Muis shares updates on aLIVE, IEF

Esa Masood, Deputy Chief Executive, Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis), spoke at the Parenting Seminar and Islamic Education Fund (IEF) Disbursement Ceremony about support for Islamic learning.

He disclosed that more than 21,000 youths are attending the mosque madrasah programme aLIVE, taught by 800 trained asatizahs.

"Going forward, Muis will continue to make efforts to improve the aLIVE programme, including updating the books and content to ensure that it addresses contemporary issues, and provides relevant guidance, particularly, for our young in their daily lives. We will also continue to support the asatizah who are teaching the programme through various trainings and workshops," he said.

Esa also shared that Muis will be disbursing S$1.3 million through IEF, helping 4,091 students.

"Together with this year’s disbursement, we have disbursed a total of S$8.19 million under IEF over the last 14 years, to over 25,000 beneficiaries," he said.

Al-Ahdaf Academy opens applications for March Arabic courses

Al-Ahdaf Academy, which specialises in Arabic language tuition in Singapore, is promising that students will master basic Arabic conversation in two months with the Al Muhawarah Conversational Arabic course.

"We tailor the course to track students' pronunciation, memorisation and general progress to better cater to their varying personal needs," states an overview of the course, which focuses on listening, speaking, reading and writing proficiency in modern standard Arabic.

Teacher Mustafa Altahir graduated from Al-Azhar University of Egypt and attended The American University of Cairo for Translation (Arabic-English). He also attended Dar Almustafa, Tarim, Yemen and Darul Lughah in Indonesia.

The beginners' course is two months long, and a minimum of 10 students are required. Course fees are S$300 for 16 lessons, twice weekly. Books and course materials cost S$25*. It will cover:

- Use and understanding of common verbs in the present tense ✅
- Use and understand basic nouns such as family members, body parts and tools ✅
- Introduce themselves comfortably in Arabic ✅
- Share their daily activities in Arabic ✅
- Conduct casual conversations in Arabic, as opposed to formal reading and writing in formal Arabic ✅
- Greet and interact with guests with simple questions ✅
-Tell the time, days and be able to count ✅
- Construct basic sentences confidently ✅
- Tell a simple story ✅
- Describe objects and pictures ✅
- Recognise simple words and meanings found in the Quran ✅

Students are eligible for the beginners' level if they can recognise the different letters, sounds of the Arabic alphabet and read simple Arabic sentences.

Intermediate classes are two months long. Course fees are S$300 for 16 lessons, twice weekly. Books and course materials cost S$25*. The intermediate level will cover:

- Use and understanding of common verbs in the past tense, and their imperative forms ✅
- Use and understanding of basic nouns such as food, transportation and furniture ✅
- Sharing of experiences in travelling and favourite sporting activities ✅
- Sharing of daily activities in Arabic ✅
- Spoken Arabic (different from reading and writing in formal Arabic) ✅
- Tell the time, days and count ✅
- Construct more advanced sentences confidently ✅
- Converse in Arabic at restaurants, airport and hotels ✅
- Tell stories ✅
- Describe objects and pictures ✅
- Understand words and meanings found in the Quran ✅

At the intermediate level, students must already be able to introduce themselves in simple Arabic, and:

• Construct basic sentences using the present tense with pronouns such as أنا، نحن، أنت، هو، هي (I, we, you, he, she).
• Count to 100 in Arabic.
• Describe simple objects using tastes, colours, shapes and sizes.

Aspiring students must complete a simple written test before the class starts.

Advanced level students must first complete the intermediate level, and is scheduled after the intermediate level is completed, at the same venue. The advanced level course is one month long, and costs S$150 for nine lessons.

Interested?

Classes are held either in Tampines or Sembawang, at:
NTUC Income Building @Tampines Junction, next to Telepark building and opposite Tampines Hub.
#07-06

The Canberra Community Club, next to Sembawang Neighbourhood Police, 5 minutes' walk from Sembawang interchange 

The beginners' course will be held at

Tampines from 8 March, every Monday and Wednesday
6.30pm to 8.30pm (10-minute break for maghrib)

Tampines from 25 March, every Saturday
9.30am to 12pm (15 minutes' break)

Sembawang from 10 March, every Tuesday and Friday
6.30pm to 8.30pm (10-minute break for maghrib)

Intermediate classes will be held at

Tampines from 8 March, every Monday and Wednesday
8.30pm to 10.30pm (10-minute break included)

Sembawang from 14 March, every Tuesday and Friday
8.30pm to 10.30pm (10-minute break included)

Watch the promotional video

Register. There are discounts applicable for full-time students, registering with family members or friends, and early-bird registration.

Read reviews

*Course materials are from Darul Lughah wa Dakwah Institute in Indonesia. The textbooks are in Arabic and will be used until the Advanced course:
- AlMuhawarah Alhadisiah (Modern Arabic Conversation)
- Kalimaat Af 'aal Alyaumiyah (Daily Verbs)
- Kalimaaat Asmaa' Alyaumiyah (Daily Nouns)

INCEIF opens up part two of takaful MOOC

INCEIF has made part two of its Takaful massive open online course (MOOC) available.

Part 2 is about shari'ah principles and the practices underlying takaful, enabling students to determine forbidden elements as well as shari'ah compliance in the insurance business.

The course  instructor is INCEIF subject matter expert on takaful and risk management Ezamshah Ismail, who is also the Dean of School of Professional Studies at INCEIF. He was formerly the CEO of Hong Leong Tokio Marine Takaful and several industry-related institutions including Malaysian Institute of Insurance and the Financial Mediation (formerly known as Insurance Mediation) Bureau.

He holds a Masters degree in actuarial science from Northeastern University in the US and an LLM in business Law from the lnternational Islamic University Malaysia.

Interested?

Join the MOOC. It is self-paced, and free

Learn Arabic with the Langu.ag app

Source: Play
Store.

The Eton Institute has introduced the Langu.ag language learning mobile app for iOS and Android.

The app supports over 50 languages, including Arabic, and allows words to be scanned, spoken or typed in for translation. Users can also join a language chat room and interact with people from around the world to practice their language skills.

Interested?

Download the app

ADIL offers free Ramadhan workshop

Source: ADIL.

Adult Islamic Learning (ADIL) is running a free workshop on Ramadhan fiqh in Singapore on 7 and 14 June that covers matters before, during and after the month.

Al-Ansar Mosque	Bedok	7 June 2015	10.00am – 2.00pm	Malay	Ustaz Mustazah	Enrol
Al-Falah Mosque	Orchard	7 June 2015	9.00am – 1.00pm	English	Ustaz Muhd Khalid	Enrol
Al-Mukminin Mosque	Jurong	14 June 2015	9.00am – 1.00pm	English	Ustaz Fizar Zainal	Enrol

Team from Australian National University wins against native Arabic speakers in Qatar

Source: ANU, CAIS. The debating team.

A team of four students from the Centre for Arab & Islamic Studies (CAIS) represented Australia and the Australian National University (ANU) at the Third International Universities Arabic Debating Championship held in Doha, Qatar from 26 to 29 April 2015. 

Despite the challenges of debating with native speakers of Arabic, the ANU team - Yara Hussien, Thomas Randall, Derek Bayley and Andrew Findell-Aghnatios, led by CAIS PhD scholar Adel Abdel Ghafar - was commended for its performance both by other teams and the event organisers. The ANU team also won against a team of native Arabic speakers from the American University of the Emirates, which involved debating Internet censorship and democratisation. 

“I am very proud of the team’s performance,” Abdel Ghafar said. “Their performance is a reflection on both the student’s debating skills and the world-class quality of the Arabic programme at CAIS.”

This was the second time ANU students had participated, last competing in the event in 2013. Supported by the Qatar Foundation, the four-day biannual event seeks to unlock human potential by fostering a culture of discussion and debate, helping shape the global citizens of the future and creating the intellectual leaders of tomorrow. 

The championship saw a huge increase in the number of participants this year, with 67 teams representing 33 countries competing. Teams from non-Arab speaking universities came from Australia, India, Pakistan, Brunei, Malaysia, France, Poland, China, Korea, Kazakhstan, the US and Germany.

Oxford Islamic Studies Online offers regularly-updated teaching and research resource

Source: Oxford Islamic Studies Online website.

Oxford Islamic Studies Online has been updated with over 300 new and revised articles from The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics, edited by Emed El-Din Shahim, in its Fall 2014 update. New entries include the Arab Spring, sovereignty, rebellion, as well as overviews of Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

The subscription-based service features articles written, selected, and interpreted by renowned scholars to aid research and teaching at any level. The site hosts over 3,000 articles integrated with chapter-based scholarly works, visual, geographic, and social perspectives on global Islam, including maps, illustrations, dynastic tables, and demographic charts, as well as timelines, glossaries, and other learning resources.

Available content includes the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World (six volumes, 2009), The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (four volumes), The Islamic World: Past and Present, The Oxford History of Islam, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, Hanna Kassis' A Concordance of the Qur'an, two translations of the Quran published in the Oxford World's Classics series, and What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam. 

Monthly or yearly personal subscriptions are granted under the terms of a single-user, non-transferable license. Corporate subscriptions are available on an annual basis. Subscribers may access the site from any location. 

Request a 30-day free trial here. Sign up for a subscription here.

Free Islamic civilisation and Asian civilisation MOOC to be offered by Universiti Putra Malaysia

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) said its new online learning environment, available for free to the local community and globally as well, will include a course on Islamic civilisation.

The new method of learning, incorporating video lectures, interactive forums, chats, quizzes, and e-assessments, is in line with the current National Higher Education Strategic Plan which emphasises life-long learning, e-learning, internationalisation and knowledge transfer, the university said. 

UPM is currently converting the “Islamic Civilization and Asian Civilization” (Tamadun Islam, Tamadun Asia) course that is compulsory for all public universities as a MOOC course to benefit in-campus students as well as interested public communities. To be conducted in English, the course will focus on the role of civilisation in building Malaysian society based on principles such as mutual respect and social interaction within a multiracial society.  

Students can register online for the Putra Massive Open Online Course (PutraMOOC), and complete a course in roughly seven to eight weeks. 

*Images from UPM website