firedragon
Veteran Member
Why must one know Arabic to know the Qur’an? Why is language that important?
I am writing this to create some awareness because a lot of people misunderstand this statement that Muslims make about the language of Arabic and the Qur’an. I don’t advocate the idea that knowing Arabic is fundamental, but its important. At least a person must have the ability to empathise with the language in order to open mindedly understand how the language speaks.
I will give an example from a very famous verse in the Qur’an a lot of people intentionally misrepresent with no effort to empathise with the language.
The verse 78:33 speaks of companions with swelling breasts. When you read the translation it looks perverse. But reading it in Arabic gives a completely different picture and the only proper way to translate it is as “Swelling Breasts”. The interpretation is very different.
The word “Kawaib” in Arabic means “ripe”. It’s the age of womanhood where a girl is grown up. The phrase does not indicate large breasts as an English reader would read it. This simply signifies the age.
An example from an Asian language would be the word “Lamissi”. Lamissi is a word used to address a grown girl of maritable age. But the real meaning of the word is “Lama Issi” where “Lama” means “breast” and issi means lifted or grown. This has no perverse connotation whatsoever. It is a simple word to indicate an age. Just like the word “Illan Dhariya”. Illan means “to ask or require”. Dhariya means “girl”. So Illan Dhariya means “asking for a girl or woman”. This is referring to a young man of maritable age. He is not a teen anymore but a young man. But when you translate the word into English it seems ridiculous as if he is a pervert looking for women.
This is the reason one must develop the ability to empathise with a language. Those who don’t even try to empathise with a language have an agenda, and others who listen to these people will go home with a huge misunderstanding.
Another example would be to say seven in Arabic. Yes it means “seven” when you say “Saba” (with an ain) but what is communicated is not the number seven. Lets say we say “I done this dozens of times” it means someone has done it many times. I would say “buy a dozen” I am not really saying to buy exactly 12 in number but just to get a bunch. Not too much, not one or two, but enough. Like when you say “I told you a million times” I am not saying I exactly said this same thing 1,000,000 times but just that I have said it many times. But the translation would read “seven”. If you don’t translate it that way it seems dishonest.
There are millions of examples like this, and with that statement I don’t mean exactly 1,000,000, I simply mean there are many.
I would like to see views of respectable members and of course any clarification is welcome.
Peace.
I am writing this to create some awareness because a lot of people misunderstand this statement that Muslims make about the language of Arabic and the Qur’an. I don’t advocate the idea that knowing Arabic is fundamental, but its important. At least a person must have the ability to empathise with the language in order to open mindedly understand how the language speaks.
I will give an example from a very famous verse in the Qur’an a lot of people intentionally misrepresent with no effort to empathise with the language.
The verse 78:33 speaks of companions with swelling breasts. When you read the translation it looks perverse. But reading it in Arabic gives a completely different picture and the only proper way to translate it is as “Swelling Breasts”. The interpretation is very different.
The word “Kawaib” in Arabic means “ripe”. It’s the age of womanhood where a girl is grown up. The phrase does not indicate large breasts as an English reader would read it. This simply signifies the age.
An example from an Asian language would be the word “Lamissi”. Lamissi is a word used to address a grown girl of maritable age. But the real meaning of the word is “Lama Issi” where “Lama” means “breast” and issi means lifted or grown. This has no perverse connotation whatsoever. It is a simple word to indicate an age. Just like the word “Illan Dhariya”. Illan means “to ask or require”. Dhariya means “girl”. So Illan Dhariya means “asking for a girl or woman”. This is referring to a young man of maritable age. He is not a teen anymore but a young man. But when you translate the word into English it seems ridiculous as if he is a pervert looking for women.
This is the reason one must develop the ability to empathise with a language. Those who don’t even try to empathise with a language have an agenda, and others who listen to these people will go home with a huge misunderstanding.
Another example would be to say seven in Arabic. Yes it means “seven” when you say “Saba” (with an ain) but what is communicated is not the number seven. Lets say we say “I done this dozens of times” it means someone has done it many times. I would say “buy a dozen” I am not really saying to buy exactly 12 in number but just to get a bunch. Not too much, not one or two, but enough. Like when you say “I told you a million times” I am not saying I exactly said this same thing 1,000,000 times but just that I have said it many times. But the translation would read “seven”. If you don’t translate it that way it seems dishonest.
There are millions of examples like this, and with that statement I don’t mean exactly 1,000,000, I simply mean there are many.
I would like to see views of respectable members and of course any clarification is welcome.
Peace.