Readings in the Quran, Part I (LG-690) Dr.

. Steven Blackburn Pre-Islamic Arabic and the Language of the Quran Ibrahim J. Long October 25th, 2009 Pre-Islamic Arabic and the Language of the Quran After seeking to interpret the Quran by itself and by the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him), the Companions sought answers to their exegetical questions from the Arabic language.1 Today, the Arabic language remains an essential reference tool for interpreting the Quran in a process called tafsir. Much debate has surrounded the exact nature of the Arabic used in the Quran; yet the Quran still reputably stands as the highest and purest reflection of the Arabic language. In this paper, I will present the history of Arabic from its Proto-Semitic form until its classical period. I will then briefly discuss why it is difficult to classify the Quran by any particular Arabic dialect.

While conducting a lecture on the interpretation of the Quran, the famous Companion and exegete Ibn Abbas was approached by a leading member of the Khawarij Nafi ibn Azraq. Nafi had hoped to outwit Ibn Abbas by asking him a series of questions concerning the meaning of rare words and obscure phrases found within the Quran. He also laid down a condition for the Companions responses, that he cite proofs for his interpretation from the Arabic language. Nafi probably made this condition while referring to the well-known verse of the Quran: Indeed, We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur'an that you might understand,2 or others like it. Ibn Abbas accepted his condition saying, Ask me whatever you wish! Nafi proceeded to ask the Companion of the Prophet about the meaning of nearly two-hundred verses of the Quran, trying to prove him ignorant of a single one. Rather than humiliating him as he had hoped, Nafi was surprised to hear Ibn Abbas respond with the proper meaning of each word or phrase quoting lines of classical Arabic poetry as evidence. In this instance, Ibn Abbas had not
1

Qadhi, Abu Ammaar Yasir. An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'aan. Birmingham: Al-Hidaayah, 2003, p. 308. Besides Arabic they would also turn to their knowledge of pre-Islamic Arab customs; knowledge of the habits of the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) at the time of the revelation of the Quran; and then personal reasoning. 2 Surah Yusuf (12):2. See also an-Nahl (16):103, and as-Shuara (26):195.

only proven his vast knowledge of the Quran, but also of the Arabic language.3 With fourteen hundred years separating us from revelation of the Quran, scholars are now unsure what dialect, if any, the Quran was revealed in. To understand this we will first have to look at the history of the Arabic language. Early Roots of the Arabic Language: Some archeologists suggest that the famed flood of Noah portrayed in Surah Hud (11:36-48) and in Genesis (Chapters VII &VIII) occurred around the third millennium B.C.E. Genesis then informs us of the names of Noahs sons who survived: Shem, Ham and Japheth.4 Around as early as this time, the roots for what would later be called the Semitic languages can be seen. The term Semitic is derived from this Biblical account and is attributed to those who are considered to be Shems descendents, though linguists apply it specifically to the languages that share a common Post-Semitic ancestor. Not all linguists agree with the Biblical reference implied by this term; yet it has already become too widely accepted to create any new word for its classification.5 The Semitic family of languages is composed of five main branches: Arabic, Abyssinian, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Assyrian.6 For theological purposes Jews, and then later Christians, adopted the view that all Semitic languages (and in particular Aramaic and Arabic) were derived from Hebrew. However they all share the same parent: Proto-Semitic.7 Not all of the Semitic languages have equally preserved the features of Proto-Semitic; however, Arabic is unique in having retained a large majority of this common ancestor.8 For this reason we could consider Arabic a conservative Semitic language.9 This may not have to do so much with the nature of the Arabic language, but rather the limited interaction
3

Qadhi, Abu Ammaar Yasir. An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'aan. Birmingham: Al-Hidaayah, 2003, p. 314. 4 Genesis IX:18 5 O'Leary, De Lacy. Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages. New York: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. 1923, p. 1. 6 Ibid. Not all Assyrian languages are Semitic; this grouping only refers to those that are. 7 Ibid. 8 Bishop, Brian. "A History of the Arabic Language." Brigham Young University. Web. 25 Oct. 2009. <http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/arabic.html> 9 Ferrando, Ignacio. "History of Arabic." Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Vol. 2. Leiden: Brill, 2007, p. 261-68.

Arabs had with non-Semitic languages and cultures in comparison to other Semites. Arabic never had to go through violent alterations, like Assyrian and Hebrew, for it was more isolated from the non-Semitic languages.10 Classical Arabic: Arabia was the centre of distribution for the Semitic languages, and quite possibly their area of specialization.11 Arabia however was not left untouched by foreign influence, though most of it only affected the language of its eastern and southern borders.12 Due to the effect that these influences had, Arabic has been further divided into northern and southern branches.13 It is the derived dialects of the northern branch that we refer to as Classical Arabic.14 The two dialects that compose Classical Arabic are that of the Hijaz, the western region of the peninsula bordered by the Red Sea, and Nejd, the more inland desert area.15 The Hijazi dialect was used in commercial intercourse while Nejd, the dialect of the Bedouin, remained more isolated and pure.16 Some modern linguists assert that there was even a third supradialect, termed Poetic Koine, which was the common language of poetry and shared amongst all tribes.17 One of the arguments used for this theory is that even though there were different varieties of Arabic present in the peninsula, the main corpus of poetry we have recorded from the 5th 7th century are linguistically homogenous, conforming to morphological and syntactic patterns without any apparent deviations.18 A question may now come to mind: If there were different dialects of Classical Arabic, which one was the Quran revealed in? To answer this, and similar questions, linguists have developed three theories:

10

O'Leary, De Lacy. Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages. New York: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. 1923, p. 18. 11 Ibid. Page 16. 12 Ibid. 13 Ibid. Page 18. 14 Ibid. 15 Ibid. Page 19. 16 Ibid. 17 Versteegh, Kees. "Poetic Koine." Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill, 2008, p. 644-647. 18 Al-Sharkawi, Muhammad. "Pre-Islamic Arabic." Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill, 2008, p. 689-699.

1- The language of the Quran and of pre-Islamic poetry was similar, if not identical, to the varieties of Arabic spoken before the emergence of Islam, 2- The language of the Quran and of pre-Islamic poetry was a shared language limited to artistic expression, but not spoken regularly in day to day interaction, 3- The language of the Quran and of pre-Islamic poetry was the dialect of the Bedouin tribes.19 Whether or not any of these modern theories are accurate, classical grammarians have chosen the Nejd dialect as the standard for proper Arabic; with the spread of Islam it has been carried in all directions.20 We cannot however assume that the Quran was revealed in the Nejd dialect simply because the grammarians chose it as their basis for Quranic study. There may have been a pragmatic choice to adopt it due to the similarities it holds to the language of the Quran.21 Before scholars can be sure of the dialect that the Quran was revealed in, they must still consider the seven ahruf. The Ahruf: The term ahruf is sometimes translated as modes or dialects; however, these translations may be too limiting for the actual Arabic term. There are over twenty hadiths transmitted about this issue, the most famous being the hadith of Umar and Hisham: Umar ibn al-Khattab narrated, I was sitting in the masjid when I heard Hisham ibn Hakim recite Surah al-Furqan (The twenty-fifth chapter). I was almost about to jump on him in his prayer, but I waited until he finished, and then I grabbed him by his garment and asked him, Who taught you to recite in such a manner? He replied, It was the Prophet himself! I responded, You are mistaken, for indeed I learnt this surah from the Prophet and it was different from your recitation! Therefore, I dragged him to the Prophet and complained to him that Hisham had recited Surah al-Furqan in a manner different from what he taught me. At this, the Prophet told me to let go of Hisham, and asked him to recite Surah al-Furqan. Hisham recited the surah in the same way I had heard him before. When he finished, the Prophet said, It was revealed in this way. He then asked me to recite the same surah. When I had finished, he said, It was (also) revealed in this way. Indeed the Quran has been revealed in seven different ahruf, so recite whichever one is easy for you.22
19

Al-Sharkawi, Muhammad. "Pre-Islamic Arabic." Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill, 2008, p. 689-99. 20 O'Leary, De Lacy. Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages. New York: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., LTD., 1923, p. 19. 21 Al-Sharkawi, Muhammad. "Pre-Islamic Arabic." Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill, 2008, p. 689-99. 22 Hadith is narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim. Translation is from An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'aan, p. 173.

Scholars have spent centuries trying to conclude what exactly the ahruf are, yet no unanimous agreement has ever been made. We have inherited from their millennium and a half discourse over forty opinions concerning the ahruf with varying degrees of weaknesses. Two, however, have taken greater prominence: 1- The ahruf refer to seven dialects prevalent during the Prophets time. Verses would have been pronounced similarly to a tribes dialect, with some words being replaced by others used by that particular tribe. This opinion was held by Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam (d. 224 A.H.), al-Bayhaqi (d. 458 A.H.), Ibn Attiyah (d. 541 A.H.) and others. 2- The ahruf refer to seven ways of recitation wherein some words are replaced by their synonyms. This was the opinion of Imam al-Tabari (d. 311 A.H.), al-Tahawi (d. 321 A.H.), Ibn Abd al-Barr (d. 463 A.H.) and others.23 A via media conclusion of the ahruf has been summarized by Yasir Qadhi: the seven ahruf represent variations based upon, but not limited to, the most fluent Arab tribes of that time. These variations occurred in words, letters, and pronunciations, such that all these variations made it easier for the Companions to memorize the Quran. These variations did not always reach seven different ways of recitation for each verse, but whenever such variations existed, the different ways of recitation never exceeded seven.24 In light of the above theories, as well as those posed by modern linguists, the dialect of the Quran remains uncertain; if classifiable at all. We can only be sure that, as narrated in Sahih al-Bukhari, when the Caliph Uthman ibn Affan had the Quran copied and distributed he ordered that it be written in the dialect of the Quraysh for the Quran was revealed in their tongue.25 Conclusion:

23

Information in this section was derived from chapter 10 of Yasir Qadhis An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'aan, as well as lecture notes from a course on Ulum al-Quran instructed by the author. 24 Qadhi, Abu Ammaar Yasir. An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'aan. Birmingham: Al-Hidaayah, 2003, p. 179. 25 Ismail al-Bukhari, Muhammad. "Virtues of the Qur'an." Trans. M. Muhsin Khan. Sahih Bukhari. Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement. 1 Nov. 2009`. <http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/hadith/bukhari/061.sbt.html>.

The Arabic language is unique in human history for multiple reasons. First, it is of the well known Semitic family of languages studied and revered by adherents of the Abrahamic faiths. Secondly, it has preserved more of its parent language, the Proto-Semitic, than any of its sister languages. Thirdly, due to the relative isolation of Arabs in the central peninsula, Arabic has not gone through any vast transformations. Fourthly, for inconclusive reasons, Arabs have maintained a corpus of eloquent poetry that appears to represent a common poetic dialect. Finally and certainly most importantly for the preservation and spread of Arabic, the Quran was revealed in the Arabic language. Since then Arabic has been revered as a holy language and seen as necessary for the study of Islamic texts. As Imam ash-Shatibi (d. 790 A.H.) once said, Whoever desires to understand the Quran, then it will be understood from the speech of the Arabs, and there is no way other than this.26

26

Qadhi, Abu Ammaar Yasir. An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'aan. Birmingham: Al-Hidaayah, 2003, p. 310.