['Aalim Network QR] The Arabic Language

[Ummulbanin <workshop@popmail.dircon.co.uk>]

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|       In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the All-Merciful       |\
|  Greeting of Allah be upon Muhammad and the pure members of his House |\
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Assalamu 'Alaykum
The following question was kindly answered by Mulla Asgher.

Salaams
Ummulbanin - Moderator - 'Aalim Network

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Question:

My question is about the position of the Arabic language in Islam.  Is
this language an accidental or an essential for Qura'n?  By accidental I
mean being 'ARADHI' and becoming 'HADDETH'. 

As you know ,in Qura'n,there are some verses mentioning that it is in
Arabic.

For Example:

"In the perspicuous Arabic tongue"  26:195

"(It is) a Qura'n in Arabic, without any crookedness (therein), in order
that they may guard against Evil."  30:28

In regard to the question,wether these verses want to tell us that:
   - Arabic tongue is perspicuous, and merely this language can
     carry the deep message of Qura'n, or
   - Qura'n has been revealed/written in the perspicuous Arabic, not
     in (I seek refuge to Allah) unperspicuous Arabic. It means that
     Qura'n could be revealed/written in 'X' language , and again it 
     would be in  the perpicuous 'X'. X is for  any language.

We can ask the same about 'without any crookedness' .

In another verse Qura'n says:

   " We sent not an apostle except (to teach) in the language of
    his (own) people, in order to make (things) clear to them...."
                                                            14:4
We see the word "LEYOBAYYEN"  from the same family of words as "MUBEEN" in
26:195 . Does this show us that if all divine facrors for the mission of the
prophet (pbuh&hd) would be matched for another land, then Qura'n was in the
language of its people?

-------------------

Answer:

The Qur'an is the essential KNOWLEDGE of Allah expressed in words. Allah
says in the Qur'an:
"We sent not an apostle except (to teach) in the language of his (own)
people, in order to make (things) clear to them."   Sura Ibrahim:Aya 4

In view of the above aya, the Qur'an is in Arabic because our Prophet
(S.A.W.) was born in Arabia, and the immediate people to be addressed
spoke and understood Arabic. Had it been sent to another land where a
different language was spoken, the message would have matched the language
of that land and it's people. And since the 'word' is of Allah, 'The
Perfect', then regardless of the language, it would have the same clarity.