[AmineH]

salaam

why is quran in Arabic ?
Is Arabic an special language?

 

[ayesha.ansari]

The following reasons have been given in the Qur'an for its revelation in Arabic language:
1. Arabic was the language of the people where it was revealed

وَكَذَلِكَ أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لِتُنْذِرَ أُمَّ الْقُرَى وَمَنْ حَوْلَهَا وَتُنْذِرَ يَوْمَ الْجَمْعِ لا رَيْبَ فِيهِ فَرِيقٌ فِي الْجَنَّةِ وَفَرِيقٌ فِي السَّعِيرِ​

"And thus: We have revealed to you a Qur'an in Arabic so that you may warn the Foremost of all towns and those who dwell around it, and may warn of the Day of Gathering, which is beyond all doubt. One group will be in the Garden, and one group will be in the Flames." [42:7]​

2. To explain it without any want of clarity, distinctness or perspicuousness

وَلَوْ جَعَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا أَعْجَمِيًّا لَقَالُوا لَوْلا فُصِّلَتْ آيَاتُهُ أَأَعْجَمِيٌّ وَعَرَبِيٌّ قُلْ هُوَ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا هُدًى وَشِفَاءٌ وَالَّذِينَ لا يُؤْمِنُونَ فِي آذَانِهِمْ وَقْرٌ وَهُوَ عَلَيْهِمْ عَمًى أُولَئِكَ يُنَادَوْنَ مِنْ مَكَانٍ بَعِيدٍ​

"Now if We had made it a Qur'an in a non-Arabic tongue they would surely have said, "Why is it that its verses have not been made clear? Why - a foreign tongue and an Arab?" Say, "For those who accept it, this is a Guidance and medicine for a wholesome life. But as for those who will not believe (Arabs or non-Arabs), in their ears is deafness, and so it remains obscure to them. They are like people who are called to from afar." [41:44]​

3. To make it easy to understand

إِنَّا أَنْزَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ​

"Behold, We have sent it down in all clarity, in the Arabic tongue, so that you might encompass it with your reason." [12:2]​

إِنَّا جَعَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ​

"Behold, We have made it a Qur'an in clear Arabic language that you may fully understand." [43:3] ​

Arabic was the most advanced and comprehensive language at the time when Qur'an was being revealed and it still is the most comprehensive. The terms, concepts and themes would be best clarified and explained in Arabic language and last but not the least, it was the language of the people where it was revealed.

 

[abjad]

salaam

why is quran in Arabic ?
Is Arabic an special language?

wa aleykum salaam

Good and Interesting Question

..iam dead sure you understand that it was revealed to an Arab Who was an engineer,(of that message) by deeds and thats how then the building emerged after hard work.
the late arabs understood it and relayed it by deeds according to the teaching of that very Quran which is in the hands of the present arabs:
the question is this............Do they arabs wait for malaika to come down or Allah (subhana wa Taala)and seal there facts?
am NOT an arab but AlhamduLilaah have "chewed and digested" Kuran Kareem(By Allahs' Rahma)

seeing the present situation and those very arabs whom that Kuran was revealed by their mother tongue-
Yes Allah (Jala Jalaaluhu) is millions times plus is RIGHT...while reference to Kuran Kareem that "the daabat L ardh will emerge and tell people -YOU HAVE NOT BELEIVED-

 

[naumankhalid]

Quran is a book of message, it is not a book of entertainment, "Only those who understand the purpose of book will understand that why it is revealed in arabic or non-arabic",

"If we made it a non-Arabic Quran they would have said, "Why did it
come down in that language?" Whether it is Arabic or non-Arabic,
say, "For those who believe, it is a guide and healing. As for
those who disbelieve, they will be deaf and blind to it, as if
they are being addressed from faraway."



hope this above cleared that, why it is in arabic..

 

[al yunan]

Walaikum Salam sister amineh,
As I believe your question is choice of language based, I will answer it as such but in short form.

Aramaic was the most predominant language in the Middle East region in the beginning of the first millennium starting 1 A.D.
It is believed that Isa A.S spoke it. It's main offshoots are Greek and Arabic.

From the rise of the Byzantine Christian era the Bible was put in classical Greek and not ancient Greek which moved the Greek language a few steps further away from Aramaic.

Six centuries later our prophet Muhammad s.a.w was given the first Ayats of the soon to be Quran in Fushat a Classical Arabic dialect also moving a few steps further away from Aramaic.
Allah S.W.T's choice of language was for reasons best known by Him "Allahu Alam".

In no way am I trying to explain His reasons that would be Shirk; but linguistically, a pure language would surely be the best candidate and I guess Fushat was it.
Ironically there are today, 11 main Arab dialects and some of them have problems understanding the Quranic Fushat.

As Greeks moved on from Classical to modern Greek so did the Arabs move on to Modern day Arabic.
The Quran remains unchanged to this day in a language of it's own untouched by time and man.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the Bible which went from Aramaic to Greek and Latin and nearly all the languages in this world and each claiming theirs to be the word of God.

May Allah S.W.T forgive me for saying this, but what do you think would have happened to The Quran should it have followed in the footsteps of the Bible.
Speaking purely on linguistic values one could say that the right Language was chosen.

For surely Allah S.W.T is all Knowing !

Masalam

 

[Ramadhan]

Aramaic was the most predominant language in the Middle East region in the beginning of the first millennium starting 1 A.D. It is believed that Isa A.S spoke it. It's main offshoots are Greek and Arabic.

This is incorrect. Greek is an indo-european language, not a semitic language, while aramaic and arabic are both semitic languages.

and arabic is not an offshoot of aramaic, in fact, fusha arabic might even be older than aramaic, but arabic and aramaic are in the same family of the semitic languages. Semitic languages are: arabic, aramaic, hebrew, syriac, phoenician. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_languages

While Greek is an indo-european language, whose family include most of major european languages AND persian, sanskrit, hindi and urdu and punjabi, believe it or not. Greek is much more related to Hindi than it is to hebrew/aramaic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languages

Hence, the oldest surviving bible manuscripts (which all current bibles translated from) were written in a completely foreign language (koine greek, and three centuries apart, to boot) than the language spoken by Isa (pbuh) which was aramaic.

 

[al yunan]

Assalamu Alaikum brother,

When you see books on Anthropology, history of man, ethnopolitics and such you should as a Muslim always look who wrote it and what is that author's background.
The trend to change the overall view of the world's history has started in earnest more than a century ago.
Wikipedia is a Masonic backed Academy of Fitnah. All these FREE services aren't for any good for as Allah S.W.T says "good deeds done in any one's name than His have but the value of a grain of sand"
Remember brother "the Messenger is more important that the message" Never take at face value anything you read.
Have you not noticed how much history has already been changed. Have you ever watched the Discovery Channel's programs on religious history ?

I by no means claim 100% accuracy to my brief post on language, but Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Christianity and Orthodox Islam would back most of my claim.

The conspiracy to distort religious history is not aimed only against Muslims but all faiths to pave the way for the new World Order one that would welcome one such as Dajjal.

Inshallah I try to keep my opinions on everything as close to Islam as my knowledge allows me to, therefore I welcome in gratitude all the help I can get to improve my knowledge. There is one distinction though, I prefer Empirical Knowledge and from Muslims.

By the way congratulations on becoming a trainee.
Best regards.
Masalam

 

[Ramadhan]

When you see books on Anthropology, history of man, ethnopolitics and such you should as a Muslim always look who wrote it and what is that author's background.

Brother, no need to give me lecture on what I should do and dont. I understand that there's biases and what not when it comes to secular sciences versus religion point of view.
In the spirit of amal ma'ruf nahi munkar, I am also asking you to speak with knowledge and to ask from those who are knowledgeable, as Allah commanded in the Qur'an: Ask those who know [the Scholars] if you don't know (QS:16:43) and "However, those who do wrong pursue their whims and desires without any knowledge. Who can guide those Allah has led astray? They will have no helpers." (QS 30:29)

Wikipedia is a Masonic backed Academy of Fitnah. All these FREE services aren't for any good for as Allah S.W.T says "good deeds done in any one's name than His have but the value of a grain of sand"

Sure, but we are talking about the science of languages. And my source is not only wikipedia.
All linguists agree that Greek is an indo european language, not a semitic. Further, Semitic is a branch of afro-asiatic language.
Also, jumhur ulama do not dispute this classification of language as it has no bearing whatsoever to the matter of deen. Languages is blessings from Allah SWT. We are talking about languages, NOT evolution or anthropology or history of man or ethnopolitics.
If you know scholars of Islam or muslim linguists who disagree with the current classifications of languages, please bring the evidence here.

Remember brother "the Messenger is more important that the message" Never take at face value anything you read.

Again, how did you know that I took anything I read at face value?
Please give evidence. I have posted more than 3,000 in this forum and you are more than welcome to scrutinize those posts to find evidence that I take anything at face value.

Have you not noticed how much history has already been changed. Have you ever watched the Discovery Channel's programs on religious history ?

Yes, history is written in the bias of the conquerors and subject to never ending change and recocnciliation. And yes, I have watched Discovery Channel programs on religious history. Not only Discovery, but BBC knowledge programs on science and Islam etc etc.
What does this have anything to do with the fact that greek is not a semitic language?

I by no means claim 100% accuracy to my brief post on language, but Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Christianity and Orthodox Islam would back most of my claim.

Again, I remind you, I was only correcting you on the language issue, I did not touch religion. Of course there's great amount of similarities between christianity, judaism and Islam as tehya re all abrahaimic religion and whose messeges were brought by prophets of Allah, children of Abraham. And christianity was brought to Jesus (pbuh) who spoke aramaic, NOT greek.
By the way, what do you mean by "orthodox islam"?

For the sake of Allah, I want to remind you that there is no such thing as "orthodox Islam".

Also, the fact that greek is not even in the same family of languages as aramaic should give enough evidence to christians that what they have as bible must have undergone many errors and mistranslations from its original language (aramaic or ancient hebrew)

Watch this youtube video where it describes how arabic is even the most archaic/oldest form of semitic language, and original language of semitic that is even older than aramaic:

Here's other sources about semitic languages that you may read -some of it from muslim sources:

http://www.arabic-language.org/arabic/history.asp
http://theislam4all.com/the_rise_of_islam.html
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ISLAM/ARABIYYA.HTM
http://www.alsintl.com/resources/languages/Arabic/
http://www.arab.de/arabinfo/larabic.htm
http://www.scribd.com/doc/35520878/Semitic-Languages
http://www.communicaid.com/language-courses/arabic/arabic-language.php
Here's a good book to read on semitic languages: http://www.amazon.com/Semitic-Languages-Routledge-Language-Family/dp/0415057671
http://grzegorj.w.interia.pl/lingwen/iesem1.html
http://phoenicia.org/semlang.html

 

[al yunan]

Dear naidamar
Never mind me !
Are you impressed ?