Monday, 3 September 2012

Al-Qur’an: The Linguistic Miracle


Al-Qur’an: The Linguistic 

Miracle

In the first section of this Book, there is introduction of Classical Arabic (a more in-depth version of the language in comparison to the Modern Fus-ha Standard, Spoken Arabic aka MSA). I will explain the literary tools of Classical Arabic, with examples, and later near the end of this section, I will share a few gems of Classical Arabic language, to give you a feel of how the Classical Arabs expressed themselves through Poetry, and what powerful literary tools they used to convey their message to an equally praiseworthy literary audience. The second section will focus on discussing the subtleties of the Qur’anic text and its beauties, and will further give tips for students of Qur’anic and Arabic language to have the ability themselves to extract beautiful gems from the Qur’an.
Introduction to the Arabic Language:
The Arabic language is a unique language, and has many special and unique features which make it suitable for it to convey; many meanings in few words, subtleties, emphasis and powerful imagery through speech alone. If God was to convey a message to mankind, it would be through a language which is easy to learn, and has the highest form of expressiveness. I believe that Arabic is that language by which He communicated His final Message to mankind, and I will try to prove it through this Book – Qur’an, the Linguistic Miracle.

In the first section of this Book, I will be introducing Classical Arabic (a more in-depth version of the language in comparison to the Modern Fus-ha Standard, Spoken Arabic aka MSA). I will explain the literary tools of Classical Arabic, with examples, and later near the end of this section, I will share a few gems of Classical Arabic language, to give you a feel of how the Classical Arabs expressed themselves through Poetry, and what powerful literary tools they used to convey their message to an equally praiseworthy literary audience.
What is the Arabic language?
Arabic is an ancient Semitic language, believed to be over 2000 years old. So it has had alot of time to develop, and enrich its meanings and linguistic beauty. Some say it – the language- has been inspired and preserved miraculously in its pure form. It has stayed firm and pure to its roots, meaning that words and their meanings which were said over 1,400 years ago are still preserved and documented for us uptill this day. Unlike many other languages where words change meanings every few generations, and the meaning of the original word is lost. An example in the English language today is the word ‘wicked’ which meant ‘evil’ last generation, but in this generation it means ‘good.’ It may be that 2 generations ahead, ‘wicked’ may only be recognized as meaning ‘good’, possibly making future readers of the language confused.
How is Arabic Structured?
Arabic works with a triliteral root system, which means that most words are made of 3 Root Consonant letters, and other 1 and 2 letter words with different meanings surrounding that word. It is then for the reader to use his knowledge of the language to separate and distinguish between the letters to understand which letter means what.
This will be explained later in the book, and is a fun part of learning the language. (Almost like connecting a jigsaw puzzle.)
How does Arabic language work?
Arabic 3 Consonant lettered words are usually ‘Descriptions’. These Descriptions will then fit into Contexts for Objects.
For example; the word ‘sayyaarah’ means ‘Car’. But in reality, it comes from the root meaning of the 3 Root Letters: Siin-Ya-Ra (s-y-r) = Meaning: ‘Travelling through Movement.’
We therefore see that other words like i.e. ‘he went for a walk’ (saara), or “siiyrah” (a walk through a journey), which have similar Root letters have similar meanings, simply due to their Root letters being the same. This makes it extremely easy to know what a word means in Arabic, because you might see a long difficult word, but you break it down to look at its root 3 letters – and voila! You know what root meaning and description is being hinted at. This allows you to visualize the picture being portrayed through the Arabic.
This root system is also found partially in other languages, but Arabic sustains this rule throughout its entire language consistently, which makes its richness even more exciting to explore.
What makes it even more exciting is that the Arabic language has one of the richest sets of Vocabularies in the world, probably more than any other language. (For example: the Arabs have over 1000 words just for describing the Camel, and over 60 different words for Love!) And the amazing bit is – every word has its own shade of meaning, so two words could be similar, but they both would have a slightly different implication in meaning.
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Contents:
Section 1: The Arabic Language
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Arabic Language (Why it’s Unique): ………………………………………. 4
Chapter 2: Etymology of Arabic (Base Letters & their meanings) …………………………………………. 7
Chapter 3: Grammar vs Phonetic Languages, and Arabic (Letter Sounds & Shapes): …………….. 15
Chapter 4: Richness of 3 Letter Arabic Vocabulary (Rich Meanings): …………………………………… 28
Chapter 5: Words longer than 3 Root Letters (Fusing words) ……………………………………………… 35
Chapter 6: Synonyms and Antonyms: (Words are known by their ‘Relatives’) ……………………… 38
Chapter 7 – Classical Arabic Poetry: …………………………………………………………………………………. 41
The Generous man & the Mu’allaqah of ‘Amr bin Kulthum ………………………………………………… 41
Palindromes (spelling something the same in reverse): ………………………………………….. 44
Chapter 8: Balaaghah & Eloquence (Subtle meanings) ……………………………………………………… 45
Past tense (maaDiy) vs Present-Future tense (muDaari’): ……………………………………….. 45
Noun (constant) vs Verb (temporary):…………………………………………………………………… 46
Female Plural used for non-Female objects = ‘Handful’ (less than 10) ………………………. 47
Chapter 9: What is the ‘Perfect Language’? ……………………………………………………………………… 49
Section 2: The Qur’an ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 52
Chapter 10: Introduction: ……………………………………………………………………………………. 52
Chapter 11: Qur’an Gems ……………………………………………………………………………………. 56
Chapter 12: Sounds [Onomatopoeia] in al-Qur’an. …………………………………………………. 57
Chapter 13: Qur’an Gems: Precise Word Choice, Word-Play, Palindromes, Imagery, &
Movie-Epic scenes! …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 61
Your Life Summarised in 1 Aayah/verse! ……………………………………………………………….. 62
Quranic Palindromes…………………………………………………………………………………………… 63
Precise Word Sequencing ……………………………………………………………………………………. 71
Replace the word Sky with Man, and Earth with Woman… ……………………………………… 72
Repose, Affection & Mercy… ……………………………………………………………………………….. 63
“…Her heart became empty…” …………………………………………………………………………….. 74
And Jaheem [Hell] will be Pulled out for those to See… ………………………………………….. 75
His mother is Hell, the War Horse & Description of Paradise.. ………………………………… 76
Chapter 14: How to Extract Quran Gems ……………………………………………………………………….. .88
Step 1 – Focus on Words and their Power: ……………………………………………………………………….. 88
Step 2 – Sentence structure – Placements of words in an Ayah – p84 …………………………………… 95
Step 3 – The Location of an Ayah within a Passage of Discussion…………………………………………… 86
Step 4 – See how all the Passages Connect to work Together to produce ‘Themes’ ……………….. 88
Step 5: Produce an overall Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………… 89
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Section 4:- Science
Chapter 15: Scientific Marvels in the Qur’an …………………………………………………………………… 100
How do Arabic Definitions work? ……………………………………………………………………….. 101
Scientific Miracle 1 – Sulaalah: ……………………………………………………………………………. 104
Definitions: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 104
Nutfah: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 107
Two meanings of Nutfah combined: ………………………………………………………………………. 109
Amshaaj: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 109
Maniy ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 110
1st General Meaning: ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 110
2nd Meaning: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 110
3rd Meaning: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 111
4th meaning: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 111
Relation to Modern Science: …………………………………………………………………………………. 112
Even More Amazing! : ……………………………………………………………………………. 113
Male’s Sperm Determines Gender of Child: …………………………………………………………. 113
Alaq ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 114
Summarised: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 115
Section 5: Qur’an Challenge …………………………………………………………………… 118
Chapter 16: Unique Qur’an Structure ………………………………………………………………….. 119
Chapter 17: Understanding the Qur’an Literary Challenge: “Bring Something Like It” . 121
Chapter 18: Responses to the Qur’an Literary Challenge: Musaylamah …………………… 124
‘Surah’ Iman [Faith]:………………………………………………………………………………………….. 126
Our Refutation: ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 130
1 – Incorrect Plagiarism of: ………………………………………………………………………………… 130
2 – Incorrect Useage of: Reeh & Riyah – Wind. …………………………………………………….. 131
3 – Use of Comical Expressions: ………………………………………………………………………….. 133
4 – Lack of Smoothness/Flow in Recitation: …………………………………………………………. 133
5 – Unnecessary Words – could easily be Removed – without altering it’s Meaning. .. 133
Words/Phrases which could be Summarized: ………………………………………………………. 134
6 – The Story itself has a Lack of Thematic Connection & Meaning: ……………………….. 134
The Beginning Verse, & the Last Verse were Plagiarised from the Qur’an Purposelly .. 138
Section 6: What Experts & Orientalists said about the Qur’an Language: ………. 139
Section 7: Meaningful Prayer ………………………………………………………………….. 146
Section 8: Miscellaneous: Further Reading | Dictionaries | Websites | Contact

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