- Arabic Tidbits -

How beautiful. “I am as My slave thinks I am...”

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|-| Fajr |-| A bright dawn follows every dark night...

One of al-Mutanabbi’s most peculiar lines of poetry is the one below:

ألمٌ ألَمَّ ألمْ أُلِمْ بِدَائِهِ *** إنْ انَّ آنٌ آنَ آنُ أَوَانه

If you look at it closely, you’ll see that each partial bayt is almost entirely composed of a single word… or so it seems!

This is what we get if we break it down for explanation:

ألمٌ – Pain
ألَمَّ – to hurt or surround in pain
ألمْ – not
أُلِمْ – to know
بِدَائِهِ – its (cause of) illness

إنْ – If
انَّ – to cry or complain (of pain)
آنٌ – one who is in pain
آنَ – to arrive
آنُ – time
أَوَانه – its cure

So we get the following:

ألمٌ ألَمَّ ألمْ أُلِمْ بِدَائِهِ *** إنْ انَّ آنٌ آنَ آنُ أَوَانه
“I have come to be surrounded by pain the cause of which I do not know
If the one in pain cries out in agony, then the time for its cure has surely arrived.”

Our predecessors loved Arabic so much that one of them, Abu Rayhan al-Bayruni (the famous Muslim scholar), said,

والله لأن أُهجى بالعربية أحب إلي من أن أُمدح بالفارسية

'By Allah, to be slighted in Arabic is more beloved to me than to be praised in Persian.'

(Hijaa' -هجاء- is a type of poetry in which the poet insults or slights someone; Madh -مدح- is also a type of poetry where the poet praises a person by enumerating his merits, for example)

Throughout the Qur'an, whenever a question from the people was addressed, Allah `azza wa jall gives the answer by commanding the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) to 'say', for example:

"They ask you concerning the moons, say..." [2: 189]
"They ask you what they should spend, say..." [2: 215]
"They ask you concerning wine and gambling, say..." [2:219]
"The people ask you about the Hour, say..." [33:63]

Every verse that has a question is followed up by 'Say such-and-such'. However, when the people asked about Allah, the answer came in a different style...

"And if My Servants ask you concerning Me, then I am indeed Near..." [2: 186]

In fact, so near that the answer didn't even require a command to the Prophet (s) to 'say' to the people such-and-such. There was no intermediary even in the language used. To make this point even clearer, the Arabic says, 'Fa inni qareeb' - the letter 'fa' was used before the 'inni qareeb' ('I am near') and grammatically, this letter indicates speed, immediate action/answer, reasoning and slight emphasis among other things. Tabarak'Allah...

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The French scholar, Ernest Renan (1823-1894), who carried out extensive research on Semitic languages, said about Arabic:

"The Arabic language is the most astonishing event of human history. Unknown during the classical period, it suddenly emerged as a complete language. After this, it did not undergo any noticeable changes, so one cannot define for it an early or a late stage. It is just the same today as it was when it first appeared”.

In Surah Nuh it says:

وَجَعَلَ الْقَمَرَ فِيهِنَّ نُورًا وَجَعَلَ الشَّمْسَ سِرَاجًا
"And (don't you see how Allah) has made the moon a light therein, and made the sun a lamp?" [Nuh: 16]

The moon is described as being 'Nur', i.e. something from which light comes from. Mostly it is a reflective light, or light emanates from it. However, in the same verse, the sun is described as being a 'Siraj', a lamp. Siraj is the type of lamp which utilises and burns oil in order to produce light and a little bit of heat. Subhan'Allah, this is exactly what the sun does; it burns fuel in order to give out both light and heat. Amazing and precise descriptions of both the moon and sun...

In Surah al-Zumar, Allah says, "He created the heavens and earth in truth. He *wraps* the night over the day and wraps the day over the night and has subjected the sun and the moon, each running [its course] for a specified term. Unquestionably, He is the Exalted in Might, the Perpetual Forgiver." [39:5]

Look at the word I've starred above ('wrap'). This is taken from Sahih International translation of the Qur'an, but almost every single translation that I've come across has a different word for the above. They all try to bring out the meaning and message of what is happening, but let us dig a bit further into the linguistics...

The Arabic word used in the Qur'an at this particular point, is actually 'Yukawwiru' (from: كوَّر) which gives the sense that something is being connected to something else either by way of wrapping, or drawing into a circle, or forming into a ball etc (in fact, the term 'football' or 'ball' is 'kurah' which comes from this root). So we get the message that the night comes over the day but in a 'kurah' or 'takwir' fashion, i.e. in a wrapping, or ball, or circular movement.

This is very interesting because it gives the hint and the knowledge that the night comes over the day in a gradual circular way. At the time the Qur'an was being revealed to our Prophet (s), no-one knew that the earth was round, but this verse is actually hinting at just that!! If one knows the science behind how day and night supercede each other, they will know that the circular/ball form of the earth and its spinning on its axis is what allows the sun's light to move across the planet in a certain manner which gives birth to the day. At the same, on the other side of the ball-shaped earth, this same movement and shape is what allows night to move in (due to the lack of sunlight).

Subhan'Allah. Through the language, you not only realise that the verb Allah used (yukawwiru) gives such a great hint of earth being a ball shape, but you also get the perfect image of how night and day succeed each other on this rounded earth. May Allah grant us understanding, ameen!

The preciseness that is characteristic of Arabic is evident in how, when a particular word is spoken by a person, his listener is able to know exactly what is being referred to.

Example:

In Arabic, the word مَنْزِل Manzil, often translated as "house", literally means a place to which you descend, (from َنَزَل, to descend; here camels and riders come to mind, when they stop at a place, whether temporarily or permanently). The Arabs differentiated between the various types of houses:

If a house was made of مَدَر madar (sticky clay with a thick consistency), they called it a بَيْت Bayt.

If it was made of وَبَر wabar (the hide of camels), they called it a بِجاد Bijaad.

If it was made of صوف (wool), they called it a خِباء Khibaa'.

If it was made of [animal] hair, they called it a فُسْطاط Fustaat.

If it was made of woven threads/fibre they called it a خَيْمة Khaymah (i.e. tent).

If it was made of [animal] skins, they called it a قَشع Qash'.

[al-Mudhish fil-Muhaadharaat by Ibn al-Jawzi (may Allah have mercy upon him)]

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