A first year
Six turns of a spiral
AI The plan and its summaries are ours. Every Arabic line is copied from the reader's own text; every root was checked in the passage.
What formation means here
Draw out, don't pour in
Nobody is told what a passage means before they have heard it and said back what they understood.
Plato, Republic VII 518b–c; Plutarch, On Listening 48c
Courtesy first
Say what the text says before what you think of it. No ranking, no shaming, a table open to all.
al-Ghazālī, Iḥyāʾ I:48; Ibn Khaldūn, Muqaddima VI.39
Love is the motive
Every turn starts from a text worth loving, read aloud, and each learner chooses the line they carry.
Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, Epistle 1; Symposium 210e–211c
Up, with a measure, and back
Steps climbed one at a time, none claiming arrival; every step ends by helping someone newer.
al-Qushayrī, Risāla pp. 153–4; Seneca, Letters 7.8
The method is the reader's own: roots as families, patterns as moulds, grammar met where it occurs, the text heard and said aloud. The voices behind each idea are on the case and the ladder.
The shape: a spiral, not a line
Each turn answers to a stage of the Platonic ascent, from the sound of the language to the word itself, and old roots come back in each new text. Every turn is read in the madrasa's three passes, and its last week is a return: reread, recite, narrate the whole.
Pass 1
The gist مَتْن
Hear the passage, narrate it, meet its roots.
Pass 2
The commentary شَرْح
The grammar named in the text, the pattern, the commentators beside it.
Pass 3
Nothing left obscure حاشية
The apparatus, the variants, the readings through the ages.
- 1The Opening· Mousikē: the sound first · 8 weeks
- 2The Litanies of Sunday· Number: the unit and the letter · 5 weeks
- 3The Ringstone of Adam· Form: the figure behind the appearance · 10 weeks
- 4The two Ḥayys· The heavens: order behind the lights · 5 weeks
- 5The Wine Ode· Harmony: music again, one turn higher · 8 weeks
- 6Light and love· Dialectic: the word, the point, the return · 6 weeks
One passage, four depths
The ear
No Arabic yet
Hear the passage, recognise the week's root, recite the line, read with the word panel and the English.
The bridge
Heritage speakers
Link the words of home to their roots, read vowelled text, name the pattern, the first case endings.
The grammar
Fluent readers
Name the analysis and the form, the meanings of the patterns, one commentator a week.
The companions
Scholars, the classically trained
The commentaries and glosses; lead the grammar point; hear others read.
Everyone reads the same passage; choose a track and change it whenever you like. The weekly meeting follows the circle's rhythm.
The year, week by week
Marks are kept in this browser only.
1The Opening الفاتحة
Mousikē: the sound first
Seven verses, recited daily in prayer and known by heart by many in any room, dense with core roots and with the main patterns: the participle, the verbal noun, the intensives faʿlān and faʿīl. Read al-Fātiḥa.
Week 1Verse 1س م وأ ل ه
- Pattern
- Two intensives from one root: raḥmān (faʿlān) and raḥīm (faʿīl).
- Grammar
- The preposition bi- and the genitive after it. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
- Question
- Why two words from one root, side by side? What does each pattern add?
- Practice
- Listen to the verse with word timing three times, then say it with the reciter.
Week 2Verse 2ح م در ب ب
- Pattern
- The verbal noun: ḥamd, the act of praising.
- Grammar
- A nominal sentence: subject (mubtadaʾ) and predicate (khabar). Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ
- Question
- A nominal sentence names no one who praises and no time. What does leaving them out do?
- Practice
- Write two lines: what al-ʿālamīn brings to mind, and what the root page of ʿ-l-m says the word is built from.
Week 3Verse 3ر ح م
- Pattern
- faʿlān and faʿīl again, side by side, now as epithets.
- Grammar
- Adjectives that follow their noun and agree in case. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
- Question
- The two words of verse 1 come back. What is different about hearing them a second time?
- Practice
- Recite verses 1–3 to a companion, and hear theirs.
Week 4Verse 4م ل كي و م
- Pattern
- The active participle fāʿil: mālik, the one who owns.
- Grammar
- The construct (iḍāfa): two nouns bound into one phrase. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- مَـٰلِكِ يَوْمِ ٱلدِّينِ
- Question
- Some of the canonical readings have malik, king, where others have mālik, owner. What changes with one long vowel?
- Practice
- Open the root m-l-k and collect three words from it that you already know in any language you speak.
Week 5Verse 5ع ب دع و ن
- Pattern
- Form X, istafʿala, the form of seeking: nastaʿīn, we seek help.
- Grammar
- An object placed first for emphasis: iyyāka. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ
- Question
- What does putting iyyāka first do to the sentence, compared with the usual order?
- Practice
- Write two lines on the difference between asking and seeking, using the Form X pages.
Week 6Verse 6ه د يص ر ط
- Pattern
- The Form X participle: mustaqīm.
- Grammar
- The imperative, and a verb with two objects. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- ٱهْدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٰطَ ٱلْمُسْتَقِيمَ
- Question
- A ṣirāṭ is a road to walk. What words for a way, in any language, also mean a way of living?
- Practice
- Listen, then recite over the recording until the voices meet.
Week 7Verse 7ن ع مغ ض ب
- Pattern
- The passive participle mafʿūl: maghḍūb, the one on whom anger falls.
- Grammar
- The relative clause (alladhīna), and a noun standing in for another (badal). Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- صِرَٰطَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ
- Question
- Three groups are named with three different forms: a verb, a passive participle, an active participle. Why might the forms differ?
- Practice
- Add the week's three roots to your deck and review them daily.
Week 8The whole sūra (return week)
- Pattern
- Review every pattern met; find each once more elsewhere in the library.
- Grammar
- Read the whole sūra aloud to a companion, and narrate it in your own words. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- The whole sūra, by heart if you wish; one verse of your choosing if not.
- Question
- Which verse would you lift to share, and what would you say about it in two lines?
- Practice
- Share one verse as a card (Share, in the reader) and bring it to the circle.
Read the Ājurrūmiyya's opening chapters alongside (/grammar/ajurrumiyya).
2The Litanies of Sunday أوراد الأحد
Number: the unit and the letter
Rhymed, repeated prose that is meant to be said every week: the Fātiḥa's roots return, and the prayer counts its way from the many to the one. Read Ibn ʿArabī's Awrād, Sunday.
Week 1¶1و ف قح م د
- Pattern
- tafʿīl, the verbal noun of Form II: tawfīq.
- Grammar
- The construct with a pronoun suffix: ḥusni tawfīqihi. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ عَلَى حُسْنِ تَوْفِيقِهِ
- Question
- Tawfīq comes from w-f-q, to fit or agree. What does the prayer ask to be fitted to?
- Practice
- Find every tafʿīl in the passage (the word panel names the pattern) and add two to your deck.
Week 2¶3غ ي بش ه د
- Pattern
- fāʿil (shāhid) beside faʿl (ghayb); and the Form IV participle muḥīṭ.
- Grammar
- The vocative with the possessive -ī: ilāhī. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- اِلٰهِي اَنْتَ الْمُحِيطُ بِغَيْبِ كُلِّ شَاهِدٍ
- Question
- Read the phrase word by word: how can something be the unseen of every witness?
- Practice
- Listen to the passage, then recite over the recording.
Week 3¶5ق د رق ه ر
- Pattern
- One doubled letter: qadara (Form I, had power) and qaddara (Form II, measured out).
- Grammar
- The perfect with -ta, and the fa- of sequence. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- قَدَرْتَ فَقَهَرْتَ وَعَلِمْتَ فَقَدَّرْتَ
- Question
- Qadar is also measure (the geometry stage's word). What does measuring have to do with power in this line?
- Practice
- Write two lines on the pair qadara / qaddara, and find one more such pair in the library.
Week 4¶8و ح دأ ح د
- Pattern
- fāʿil (wāḥid) and tafʿīl (tawḥīd): the unit and the act of making one.
- Grammar
- lā of absolute negation, and the exception with illā: lā ilāha illā llāh. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ فَاتِحِ الْوُجُودِ
- Question
- wāḥid and aḥad both say one, and the prayer puts them together. What could the second add?
- Practice
- Open both roots' pages and write two lines on the difference as the lexicons give it.
Week 5¶10, then the whole litany (return week)ظ ه رب ط ن
- Pattern
- fāʿil in pairs: ẓāhir and bāṭin, the outward and the inward.
- Grammar
- idhā … fa-: the condition and its answer. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- اِذَا كَشَفَ فَلَا غَيْرَ وَاِذَا سَتَرَ فَكُلٌّ غَيْرٌ
- Question
- How many opposites does the litany hold together? Name them and say which one it ends on.
- Practice
- Read the whole Sunday litany (¶0–20) across the week, one sitting a day.
The plan “The prayers of a week” (/plans) reads the rest of the litanies and prayers in the library.
3The Ringstone of Adam فص حكمة إلهية في كلمة آدمية
Form: the figure behind the appearance
The chapter of the polished mirror and the human form, read in the ten sittings of the existing plan, with the classical commentaries beside it. Read Faṣṣ Ādam, Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam ch. 1.
Week 1¶1–2ر أ ي
- Pattern
- The instrument noun: mirʾāh, a mirror, the thing one sees with.
- Grammar
- lammā with the perfect: when, once. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- لَمَّا شَاءَ الحَقُّ سُبْحَانَهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ أَسْمَاؤُهُ الحُسْنَى
- Question
- Why, in the passage's telling, does seeing oneself need a mirror?
- Practice
- Share the first line as a card (Share, in the reader; Faṣṣ Ādam ¶1).
Week 2¶3–4أ ن سص و ر
- Pattern
- fiʿlān (insān) beside faʿlān (raḥmān): two long-a patterns met in turn 1.
- Grammar
- kāna and its sisters: the predicate in the accusative. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- وَإِلَيْهِ يُرْجَعُ ٱلْأَمْرُ كُلُّهُۥ
- Question
- ¶4 calls the human the insān of the eye, its pupil. What does the image say about seeing?
- Practice
- Write two lines on insān as the reader's root page gives it, and on the pupil.
Week 3¶5–6خ ت مخ ز ن
- Pattern
- fāʿal (khātam, ʿālam) against fāʿil (ʿālim).
- Grammar
- The relative adjective (nisba) in -ī: azalī, abadī. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- فَهُوَ الإِنْسَانُ الحَادِثُ الأَزَلِيُّ وَالنَّشْءُ الدَّائِمُ الأَبَدِيُّ
- Question
- How can one thing be both newly made and without beginning? Say what the sentence claims before judging it.
- Practice
- Recite the line to a companion.
Week 4¶7–8س ب حق د س
- Pattern
- Form II and its verbal noun: sabbaḥa / tasbīḥ, qaddasa / taqdīs.
- Grammar
- The question with a- (atajʿalu), inside a Qur'an quotation. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- أَتَجْعَلُ فِيهَا مَن يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا
- Question
- According to ¶7, what did the angels not see about themselves?
- Practice
- Narrate ¶7 in your own words, in any language.
Week 5¶9–10ع ل مح ي ي
- Pattern
- One root in many moulds: ʿilm, ʿālim, ʿalīm, ʿālam, taʿallum.
- Grammar
- anna and its noun: anna lahu ʿilman. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- فَهُوَ الحَيُّ العَالِمُ
- Question
- Collect every ʿ-l-m word in the two passages. What do they share, and where does the sentence pull them apart?
- Practice
- Add ʿ-l-m to your deck and put three of its words on the one card.
Week 6¶11–12ر ب طف ق ر
- Pattern
- Form VIII, iftaʿala: irtibāṭ, iftiqār.
- Grammar
- idhā kāna … fa-: a condition stated as settled. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- وَإِذَا كَانَ الارْتِبَاطُ بَيْنَ مَنْ لَهُ وُجُودٌ عَيْنِيٌّ وَبَيْنَ مَنْ لَيْسَ لَهُ وُجُودٌ عَيْنِيٌّ
- Question
- What binds the two sides, as ¶11 argues? Narrate the argument in three steps.
- Practice
- Write two lines.
Week 7¶13–14ظ ه رب ط ن
- Pattern
- fāʿil in pairs again: ẓāhir / bāṭin, met in the Sunday litany.
- Grammar
- bi-anna with two predicates: bi-annahu ẓāhirun bāṭinun. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- ثُمَّ لِتَعْلَمَ أَنَّ الحَقَّ وَصَفَ نَفْسَهُ بِأَنَّهُ ظَاهِرٌ بَاطِنٌ
- Question
- These words met you in turn 2. What is new about them here?
- Practice
- Reread the litany's ¶10 beside ¶14 (the spiral).
Week 8¶15–16خ ل في د ي
- Pattern
- Form X istakhlafa and faʿīla: khalīfa.
- Grammar
- The dual: yadayhi, bi-yadayya. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- مَا مَنَعَكَ أَن تَسْجُدَ لِمَا خَلَقْتُ بِيَدَىَّ
- Question
- Why two hands? What pairs has the chapter set up so far?
- Practice
- Listen to ¶16 with word timing; recite the Qur'an line in it.
Week 9¶17–19ف ق ر
- Pattern
- Participles of Form VIII and Form X: muftaqir and mustaghnin (the second is left untagged by the reader's analysis; check it on the root page of gh-n-y).
- Grammar
- mā denying a nominal sentence: mā l-kullu mustaghnin. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- فالكُلُّ مُفْتَقِرٌ ما الكُلُّ مُسْتَغْنٍ
- Question
- What does the third line, the all bound to the all, add to the first?
- Practice
- Recite the first line of the verses; hear its beat (turn 5 returns to metre).
Week 10¶20, then the whole chapter (return week)ح ك مك ل م
- Pattern
- fiʿla (ḥikma) and faʿila (kalima): the words of the chapter's title.
- Grammar
- The title as a phrase: indefinite nouns with nisba adjectives. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- فَصُّ حِكْمَةٍ إِلَهِيَّةٍ فِي كَلِمَةٍ آدَمِيَّةٍthe chapter's title
- Question
- Now that you have read the chapter: why a ringstone, a faṣṣ?
- Practice
- Narrate the whole chapter to a companion in ten sentences, one per sitting.
The companions track reads each sitting with the commentaries (/read/fusus/1/commentaries), then chapters 2–3, Seth and Noah (/read/fusus/2, /read/fusus/3).
4The two Ḥayys حي بن يقظان
The heavens: order behind the lights
The guide named Living, son of Awake, who maps the climes from West to East; and the child on an island under the equator who learns the world by watching it. (The library holds part one of Ibn Ṭufayl's tale.) Read Ibn Sīnā's recital and Ibn Ṭufayl's tale.
Week 1Ibn Sīnā ¶2–3ح ي يي ق ظ
- Pattern
- faʿlān again: yaqẓān, awake, beside raḥmān.
- Grammar
- A name as a phrase: ibn and the genitive. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- أَمَّا ٱسْمِى وَنَسَبِى فَحَىُّ بْنُ يَقْظَانَ
- Question
- Why might a guide be named Living, son of Awake?
- Practice
- Listen to the meeting, then narrate it.
Week 2Ibn Sīnā ¶4–8غ ر بع د ل
- Pattern
- fuʿla (ghurba, exile) and iftiʿāl (iʿtidāl, balance).
- Grammar
- Demonstratives and the relative: hādhā alladhī. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- وَسُمْهُمْ سَوْمَ الِٱعْتِدَالِ
- Question
- The old man does not tell the traveller to be rid of his companions, but to govern them with balance. What is the difference?
- Practice
- Write two lines on iʿtidāl, the mean, as the root page gives it.
Week 3Ibn Sīnā ¶12–14غ ر بش م س
- Pattern
- mafʿil, the place noun: maghrib, where the sun sets (Mashraba is its sister, mafʿala, a place of drinking). Iqlīm has no Arabic root in the reader: it is a borrowed word, from Greek klima.
- Grammar
- inna with its noun delayed: inna bi-aqṣā l-maghribi baḥran. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- اِنَّ بِأَقْصَى الْمَغْرِبِ بَحْرًا كَبِيرًا حَامِئًا
- Question
- Why does the recital put darkness and strangers in the West?
- Practice
- Read the opening of Suhrawardī's Occidental Exile (/read/ghurba#p-1) and compare its West.
Week 4Ibn Ṭufayl ¶32, ¶35ع د لش م س
- Pattern
- The elative afʿal: aʿdal, most balanced; atamm, most complete.
- Grammar
- lā denying the present tense, and a reason given with li-anna. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- لِأَنَّ تِلْكَ الْجَزِيرَةَ أَعْدَلُ بِقَاعِ الْأَرْضِ هَوَاءً
- Question
- How does Ibn Ṭufayl argue from the sun to the island's balance? Narrate the argument step by step.
- Practice
- Draw the island, the equator and the sun's rays as ¶35 describes them.
Week 5Ibn Ṭufayl ¶56–60, then both texts (return week)ر أ يط ف ل
- Pattern
- Review the year's patterns so far on the deck; r-ʾ-y, seeing, returns from the mirror of Faṣṣ Ādam.
- Grammar
- Read one passage aloud to a companion and narrate it. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- One line of your choosing from either Ḥayy.
- Question
- What does Ḥayy learn by watching that he could not have been told?
- Practice
- Teach the week's root to someone who joined after you.
The plan “The recitals” (/plans) reads Ibn Sīnā, Suhrawardī's Occidental Exile and Ibn Ṭufayl in order.
5The Wine Ode الخمرية
Harmony: music again, one turn higher
Verse, metre and rhyme, sung and commented: the sound of turn 1 heard again as number and form. Ibn Khaldūn reports a teacher who put poetry before everything else; a circle may take this turn first. Read Ibn al-Fāriḍ's Khamriyya.
Week 1Line 1, first halfش ر بذ ك ر
- Pattern
- faʿīl: ḥabīb, the beloved.
- Grammar
- The past tense with its subject suffix: sharibnā, we drank. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- شَرِبْنا عَلَى ذِكْرِ الْحَبِيبِ مُدامَةً
- Question
- Mashraba and sharibnā share a root. What is being drunk, as the commentators read it?
- Practice
- Listen to the line recited, then say it with the voice.
Week 2Line 1, second halfس ك رخ ل ق
- Pattern
- The passive verb: yukhlaqa, it was created.
- Grammar
- min qabli an: before, with the subjunctive after an. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- سَكِرْنا بِها مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ يُخْلَقَ الْكَرْمُ
- Question
- Drunk before the vine was created: what kind of wine could that be?
- Practice
- Recite the whole of line 1.
Week 3Line 2ب د رش م س
- Pattern
- Form IV, afʿala: yudīru, he passes it round.
- Grammar
- A nominal sentence: al-badru kaʾsun, the full moon is a cup. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- لَهَا الْبَدْرُ كَأْسٌ وَهْيَ شَمْسٌ يُدِيرُهَا
- Question
- Moon, sun, crescent, star: which holds, which is held, which passes it round?
- Practice
- Draw the line's figure: the cup, the sun and the hand that turns.
Week 4Line 3ه د يص و ر
- Pattern
- Form VIII (iftaʿala) and Form V (tafaʿʿala): ihtadaytu, taṣawwara.
- Grammar
- lawlā … mā: were it not for …, then not. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- وَلَوْلَا شَذَاهَا مَا اهْتَدَيْتُ لِحَانِهَا
- Question
- Scent and radiance lead where sight cannot. What does the line say each one does?
- Practice
- Write two lines.
Week 5Line 4
- Pattern
- Hear the metre, al-ṭawīl (the long), and the rhyme in -mu that closes every line.
- Grammar
- Scan one line together, syllable by syllable. In the primer
- By heart
- وَلَمْ يُبْقِ مِنْهَا الدَّهْرُ غَيْرَ حُشَاشَةٍ
- Question
- Where does the beat fall? Clap it before you name it.
- Practice
- Clap the metre of lines 1–4 with a companion.
Week 6Line 5
- Pattern
- Collect the ode's participles and verbal nouns in the deck.
- Grammar
- Meet one point the commentary itself raises. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- فَإِنْ ذُكِرَتْ فِي الْحَيِّ أَصْبَحَ أَهْلُهُ
- Question
- In the poem's own logic, why is there no shame and no sin for those drunk on this wine?
- Practice
- Read one commentator on line 5 and narrate what he adds.
Week 7Line 6
- Pattern
- One pattern chosen by the circle.
- Grammar
- One point chosen by the circle. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- وَمِنْ بَيْنِ أَحْشاءِ الدِّنانِ تَصاعَدَتْ
- Question
- One question chosen by the circle's host.
- Practice
- Write two lines in answer to the ode.
Week 8Lines 1–6 (return week)
- Pattern
- Review; recite the opening lines from memory.
- Grammar
- Read the lines learned aloud to a companion, and narrate them. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- Lines 1–6, as many as you have by heart.
- Question
- What did the metre teach you that the words alone did not?
- Practice
- Recite to a companion; a named companion may hear the reading for a licence (§5).
The commentaries on the ode (/read/khamriyya/commentaries).
6Light and love النور والمحبة
Dialectic: the word, the point, the return
The texts about the ascent itself, read side by side across Arabic, Greek and Syriac, ending on a tale of going home. Read the Mishkāt and the Hayākil, with Diotima and Plotinus; the Hymn of the Pearl as the return.
Week 1al-Ghazālī, Mishkāt ¶4–5ن و رظ ه ر
- Pattern
- fuʿl (nūr) and fuʿūl (ẓuhūr).
- Grammar
- ammā … fa-: as for …, then. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- فَالنُّورُ يُشِيرُ اِلَى الظُّهُورِ
- Question
- Light as appearing to another: what does that make of seeing?
- Practice
- Listen to ¶5 and narrate it.
Week 2Suhrawardī, Hayākil ¶1, ¶5د ر كص و ر
- Pattern
- Form IV, afʿala / ifʿāl: adraka, idrāk; and ṣūra again, from Faṣṣ Ādam.
- Grammar
- lā … illā: restriction by exception. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- لَا تُدْرِكُ أَنْتَ شَيْئاً اِلَّا بِحُصُولِ صُورَتِهِ عِنْدَكَ
- Question
- If you know a thing only by its form in you, where is the form of animal that fits both the elephant and the fly?
- Practice
- Write two lines.
Week 3Plato, Symposium 210e–211c (Diotima's ladder)ع ر ج
- Pattern
- Greek epanabasmos, steps, beside the Arabic miʿrāj, a ladder (mifʿāl, the instrument noun, like mirʾāh). A resonance, not an influence; the bridge is AI-built and marked.
- Grammar
- From one to two, from two to all: the Greek prepositions apo … epi. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- using these as steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms (tr. Jowett)
- Question
- Diotima's ladder climbs from one body to all bodies, to practices, to learning. Where does this year's ladder stand on hers?
- Practice
- Read 210e aloud in Greek with the word panel, once, slowly.
Week 4Plotinus, Ennead VI.9.8, with Ibn ʿArabī's circleد و ر
- Pattern
- fāʿila: dāʾira, the circle; yudīru met in the Wine Ode.
- Grammar
- kyklos peri kentron: a circle about a centre. Topic
- By heart
- its natural course may be likened to that in which a circle turns not upon some external but on its own centre (tr. MacKenna)
- Question
- Line or circle: what does each figure say about where learning goes?
- Practice
- Draw the point and the circle with a compass (/figures#point-and-circle).
Week 5The Hymn of the Pearl, vv. 64–67 and 75–78ه د ي
- Pattern
- A cognate across languages: Syriac hadyūtā, guidance, from h-d-y, the root of ihdinā in the Fātiḥa's sixth verse.
- Grammar
- Cognate letters: how Syriac and Arabic spell the same root. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- w-ba-hadyūtāh: and with its guidance
- Question
- What in the Hymn plays the part the old man plays in Ibn Sīnā's Ḥayy?
- Practice
- Narrate the whole Hymn's story in the English, in ten sentences.
Week 6The year returned; the Great Learning's order (Qingzhen daxue §2)
- Pattern
- Review the year's roots on the deck: how many families do you now know?
- Grammar
- Each member teaches one grammar point from the year to someone newer. Topic · In the primer
- By heart
- The lines you chose this year, recited to a companion.
- Question
- Which line will you carry into the second year, and why?
- Practice
- Teach one line to a newer member (docendo discimus).
The plan “Light: the Niche, then the Temples” (/plans); for the other window, the Great Learning of the Pure and Real (/read/qingzhen-daxue).
The doorstep
A threshold of taking part, not of prior knowledge. Anyone who does these may join a circle's discussion; no exam, and no belief asked.
The ladder: work done, never rank
0The doorstep
The five steps above.
1A turn
Its text read in full; its lines recited to a companion; one narration; one lifted card; one short note.
2A first reading licence
A short whole text read aloud in full to a named companion, who says so. Not an ijāza, not a credential; no historical chain claimed.
3The year
Six turns, two licences, and one line or grammar point taught to someone newer.
4Companion
Hear others read the texts you hold; lead a root or a grammar point; sit in other circles too.
How it is judged: by hearing, not by exams
Narration
Say back what the passage said, in any language.
Lines, heard
A line counts as held when a companion has heard it.
A lifted card
A word or line carried with its root, its lexicon line and its link back.
Two lines
A short note in your own words. Never written by the AI.
Teaching
Pass one thing on to someone newer: we learn by teaching.
No points, no badges, no leaderboards, no certificates. Nothing is asked about belief. A learning community open to all, not a religious order.