Brilliance of The Book

The Evolution from Ancient to Proper Arabic

Now the quick problem, I'm going to go very very quickly inshallah, because we're losing time. Islam came, Allah gave it victory, it became a power. Did it remain in the Arab world? No. Islam spread. Did Islam remain, did it continue to spread only among the Arabs, or did it also start incorporating non-Arabs? Non-Arabs. To the point where a point came where the vast majority of the ummah happened to be Arabs or non-Arabs.

Non-Arabs. Non-Arabs became the majority, Arabs became the minority. Which means all the non-Arabs were now basically Arabic 101 students. Right? They were good at Persian or Roman or whatever else, but now they were becoming students of Arabic. When you have the average taken of the level of Arabic of the ummah, has the average level gone down? When the ummah becomes international? Yeah, it goes down.

Also, the Arabs are now interacting with an entire global civilization. The Muslim Arabs, they're traveling all over the place. When you travel, does your language deteriorate? Sure. My Urdu was awesome until I had kids. I was just speaking, I talked to them, they said, Dad, you're talking Urdu again. So, your language deteriorates over time because of influence from other languages. So the only part of your language you keep is the most essential parts to get the point across. The deeper things, the higher things in literature, they start withering away.

Preservation Efforts

The Arab scholars, the Muslim scholars realize this. They realize that Arabic as a phenomenon, what existed in the isolated desert is now changing. And this is a serious problem. Why do you think this is a serious problem? What do you think? Quran. In one word, the Quran.

Why? Because if we don't appreciate the amazing Arabic of the desert, then we won't appreciate the amazing Arabic of what? Of the Quran. Our appreciation of the Quran is going to deteriorate. So we have to take measures to preserve the ancient Arabic.

This starts happening even in the first century. You have lexicons, dictionaries of Arabic, collections of poetry written by Arabs saying, the Arabs said. Why are they saying the Arabs said? That this word means this, this, and this. They're Arabs too. What they mean is the desert Arabs, the ancient Arabs, the original Arabs, the Arabs in whose tongue, in whose expression the Quran came. They said this.

That's how they understood it. It may have changed a hundred years from then. And we're not talking a hundred years later now. We're talking a millennium and a half. So the language changed quite a bit. When we study the Arabic of the Quran, we're not studying proper Arabic. What are we studying? Ancient Arabic. Do you understand how we got from ancient to proper? Right? Globalization. The expansion of the ummah. That's how we got there. But the study of ancient Arabic remains critical. It remains critical.

Modern Challenge in Appreciating the Quran

The problem of our times in appreciating the Quran. Most people, what they know about the Quran, is it in Arabic or in translation? Most people, what they know about the Quran is in translation. It's in translation.

And most people that know the Arabic of the Quran in Arabic, know it in proper Arabic or ancient Arabic? They know it in proper Arabic. They are themselves not students of ancient Arabic. So even their understanding, except the scholars, except those who dedicate themselves to that study, except them, is reduced. They have very limited appreciation of what the Quran is actually saying. It's very, very powerful stuff. And it's been reduced to very... We got a very shallow version of this incredibly sophisticated text.

So this was the foundation. This was the first thing I wanted to share with you. The problem. The problem itself. But also, it has been held widely that you can only appreciate the beauty, the amazing perfection of the Quran in what language? In Arabic. But you know Allah Azza wa Jal revealed this Quran as a miracle. Not just a miracle for one group of people. This is a miracle for who? Humanity. Everybody.

Everybody. So even though we will never taste the Quran like the Arab at the time of the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم). We are never going to be able to get there. Because we can't reverse time. We can still make attempts to display the beauty of the Quran in every language, including English. We have to at least try. We have to try.

Because it is a right of the people to know how beautiful this book is. We can't just say, oh, it's so awesome in Arabic, I can't even tell you in English. Forget it. You can't do that. That's not fair.

The Uniqueness of Quranic Arabic

So the Quran is, it has this perfected eloquence. To the point where you have spoken Arabic, then what? Proper Arabic, then what? Ancient Arabic, which one is the most sophisticated? And then you have Quranic Arabic. That's number four.

Spoken Arabic, proper Arabic, ancient Arabic, and then a category in and of itself. Quranic Arabic like nothing else. Like nothing else. There's no poetry like it. There's no other literature like it. There's no literature in any language like the Quran. Nothing. There's not a book, not a chapter, not a line. You can't compare it to anything else. You can't.

The Structure of the Quran

The Quran is made up of how many surahs? 114 surahs. Now, what is the common translation of surah? What is surah translated into? Chapter, right? Surah is translated into chapter.

Now, you tell me. Chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4. Is chapter 4 based on chapters 1, 2, and 3? No, in every other book it is. In every other book, you don't repeat in chapter 4 what you already discussed in what? Chapters 1, 2, and 3. 4 is based on the first 3. There's no repetition. There's some sort of logical sequence that you can decipher. The Quran doesn't repeat itself across its quote-unquote chapters. So they're not really chapters.

It's not really a chapter. What we call chapter is something else. This is something else.

A storybook has chapters too. But what happens? The chronology moves forward. Also, the Quran, you can't even divide it. You can't even call it unit 1, unit 2, unit 3. You can't even do that. You know why? Because the Quran defies human logic. Are the Madani surahs or Meccan surahs first and then the Madani surahs? No, it's all mixed together.

Is the shortest surah first and then the longest surah last? No, it's not going by size order. It's not going by subject order. It's not going by chronological order. It has its own unique order unlike what? Every other book. There's nothing like it. It is uncomparable, even in its structure.

Addressing Criticisms of Quranic Structure

Now the problem with human beings is when they get used to a structure. Chronological order, numerical order, size order. These are all orders, right? Subject order. When they find none of these, you know what the accusation is against the Quran? Yeah, there is no order. The accusation against the Quran is, hey, we didn't find chronological order. We didn't find subject order. We didn't find, you know, size order. So that must mean there is no order. It's chaos.

French orientalists, German orientalists read their literary criticisms of the Quran and you will find them saying the Quran has no structure. It's chaotic.

Now just on a side note, I do want to mention. You're thinking to yourself, ah, who cares about these kufar. They're saying the Quran has no structure. We believe. Allah challenged them to look into the Quran. Allah challenged them, didn't He? And when they're critiquing the Quran, aren't they doing what Allah had asked them to do? They are. So when they are making criticisms of the Quran, they are actually fulfilling the destiny of the Quran.

And we are in a position, we are in an obligatory position to respond. We're in a position to respond. Our response isn't, ah, we believe, forget them. No, no, no. We believe with eyes open. We respond to criticisms. We have answers. When you have no answer, you say go away, you're a disbeliever. But we're not a religion of no answers. We are in an intellectual civilization. We have answers. We have answers.

The Concept of Ayah

So now, the first thing was about the structure of the Quran. The second thing is the word ayah. So there's surah, except we can't really do anything with surah. We can't really call it a chapter. It's a proprietary term, a unique term, it's own file format, right, not compatible with anything else.

What's the other thing? Ayah. What's ayah translated as? Ayah is translated as verse. Now the word verse, think of it in English. Where does the word verse get used? Don't think of it, religion, don't think of Islam, think of the word verse in English. What is the thing that comes to mind when you hear verse? Poetry. Song, verses of a song, verses in lyrics, verses of poetry, right? If not song and poetry, where does verse come up in English discussion? The Bible.

The second connotation of verse is biblical. So either you're thinking of poetry and song or you're thinking of the Bible. Now interestingly enough, the Quran is very adamant in letting us know,

"And We have not taught him poetry, nor is it suitable for him. This is not the word of a poet, this is not poetry. We didn't teach him poetry at all.

This is not the word of a poet, this is not poetry. We didn't teach him poetry at all."

The last thing you should be thinking about when you hear Quran is what? Poetry, any comparison to it. And the last thing you should be thinking is that this is plagiarized from where? The Bible. But the two things that come to mind when you hear verse, even subconsciously, maybe it doesn't come to your mind, but the average English speaker, does it come to their mind? Sure.

And if we're doing da'wah, we have to be clear of what words we use, what connotations, what messages we send. So there's a problem. The word ayah is unique. Nothing else has ayat. Nothing else has surah. Allah has, Quran has surah and it has ayat. Unique. Unique forms. Can't even call them sentences.

You know, can you think of an ayah that's just one word? That's just one word. Can you think of an ayah, anybody? Well, asr is two words. Ar-Rahman. Ar-Rahman, one word. I can think of three ayat that go together to make one sentence,

Three ayat, but grammatically, one sentence. The previous was one ayah, which is one word. Now there are three ayat, but how many sentences? One sentence.

And then there are entire passages of inheritance law, or of giving loans, like the entire page in Baqarah. Right? On giving loans. Entire paragraph, but how many ayat? One ayah.

You can't confine it to any literary form, except one, there's only one term you can use for the ayah. Ayah. There's nothing else. Nothing else fits. Nothing else can describe it. So Allah gave us this unique literature, which is uncomparable to any other literature.

The Incredible Precision of the Quran

In the little bit of time that we have left, I want to share with you what makes the Qur'an so incredible. We just talked about what makes the Qur'an unique, but not what makes it incredible. Okay, we didn't talk about what makes it incredible yet.

Synchronization of Words Based on Future Context

Just want to share with you a handful of ayat. When you and I speak, we organize our thoughts. I come to this speech, I say to myself, first I'm going to talk about this, then I'm going to talk about this. When you and I speak, we organize our thoughts.

But you and I are incapable, when we speak, of organizing our words based on what we're going to say later. We can't organize our words based on what we're going to say later. Let me give you an example.

Do you notice a similarity? They're very similar words. The words کَكَفَىٰ بِاللَّهِ occurred twice. Is the word شهيدًا used in both ayahs? Are the words ayahs? They're two different ayahs, two different places.

But, notice, now the rough meaning, the rough meaning is, Allah is enough as a witness between me and yourselves. The second ayah says, Allah is enough between me and yourselves as a witness. Very similar.

The first ayah once again says, Allah is enough as a witness. What's the Arabic word for witness? شهيدًا between me and yourselves بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَكُمْ . The second ayah says, Allah is enough between me and yourselves as a witness.

So the difference is sequence. The difference is Allah said witness first, me and yourselves later. Then he said me and yourselves first, and he said witness later, right? The thing is the Qur'an is hypersensitive, microscopically sensitive to context.

When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks, words are synchronized like beautiful architecture. Perfect. You can't move a brick from its place or the perfection will be lost.

The first ayah, Allah azzawajal ends the ayah إِنَّهُ كَانَ بِعِبَادِهِ خَبِيرًا بَصِيرًا. Allah, no doubt, he has full news, has always had full news and has been full view of his slaves. The ayah ends speaking about Allah. The ayah ends speaking about Allah.

When the ayah ends speaking about Allah, the word for Allah,شهيدًاused first. It came first. The next ayah ends, أُولَئِكَهُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ I'm skipping some words, but it speaks about people that are losers.

One ayah ends, they begin similarly, but one of them ends speaking about Allah. The other one ends speaking about not Allah but people. When the ayah ends speaking about Allah, it begins with mentioning Allah's attribute as شهید first.

When Allah ends the ayah speaking about people, the ayah begins with mention of between me and yourselves. Between me and yourselves, isn't that people? People first. What is about to be said in the future actually has an influence on how words are organized even before.

We don't have that ability when we speak. We don't have that capability when we speak. Even when we write, we're not that sensitive.

But the Qur'an was not revealed as a written word. It was revealed as what? A spoken word. It was revealed as a spoken word.

Perfect Word Sequence Based on Context

Allah جل و عز says نَحْنُ نَرْزُقُكُمْ وَإِيَّاهُمْ We provide you and them. We provide you and who? Them. In another place He says نَحْنُ نَرْزُقُهُمْ وَإِيَّاهُمْ We provide them and you.

One place He says, We provide you and them. Other place He says what? We provide them and you. To us it's the same thing. Normal people when they speak, they wouldn't be so sensitive to you came first, them came later. It's the same thing. But in the Qur'an this is hypersensitive.

Don't kill your children because of poverty. When He says because of poverty, poverty already exists. When poverty already exists, who are you worried about feeding? Yourself. So Allah says, We provide you and them.

Don't kill your children out of fear of poverty. Not because of poverty but fear of poverty. Fear is something in the future. Like the children who are coming in the future. So He says, We provide them and you.

SubhanAllah. It is so perfect the word. When you study it. This is just one area of the Qur'an's perfection. The placement of words. The sequence of words. This is just one area.

Perfect Word Choice Based on Context

Another area I'd like to share with you. Perfection of the choice of words. You know who the messenger Shu'ayb is? Which nation was he sent to? He was sent to Madian.

Το Madian we sent their brother Shu'ayb. Remember the phrase is وَإِلَى مَدْيَنَ أَخَاهُمْ شُعَيْبًا To Madian we sent their brother Shu'ayb.

Allah جل و عز in Surah Ash-Shu'ara, He speaks about lots of prophets.

When their brother Nuh said to them.

When their brother Hud said to them.

When their brother Salih said to them.

When Shu'ayb said to them.

For everyone else He said, their brother Nuh said. Their brother Salih said. Their brother Hud said. Their brother Lut said. But when it came to Shu'ayb, what did he say? Shu'ayb said. He didn't say what? Their brother Shu'ayb said. He didn't say that. He skipped out on their brother.

Now in another place in the Qur'an He says like I told you.

To Madian we sent their brother Shu'ayb. In this surah where everybody gets the label brother, brother, brother, brother, brother. The only one who doesn't get the label is who? Shu'ayb a.s. Why?

Why would Allah جل و عز take that word away? What nation was He sent to? Madian. Madian has another name in the Qur'an, you know? أَصْحَابُ الْأَيْكَةِ Another name is أَصْحَابُ الْأَيْكَةِ Now Madian is a race of people and it's also a place. It's a race of people and it's also a place.

Now, Ayka was a giant tree that they used to worship. So when Allah calls them the people of Ayka, is that their racial name or their religious name? That's their religious name. In the surah where I told you, وَإِلَىٰ مَدْيَنَ أَخَاهُمْ شُعَيْبًا To Madian we sent their brother Shu'ayb.

When it comes to his race, is he their brother? When it comes to his race, it's the same race, same people, same region. He's their brother. But in surah Shu'ara Allah جل و عز says

The people of Ayka lied against the messengers when Shu'ayb said to them, he says Shu'ayb, not their brother Shu'ayb, because Allah used the name Ashabul Ayka, the name of their religion.

When it comes to their religion, is he their brother? So he says Shu'ayb said. He doesn't say their brother Shu'ayb said. There is this degree of sensitivity in the Qur'an, in its literary form, that you don't find anywhere else. It's impossible. And it's consistent, over and over and over again.

The Miracle of Circular Structure in Words

Look at this ayah. Allah جل و عز says

Allah جل و عز speaks of all heavenly bodies. Each of them in their own assigned space, they are floating. What is he speaking about? Bodies in space? Planets? Stars? Galaxies? He's speaking about all of them doing what? Rotating?

Spell out the first words وَكُلٌّ فِي فَلَكٍ . What's the first letter in وَكُلٌّ فِي فَلَكٍ ? Keep going. When you and I... Then what? What's the last letter? What's the first letter? What's the second, last, and second? What's the third, last, and third? You notice something? What are they rotating around? What letter are they rotating around? The word he used for rotating يَسْبَحُونَ Yeah. Subhanallah.

How do you do that? How do human beings come up with that? Allahazzawajal speaks and this is not written form. This is not written word. This is spoken word. Allahazzawajal gave this Qur'an to the messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم so he would recite it unto the people. So he would recite it as a word. We

are baffled even the way it's spelled. Even the way it's written. But it was baffling, mind-boggling, stunning, really stunning in its perfected form.

Precision in Verb Tenses

A few very quick cases inshallah and then we'll take some questions. You know the difference between past tense and present tense? The Qur'an uses past tense and also uses of course present tense and future tense.

When I say killed, killed, is that past tense? Present or future? Past. When I say kills, that's present tense. In Surah Al-Ma'idah Allah says

Whoever killed a believer by mistake.

Whoever killed a believer by mistake. Is that past tense or present tense? Remember that, okay? Which is past tense, by mistake or on purpose? When you kill a believer by mistake. Then He says

Whoever kills a believer on purpose.

Whoever killed a believer by mistake and whoever kills a believer on purpose. So when He came to killing on purpose, which was used, past tense or present tense? Present tense. Same passage. You would think you'd stick to the same tense. But no. When He came to killing by mistake, He uses past tense. When He came to killing on purpose, He used which one? Present tense. You know why?

The past tense only happened once. I went to the Texas Dharma Convention. What does that mean? One time. I go to the Texas Dharma Convention. What does that mean? I go every year. Right?

So now here, Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala speaks of a person who killed by mistake. How many times do you kill someone by mistake? You only commit murder by mistake once. The second time you say, Oh, mistake, then... So the one who kills on purpose is a perpetrator and he should be punished because chances are what? He'll do it again. Hence the present tense because it has continuity. The past tense murder because it's mistaken. The present tense because it's on purpose. There's continuity. Subhanallah.

Even in the tense, even in the choice of words, the tense of words, there is such hypersensitivity that does not exist in any other literary form. These are the things that are lost. These are the things that are lost when you stop becoming students of what language? Don't say Arabic, that'll disappoint me. Quranic Arabic with ancient Arabic.

Ancient Arabic and its perfected form is Quranic Arabic. Ancient Arabic never reached where Quranic Arabic reached even. So the pinnacle of it is Quranic Arabic. This is why the standard of Arabic is the Quran. The standard of Arabic to judge whether something is good Arabic or bad Arabic, the standard of it is the Quran. This is even understood and appreciated by non-Muslims. Non-Muslim Arabic literaries. Subhanallah.

Perfect Placement Within Surah Structure

Last two, inshallah, examples and then I'll take your questions if you have any. Allahazawajal says, and this is about the unique placement of words

Anyone know? وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًا This is how we made you a middle nation, a balanced nation. وسط literally, is right in between.

They get right into the middle of the gathering, the horses, they penetrate. So Allah made us a middle nation, a middle nation, a balanced nation. This is ayah number 143 of Surah Al-Baqarah.

Ayah number what again? 143. Of a total of how many ayahs of Surah Al-Baqarah? It is the middle ayah of Surah Al-Baqarah. 143, half of 286. And the middle ayah says, we made you a middle nation.

SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah.

Advanced Morphological Precision

Last one. There are many, many, many angles that we could talk about this subject from, but we'll hold off on that until the seminar in April, inshaAllah, if you're coming. We'll talk about these areas of the Qur'an in depth.

At the end, I'll share with you just some areas that we're going to try and explore. But as a last one, this is very subtle, very small. Two come to my head, so I'll share two with you.

Allah جل وعزI think this is the fourth, something like the fourth ayah of Surah Al-Ahzab. How much time do I have, by the way? 15 minutes, sweet. Question two? Okay, great.

I'll take this at the end, inshaAllah. Alright. So, in Surah Al-Ahzab Allah جل وعز speaks about spousal issues, marital issues. The ayah begins with men and moves on to discussing women. The ayah begins with men and moves on to what? Women

Allah did not put two hearts inside of any man.

He says, Allah did not put two hearts inside of any man. لِرَجُلٍ مِّن قَلْبَيْنِ فِي جَوْفِهِ The rest of the ayah speaks about the azwaj, the spouses. Now the thing is, AllahAllah did not put two hearts inside of any human being.

He excluded who? Yeah, He just said He didn't put two hearts inside of any man. And this is perfection in its literal form, not literary, but literal form, because women can get pregnant. And when they get pregnant, how many hearts are inside? Could be two or more.

So Allah says He didn't put two hearts inside of any man. Subhanallah. Even in its literary form, literal form, literally, you can't play the devil's advocate and say, what about women? You said insan. Women have two hearts. No, you can't, because you said man. لرَجُلٍ

The Science of Arabic Morphology (Idgham)

There's this thing in Arabic called idgham. You may have heard of it in tajweed, it's also in sarf. It's the science of morphology of Arabic. What it does is it lets you fuse words together.

And I'll show you one thing in the Qur'an. Okay, read the first word out loud for me. (يَتَدَبَّرُ - yatadabbaru) What's the second word? (يَدَّبَّرُ - yaddabbaru) They're actually the same word.

The Arab says (يَتَدَبَّرُ - yatadabbaru) Too much work. So let's just take the ta and the dal, and fuse them together, put a shada on top, make life easier. So he says (يَدَّبَّرُ - yaddabbaru) They're the same word.

This is called idgham, fusion. Fusing two letters together for convenience. In modern Arabic, they're the same. In classical Arabic, they're a little bit different. Which is the abbreviated form? What do you think? The second one, (يَتَدَبَّرُ - yatadabbaru) is abbreviated. (يَتَدَبَّرُ - yatadabbaru) (يَتَدَبَّرُ - yatadabbaru) is the complete form.

Now (تَدَبَّرُ - tadabbaru) in Arabic means to reflect, to ponder. Which is a more complete form of the word again? (يَتَدَبَّرُ - yatadabbaru) Allah جل و عز when He speaks about the entire Qur'an, He says

أَفَلَا يَتَدَبَّرُونَ الْقُرْآنَ Did He use the complete form? Yeah. When He speaks of any part of the Qur'an, not the whole thing. Just some ayat, some word. Guess what? He uses the partial form.

لِيَدَّبَّرُوا آيَاتِهِ He uses the partial form of the word when He speaks about a part of the Qur'an, and He uses the complete form of the word when He uses what? He speaks of the complete Qur'an.

أَفَلَا يَتَدَبَّرُونَ الْقُرْآنَ Even in the way words are spelled, there's a miracle. Even in the way they're spelled, there's perfection. There's precision. There's minute detail. There's minute, minute detail.

Exploring Quranic Examples in Greater Detail

So this is, what I've shared with you thus far is on the micro level. Meaning we're zooming in on the ayah, zooming in on the word. We're looking at a word with great detail and trying to explore the sophistication of the Qur'an from that point of view. But there are other issues.

For instance, Allah جل و عز He gives many examples in the Qur'an. He gives many, many examples. You wanna do an example before we go? Just one? One of my favorites? Okay, we'll do one of my favorites.

Some of you may have heard this before, but that's okay. It's good to remember. Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى He speaks in surah al-Hajj.

The Powerful Example of Shirk

Surah al-Hajj is surah number 22. This I believe is ayah number 31

They are solely dedicated to Allah while not committing any shirk with Him whatsoever.