A finite state model for a system based on the seven Maqams of Minhaj Al ‘Abidin

Abstract

The concept of improving oneself by gaining knowledge and insight regarding tasawwuf is gaining popularity nowadays. Even though various materials and books are available but only for reading, it is up to the user to decipher what necessary actions and knowledge is required to enhance oneself in the spiritual realm. However, a system offering the assessment of a person’s current state with the opportunity to learn the ways of spiritual enhancement in religious context is not there. For any kind of improvement to be beneficiary and stable, they need to transpire in incremental stages. The system will have a familiarity with states and transitions, which is the essence of finite state models. Finite state models are very versatile, applicable to the analysis and design of both abstract and physical systems. So, there is a need for a finite state model that will provide relevant search criteria for the user to not only assess his or her current state but also to provide access to resources and information that will help the user to journey through the states accordingly for self-improvement. First an extraction framework has been developed to manually extract and assess the relevancy of texts from the book Minhaj al ‘Abidin authored by Imam Ghazali (r.a) to identify the states and based on the physical and psychological constructs the triggers and that activates the transitions from one state to the other. Then a finite state model has been developed based on the relevant texts as states and triggers, along with the concept of attributes has been introduced as a tool to provide feedback to the users to improve. Design based research methodology was used for iterative analysis, design, development, and implementation of the finite state model and text extraction model. A prototype system entitled Self-Help Maqam-Based Search system based on the finite state model designed, was built, this allowed the experimental validation of the finite state model and text extraction framework. Results from performance testing using open-source tools and user feedback proved the efficacy of using finite state modelling in the system. And quantitative data collected from the system and after being statistically analyzed showed a positive correlation between hours spent, age group and attainment of higher maqam levels. This validates that self-help interventions using religion as content do help in the process of spiritual enhancement.