When I was a student at N.I.U. a professor told us Arabic was a special language in the sense that it has a lot of back-up grammar system and redundacy features to forestall possible ambiguity and misinterpretation. For instance Arabic verbs inflect fourteen times whereas English only five. Besides this, Arabic has masculine and femine gender many more times than the English gender "he" and "she". Today, the professor would be delighted if he knew that the Quraan is in complete agreement with him. God explains why the Quraan is revealed in the Arabic tongue.In Chap.39:48 "as a discourse in the Arabic tongue free of all deviousness...."
However the professor said two more things that are not applicable to the Quraan and he needs not feel unduly upset over it. First he said languages change over the centuries . This is true of English. That is why we have Old English and Modern English. But change did not happen with the Quraan. It remains the same for more than 1400 years. Secondly he said it is impossible for a person to commit into memory something he does not understand. Again this is not applicable to the Quraan. In Malaysia there "Hafiz" (Quraan Reciters) who can memorize the whole Quraan even though he might not understand the meaning fully without refering to the translation. Perhaps, it is because the entire Quraan from the first page to the last page is a poetry. Not only there is ryhme at at the end of every line but there is also allieration of words in every line
However the professor said two more things that are not applicable to the Quraan and he needs not feel unduly upset over it. First he said languages change over the centuries . This is true of English. That is why we have Old English and Modern English. But change did not happen with the Quraan. It remains the same for more than 1400 years. Secondly he said it is impossible for a person to commit into memory something he does not understand. Again this is not applicable to the Quraan. In Malaysia there "Hafiz" (Quraan Reciters) who can memorize the whole Quraan even though he might not understand the meaning fully without refering to the translation. Perhaps, it is because the entire Quraan from the first page to the last page is a poetry. Not only there is ryhme at at the end of every line but there is also allieration of words in every line
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