Understanding the Arabic Language does not Mean One Understands the Qur'an
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Understanding the Arabic Language does not Mean One Understands the Qur'an
The majority of the people assume that if one understands the Arabic language, it means he is capable of understanding the Qur'an. They are also quick to dismiss anyone who has a point to make about the Qur'an's verses, if they are not an Arab or do not speak Arabic. A consistent feature of these sorts of people is that they themselves know little about the Qur'an because they never attempt to research the Qur'an directly. This is because of an intentionally induced inferiority complex of not knowing Arabic which gives them the excuses they need to stay distant from the Qur'an, as well as due to some other vain excuses. They never attempt to understand the verses of the Qur'an themselves. All of their views on the Qur'an are formed entirely by following other people and texts written by those whose trust they assume. They have only read the Qur'an's verses in text books in the context created by their trusted writers, or otherwise read the Arabic verses in ritualistic recitation, or in prayer without understanding them. Sometimes, he feels he has done enough by reading the translation of the few verses he recites frequently in prayer.
As stated above, their excuse is that the Qur?an is not their language and only an Arab or an Arabic speaker can understand the Verses. The truth is however far from their mistaken beliefs. A believer can understand the Qur'an and live by it even while possessing little or no Arabic knowledge.
History is witness to many people who are proficient in the Arabic language, yet made very twisted and perverted interpretations of the Qur'an, all while they are accepted to be well skilled by the majority. The majority being the group we have identified above. These interpreters of the Qur'an consider themselves Muslims, yet made countless erroneous interpretations - even while knowing Arabic. This begs the question, does knowing Arabic mean one can understand the Qur?an? The disbelievers of Mekkah were expert in the language of the Qur'an, but they did not understand the Qur'an. They rejected it as being words of a madman.
What one needs to comprehend is that understanding the Qur'an means to understand correctly what is being told in the Verses, the concepts, lessons, signs and admonitions. When one does not understand the Qur'an, that is, makes erroneous interpretations, he is incapable of understanding these lessons, admonitions and true purposes of the Verses. One may even be in possession of great Arabic skills, yet be incapable of understanding the Verses due to his or her lack of comprehension of what is being told in the verses. We can compare this with the following scenario. Imagine you are explaining a concept to someone in perfect English. The person you are explaining to also can understand English perfectly. However, due to a lack of comprehension on their part, that person fails to understand what you are explaining to them despite your perfect explanations in English and their ability to understand the language. Likewise, the same can be said about the Qur'an. Even a an expert Arabic speaker may well be incapable of understanding and interpreting the Verses correctly as a direct result of that missing comprehension. This comprehension is given by Allah to whichever of His servants He pleases. One may be very intelligent but can lack this God-given ability to understand the Qur'an.
The comprehension mentioned above is actually a gift from Allah to His sincere believers only. A believer who does not know Arabic may be endowed with this ability to understand the Qur'an. When the verses of the Qur'an are explained to him by another true believer in his language, he grasps them correctly, even though he does not know Arabic. And it is probable that a person fluent in Qur'anic Arabic could not understand the same Verses correctly even in his own language. Skill in the Arabic language did not afford him the true interpretations of Allah?s Verses, and so he remained bereft of Allah?s guidance. Another person who is a more sincere believer could understand the Verses, even though he did not speak the language of the Qur'an.
That is why a true believer can live by the Qur'an without knowing Arabic. It is true that a non-Arabic speaking believer will need to overcome the obstacle of language, but with his sincerity and motivation, he overcomes them without difficulty. Today, there are many translations of the Qur'an available in almost any language. It is possible to draw a fairly accurate understanding of the Qur'an by studying different translations.
Translations however, are not the actual Qur'an and can be erroneous in translating certain words and expressions. Again, with the sincerity and enthusiasm to find the truth, the believer can undertake the research to find a word or expression's real meaning in the Qur'an. For example, when he encounters a certain word in the translation which seems unfitting with the Qur?an?s overall message, he looks into other Verses of the Qur?an where the same Arabic word has been used in order to see how the word has been used elsewhere the Qur?an. He may look into other translations and dictionaries to see what the alternative meanings are. He may seek advice of another sincere follower of Allah?s Book who is more learned in the language and the Qur?an.
In conclusion, people who speak Arabic do not automatically posses the comprehension to understand the meanings of the verses of the Qur?an. The comprehension is given by Allah to whom He wills regardless of ones language. All people who consider themselves Muslim must not hide behind excuses from gaining a first-hand understanding of the Book revealed by Allah, which is a guide, mercy and cure for them if they only make the effort to understand it themselves.
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You must remember a human is not infallible so we make errors that are inevitable also there is nothing wrong with putting your trust in a scholar/writer though your trust should be researched. As in you should consider their work and agree with it, not blindly trust them because they did the research so you just assume it?s right.
Comprehension and Understanding. You know everyone even people who claim they comprehend even if they are Arab or not will have their own meanings. Meanings need to be verified if they can verify a meaning their comprehension could be plausible, Allah is the ultimate judge.
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Peace Sr. Sarah,
Thank you for your comment. I agree with your approach to scholars / learned people.
Just for the benefit of everyone, despite teaditional insistance, Islam is not dependant upon elite indivuduals of scholars. Islam is purely what is shown by the Qur'an and its implementation. And the continuity of the survival of the Qur'an among believers is attributed solely to the great power and greatness of Allah.
About your comment on 'comprehension'...The true believers can have discussions on the possible meanings of a certain word in the Qur'an, or interpretations of a Verse. However, their discussion is based upon a certain comprehension, an ability to see. The 'comprehension' refered to in my article does not strictly refer to all individual believers somehow making a single intepretation of a Verse independantly, rather a special quality of the true believers in general.
Peace )
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There is also a question of spiritual gifts and spiritual development. A siritual person will understand through the language the same way that a chemist or a cook will understand a chemistry text or a cooking text in a strange language much better than a speaker of that language that doesn't have a cue. The words may be all known, but the are used to convey something which may be the usual thing or may be not. The cook will catch it, the non cook will be confused.
A spiritual person doesn't necessarily have to be a scholar and there are scholars from which one should run. At any rate, it will never be a static text. The more you understand and try to understand, the more it speaks to you, and tht has to be experienced personally. Like in cooking once more, you may agree on calling with a certain word a certain taste, but the taste can only be experienced savouring.
Salaam
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peace,
Understanding Arabic (Classical) is simply one thing out of many that increases your chances of understanding AQ better. It is by no means the most important, as stated by AQ itself.
Salam Wakas,
Will you please provide the verse for this statement.I would say that the MOST important thing in reading The Quran is learning Arabic.
Let me give you an example
If I gave you a book in Mandarin and you were unable to read Mandarin and I told you it was revelation and you really wanted to read it but when you looked at the pages all you saw were squiggly lines and boxes, what good would that book be to you?To make matters worse, lets suppose that you had 15 different translations of this supposed Mandarin book and most of them had translated verses to contradict themselves.
Now add in the fact that some of them had commentary that insisted you also follow Mandarin Hadith.
But not all of them agreed on which Mandarin Hadith and still others insisted that Mandarin Hadith was not to be followed.I would say that if you really believed that the book in this example was divinely revealed and you really wanted to know what the book said you would definitely learn Mandarin.
And if one does not learn Arabic to read the Quran can you please tell me how one can follow this verse?
Please let me reiterate
I would say that the MOST important thing in reading The Quran is learning Arabic.
Salam,
Arnab -
peace Arnab,
AQ = al quran = the reading
I would say that the MOST important thing in reading The Quran is learning Arabic.
I discussed understanding AQ not reading AQ. Of course, to read it requires knowledge of Arabic.
I apologise for not mentioning specific verses. I sometimes do this if there are many and fairly well known to most. However, some of the verses I was referring to were the ones saying for the forethoughtful/muttaqeen 22, those who turn to him (cant recall specific verses), those who are sincere/pure/mutahharoona 5679, those who are reflecting/thinking/yatafakkaroona 1024, I'm sure there are others etc. NONE explicitly mention knowledge of Arabic in terms of understanding AQ. In fact, if it did say this, it would be nonsensical.
If I had to state what is most important in terms of understanding AQ, I would say it is having a complete knowledge of oneself. It still amazes me on an almost daily basis that often the barrier to understanding or resolving an issue or learning something is actually the person themselves.
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I discussed understanding AQ not reading AQ. Of course, to read it requires knowledge of Arabic.
I apologise for not mentioning specific verses. I sometimes do this if there are many and fairly well known to most. However, some of the verses I was referring to were the ones saying for the forethoughtful/muttaqeen 22, those who turn to him (cant recall specific verses), those who are sincere/pure/mutahharoona 5679, those who are reflecting/thinking/yatafakkaroona 1024, I'm sure there are others etc. NONE explicitly mention knowledge of Arabic in terms of understanding AQ. In fact, if it did say this, it would be nonsensical.
If I had to state what is most important in terms of understanding AQ, I would say it is having a complete knowledge of oneself. It still amazes me on an almost daily basis that often the barrier to understanding or resolving an issue or learning something is actually the person themselves.
Salam Wakas,
I disagree, because in order to read those verses as they were intended to be read in the first place you have to understand the Quran in Arabic.
22 tells us not to doubt Al Kitab and that it is a calmness/guidance to almutaqeen. How can it guide you if you can?t read it?
5679 along with the verses surrounding it, tells us that AlKitab is protected and that none touch save the pure. (sorry for the haphazard translation I?m just trying to give readers the basic meaning)
1024 Tells us that Allah guides not a transgressing people??the Quran is a guidance and if you can?t read it you can?t understand or obey the guidance.
I don?t think any of those verses adequately support your statement.
That being said, I think I understand what you are trying to say. In fact I might be able to find some verses that do support your statement if I looked.
I would say it a little differently You need to know Arabic to understand the Quran but you don?t need to know Arabic to understand what is right and wrong, you only need to know yourself.
We pretty much know what is right and wrong . It?s inside of us.
That twinge of guilt when we say or do something to hurt another person (even if we didn?t intend harm).
That feeling of wellbeing when we help another person.
When we observe these inner signals we are on the right course.
Basically, if we were on a deserted island and we did not have a copy of the Quran. We would know instinctively what is right and wrong and we would use our ?inner compass? to guide us.
And, although most of us study the Quran extensively I doubt that any of us have a copy in our hands every single second of the day and have the time to search for a verse the second we are presented with situation we are unsure of.
If you know yourself and trust your inner compass then the quran is a blessing and a reassurance as it is called in other verses.
Salam,
Arnab -
peace Arnab,
Thanks for reviewing the occurrences I gave. I did not search long for them, and just chose the first ones that had what I was wanting to say. Like you said, I'm sure there are other verses that support what I'm saying, perhaps a little better.
In any case, I agree that knowing Arabic will help understand AQ better BUT I do not agree that this is the most important criteria for understanding AQ nor have I read of any verses in AQ suggesting this is the case.
Knowing oneself not only helps us determine what is right and wrong but also helps us understand AQ, because when we read AQ we filter/interpret information through our faculties/mind/reasoning/etc. If we do not know ourselves, e.g. our biases, our weaknesses, our strengths, our emotions, our baggage etc it makes it more difficult to understand AQ.
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In any case, I agree that knowing Arabic will help understand AQ better BUT I do not agree that this is the most important criteria for understanding AQ nor have I read of any verses in AQ suggesting this is the case.
Salam Wakas,
If one is reading the Quran in English (or any other language other than Arabic) it stops being the Quran and is a book written by an interpretor sometimes laced with biasis and false beliefs. One example that comes to mind is that I have read English translations that include words in parenthesis that are not translated from the Quran. This can be misleading. If you can't read Arabic you wouldn't know that these words are from the translator.
At this point the reader is only understanding the words of an interpreter which can deliberately or unintentionally alter the words from their places or change the meaning of the word translated all together. And misunderstandings can ensue. In fact, it may suggest that the reader do something completely against the intended message of Al Quran.
But then again, some translators such as Yusuf Ali do not use their translations as a substitution but rather a way to present the Quran in order to interest readers enough to read the Quran as it is originally intended.
While, I do not recommend his translation to anyone, I have a deep respect for his efforts in interesting people in the message and I would like to acknowledge his humble statement in the preface to his 1934 translation.
"Gentle and discerning reader! what I wish to present to you is an English Interpretation, side by side with the Arabic Text. The English shall be, not a mere substitution of one word for another, but the best expression I can give to the fullest meaning which I can understand from the Arabic Text."
The only way the Quran retains it's original message is if it is read in Arabic.
But, I also understand that one must sometimes read a translators words first, in order to begin the task of learning Arabic.
After all, I had to do this very thing. And if it weren't for a translator, I would never have even picked up the Quran in the first place.
So, I'm agreeing and disagreeing with you. LOL
I think the ultimate goal should be to learn Arabic.
Salam,
Arnab
