Thread: x!x *Arabic Gems* x!x

Originally Posted by Abu Sayyad

Great thread!

I should have some saved somewhere that I can share once I find them Insha'Allaah. In the meanwhile, the latest addition to my Arabic proverbs collection:

حياة بلا زوجة كمطبخ بلا سكين

Life without a wife, is like a kitchen without a knife.

is that one of yours? lol

i'm going to have to look through my old notebooks too i think there are a lot in the garage

At the risk of confusing everyone [besides Silver Pearl], I'm going to post another one of my favourite proverbs:

كل يدعي وصلاً بليلى وليلي لا تقر لهم بذاك

Which I think means something along the lines of:

Everyone claims to have a connection with Layla, but Layla does not affirm that for any of them

Shaykh al-Albaanee (rahimahullaah) quoted it often, and I believe the line comes from a classical Arabian love story, 'Majnoon and Layla', or 'Qays and Layla'.

Another proverb with tashkeel

إنَّ النَّحْوَ فِي الكَلاَمِ كَالملحِ في الطَّعَامِ

Indeed an-Nahw in speech is like salt in food.

A Man once said to al-Hasan al-Basree (rahimahullah):

يَا أبُو سَعِيْدٍ
"O' Aboo Sa'eed!"

So he responded:

كَسْبُ الدَّرَاهِمِ شَغَلَكَ عَنْ أنْ تَقُولَ يَا أبَا سَعِيْدٍ
"The earning of Dirhams has occupied you from (correctly) saying 'O' Abaa Sa'eed'."

إنَّ اللُغَةَ العَرَبِيةَ مِنَ الدِّيْنِ وَ مَعْرِفَتُهَا فَرْضٌ وَاجِبٌ فَإنَّ فَهْمَ الكِتَابِ وَ السُّنَّةِ فَرْضٌ وَ لاَ يُفْهَمُ إلاَّ بِاللُغَةِ العَرَبِيةِ وَ مَا لاَ يَتِمُّ الوَاجِبُ إلاَّ بِهِ فَــــــــهُوَ وَاجِبٌ

“Indeed the Arabic language is from the Religion, knowing it is an obligatory obligation, understanding the Book and the Sunnah is obligatory, it is not understood except by way of the Arabic language, and an obligation is not complete except by it therefore making it obligatory (to learn) .”

Ibn Taymiyyah (rahimahullah)

Shu'bah (rahimahullah) once said:

مَثَلُ الَّذِي يَحْفَظُ بَلْ يَتَعَلَّمُ الحَدِيْثَ و لا يتعلّمُ النَّحْوَ مثل السرير لا رأسَ له

"The likeness of one who memorizes, rather he learns the prophetic narrations but does not learn an-Nahw is like the bed with And on the no headboard."

Uslub al-Taghlib

One interesting expression used in the Arabic language is what’s termed as Uslub al-Taghlib. This is an expression that consists of just one word,but it indicates two different things at the same time. How is that possible?!
Let’s take a look at the verse in Surah al-Kahf:

وَأَمَّا الْغُلَامُ فَكَانَ أَبَوَاهُ مُؤْمِنَيْنِ فَخَشِينَا أَن يُرْهِقَهُمَا طُغْيَاناً وَكُفْراً

“And as for the boy, his parents (abawaa) were believers, and we feared lest he should oppress them by rebellion and disbelief.” [al-Kahf: 80]

The word for parents here is not the usual ‘walidaahu.’ It’s actually abawaahu - the dual form of ‘Ab‘ meaning father. Of course, the verse does not mean ‘his two fathers’ but rather it’s uslub al-taghlib where one of the two being spoken of (in this case, the father) has taken on its dual form to indicate both parties - the mother as well as the father.

The expression is called taghlib because that is what happens here - one of the words takes preference or is treated as being in the majority, for a particular reason.

Other examples include:

قمران - qamaran (lit. 2 moons) this is the uslub al-taghlib used to indicate both the moon and the sun. The moon has taken preference here due to it being masculine.

عُمَران - ‘Umaran (lit. the 2 ‘Umars) - used to indicate Abu Bakr and ‘Umar. The name Abu Bakr should have taken preference here however it’s murakkab (consisting of 2 words itself), which means it cannot be placed into dual. Therefore uslub al-taghlib has taken the name ‘Umar into its expression as it’s mufrad (single).

مكتان - Makkatan (lit. the 2 Makkahs) - an expression for Makkah and Madinah. Makkah has taken preference here because of its virtue over Madinah.

الحسنان - al-Hasnan (lit. the 2 Hasans) - an expression for al-Hasan and al-Husayn, grandchildren of the Messenger (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam). Preference has gone to al-Hasan due to him being older than al-Husayn (radhiallahu `anhuma).

The word that takes preference may do so for different reasons e.g. its grammatical make-up (a singular word will take preference over a plural/murakkab), it’s gender in language, it’s virtue and so on etc.

From |-| Fajr |-|

It was primarily in the field of balaagha that the Qur’aan amazed its listener. As it is said, the best of speech in arabic is: ما قل و دل - that which is concise and leads to meaning. The Qur’aan often came with short and to-the-point verses that had deep and profound meaning, astonishing whoever heard it. Sometimes, the Qur’aan would come with a word known to the Arabs, but Allaah `azza wa jall would use it in a way unknown to them so that it not only made perfect sense but it brought out such profound meanings that had never occured to them! It would expand over all of the above categories in its miraculous nature.
One incident of this is below:

When a bedouin heard the verse of Allaah `azza wa jall, فلما استيأسوا منه خلصوا نجيا - “So, when they despaired of him, they held a conference in private” [12:80], he could do nothing but climb down from his camel and prostrate on the ground. He was not a believer and he did not know that such a thing as sujood al-tilawah existed.
The people became amazed at him and said, ‘What’s wrong with you?!’ He said, ‘By Allah, this can never be from the speech of a mere mortal! For the sentence is present in the speech of the Arabs (in the form: استيأس وخلص والنجوى والنجيء - ‘he despaired, departed and then held a secret counsel), but never in the speech of the Arabs neither in poetry or prose, does it come in this meaning [فلما استيأسوا منه خلصوا نجيا] - in just 3 words, a very long and deep meaning is alluded to. It alludes to the fact that they (the brothers of Yusuf - AS) argued with the King, who is Yusuf himself, unknown to them - until they became tired and agreed to exit to a far place to then take counsel (over their affair).

All these different meanings that express different stages came in this short and concise set of words. For this reason, the bedouin couldn’t do anything except to get down from the back of his camel and prostrate saying: ‘By Allah! This can never be from the speech of a mere mortal

This is my favorite one i read in a while,

Words are not always what they seem to be.

Here, 3 poems are presented - in most of the cases, the same word is used (sometimes a derivative of it) and in each case it means something different!

رَأيْتُ فِي كَافرٍ كافرَ بنَ كافرٍ يَكْفُرُ في كافرٍ عند كافرٍ

“I saw in the field (kaafir), a farmer son of a farmer (Kaafir ibn kaafirin), digging ( yakfuru) in the field (kaafir) near a wide valley (kaafir)”

The verb ‘كَفَرَ‘ literally means to cover up/hide, it also means to be ungrateful. The farmer will dig, bury and cover up a seed, ready to grow it, whilst a disbeliever in his Lord is an ingrate to the favours of his Lord and he indeed covers up the Truth when it comes to him…

Seas and wide lakes are also sometimes called ‘Kaafir’ because according to Lisaan al-Arab, they cover what is beneath them.

And you thought kaafir just meant someone who disbelieved!

Consider this… what does it mean to you?

الخِيَارُ خِيَارُ الخِيَارِ

Khiyaar is the khiyaar of the khiyaar

It means:

“Cucumber is the choice of the Elite”

The term خيار here means 3 different things each time! [Cucumber/choice/the elite]

Next:

بِجَدِّي لا بجِدِّي كلُ مجدٍ *** فهل جدٌّ بلا جِدٍّ بمُجْدِي؟

The poet says,

Every glory is by exertion and not by luck
Is luck without any exertion of any glory?

جدّ (with fat-ha and kasra) also has an extensive range of meanings from seriousness, effort/exertion to luck and also grandfather!

al-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh,
I came across an amusing anecdote in Lisan al-’Arab recently illustrating the dangers of engaging in naht haphazardly.
It is related from Ibn Mas’ood (may Allah be pleased with him) that his wife one day asked him to provide a jilbab (protective outer garment worn outside the house) for her. He replied, “I fear that you will then set aside the jilbab in which Allah has contained you.” She asked him, “What is that?” He said, “Your house.”
To which she replied,

أَجَنَّك من أَصحابِ محمدٍ تقول هذا؟

“Ajannaka from the Companions of Muhammad (peace be upon him), that you say this?”

The word of interest here is the first one in the sentence: ajannaka. At first glance it could render the sentence as ‘You have been made mad by one of the Companions of Muhammad (peace be upon him)’, based on it being from the root ج - ن - ن.

However, the wife of Ibn Mas’ood actually came up with her own form of naht here: what she intended to say was,

أَمِنْ أَجلِ أَنّك

Is it due to that fact that you are…
But she ommitted from this phrase:
- the word مِن
- the أ and ل from the word أجل
- the أ from the word أنّك
…resulting in the final combination:.أَجَنَّك

From |-| Fajr |-|

Salaam,

Amazing thread mashallah
BTW Fajr has a looot of great articles, here's one nice one

They say that…

من قال: قال الله, فقد كفر

Whoever says: ‘Qaala Allaah’, has indeed disbelieved!

For most people, this statement will seem shocking because it contradicts the belief that Allaah (‘azza wa jall) speaks.

وَ قالَ رَبّكُمُ ادْعُونِي أسْتَجِبْ لَكم

“And your Lord says (qaala): “Call on Me; I will answer you…” [Al-Ghaafir: 60]

But, if we contemplate we soon find that this isn’t what the statement is actually saying. No, not at all! And the confusion comes because we understand the verb ‘قال’ to mean only ‘say’.

However, there is also another verb ‘قال’ which means to sleep/take a nap. Huge difference! And one way of knowing which is which (apart from looking at the context), is to take the tasreef of the fi3l, i.e. to conjugate it into its present tense & looking at its jidhr (root).

قال — يَقول = to say
قال — يَقِيل = to sleep

The top verb has the root: ق و ل while the other is from the root: ق ي ل
From the latter verb (to sleep), we derive the following:

- Qayloolah (Siesta - ‘midday nap’)
- Qaa’ilah (the time of the Qayloolah)
- Al-Qayl (the drinking at midday)

Also, a person who sleeps at midday is referred to as a Qaa’il. But wait a minute… so is a person who is saying something!

قال قائِلٌ مِنهم إنّي كان لي قرينٌ

“One (qaa’ilun) of them will say: “I had a close companion (on the earth)” [As-Saaffaat: 51]

Well, the only way you can really differentiate between the two is by looking at the jam3 (plural):

Plural of speaker:
قائل — قائلون

Plural of one taking a midday nap:
قائل — قيَّل | قيّال | قيْل

[It can have 3 plurals - Quyyal, Quyyaal and Qayl]

So, yes…

من قال: قال الله - فقد كفر

Whoever says: Allaah sleeps (qaala) indeed has disbelieved!

masha Allah, very interesting jazaakunna Allahu khair.