissibility or impermissibility of some of these exercises will rest upon the differences of the various Madhāhib since some of these practices cross the boundary of a mere internal metaphysical sphere to the externally physical; thus, falling under the jurisdiction of the Fuqahā’. To present a brief example, the practice of hadrah, a type of spiritual bodily movement similar to swaying that some refer to dancing coupled with loud dhikr, is permissible for the followers of the Shāfi‘ī Madhhab since according to their ‘Ulamā and Madhhab dancing is permissible with certain conditions.
…
It is important to bear in mind that unfortunately, there has always existed groups of self-centered, worldly motivated pseudo-Sufis who misrepresented Tasawwuf and used some of the practices of the Sufis, not to mention concocted some of their own, to suit their nafsānī (selfish) desires. Some of them feign being Sufis in order to gain fame and popularity, others to engage in singing and dancing and others to earn money etc. It is from such people that deviances began to crop up in this pristine and praiseworthy science. Examples of their innovations include the Qawāli where singing and music are rampant under the guise of Dhikr, grave-worship where people commit shirk by prostrating to the inmates of the grave, Salāmī where people stand up to offer salutations upon Rasūlullah صلى الله عليه و سلم with the belief that Rasūlullah صلى الله عليه و سلم visits the gathering and other similar practices that have no real connection with Tasawwuf. Because of the existence of such perfidious people and their impermissible practices, it has become a daunting task for sincere people such as you to find a true Shaykh and Tarīqah. Every Tarīqah has these imposters in their midst preying upon the ignorant masses; therefore, one must be cautious as to who one takes as a Murshid (guide). You should ensure that before taking formal bay‘ah to any Shaykh or entering into any Tarīqah, that the Shaykh is a complete adherent of the Sharī‘ah and upholds its dictates. Anyone who intentionally and openly breaks a single commandment of the Sharī‘ah is not worthy to be a Shaykh.”
via Ask Imam :: Fatwa.
see also: sunniforum.com – Mufti Desai on Shadhili Hadrah, Chishti Dhikr, Naqshi muraqabah, etc.
