First Issue: Quranic Studies
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
“Knowledge is prey (ṣayd) and writing tethers it (qayd)” was the motto for centuries of Islamic scholarship that produced the most groundbreaking contributions on subjects ranging from scripture to language to science and philosophy. By the Pen is a newsletter organized by the ʿālimīyah student body of Qalam Seminary with the goal of providing a platform for students to develop their penmanship and join the ranks of this longstanding tradition of authorship.
After several months of planning, writing, editing, and designing, we are excited to showcase —with the grace of Allah—the hard work of our students. As the theme of this edition is Quranic studies, you will find in the following pages nine primary contributions in the form of book reviews, translations, articles, and reflective pieces all related to the Quran. To make the newsletter more engaging, we have included poetry, trivia, and advice from the teachers.
This project could not have been possible without the dedication and effort of many students who spent hours after class bringing this newsletter to fruition. We have attempted to keep the material and language accessible to students of all levels. We hope that students will be inspired by this volume’s impressive array and quality of contributions to take the leap forward and improve their own writing skills and contribute toward the newsletter when the time comes.
You can download a sample file of the student journal. We plan to publish more entries from the journal for the wider public in the near future, in-shāʾ-Allāh.
