Understanding the Linguistic miracle of the Quran

بسم الله الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ Asalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu A common question I get asked by students is " How can I read and understand Arabic fluently without the harakat (Vowel marks)? ". It will probably come as a little surprise to most students that this process will take years and years of dedicated study. Yes, those 'Learn Arabic in 40 Days' programs are very limited and don't deliver what they promise. I have included advice for students who want to achieve this goal biithnillah ( with the permission of Allah). Intention and aim We all need to ask Allah to help us in any task we undertake. There is nothing difficult if Allah makes it easy for one. One of the ways he makes something easy is to create a desire for it.  The majority of people learning Arabic today are Muslims who want to understand the Quran. Students with lofty aims and aspiration reach their desired goal more than often. I remember once hearing a university ...

The word masdar ( مَصْدَر ) linguistically means means "source" and from the perspective of Arabic linguistics it denotes the word which all other derived verbs and nouns originally came from . There has been a debate by Arabic linguists  as whether this original word was in fact the verbal noun or the verb The verbal noun is a noun that denotes an action devoid of a time frame For example: eating, sleeping, reading, writing are all considered verbal nouns. If we say " Eating adequate fruit and vegetables is essential for preventing a wide variety of health conditions". The word Eating  denotes the act of eating without a specific time frame linked to it. In Surat Al Naba, Allah (Most High) says: وَجَعَلْنَا نَوْمَ كُمْ سُبَاتًا And made your sleep [a means for] rest Once again sleep denotes the act of sleeping without an associated time frame. A verb on the other hand denotes an action with a time frame. such as in the sentence نَامَتْ فَاطِم...

لاَ تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلاَ نَوْمٌ  Neither drowsiness overtaken Him nor sleep The complete negation of drowsiness and sleep reflect the perfection of his attributes: الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ   the ever-living, and the sustainer of the universe   Sleep is a form of death and if it exists then it would be a deficiency for Allah (swt) with regards to his attribute of the ever-living.  Sleep makes one heedless and unaware of what goes around them. If Allah (swt) slept, A’uthubillah, then who would be there to take care of all the affairs of the universe. There is verse in the bible which states But then the Lord awoke from his sleep ; he was like a warrior in a drunken rage [Psalms 78:65, The Bible] For Christians this becomes even more problematic because they say the God died for 3 days! Allah (swt) is far far dissociated from such attributes which the People of former Scriptures have invented against him.  لَّهُ مَا فِي السَّمَ...

لاَ تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَ لاَ نَوْمٌ Neither drowsiness overtaken Him nor sleep Both of the states of سِنَةٌ drowsiness and نَوْمٌ sleep are negated. The negation is made with the repetition of لاَ . It was possible to say it without the second لاَ i.e. لاَ تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَ نَوْمٌ so why was لاَ repeated. Let us take an example to illustrate the point further. If one was to say using one لاَ : مُحَمَّدٌ لاَ يَدْرُسُ الاقتصاد و الكيمياء Muhammad doesn’t study economics or chemistry The meaning of this statement is that Muhammad doesn’t study economics or chemistry together. So the negation is for both of them being studied together only . However it is possible that he is studying one of these subjects alone and if so the statement above would still hold true. If Muhammad was infact not studying either one then one would add a second لاَ مُحَمَّدٌ لاَ يَدْرُسُ الاقتصاد و لاَ الكيمياء So this would negate Muhammad studying economics or chemistry together or ei...

Let us begin the Analysis: اللّهُ لاَ إِلَـهَ إِلاَّ هُوَ Allah – There is no deity except him The verse starts off by with the oneness of Allah and the negation of any partners. This is the most fundamental belief of Islamic Monotheism.  What follows are two predicates [1] for Allah (swt): (1) الْحَيُّ – The Ever-Living   If one were to use this attributes for someone other than Allah (swt), we would say for example   الرَجُل حيٌّ The man is living. In this case the predicate حيٌّ is indefinite. All the names of Allah begin with   الْ with the meaning of “ The one known possessing the attribute in the most complete and perfect way..”. So الْحَيُّ is the one known who embodies the attribute of living in the most complete and perfect manner. Allah (swt) doesn’t die nor has he been in a state on non existence. We on the other hand can die and have come into existence from nothing and in fact we are not even in control of our own life which for some...

The linguistic excellence of Ayat Al Kursi by Nabeel Al Khalidy The Prophet Muhammad (saw) said speaking about this verse:  Everything has its pinnacle and the pinnacle of the Quran is Surah al-Baqarah. In it there is an ayah which is the greatest in the Qur'an: Ayat al-Kursi [at-Tirmidhi] In this series of articles I plan on sharing with you the linguistic subtleties of this verse which many readers might not be familiar with. I will get into some discussion of Arabic grammar so it is hoped that one understands the basics. If not then I invite you to the following Channel which offers a complete Arabic curriculum. Introduction: The verse started off by with the oneness of Allah and the negation of any associates. This is the most fundamental belief of a Muslim. اللّهُ لاَ إِلَـهَ إِلاَّ هُوَ Allah – There is no deity except him Notice that The way this is ordered is different to the shahadah (The testification of faith ) which one utters when one enters the fold of Isl...

Dr Fadl Samarai a famous Arabic Grammarian in the Arab world compared the Arabic language to a highly sophisticated, state of the art computer alongside the English language (or any other language) which he compared to an obsolete and outdated computer. This might sound a bit biased considering he is an Arab, a Muslim and a famous Arabic Grammarian on Arab TV, however he has very good reason to make this comparison once we examine the Arabic language in a bit more detail. Before we can understand this comparison we need to understand the difference between a declining language like Arabic and a non-declining language like the English language. Let's take the following 3 simple sentences in both Arabic and English: 1. Khalid came جَاءَ خَالِدٌ 2. I saw Khalid رَأَيْتُ خَالِداً 3. I went with khalid ذَهَبْتُ مَعَ خَالِدٍ In all 3 sentences Khalid is written the same way in English regardless of what role it plays in the sentence. On the other hand you wil...