This was a question asked by brothers Ansar Al-'Adl and Takumi, I asked a shaykh, the following was the question and the response.
Question: Allah uses different verbs in Al Quran to explain the same event for example, the cast away of Adam and Hawwa in one chapter Allah uses ihbitoo (plural) but in another, ihbitaa (dual), but for ONE event, which one did he really say?
Answer:
This is a good question. If you studied Arabic at an advanced level, you would not have asked this question, as it would have been obvious to you.
In Arabic the one who is speaking, has different ways of expressing himself, which is know as dhameer mutakallim. "I", is reffering to one person, but you can also say "We", this is an expression used to give credit to oneself. Therefore Allah (Exalted is he) did not only say ihbitaa and ihbitoo he also said qaalahbitaa and qulnahbitoo. There are different ways.
You are right about ihbitaa and ihbitoo. Ihbitaa is dual, for two people. However in other dialects/accents in Arabic, they use ihbitaa for al jam'
In Usool al fiqh there is a rule, Aqalu jam` ithnaan = The less of a group is two. So it can be two people and STILL be considered JAM`
That is the beauty of the Qur'an it accomodates all the dialects and accents within the Arabic language. Yes you're right the incident is one, but it is expressed differently, to give it a more elequont meaning.
And Allah knows best.
I wrote out the answer myself, so I am to blame for any spelling or grammar errors.
