Knowledge representation for quranic verses using logical formalism

Abstract

The amount of data available after the inception of Web 2.0 is enormous and is increasing at a tremendous pace. Yet the knowledge associated with this data still remains unveiled. As Web 3.0 is on its way and aims at knowledge extraction from the data, there is need to develop means and ways to extract the knowledge behind the already available and new incoming data. In this run of knowledge representation, Muslim researchers have directed their works towards the availability of digital resources for Al-Quran and books of Hadith since they form the foundations of Islam. But the research done so far has not gone deep into the area of knowledge representation of Al-Quran and Hadith. The current work looks into development of knowledge representation formalism for Al-Quran using the logical base (Predicate Logic) as it is expressive in nature and has proven successful previously even in complex situations. It also aims at the development of a query and question answering system based on the logical formalism developed. The work revealed that predicate logic is quite expressive for knowledge representation. The formalism developed as a part of this work was evaluated and shows promising results in the direction of knowledge representation and information retrieval. The current work has a large significance as it will ease the process of information access to the Muslim community. Not only that the work will be beneficial for Non-Muslims to know more about Al-Quran easily and thus gaining more and more information about Islam which we hope will eventually help in the field of Dawah.