Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project

The Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project (Ahlul Bayt DILP), established in 1996, is a non-Profit Islamic organization; working as group of volunteers operating throughout the world. Their primary project Al-Islam.org intends to digitize and present quality resources related to history, law, and society of the Islamic religion and its personalities with particular emphasis on the Twelver Shi'ah Islamic school of thought. Al-Islam.org is a site which also serves non-Muslims a means of introducing Islam. [cite web|url= http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/r/93/whm.html |title= The Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project |publisher= George Mason University |author= Sumaiya Hamdani |date= March, 2003]

Aims

Their goal is to encourage research of Islam and to facilitate propagation of knowledge to locations where such resources are not commonly or easily accessible. To cater to this objective DILP is always expanding its Digital library which consist of 4000+ resources accessible for free.cite web |url= http://www.guidestar.org/pqShowGsReport.do?partner=justgive&ein=41-1971730 |title= AHLUL BAYT DIGITAL ISLAMIC LIBRARY PROJECT |publisher= JustGive.org]

History

Since the launch of al-islam.org, it has proved to be one of the most authentic source of Islamic information, and is notable for being the the top site in Yahoo!'s list of Shia sites by popularity [cite web |url= http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Religion_and_Spirituality/Faiths_and_Practices/Islam/Sects/Shia_ism/ |title= Islamic Sects > Shia'ism |publisher= Yahoo!]

Organization

The organization is a 501(c)(3) public charity.

Ongoing Projects

On-route to achieve a vast library with the best resource of Islamic knowledge, the DILP team is currently working on various important projects.

Digital Library

The free digital library consists of more than 800 Textual resources in different languages. To further facilitate its users, the DILP team has been working on various projects which give detailed information on a specific topic. Such projects include the "Shi'ite Encyclopedia", "The Event of Ghadir Khumm" project and "Tahrif (distortion) of Islamic Texts". [cite web |url= http://www.al-islam.org/alpha.php |title= al-islam.org library |publisher= al-islam.org]

While the majority of the texts currently available in the library are English translations, the volunteers of DILP have taken up the task of providing texts in other languages like Spanish, Italian, Swahili, Arabic, Urdu and Gujarati.

Multimedia Gallery

The multimedia section of Al-Islam.org has a large collection of audio/video resources. These are mainly Quran recitations, lectures, elegies, and supplications. It also has a picture gallery consisting of Islamic Calligraphy and images of many important Islamic sites.

The Multilingual Quran

A searchable Quran with English translation as well as commentary from Agha Puya/S.V. Mir Ahmed Ali. Work is now being done to include multiple commentaries, browsing by Root-word and topics. [cite web |url= http://www.al-islam.org/action.php?sid=167487615&url=%2Fquran%2F&action=go&id=29 |title= Multilingual Quran Project |publisher= al-islam.org]

Journal Archives

Archiving articles from scholarly Journals such as Al-Serat, Al-Tawhid, and Message of Thaqalayn.

The Event of Ghadir Khumm

A scholarly examination of the event where the Prophet Muhammad appointed Imam Ali as his successor. The study focuses on examining the chain of narrators and the traditions of Ghadir Khumm. [cite web |url= http://www.al-islam.org/action.php?sid=167487615&url=%2Fghadir&action=go&id=35 |title= The Event of Ghadir Khumm |publisher= al-islam.org]

Islam in a Nutshell

A set of short Fact Sheets, ready for distribution, which are available in numerous languages including Albanian, Bosnian, German, Swedish, and Thai. [cite web |url= http://www.al-islam.org/action.php?sid=167487615&url=%2Fnutshell&action=go&id=38 |title= In a Nutshell (Factsheets in Many Languages) |publisher= al-islam.org]

Alif-Bot

An informative Islamic Robot which can give you basic information about Islam. [cite web |url= http://www.al-islam.org/action.php?sid=167487615&url=%2Falifbot%2F&action=go&id=108 |title= AlifBot, The Muslim Robot |publisher= al-islam.org]

Islam Supplication Browser

Multilingual collection of Ad’iya and Ziyaraat, categorized by source and date. [cite web |url= http://www.al-islam.org/action.php?sid=167487615&url=%2Fsupplications%2F&action=go&id=15208 |title= Islamic Supplication Browser |publisher= al-islam.org]

Recognition

The site has been cited by the Columbia University [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/mideast/cuvlm/Islam.html here] (as a main reference on Islam), the British Academy [http://www.britac.ac.uk/portal/resource.asp?ResourceID=845 here] , the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade [http://www.intercultures.ca/cil-cai/country_information-en.asp?lvl=8&ISO=IQ&TopicID=3 here] , the George Mason University [http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/r/93/whm.html here] , Intute [http://www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/cgi-bin/fullrecord.pl?handle=sosig1092307493-10597 here] , and is archived by the Library of Congress.

ee also

*The Aalulbayt (a.s.) Global Information Center

References

External links

*cite web |url= http://www.al-islam.org/ |title= Al-Islam.org by the Ahlul Bayt DILP - Home
* [http://www.britac.ac.uk/portal/resource.asp?ResourceID=845 Short coverage] by the British Academy
* [http://lcweb4.loc.gov/911/catalog/2507.html archived] and part of the Minerva project of the Library of Congress.
*Middle East Virtual Library [http://ssgdoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/vlib/ssgfi/infodata/000520.html]