Is Machine Learning useful for Quranic Studies?

Abdul Baqi M. Sharaf

manual counting! excerpt from Ibn Kathir introduction

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manual investigation! excerpt from badae' al-Fawaed by Ibn al-Qayyem

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Quranic Resources

tanzil.net

• highly verified precise Quran text

• many translations:

http://tanzil.net/trans/

http://corpus.quran.co

m/

annotated linguistic resource which

shows the Arabic grammar, syntax

and morphology for each word in

the Holy Quran

Classification of

Surahs into Makki and

Madani

Makki and Madani * Debatable cases

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Features [1/2]

verse of "sajdah" (prostration)

the aversion letter "kalla"

the phrase "Ya Ayyuha al-Naas"

the phrase "Ya Ayyuha

alladhina "

surahs with initials

story of Adam and Iblis

stories of previous nations

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Features [2/2]

linguistic tools for denunciation,

excoriation, emphasis and oath

length of ayaat

eschatological topics

Jihad and battles of Islam

rulings on marriage and nursing

dialogue with ahl al-Kitab

pillars of Islam

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Reduction to

computation

representation

Verses of Sajdah (K)-> search for

root “Sjd” -<< Noise: “al-masjid al-

Haraam” in Surah al-Baqarah

Quranic Initials (K) -<< Noise:

Surah al-Baqarah, ar-Raad

eschatological topics (K)-> Search

for: roots “Jannah”, “Jahannam”,

etc. <<- Noise: many occurance in

Surah Baqarah (D)

Jihad and battles of Islam (D) ->

Search for “jhd”, “qtl” <<- Noise: “

wa aqsamu billahe Jahda

aymanihim..” (Nahl)

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Weka Representation

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Decision Trees13

Decision Trees14

Top: random tree

Bottom: J48

Classifier outcome 15

13 – ar-Ra’d

55 – ar-Rahman

76 – al-Insaan

98 – al-Bayyenah

99 – al-Zalzalah

110 – an-Nasr

Clustering

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Identify problem

• Suitable for machine learning

Identify feature sets

• Domain knowledge

• Existing books

Reduce to machine learning format

• Be aware of noise and inaccuracy

Run experiments

• Training set vs. Test set

Interpret results

• Verify and validate by domain experts

Machine Learning

Journey