Datasets:

Kandil7
/

Athar-Datasets

language:
  - ar
  - en
license: mit
task_categories:
  - question-answering
  - text-generation
  - text-retrieval
  - fill-mask
pretty_name: Athar Islamic QA Datasets
tags:
  - islamic-studies
  - quran
  - hadith
  - fiqh
  - arabic
  - rag
  - multi-agent
  - citation-grounded
dataset_info:
  features:
    - name: content
      dtype: string
    - name: content_type
      dtype: string
    - name: book_id
      dtype: int64
    - name: book_title
      dtype: string
    - name: category
      dtype: string
    - name: author
      dtype: string
    - name: author_death
      dtype: int64
    - name: collection
      dtype: string
    - name: page_number
      dtype: int64
    - name: section_title
      dtype: string
    - name: hierarchy
      sequence: string
    - name: title
      dtype: string
    - name: chapter
      dtype: string
    - name: section
      dtype: string
    - name: page
      dtype: int64
  splits:
    - name: train
      num_examples: 18701966
  download_size: 40000000000
  dataset_size: 40000000000

🕌 Athar Islamic QA Datasets

18.7M passages from classical Islamic books spanning 1,400 years of scholarship

A comprehensive collection of Islamic texts covering Quran, Hadith, Fiqh, Tafsir, Aqeedah, Seerah, and more — sourced from the Shamela library and enriched with scholarly metadata for RAG-based Islamic QA systems.

Based on the Fanar-Sadiq Architecture for grounded, citation-backed Islamic question answering.

📊 Dataset Summary

Metric	Value
Total Passages	18,701,966
Total Size	~40 GB
Collections	10
Source	ElShamela Library (المكتبة الشاملة)
Languages	Arabic (primary), English (metadata)
Time Span	0-1400 AH (7th-21st century CE)

📚 Collections

#	Collection	Passages	Size	Description
1	`hadith_passages`	5,059,547	11 GB	Prophetic traditions (Sahih Bukhari, Muslim, etc.)
2	`general_islamic`	3,410,436	6.1 GB	General Islamic knowledge, spirituality, ethics
3	`fiqh_passages`	2,397,988	6.6 GB	Islamic jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali)
4	`islamic_history_passages`	2,850,288	5.6 GB	Islamic history (Prophetic to Ottoman era)
5	`quran_tafsir`	2,128,606	4.9 GB	Quranic exegesis (Tabari, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir, etc.)
6	`arabic_language_passages`	1,015,311	2.2 GB	Arabic grammar, linguistics, rhetoric
7	`aqeedah_passages`	738,003	1.7 GB	Islamic creed and theology
8	`spirituality_passages`	438,776	1.1 GB	Sufism, tasawwuf, purification of the heart
9	`usul_fiqh`	368,388	874 MB	Principles of Islamic jurisprudence
10	`seerah_passages`	294,623	755 MB	Prophet Muhammad's biography

📋 Schema

Each passage contains the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
`content`	string	Main passage text (Arabic)
`content_type`	string	Type of content
`book_id`	int64	Unique book identifier
`book_title`	string	Title of the source book
`category`	string	Category (e.g., "العقيدة", "الفقه")
`author`	string	Author name
`author_death`	int64	Author's death year (Hijri)
`collection`	string	Collection name
`page_number`	int64	Page number in source
`section_title`	string	Section heading
`hierarchy`	list	Hierarchical path [book, chapter, section]
`title`	string	Passage title
`chapter`	string	Chapter name
`section`	string	Section name
`page`	int64	Page number

Example Entry

{
  "content": "الحمد لله نحمده ونستعينه ونستغفره، ونعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا...",
  "book_id": 1234,
  "book_title": "الفوائد العذاب في الرد على من لم يحكم السنة والكتاب",
  "category": "العقيدة",
  "author": "حمد بن ناصر آل معمر",
  "author_death": 1225,
  "collection": "aqeedah_passages",
  "page_number": 1,
  "section_title": "مقدمة المحقق",
  "hierarchy": ["الفوائد العذاب", "مقدمة المحقق"],
  "title": "مقدمة المحقق",
  "chapter": null,
  "section": null,
  "page": 1
}

📊 Collection Breakdown

Passages Distribution

hadith_passages              ████████████████████████████████  5,059,547 (27%)
general_islamic              ████████████████████             3,410,436 (18%)
fiqh_passages                ██████████████                    2,397,988 (13%)
islamic_history_passages     ██████████████                    2,850,288 (15%)
quran_tafsir                 ████████████                      2,128,606 (11%)
arabic_language_passages     ██████                            1,015,311 (5%)
aqeedah_passages             ████                               738,003 (4%)
spirituality_passages        ██                                 438,776 (2%)
usul_fiqh                    █                                  368,388 (2%)
seerah_passages              █                                  294,623 (2%)

🔧 How to Load

Using HuggingFace Datasets

from datasets import load_dataset

# Load full dataset
ds = load_dataset("Kandil7/Athar-Datasets")

# Access specific collection
for row in ds['train']:
    if row['collection'] == 'fiqh_passages':
        print(row['content'][:200])
        break

# Filter by collection
hadith_ds = ds['train'].filter(lambda x: x['collection'] == 'hadith_passages')

Streaming Mode (Memory Efficient)

from datasets import load_dataset

# Stream without downloading
ds = load_dataset("Kandil7/Athar-Datasets", split="train", streaming=True)

for i, passage in enumerate(ds):
    if i >= 5:
        break
    print(f"{passage['collection']}: {passage['title']}")

Direct JSONL Access

import json

# Load specific collection
with open('hadith_passages.jsonl', 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    passages = [json.loads(line) for line in f]

print(f"Loaded {len(passages):,} hadith passages")

💡 Usage Examples

Example 1: Semantic Search with RAG

from sentence_transformers import SentenceTransformer
import numpy as np
import json

# Load embedding model
model = SentenceTransformer('BAAI/bge-m3')

# Load a sample collection
with open('fiqh_passages.jsonl', 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    passages = [json.loads(line) for line in f][:1000]

# Create embeddings
texts = [p['content'] for p in passages]
embeddings = model.encode(texts)

# Search
query = "ما حكم صلاة الجماعة؟"
query_embedding = model.encode([query])[0]

# Find most similar
scores = np.dot(embeddings, query_embedding)
top_idx = np.argsort(scores)[-5:][::-1]

for idx in top_idx:
    print(f"Score: {scores[idx]:.3f}")
    print(passages[idx]['content'][:200])
    print("---")

Example 2: Filter by Era

# Filter classical era scholars (200-500 AH)
classical_passages = [
    p for p in passages
    if 200 <= p.get('author_death', 0) <= 500
]

# Filter by author
imam_bukhari = [
    p for p in hadith_passages
    if 'Bukhari' in p.get('author', '')
]

Example 3: Citation-Enhanced QA with Athar

# Use the Athar system for grounded answers
# See: https://github.com/Kandil7/Athar

from Athar import FiqhAgent

agent = FiqhAgent()
result = await agent.execute(
    query="ما حكم صلاة الجماعة؟",
    filters={"era": "classical"}
)

# Result includes citations
for citation in result.citations:
    print(citation.source)
    print(citation.text)

📖 Source: ElShamela Library (المكتبة الشاملة)

This dataset is derived from ElShamela Library (المكتبة الشاملة) — the largest comprehensive digital library of Islamic texts.

About ElShamela

ElShamela (المكتبة الشاملة) is a free, open-access digital library that has been digitizing and preserving classical Islamic texts for over two decades.

Website: https://shamela.ws/

Processing Pipeline

Extracted books from ElShamela Library format
Converted from proprietary Shamela format to plain text
Split into pages and passages for granular retrieval
Enriched with metadata:
- Author names and death years (Hijri)
- Book titles and categories
- Chapter and section headings
- Page numbers
Organized into 10 scholarly collections

🏗️ Scholarly Eras

Era	Range (AH)	Range (CE)	Description
Prophetic	0-100	622-718	Companions of Prophet ﷺ
Tabi'un	100-200	718-815	Successors
Classical	200-500	815-1106	Golden age of Islamic scholarship
Medieval	500-900	1106-1496	Post-classical period
Ottoman	900-1300	1496-1883	Ottoman era
Modern	1300+	1883+	Modern period

🤝 Related Projects

Athar — Production-ready Islamic QA system using this dataset
Fanar-Sadiq Architecture — Research paper

📝 Citation

@misc{athar-datasets-2026,
  title={Athar Islamic QA Datasets},
  author={Kandil, Ahmed},
  year={2026},
  url={https://huggingface.co/datasets/Kandil7/Athar-Datasets},
  note={18.7M passages from 10 Islamic collections}
}

⚠️ Usage Notes

Scholarly Context: These texts represent classical Islamic scholarship. Always consult qualified scholars for religious rulings.
Hadith Authenticity: Hadith passages include chains of narration (esnad). Use authenticity grading to evaluate reliability.
Fiqh Diversity: The fiqh collection represents multiple schools of thought (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali).
Language: Primary content is in Classical Arabic. Metadata includes English translations.
Licensing: MIT License — free for research and commercial use.

📁 File Structure

Athar-Datasets/
├── hadith_passages.jsonl              # 5,059,547 passages (11 GB)
├── general_islamic.jsonl              # 3,410,436 passages (6.1 GB)
├── fiqh_passages.jsonl                # 2,397,988 passages (6.6 GB)
├── islamic_history_passages.jsonl     # 2,850,288 passages (5.6 GB)
├── quran_tafsir.jsonl                 # 2,128,606 passages (4.9 GB)
├── arabic_language_passages.jsonl      # 1,015,311 passages (2.2 GB)
├── aqeedah_passages.jsonl             # 738,003 passages (1.7 GB)
├── spirituality_passages.jsonl         # 438,776 passages (1.1 GB)
├── usul_fiqh.jsonl                    # 368,388 passages (874 MB)
└── seerah_passages.jsonl              # 294,623 passages (755 MB)

📞 Contact & Support

GitHub: https://github.com/Kandil7/Athar
HuggingFace: https://huggingface.co/Kandil7

Built with ❤️ for the Muslim community

🕌 Athar Islamic QA • 18.7M passages • 10 collections • 1,400 years of scholarship