Al-Azhar Thanaweya case studies
Al-Azhar Thanaweya · Put your knowledge to work in context.
Al-Azhar Thanaweya Amma (الثانوية الأزهرية) is the secondary school leaving certificate of Al-Azhar's educational system, the parallel track to the general Egyptian Thanaweya Amma. It is taken by students completing Al-Azhar preparatory and secondary institutes, and it is the credential used to apply to Al-Azhar University faculties and to other Egyptian higher education institutions under the rules in force. The Al-Azhar Thanaweya case studies are 5 cases and about 4,032 words.
1Two Mushafs on One Table: Rasm, Qira'at, and the Counting of Verses
At a Cairo preparatory institute's Qur'an club, a donated Maghribi mushaf printed in Fez in 1911 in the Warsh transmission sits beside the institute's Hafs mushaf. A visiting teacher opens both and lists three differences: in the Hafs copy the basmala of al-Fatiha carries the number 1, while in the Warsh copy it is unnumbered; the closing page of one volume prints 6,236 verses and the other 6,214; and one word is printed with a short alif in one copy and a long alif in the other.
800 words, about 4 min2Grading an Anonymised Chain: Ikhtilat, Tadlis, and a Hidden 'Illah
A hadith seminar in Cairo works through an anonymised chain supplied in a worksheet: N1 ← N2 ← N3 ← N4 ← Ibn 'Abbas ← the Prophet. The rijal data sheet records the following.
790 words, about 4 min3A Deathbed Gift and a Written Will: Dividing 600,000 EGP
An Egyptian family asks a sharia committee to divide an estate. The father died after three months of an illness that confined him to bed.
848 words, about 4 min4Eight Days, Two Orders of Creation: Handling an Alleged Contradiction in Public
In an online tafsir circle for Thanaweya students, a participant posts a numbered challenge. First, Sura 41 is read as saying the earth was created in two days, its provisions in four, and the heavens in two - eight days in all - whereas 7:54, 10:3 and 32:4 say six.
810 words, about 4 min5The Kasra on 'Arjulikum': I'rab, Qira'at, and a Debate Club
In a second-year Arabic grammar class, the teacher writes the ablution verse, 5:6, on the board: '…so wash your faces and your hands to the elbows, and wipe your heads and your feet to the ankles.' Two transmitted readings are placed side by side: 'wa arjulakum', with a fatha on the lam, and 'wa arjulikum', with a kasra. A student objects that the kasra reading must be a scribal slip, since 'arjul' would be joined to 'wujuh', which is mansub, and Arabic does not join a majrur word to a mansub one.
784 words, about 4 min